HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh has fared dismally in women's development in various categories of health, security, child sex ratio and political participation as compared to most states in the country, according to central government data collected and analysed over the past decade.
The socio-bio-economic condition of women in Andhra Pradesh is abysmally low with issues of health, security and societal hurdles, plaguing women in urban as well as rural areas, the data reveals.
States like Goa, Mizoram and Kerala have done reasonably better than AP on health parameters, whereas on security of women, even Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli have come up with schemes to improve safety of women at work and at home.
In terms of political participation of women in AP as observed between 2011-2011, only 33% of women participated at the Panchayati Raj level, Think tank Delhi Policy Group (DPG), which has consolidated and analysed the national level statistics said.
The state also has the lowest proportion of women judges, between 3 and 5 %.
Safety of women in the state continues to be an issue with AP recording the highest cases of harassment, second highest in molestation cases and trafficking of women. It has also recorded the sixth highest number of cases of dowry deaths, the DPG analysis says.
"The government has failed in spreading enough awareness about harassment and defining sexual harassment. The police are not senitised or prepared enough to handle cases of harassment," said Isidore Philips from Divya Dasha, a city based NGO working on women issues.
Despite the high levels of crime, conviction rates at an all India level remain poor at only 24% and 58% of rape cases being disposed of.
"Many woman protection policies are only on paper. Committees and helplines are not being popularized enough. In many cases, even if a woman has to reach out, she doesn't know where or whom to approach," Philips said.
As per government recorded data, child sex ratio in Andhra Pradesh is one of the lowest at 939. Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu are the other states, showing similar trends.
Women in AP suffer from chronic anaemia as the highest increase of anaemic women in the country was being seen in state post 1999, with a whopping 13% jump by 2006.
"Anaemia has become extremely common among women nowadays and has crept into young girls as well. Lack of nutrition during prenatal and antenatal phases is largely responsible for this problem. An anaemic mother is most likely to give birth to an anaemic child," said Dr Sujatha Stephen, chief dietician at Global Hospitals. She added that both urban and rural population of women is increasingly steering away from traditional food which has natural sources of iron and prevent anaemia.
The socio-bio-economic condition of women in Andhra Pradesh is abysmally low with issues of health, security and societal hurdles, plaguing women in urban as well as rural areas, the data reveals.
States like Goa, Mizoram and Kerala have done reasonably better than AP on health parameters, whereas on security of women, even Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli have come up with schemes to improve safety of women at work and at home.
In terms of political participation of women in AP as observed between 2011-2011, only 33% of women participated at the Panchayati Raj level, Think tank Delhi Policy Group (DPG), which has consolidated and analysed the national level statistics said.
The state also has the lowest proportion of women judges, between 3 and 5 %.
Safety of women in the state continues to be an issue with AP recording the highest cases of harassment, second highest in molestation cases and trafficking of women. It has also recorded the sixth highest number of cases of dowry deaths, the DPG analysis says.
"The government has failed in spreading enough awareness about harassment and defining sexual harassment. The police are not senitised or prepared enough to handle cases of harassment," said Isidore Philips from Divya Dasha, a city based NGO working on women issues.
Despite the high levels of crime, conviction rates at an all India level remain poor at only 24% and 58% of rape cases being disposed of.
"Many woman protection policies are only on paper. Committees and helplines are not being popularized enough. In many cases, even if a woman has to reach out, she doesn't know where or whom to approach," Philips said.
As per government recorded data, child sex ratio in Andhra Pradesh is one of the lowest at 939. Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu are the other states, showing similar trends.
Women in AP suffer from chronic anaemia as the highest increase of anaemic women in the country was being seen in state post 1999, with a whopping 13% jump by 2006.
"Anaemia has become extremely common among women nowadays and has crept into young girls as well. Lack of nutrition during prenatal and antenatal phases is largely responsible for this problem. An anaemic mother is most likely to give birth to an anaemic child," said Dr Sujatha Stephen, chief dietician at Global Hospitals. She added that both urban and rural population of women is increasingly steering away from traditional food which has natural sources of iron and prevent anaemia.
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COURTESY: TIMES OF INDIA
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