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World Food Programme - India the food aid arm of the United Nations |
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International
Women's Day 2000 - Media Coverage 5 March 2000, Hindu, New Delhi,
India 5 March 2000, Hindu, Madras, India 'Women, most efficient route to end poverty' By Our Special Correspondent NEW DELHI, March 4 - The United nations
World Food Programme will renew its focus on women at the centre of household
food security on the occasion of the International Women's Day on March
8. "When we target women with food aid, we inevitably build
household food security. Women control the distribution of food within
households. We want to build on that role and use it to feed children
and to create or strengthen economic development," observed Mr. Pedro
Medrano, Regional Manager for WFP in South Asia, at press briefing here on
Thursday. "Women and mothers are
foundations of a civil society. Yet, the words 'poverty' and 'women'
have become synonymous in nearly every quarter of the globe. So when we
focus on women, we are by definition, focusing on the poorest of the poor.
Women are the most efficient route to ending hunger and poverty", he
said. "If hunger had a face, it
would be the face of a woman as seven out of 10 of the world's poor are women
with about 550 million living below the poverty line. In India, the food
intake of a section of Indian women is not only deficient in calories but as
high as 83 per cent suffer from iron deficiency and anaemia during
pregnancy. Women are deprived of basic necessities of life such as
food, health and education," he said. Although there was sufficient food
in India, women suffered because of the concept of "women eat
last". The WFP's Development Policy had it that gender was the key
to food security through promotion of sustainable development, participation
and empowerment of beneficiaries. Towards this cause, the WFP invested
in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), education for girls and
women, food for work, micro credit and supports activities that increased
women's access to markets, trade and improvement of skill, said Mr. Feodor
Starcevic, Director of United Nations Information Centre (UNIC).
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