WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Banking on daughters of the family……CORDELIA JENKINS
Banking on daughters of the family……CORDELIA JENKINS
Self-help groups coming up all over Maharashtra are educating women about health, hygiene and other basic issues
The R-North Ward of Mumbai, wedged between the Western Express Highway and Gorai Creek at the northernmost fringe of the city, is not a good place to be born a girl.
For every 1,000 boys born there, only 892 girls are delivered, compared with a national average of 933. In Panscheel Na- gar, a slum in the middle of the ward, the figure is 745. After birth, things get worse; only 73.5% of girls will learn to read and write, compared with 82.7% of boys. The 162,000 people who live in the slums share fewer than 3,000 community toilets.
For every 1,000 boys born there, only 892 girls are delivered, compared with a national average of 933. In Panscheel Na- gar, a slum in the middle of the ward, the figure is 745. After birth, things get worse; only 73.5% of girls will learn to read and write, compared with 82.7% of boys. The 162,000 people who live in the slums share fewer than 3,000 community toilets.
Girls are discouraged from leaving the house, from working, from socializing, from voicing an opinion. Many are mar- ried at 15 or younger, and consequently risk pregnancy complications and death.
But there are signs this may be changing.