A two-day conference with the objective of strengthening regional dialogue and collaboration on violence against women in South Asia started here today.
Around 150 women's activists, media persons, legal practitioners and government officials from South Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are taking part in the conference.
Inaugurating the conference, Nepal's Education Minister Madhav Poudel said, "There is a need for developing capacity of those working in the field of violence against women. It is the right time to take concrete measures to eliminate such violence."
The conference is aimed at bringing together global and regional policy makers, researchers, practitioners and public figures actively working on violence against women in South Asia to discuss ways to intensify efforts to overcome the pervasive problems of violence against women.
Addressing the conference, Regional Vice President of the World Bank, Isabel Guerrero said, "Gender equality is not only possible but necessary. Achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be impossible if we failed to address the issues related to violence against women."
Ranjana Kumari, Director of Indian NGO, Centre for Social Network, said, "Not having representation of women in decision making process is also a kind of violence against women. It is important that women should get equal treatment in every aspect."
During the conference, Urmila Chaudhary, a Nepalese girl who was enslaved at the age of 6 spending more than 12 hours a day serving her masters without adequate food and care, told her sad story to the audience.
