High rate of maternal mortality deplored
High rate of maternal mortality deplored
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that women
must be given greater access to health care, education and
employment opportunities if they are to achieve equal partnership
status with men.
The lack of access to health care is to blame for the
country's present maternity mortality rate, which is the highest
in Southeast Asia, he added.
"The number of women who die during pregnancy and labor is
lamentable," the President said when opening a four-day national
workshop discussing the equal partnership campaign for men and
women.
The government hopes to reduce the maternal mortality rate to
225 per 100,000 births by 1999, compared with the 1994 level of
421 per 100,000 births.
Last December, Minister of Health Sujudi said that currently
75 women die during pregnancy or delivery every day.
Officials say one of the main causes of Indonesia's high
maternal mortality rate is undernutrition among pregnant women,
which they say is a result of ignorance combined with
sociocultural, economic and geographical difficulties.
Soeharto said Indonesian girls and boys are expected to have
equal access to education at all levels in about 25 years.
In the world of work, Indonesia has yet to create equal
employment opportunities for men and women, the President said.
The workshop is a follow-up to the National Movement to
Strengthen Equal Partnership Between Men and Women, which the
President launched on Dec. 22 last year to coincide with Women's
Day.
The national drive is the culmination of several action plans
agreed to at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China,
last September.
The campaign hopes to improve human resources, accelerate
development and better the welfare of Indonesian women.
Soeharto asked men to help make the drive a success, adding
that the values of equal partnership should be instilled in
children as well.
"Parents should not teach, intentionally or otherwise, gender
discrimination," he said.
Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi voiced concern on
Sunday that Indonesia's political landscape is dominated by men
even though the majority of Indonesia's 195 million people is
female.
She pointed out that only 12.6 percent of the 1,000
politicians in the House of Representatives and the People's
Consultative Assembly are women.
"Ideally, the women-men proportion should be 35:65 percent. We
don't want to insist on a 50:50 proportion but women's proportion
should be higher than it is now," she said.
Mien said Indonesia should do away with its traditional
perceptions which consider women inferior to men.
"Men generally don't like to see women progress. A lot of
husbands don't want to see their wives more intelligent than
them," she said. (pan)