Full Coverage: Gender

31.01.2006 Mina Swaminathan has been trying for over a year now to get the 120 agricultural universities in India introduce a short 18-hour module on gender issues in agriculture and rural livelihood, but without success. She says that the entire agricultural bureaucracy is gender insensitive.

30.01.2006 INDIA FIGURES among the 10 largest countries where civil registration of births is incomplete — there is a shortfall of about 10 per cent. It is also among the 10 largest countries that did not report economic activity by sex and age between 1995 and 2003, according to 'The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics,' a report brought out by the United Nations. Aarti Dhar offers her perspective of the report in The Hindu.

27.01.2006 From the suffragettes and the garment workers who inspired the first International Women's Day to Rosa Parks and her allies in the civil rights movement, U.S. women have a long tradition of standing up for justice and peace, says CodePink founder Medea Benjamin. She calls on America's women to take a stand again and join CodePink's "Women Say No to War" campaign.

27.01.2006 Capacity building and training programmes have enabled Saraswati Parajuli of Sindhupalchok district, Nepal, to set up a medical centre on Mankha highway, and to provide essential health services and medicines in her village. This is a result of the initiatives of the Local Governance Programme of UNDP Nepal.

26.01.2006 Statistics on women not only help to track their status but can also directly improve their circumstances, a United Nations report released on January 18, 2006 argues. The report recommends that governments gather and publicize more gender-disaggregated data.

25.01.2006 As the first leg of this year's World Social Forum drew to a close in West Africa Monday, participants noted the decidedly "Afrocentric" focus of the event. Despite minor administrative glitches, participants discussed issues ranging from women's rights to the conflict in the Sudan, and shuttled between more than 800 events and activities.

25.01.2006 Sex education should be an integral part of every individual from birth to death irrespective of age as it deals with various aspects of human development including the thinking pattern and behaviour of an individual, said well known gynaecologist Dr Padmini Prasad

23.01.2006 About 60% of the citizens of Leskovac estimate that the competent state institutions are inefficient in processing of the criminal offence of violence in the family and that the state bodies lack the capacity to solve the problem, report the representatives of “Zenski Centar” (Women Centre) the results from a recent poll.

22.01.2006 UNICEF is working with local organisations in quake-hit regions of Pakistan and is sending female healthcare teams to rural areas to meet the healthcare needs of the people. These healthcare teams have been specially trained in Islamabad.

21.01.2006 The Delhi High Court stayed the operation of a circular issued by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in October, 2005, which made it mandatory for all affiliated schools in the country to provide free education to every single girl child of a parent from Class VI onwards.

20.01.2006 The Iskorak Centre for Rights of Sexual Minorities and Konstra Lesbian Group, presented yesterday their Report on Situation of Sexual and Gender Minorities Human Rights in Croatia in 2005.

20.01.2006 Women surpass men in almost every measure of charitable behaviour, according to new research by Oxfam.

20.01.2006 The unprecedented appointment of women to key posts in the Tanzanian cabinet is just a beginning, argues Salma Maoulidi: "We must ensure that women...make a difference once in office...lest we fall victims to the 'See, women canÂ’t lead' rejoinder."

20.01.2006 A STRIKING aspect of this compilation of stories by 24 Pakistani women writers, is the candour, honesty and ease with which some of the writers handle the issue of sex and sexuality in contrast to the hypocrisy, awkwardness and double standards that engulf such issues in the entire Indian sub-continent. A review by Rasheeda Bhagat in The Hindu.

20.01.2006 Women of India - Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods - This book is a monumental compilation comprising 24 contributors, spread, slightly over 600 pages, sweeping across two centuries, drawing together diverse disciplines and themes, but focussed on understanding the experience of gender in India. In a nutshell, the editor describes the underlying message of the volume as follows: "Gender [then] is about power. And, if it is about power it is about politics.

19.01.2006 Anju Chhetri, born in a lower-middle class family in Biratnagar, in Nepal, was drawn towards women-oriented journalism when, as a student of history, she found that women were either excluded from historical accounts or grossly misrepresented. Understanding full well that she could not rewrite history in the absence of well-documented historical sources or the resources for historical research, she decided to write the 'history' that was available to her -in the form of journalism.

18.01.2006 According to the Cro-Lesbians portal, the majority of negative experiences for the male homosexual community in Croatia are related to visits to psychologists, i.e. medical personal in public health institutions. These are the findings of the recent survey conducted by the Rijeka-based lesbian association Lori, in cooperation with Zenska Soba from Zagreb.

18.01.2006 The election of women presidents around the world is a remarkable advancement, says CEDPA CEO Yolonda Richardson, but barriers still keep many women from meaningful political participation. Countries emerging from conflict have a special "window of opportunity," she notes, to increase the number of women in office, which, in some cases, has improved overall governance.

17.01.2006 The Government and other officials in Kosovo should prepare policies and programs for creation of elementary conditions and improvement of the Roma women position in our society, by promoting their education, protection from violence and social welfare.

17.01.2006 She took the oath of office and then addressed a jubilant Liberia. She told government and corporate officials that she will publicly declare her assets, and they will too. She comforted the country's women, whom she said "bore the brunt of inhumanity and terror." And she spoke to its children: "I love you very, very much. I shall work to give you hope and to give you a better future."