Syed Nahas Pasha, London

Dhaka, Nov 25 (bdnews24.com)—A new UK-funded programme to improve women's life chances and tackle violence against women in South Asia was launched today, which is the international Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

DFID will establish a new South Asia gender equality fund, which will bring together the best policy, research and evidence in South Asia to tackle the root causes of gender inequality across the region.

A DFID spokesperson told bdnews24.com Wednesday they saw violence against women as a particular problem in Bangladesh. In some areas of the country, 62 per cent of women experience regular physical or sexual abuse, he said.

In addition, half of Bangladeshi children under five 5 are underweight – one of highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. Also, 12,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes every year and nearly 250,000 babies die in their first month.

In Bangladesh at present, DFID supports a Manusher Jonno Foundation Violence Against Women programme. It reaches over 21,000 direct participants, working at district and village level; working with police, and working with national institutions to improve women's life chances.

There are 646 million women and girls in South Asia. Yet there are 60 million fewer women in South Asia than would be expected if numbers of men and women reflected worldwide demographics. One of the main reason for this is gender discrimination through sex selection, infanticide, and a far higher mortality rate for girls than for boys.

Inequality between men and women threatens the health, education and future life chances of millions of women and girls in South Asia. Half of women in South Asia face sexual or physical violence in their home. Women in South Asia eat lower quality food than men, are much less likely to have a job and have less control over property.

DFID said they would be working with World Bank and other partners to develop a region wide nutrition strategy.

According to different statistics available 64% of children in South Asia are undernourished but, with gender inequality as a key driver, among adolescent girls the ratio rises to 80%.

Women in the household eat last, eat least, and only what's left over – the least nutritious food. Moreover, under-nourished women giving birth to malnourished babies.

Entrenched attitudes and behaviours and women's unequal access to social, political or economic opportunities are similar across the whole region.

As well as designing new projects to reduce domestic violence, DFID will also improve women's nutrition and access to jobs - two fundamental barriers to achieving equality. The new fund will help to deliver DFID's commitments to tackle gender based violence set out in its White Paper earlier this year.

To reflect this new strategy, DFID will provide support to 800 new para-legal committees to combat violence against women and other legal issues throughout Nepal. The £6.5 million grant to UNICEF will deliver trained legal support to women and girls who would otherwise not have access to justice.

The project will initially focus on Nepal then if it works DFID will launch a similar project in Bangladesh.

Mike Foster International Development Minister said, 'Staggering inequality and daily physical or sexual abuse damage the health, education and life chances of half of Asia's population. Unless we tackle the common root causes, we undermine all our work to combat poverty.

'We must stop this inequality now. Our new programme will bring together the best local and regional knowledge to stop violence against women once and for all. To do this we need to include men as part of the solution.'

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