THE Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has urged organisations and institutions concerned with gender equality,to continue to collaborate with the government to initiate more measures that would empower women socially, economically and politically in society.
The Minister said the challenges to the development of women in the country was embodied in social, cultural, economic and political discrimination coupled with violation of their rights, intimidation and violence.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah made the call at the launch of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence at Suhum last Thursday.
The event was on the theme “Women Speak, End Gender-Based Violence Now!”, formed part of international campaign set aside to highlight the various human right abuses perpetrated against women globally. It was also to pay respect to human rights defenders as well as raise awareness about the elimination of all forms of violence against women.
In her view, women also lacked the capacity to engage in viable economic activities to generate enough money for themselves, a situation that had made them to remain in the vicious poverty cycle, preventing them from having access to proper healthcare, education, shelter and food, among others.
The minister said there was the need to encourage women to control their lives and effectively contribute to national development, as well as gain freedom from all forms of socio-cultural, economic and political discriminations.
“Until we sustain our commitment to empower women, forces that militate against the development of women in general will be so overwhelming that it will be difficult to reap the fruits of our efforts, thus making the future of women in Ghana bleak”, Mrs Azumah-Mensah stated.
“Many women are unable to afford even the cost of transportation to reach health facilities, while others face barriers because they are illiterate and unable to express themselves in English, considered as the official language”, Mrs Azumah-Mensah stated.
The minister also lamented the denial of women to own property such as land, cash crops among many ethnic groups, while others remained subjected to traditional male dominance that denied them statutory entitlements to inheritance and property owning, legally registered marriage and the maintenance and custody of their children.
“Even today, many widows are thrown out of their late husband’s houses by relatives who consider it a taboo for women to own houses, a situation that has made single women poor and unable to properly ensure their children’s well-being and development”, the minister stressed.
On employment, she said discrimination at the workplace had become common causing some women to engage in menial jobs like head potters and house helps, exposing them to social, commercial and sexual exploitation.
With regard to education, she said though education was a right in itself and a pathway to the enjoyment of other rights, the lack of education for women had a lifetime cost such as the opportunities for financial independence and increasing the likelihood of early marriage with its high incidence of emotional and physical ill-health.
“In spite of the fact that Ghana has passed laws that prohibits early marriage, many girls are married off without their consent due to poverty. This denies them access to education, which in the long run significantly increases their risks of contracting HIV and AIDS and increase maternal mortality”, she added.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Ms Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, also reiterated the call on stakeholders to put in more efforts at ending violence against women and ensuring their involvement in conflict resolution and peace building processes.
The National Co-ordinating Director of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Elizabeth Dassah, said despite various interventions by her outfit and other stakeholders, domestic violence was still rife in the country.
“Over the past 12 years of its establishment, DOVVSU has recorded about 120,000 cases of violence, with spousal violence accounting for over 26,000, defilement 9,417, rape 2,458, with more than 50,000 presenting cases of non-maintenance”, she said.
ACP Dassah added that some of the gender-based crimes which were often not reported included forced marriage, abduction, trafficking in women and children into portage, domestic servitude and prostitution, children in worst forms of labour, sexual harassment in the workplace and violence against the girl child in school, stressing that these cases were also on the increase.
For his part, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Baba Jamal, called on both men and women, especially married couples, to show mutual respect to one another to curb the increasing rate of violence committed against one another.
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