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The Kathmandu Post

March 7, 2010

Beyond Women’s Day

By Jagannath Lamichhane

More than two-thirds of the population who live in poverty are women. Women suffer more acutely from both discrimination and violence because of their gender. This makes it very hard for women in poverty to enjoy their rights to health, education, shelter, food — the same rights in turn could help them break out of poverty,” Amnesty International reports in its recent newsletter to highlight International Women’s Day, March 8.

Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is underway in New York starting from March 1. The commission will undertake a 15-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. Emphasis will be placed on sharing experiences and good practices with a view to overcoming the remaining obstacles and new challenges including those related to the Millennium Development Goals. Member states, representatives of non-governmental organisations and UN entities will participate in the session. A series of parallel events will provide additional opportunities for information exchange and networking.

In fact, this is the global day of women celebrating economic, political, cultural and social achievements in relation to its past, present and future. “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all” is the slogan for this year. It appears that women activists around the world and UN agencies are now ready to rock the global stage on this day. Moreover, frankly speaking, there are hundreds of issues women are facing in society. And there is a deep social complacency that women continue to face inequity on many fronts. There are even more tensions in addressing women’s issues in order. In this day of global celebration, I prefer to highlight the issues of women living with mental health and related disability conditions whose aspirations, sadly, fall beyond this day.

Marginalisation of women and girls with mental health and related disabilities is a common phenomenon around the world. In the last two decades, popular women activisms have grown with the luxury of forgetting significant women’s issues who compose vulnerable groups within the women groups. In the absence of a strong social ground, and loopholes of policies and human rights commitment, celebrity women activists are excused for not highlighting invisible women’s issues, mainly, women’s mental health and its associated social outcomes.

The first article, “No health without mental health”, published in the Lancet series on global mental health, strongly challenges that without addressing mental health, several of the Millennium Development Goals such as promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS are not going to be achieved.

This series warns that women are at heightened risk of common mental disorders. Women are two to three times more likely than men to suffer from mental disorders. Gender affects many of the determinants of mental health, including socio-economic position, access to resources, social roles, rank and status; and gender differences in mental disorders diminish after controlling these mediators. The gendered disadvantage experienced by women in many parts of the world might be a relevant factor; for example, a large cross-sectional survey in Goa, India led by Prof. Vikram Patel identified strong associations between common mental disorders and indicators of disadvantage, including early age at marriage, intimate partner violence and abuse, and absence of decision making autonomy.

In spite of strong evidence demanding urgent attention locally and internationally, the inaction of women activists in relation to women’s mental health is itself a major barrier to the promotion of women’s rights. Internationally, there are few programmes aiming to empower women and girls with disabilities. The World Program of Action Concerning Disabled Persons and the recently adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognise that women and girls with disabilities are at greater risk, both within and outside the home, of violence, injury and abuse, neglect, or negligent treatment, maltreatment and exploitation. In other words, it can be said that these factors directly link to women’s mental disorders. However, in action, women’ issues of mental health and related disabilities are being pushed to the back; and it has not been acknowledged openly as being an obstacle to the achievement of several Millennium Development Goals.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s International Women’s Day message highlights that the fight for women’s rights is central to the UN’s global mission. The Beijing Declaration was a landmark on the road to women’s empowerment and for policy guidance. Since then, though there has been visible progress, the Secretary-General has acknowledged that much work yet remains. Mainly, violence against women remains a cause of global shame and sexual violence in war is endemic.

Like the Secretary-General has emphasised in his message, it is true that securing women’s rights is central to all our hopes for peace, security and sustainable development. But without addressing women’s mental health and its associated social outcomes, the legitimacy of such celebrations always remains questionable.

(The author is a global mental health and disability rights activist)

Jagannath Lamichhane

jagannathlc@gmail.com