Comment

Comment by Rituu B. Nanda on December 2, 2011 at 7:03am

Here is a response from Madhu to Anita's query:

 

Hi Rituu,

 

I have just returned back from a conference and thus could not reply before.

 

It is very essential to know in what connotation ‘boys and girls’ are written in a document. If it is in reference to sex of a person who is not an adult than this is perfect but if one is talking about gender inequity context they are not.

 

Madhumita

 

Madhumita Das, PhD

Senior Technical Specialist

International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

Comment by Anita Rego on December 1, 2011 at 1:30pm

In most documents including the Gender Equity and Equality Strategy of Global fund, it is mentioned 'boys and girls'.  How does one define the term 'boys and girls"?

Comment by irit hakim-keller on November 30, 2011 at 7:53pm

Hi, thanks for sharing all these, dear Rittu. I am not much in here lately, due to some important issues in the real life...but I keep reading your important posts.

best regards to all. 

Comment by Rituu B. Nanda on October 11, 2011 at 7:04pm

Dear All,

 

How are you? Wanted to share Sima's blog on selective abortions which is a common practice in India especially in the northern region.

http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sex-selection-in-indi...

 

Greetings from a pleasant Delhi,

Rituu

Comment by Rituu B. Nanda on August 11, 2011 at 7:32am

Dear Tapati,

 

A very happy birthday! I take this opportunity to thank you for the effort you are taking to moderate this group, for your care and your passion. This is highly appreciated.

 

Rituu

Comment by Tapati Dutta on August 10, 2011 at 6:55am

Empowering women to protect themselves: Successes in female condom programming

August 8, 2011

UNAIDS

 

Ensuring that high quality condoms are widely available, either free or at an affordable price, is fundamental to a pragmatic and effective AIDS response. In a recently published report, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) focuses on the increasing use of female condoms and highlights how millions of women around the world are now using this method to protect themselves against HIV.

 

HIV prevention that women can control

Titled HIV prevention gains momentum: Successes in female condom programming, the report looks at the issue through the prism of national case studies. These pinpoint how a variety of partners have come together, pooling ideas, expertise and resources, to empower women to access female condoms. This is crucial as HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age worldwide, and in sub-Saharan Africa 60 percent of all people living with HIV are female. 

 

“Girls and women remain vulnerable to HIV and we have to summon the courage and political will to empower and protect them,” said Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA’s Executive Director, quoted in the report’s foreword. “We have to invest in practical tools that women can use to protect themselves, such as the female condom,” he added.

 

Concerted efforts appear to have an impact: the report states that access to female condoms has increased dramatically over the last few years, with 50 million used in 2009. Today condoms are available in more than 90 countries through public health programmes. However, availability and price remain issues as the female condom can cost as much as one US dollar per unit and, despite considerable progress made, in 2009 only one female condom was available for every 36 women worldwide.

 

Stories highlighted in Successes in female condom programming range from coffee ceremonies in Ethiopia where married women help each other break taboos surrounding condoms, to networks of hairdressers and small businesspeople in Guyana, Malawi and Zimbabwe encouraging their clients to use them.

 

Innovative distribution outlets

For example, Langton Ziromba owns a small barbershop in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, and in addition to giving haircuts and shaves he also promotes and sells female condoms to his male customers. Mr Ziromba is one of around 70 barbers and 2000 hairdressers in the country trained by Population Services International (PSI), a UNFPA partner. Such activity, the report outlines, has contributed towards the growth in sales of female condoms through social marketing and public sector programmes from one million in 2005 to more than five million in 2009.

 

Other countries, such as Myanmar, have focused on key populations like sex workers and men who have sex with men. In 2006 UNFPA entered into an agreement with the Myanmar government and PSI to provide 700,000 female condoms to these groups over a three year period. According to the report, progress was “remarkable” and in the first year of the initiative use of female condoms among sex workers nearly doubled from 20 percent in 2004 to 36 percent in 2006.

 

Building national capacity for programming

The publication also draws attention to the push to increase the capacity of national governments and their partners to implement comprehensive condom programming, of which female condoms are an integral part, with a view to outside assistance eventually being phased out. 

 

Since 2002 UNFPA has been the lead agency for the UN Inter-Agency Task Team on Comprehensive Condom Programming and plays a key role in discussions on funding, technical assistance and regional and global support. It also works with governments and partners to stimulate demand and facilitate the design and implementation of culturally appropriate condom programming so that individuals around the world are empowered to protect themselves against HIV.

Comment by Tapati Dutta on August 9, 2011 at 2:07pm

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2020212897304.103122.10033...

A touching video ..though in Hindi :-(..on gender equity, female foeticide et al

Comment by Tapati Dutta on August 8, 2011 at 2:06pm

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article23304...

Comment by Tapati Dutta on August 4, 2011 at 10:19am

Govt for rehab of sex workers

NEW DELHI: Sex workers from the city’s redlight district, GB Road, are mostly from outside, illiterate, belong to SC, ST or OBC community, have no voter identity cards or ration cards and want to be rehabilitated, the Delhi government informed the Supreme Court.....

 

Lets hope for a holostic and comprehensive rehabilitation rather than piecemeal... 

“The women in prostitution expressed hope that if they are properly rehabilitated, their next generation will definitely not follow them and will prefer to come out of this trade,” the government’s affidavit said. Contrary to the apex court’s Tuesday order discarding the affidavits of the states as non-serious documents , the Sheila Dikshit government appears to have done some work in finding out possible ways and means to rehabilitate the GB Road sex workers and initiate beneficial schemes.

Comment by Tapati Dutta on July 25, 2011 at 9:00am

Dear all,

It really feels great on the naming ceremony of this site.

Few weeks back we had posted some experiences, envisaging a discussion on how schools/school level programs help inculcating gender sensitivity. Would await to hear experiences and examples from your end .....

 

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