WOMEN – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

Women, formally known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of
Women, is the United Nations' most ambitious effort ever to accelerate actions to achieve gender
equality. Website launched Meanwhile, Partners for Law in Development (PLD) also launch the CEDAW
[Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women] South Asia website. This site has been
developed as a comprehensive resource for the South Asia region to facilitate regional sharing and to
strengthen implementation of CEDAW. The web resources have been produced by PLD with support
from UN Women to enable easy access to CEDAW related material. The website offers user-friendly
layout and gives basic yet comprehensive information. The content is layered, providing basic information
on CEDAW with the option of sourcing more detailed information. One can find country specific
information viz. ratification and reporting status of the countries in South Asia, the initial and periodic
reports, concluding observations, and theme-based information on the website. Information regarding
training events and announcements on women's rights in these countries, the region and beyond will also
be available from the site. LD is a legal resource group working in the fields of social justice and women's
rights in India that has contributed significantly in creating resources, providing capacity building and
advocacy on CEDAW in South Asia. (Hindu, 09/03/2011)
43% of underage married girls suffer marital violence: Survey
When Delhi-based researcher Shruti Chaudhry visited a village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh to
study migration, she stumbled upon two darker secrets of India's family life. Talking to women in Chabutra
village, she learned that most women got married when they were 14 to 16 years old. But that was not all.
"A husband of one of the women we talked to later told us that his wife had given wrong information,
which he wanted corrected. He added that he had soundly thrashed her for this," said a troubled Shruti.
Adolescent marriage and domestic violence are two widely prevalent but unacknowledged practices.
Recent studies on the married life of adolescent girls reveal a chilling link between the two. Anita Raj of
Boston University School of Public Health, involved in several such studies said that adolescent marriage
appears to be directly correlated with increased violence at home: emotional, physical and sexual,
practiced both by the husband and the in-laws. It is unabated even during pregnancy and motherhood.
And, most sobering of all, female children born to under-age mothers suffer from higher risks of dying
before they reach their fifth birthday. Raj led a study, published in the International Journal of Gynecology
and Obstetrics, of over 10,000 married women aged 20 to 24 years which showed that 43% of under-age
married women said they had been subject to marital violence, while 24% of adult-married women
reported such events. Severe, life-threatening violence was experienced by 16% of under-age married
women compared to 6% of adult married women. In another study of young mothers from a low-income
locality in Mumbai, Raj found that physical and non-physical abuse by husbands and in-laws continued
during pregnancy and while nursing new-borns. "I get up at 3 or 4 a.m. to get water. After that, I make
breakfast and prepare a lunch box for my father-in-law and sister-in-law. I make a separate lunch for my
mother-in-law, wash clothes and clean the house. I had to do my work whether I was pregnant or not. No
one helped me," said a 16-year-old mother quoted in Raj's study. The study documents hair-raising
accounts of denial of food and healthcare, beatings, forced drudgery, by the marital household. It showed
that violence by other family members was more likely when husbands were violent towards the wife. A
study by Jay Silverman of Harvard School of Public Health, Anita Raj and others has shown that underage
marriage led to higher infant and child mortality rates of daughters and not sons compared to women
who were married in adulthood. Another study of married women in five Indian states by Delhi's
Population Council and Mumbai's International Institute of Population Studies showed that under-age
married women got less autonomy and were less likely to express opinions on domestic issues.
Importantly, under-age mothers were significantly less likely to have had their first delivery in a health
facility. Although the proportion of girls married off in the 15 to 19 year age group has declined from 56%
in 1971 to about 27% in 2006, it still means that over 1.5 crore girls are thus married. And, 16% of the age
group, that is about 2.4 lakh women had already become mothers or were pregnant, according to the
National Family & Health Survey-3. Raj says that these issues are compromising the health and
development of the country as a whole. But she is optimistic. "Fortunately recent movements in public
health in the country have recognized these issues as needing to be addressed," she says. (TOI,
09/03/2011)
In-laws were harassing Nidhi, father tells police
MUMBAI: A day after chartered accountant Nidhi Gupta flung her two children off the 19th storey of her