12 March 2008
Lagos — Mrs Ladi IIiya, National Chairperson, National Women Commission (NWC), has said the condition of women and the girl-child are still terrible nationally, regionally and globally.
Ladi, while speaking in Kaduna, at the third national gender conference organised by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said in the domestic sphere, women and the girl-child had a subordinative status and lamented that the domestic space was still characterised by physical abuse of women, denial of educational and other opportunities, and inability to pursue economically productive career.
She said there were severe deficits in social provision for the specific needs of women in developing countries, "this is easily seen in poor health indicators, especially those related to maternal health," she said.
Ladi said the 2006 world health statistics released by WHO, indicated that 800 women die per 100,000 live birth. "59,000 women died from birth-related complications in Nigeria in 2005.
It means the act of bringing forth a child potentially carries a death sentence for majority of
our women," she said, adding that there were other degrading dis-empowering and potentially fatal conditions, such as harmful widowhood rights, lack of access to legitimate inheritance, trafficking and forced marriage.
Ladi said in the general economic sphere, women earned less in real terms and relative to the diverse responsibilities and needs that were associated with their domestic roles.
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