Of late, I have been witnessing a very disturbing increase in the crime against females, be a girl child, a teenager, or an adult woman. It has almost become the order of the day. Newspapers are replete with such news. No doubt, India has been placed at parity with Afghanistan as the worst countries for a female to born in. Sometimes, I guess, had it been there in the past too but very less reported?.. or the mind set of the Indian male is becoming less human, devoid of any compassion and respect for the other gender, and is also becoming fearless of the Indian Law!
So, I fancied an idea to let the world know the dark side of "Being a Female in India."
Let there be the consciences shaken, people of all walks do some soul searching..take a pause and raise their voice, wherever they are, against the atrocities being meted out to girls and women, with a result that cruelity against the female gender starts receding, and we give to our generations to come a society where a woman is respected in its true essence-as as wife, as a sister, as a mother, as a grand mother et al..is the sole objective of this blog.
Amen.

Sunday, 3 June 2012

Undernourished and anaemic – the plight of India’s teen girls By Nita Bhalla APRIL 26, 2012


The U.N.’s latest report on the state of the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents gives food for thought, especially on the plight of India’s girls aged between 10 and 19.
The report explores a range of issues affecting teenagers around the globe, from nutrition and health to sexual behaviour, knowledge on HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards gender violence and access to education.
Data from surveys of adolescent girls in India, and South Asia in general, are once again a reality check – which we shouldn’t need but unfortunately still do.
Soon to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation by 2050, India already has the highest number of adolescents in the world at 243 million, says the report by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Yet nearly half of Indian girls aged 15 to 19 are underweight, and more than a quarter are underweight in 10 other countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Niger, Ethiopia and Cambodia.
“Such undernutrition renders adolescents vulnerable to disease and early death, and has lifelong health consequences,” says the report. “In adolescent mothers, undernutrition is related to slow foetal growth and low birthweight.”
Another startling health indicator is that 56 percent of India’s adolescent girls are anaemic – the sixth highest rate in the world. Mali has the worst, with 68 percent of girls suffering an iron deficiency.
Anaemia increases the maternal risk of haemorrhage and sepsis during childbirth, as well as cognitive and physical problems in young children, and reduces productivity in adults.

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