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JRD Tata Oration Thirteenth 2015 |
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JRD TATA
Memorial Oration
24 April 2015
Statement by
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
United Nations
Under-Secretary-General
UNFPA Executive Director
13TH JRD TATA ORATION
Dignity and Choice for Girls & Women
in the Post-2015 Framework
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Preface
Population Foundation of India (PFI) presents the 13th
JRD Tata Memorial Oration delivered by Dr Babatunde
Osotimehin, Under-Secretary-General of the United
Nations and UNFPA Executive Director, titled Dignity and Choice
for Girls & Women in the Post-2015 Framework on April 24,
2015 in New Delhi.
Established in 1970 by a group of socially committed
industrialists led by late JRD Tata and late Bharat Ram, PFI
works for improving the quality of life through increased access
to quality family planning and reproductive health services, at
the national, state, and district levels. Working within women’s
empowerment and human rights framework, PFI is committed
to serving the economically weak and marginalized sections of
society in the most socio-demographically backward districts.
PFI works with the government and non-government
organizations in the areas of community action for health, urban
health, scaling up of successful pilots, and communication for
social and behaviour change. A central feature of PFI’s work is
advocacy for effective formulation and implementation of gender-
sensitive population and development policies and programmes.
The organisation functions as a think tank, bringing different
stakeholders on to a common platform to discuss and debate
crucial population issues.
The oration is an important event in PFI’s calendar. Instituted
in 1990, the lecture series has been named after our visionary
founder director. Eminent persons and thought leaders who
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have delivered the oration in the past include S Chandrasekhar,
Somnath Chatterjee, Nitin Desai, IK Gujral, Ramakrishna Hegde,
Najma Heptullah, Jamshed J Irani, KC Pant, Nafis Sadik,
Amartya Sen,Digvijaya Singh and Manmohan Singh.
This year’s oration was delivered by Dr Babatunde Osotimehin,
a global public health leader and champion of women’s
empowerment and young people, who is particularly focused
on promoting human rights, including reproductive health and
sexual rights. Since his appointment as UNFPA Executive
Director in 2011, Dr Osotimehin has spearheaded global efforts
to advance the milestone consensus reached at the International
Conference on Population and Development conference held in
Cairo in 1994. He is also steering UNFPA’s humanitarian action
and efforts around eliminating gender-based violence and other
harmful practices.
Dr Osotimehin’s speech should be of enormous value to
administrators, policy makers, academicians and civil society
organisations who are engaged with issues of population and
development. As Dr Osotimehin says in his speech, “We need
to ensure that the most marginalized women and adolescent
girls are afforded choices that enable them to lead dignified,
productive lives – not least the choice to plan the number, timing
and spacing of their children.”
April 24, 2015
Poonam Muttreja
New Delhi Exec utive Di rector
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Distinguished Guests, Dear
Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be back in the beautiful
city of New Delhi and an honour to deliver the JRD Tata
Memorial Oration.
JRD Tata was a man of great vision, diverse interests and
extraordinary achievements – India’s first licensed pilot, a
successful businessman, and committed philanthropist. He
dreamed of an India where every family is planned and every
child is healthy and wanted. This vision aligns perfectly with
our mission at the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA,
to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every
childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
So let me begin by thanking the Population Foundation of India
and its Executive Director, Ms Poonam Muttreja, for organizing
this important event and inviting me to be with you, but most
importantly, for the work that they do every day to help realize
JRD Tata’s vision, which, at its heart, is about ensuring dignity
and choice for women and girls, the subject they have asked me
to speak about today.
Last year, the world marked 20 years since the historic Cairo
International Conference on Population and Development –
historic because it was at this time that the world endorsed a
human rights-based approach to population and development,
an approach based on the realization of dignity and choice for
everyone, and particularly for women and girls.
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The ICPD Programme of Action marked a shift in focus from
human numbers to the quality of human lives, and particularly, to
ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and
the realization of reproductive rights.
In Cairo, delegates from all regions and cultures recognized
that empowering women and girls and enabling them to make
informed choices about their bodies and their lives is both
the “rights” thing to do and the basis for individual well-being
and sustainable development. The delegation from India, with
members from both civil society and government, was an
important player in achieving this forward-looking consensus.
A year later in Beijing, world leaders reaffirmed that women’s
rights are human rights and committed themselves to developing
the fullest potential of girls and women, and ensuring their
full and equal participation in decision-making and in the
development process.
The 20-year reviews of the Cairo and Beijing agendas show
that we have made considerable progress over the past two
decades. They also show that we still have a long way to go
to ensure dignity and choice for all, to achieve gender
equality and to realize Mr. Tata’s dream and the vision of
Cairo and Beijing.
Today, I would like to talk about some of the findings of the
ICPD beyond 2014 review that illustrate our progress, also
point to some of the challenges and opportunities both in India
and globally for the realization of dignity and human rights,
which are the foundation for a resilient, sustainable future.
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The results of the ICPD review reveal substantial
gains over the two decades since Cairo:
• Nearly 1 billion people have been lifted out of poverty
• A majority of countries have achieved gender parity in
primary education.
• Maternal mortality has declined by almost half.
• And all of this has happened in the context of a 23%
decline in global fertility, driven by greater choices for
women around the world, including greater access to
sexual and reproductive health services.
But progress has been unequal. Growing
inequalities are leaving vast numbers of people
behind, particularly the poorest and most
marginalized.
• In the poorest communities, women’s status, maternal
deaths, child marriages and many of the concerns of the
Cairo conference have seen little progress over the past
two decades.
• Today, around 800 women will die giving life.
• In a number of countries the rights and autonomy of
women and girls are deliberately curtailed.
• And in no country are women fully equal in political social
or economic power.
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• Women’s rising education levels and participation in the
workforce have not been matched with equal prospects for
advancement and equal pay.
• Women remain underrepresented in leadership positions both
in the political sphere and the private sector.
• And everywhere, violence against women and girls continues
to take a devastating toll.
• Marriage under the age of 18 is illegal in 158 countries, yet 1 in
3 girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18.
• And marriage too early, leads to pregnancy too soon effectively
closing the door to education and other opportunities for a
better life.
• Other problems have arisen, such as a dramatic decline in sex
ratios at birth in several countries of East, South and Central
Asia and Eastern Europe. Fertility decline cannot be at the cost
of our daughters.
Adolescent girls are particularly at risk in the poorest communities.
More girls are finishing primary school, but they are facing
challenges in accessing and completing secondary education.
Supporting their aspirations – and the aspirations of all young
people – is key. We need to ensure that the most marginalized
women and adolescent girls are afforded choices that enable them
to lead dignified, productive lives – not least the choice to plan the
number, timing and spacing of their children.
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We know that access to comprehensive reproductive health
services, including voluntary family planning, saves lives,
protects women’s health and helps unleash the power of women
to contribute to their societies and drive sustainable economic
growth.
But 225 million women living in developing countries want to
avoid pregnancy and are not using modern contraception. That
is equivalent to the entire population of Brazil. In India, over 13%
of married women have an unmet need for contraception. We
need more progress.
India has made tremendous progress in reducing maternal
mortality. Maternal deaths in India fell 65% between 1990 and
2013 – well above the global average of 45% for the same
period.
But as with the global picture, this positive overall trend masks
significant inequalities when one looks at the data by wealth
quintile.
Let us look at two critical reproductive health indicators closely
related to women’s dignity and choice: skilled attendance at birth
and contraceptive prevalence.
Most obstetric complications could be prevented or managed if
women had access to a skilled birth attendant – doctor, nurse,
midwife – during childbirth.
The proportion of deliveries attended by skilled health personnel
rose in developing countries from 56% in 1990 to 67% in 2011.
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India has also seen steady upward progress, but if we look
at skilled attendance by household wealth quintiles, we
see tremendous inequality. In the wealthiest quintile, skilled
attendance at birth was around 85% in 2005. For the poorest
quintile, the figure was around 13%.
These disparities in India and elsewhere illustrate the limited
capacity of many health systems to meet the sexual and
reproductive health needs of poor women, particularly those
living in rural areas or dense urban slums.
If we look at trends in contraceptive prevalence, we see a similar
picture. Globally contraceptive prevalence among women aged
15 to 49 who are married or in union rose by around 10%
between 1994 and 2012 – from around 58% to around 64%.
India’s overall contraceptive prevalence has seen a slow but
steady upward trend over the same period. But again, when
CPR is disaggregated by wealth quintile, disparities emerge. In
2005, 35% of the poorest Indian women of reproductive age
were using contraception, while nearly 60% of women in the
richest quintile were.
In most countries the distribution of contraceptive prevalence
by household wealth quintiles is more equitable than the
distribution of skilled birth attendance, with greater outreach to
the poor. This is most likely because contraception is easier for
weak health systems to offer than skilled birth attendance, as it
does not necessarily depend on the availability of skilled health
workers.
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Let us turn now to contraceptive method mix.
Twenty years ago, the global contraceptive method mix was
dominated by female sterilization and the intrauterine device, at
31% and 24%respectively,followed by pills at 14%. Today, these
three methods continue to dominate, but they are accompanied
by greater diversification of female methods, including
increased use of injectables and implants, and rise in the use of
malecondoms. Because clients differ in their method preferences
and clinical needs for health or other reasons, which may vary
over their life course, a range of distinct contraceptive methods
is a hallmark of safety and quality in human rights-based family
planning services.
Typically, the greater the range of choices, the greater the
overall use.
Choice means ensuring the quality of service for all contraceptive
methods.
Choice means the ability of fully informed men and women to
choose freely from among a full range of modern contraceptives,
without incentives or coercion of any kind.
Choice means surgical contraception is always administered in
safe and sanitary conditions.
Female sterilization still accounts for 76% of all contraceptive
use in India. Greater efforts to expand contraceptive choice
and ensure quality of service and accountability must be
part of broader efforts to provide rights-based quality health
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services. UNFPA stands ready to assist, in partnership with
the Government and other stakeholders, in bringing about any
policy, procedural or legal reforms necessary to ensure quality of
service and expand women’s choices.
We have seen enormous progress since Cairo, and under the
framework of the Millennium Development Goals, but as we
embark on a new era for development, there is no room for
complacency. Human rights, dignity and choice must remain at
the centre of our efforts.
Sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights are the
foundation on which women and girls build a life of choices,
empowerment and equality. And they are the cornerstone of
sustainable development.
These rights must be protected even in the most difficult
circumstances.
UNFPA and our development partners face an unprecedented
number of complex challenges – from the protracted conflict
in Syria to the eruption of conflict in South Sudan, from the
Ebola outbreak in West Africa to the epidemic of gender-based
violence facing women and girls worldwide. From the brutality
of Boko Haram in Nigeria to the viciousness of ISIS in Syria
and Iraq, the human rights and dignity of women and girls are
increasingly under threat.
Women are the backbone of their communities’ resilience. Time
and time again, they sustain their households during difficult
times.
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Of the women and girls caught in the Syrian crisis, more than
half a million are pregnant and in desperate need of reproductive
health and protection services.
When a crisis strikes, skilled birth attendance, emergency
obstetric care and access to family planning services often
become scarce or unavailable and violence against women and
girls increases.
UNFPA is committed to delivering effectively in a range of
emergency settings and to preventing and addressing the
impacts of gender-based violence. Our frontline staff and
partners provide life-saving maternal health care, family planning,
protection and counseling to ensure that the dignity and choice
of women and girls are assured even in the most difficult
settings.
To take just one example, in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan
more than 120,000 women have received reproductive health
services from UNFPA-supported clinics. UNFPA has assisted
3000 births in Zaatari to date and none has ended in the death
of a mother or child.
And we will continue to strengthen our humanitarian work
because we know that protecting the sexual and reproductive
health of women and girls not only protects the human rights
and dignity of individuals; it also reduces risks and builds
countries’ resilience. Let me turn now to another priority area for
UNFPA – young people, particularly adolescent girls.
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One of the fundamental questions facing many countries,
including India, and indeed the world, is how to ensure that
today’s largest-ever generation of young people have what
they need to fulfill their potential and contribute to the growth
and development of their countries.
Many countries have a window of opportunity to reap a
demographic dividend of rapid economic growth, as their
working age population grows relative to younger and older
dependent populations.
East Asia’s investment in the human capital of its young
people starting in the 1960s enabled the region to realize its
demographic dividend, contributing to a six percentage point
surge in GDP and a quadrupling of per capita incomes in
some countries.
A demographic dividend is not automatic, however. It
only occurs if countries make time-bound investments to
empower, educate and employ their young people before
they enter the workforce, and ensure an investment climate
and labour policies to expand and sustain safe and secure
employment.
The window of opportunity is time-limited, but it is now open
for many young economies in Africa and Asia. With the
world’s largest youth population, the opportunity for India
is enormous. The cohort of young people currently moving
into the 15-64 age bracket will increase India’s working age
population to a staggering 908 million by 2020! And the
demographic window is expected to last until 2040.
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Investments in young women and adolescent girls are
particularly critical as they face more obstacles than young men
and boys in building their capabilities, seizing opportunities and
enjoying their rights.
Right now, in Niger or Nepal, Mali or Mozambique, Bangladesh
or Uttar Pradesh, there is a young girl at a critical turning point.
She is 10 years old, with her entire life in front of her. Yet in a
year or two, she might be married and out of school, another
year after that pregnant, and this could start her on a path that
we have seen all too often – to early childbearing, ill-health,
lack of control over her life or protection from violence, lack of
choices, with few prospects of achieving her full potential or
developing her capabilities for herself, her family and her society.
Empowering that 10-year-old girl to delay childbearing, prevent
adolescent pregnancy, and avoid early marriage, and enabling
her to stay in school and gain the skills she needs to transition
into gainful employment is vital.
Public support for the empowerment of women is changing in
much of the world, but perhaps not quickly enough.
In India, as in most countries, there is more public support for
the equal rights of boys and girls to education, than for their
equal rights to employment. And overall, the proportion of
those who support equal rights for girls in India -- whether in
education, jobs or politics -- is lower than in most countries.
Data from the World Values Survey collected in 2004-09,from a
random sample of 2000 adults across 18 states accounting for
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97% of the population, found that around 55% of adults in India
believe that a university education is as important for girls as for boys.
Positive as that is, this value is lower than that recorded in 43 of
the 47 countries sampled, meaning that public opinion in India is
less convinced of the equal value of education for girls and boys
than elsewhere in Asia, in most African countries, and in all the
countries of Latin America and Eastern Europe.
When asked: if jobs are scarce, should men have greater rights
to a job than women? 80% of those sampled in India agree. There
is greater support for gender equality among women than men, but
the difference is small.
And yet, women are a crucial part of the workforce in India,
representing close to a third of the active labor force. This is lower
than in China (82%) and Brazil (72%), but still significant, and
crucial to the fiscal security of millions of families.
Yet, there are challenges for the dignity and safety of women
within the labour force as well. The majority of women work
in the informal sector, with low wages, limited security, and
no benefits – what is called vulnerable employment. Most are
unskilled – reflecting low levels of education; in 2010, an estimated
65% of working age women in rural areas lacked primary school
education.
India is on the cusp of having a large working-age population with
fewer dependents, providing a time-bound opportunity to reap
a “demographic dividend” from their age structure. But such a
dividend will only be possible if the working age population – both
men and women – have the good health, the training and the
opportunities for secure employment.
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I know that India has outlined a strong commitment to
capitalizing on the potential dividend through skills development,
and partnerships across the private sector. These are exciting
developments, and they hold promise for millions of young
workers.
But the rights and freedoms of women, their dignity and choice,
must be part of this formula for India to succeed.
We at UNFPA are encouraged by the prominent attention the
Government has given to ending the gender-discriminatory
practice of sex-selection and to providing economic incentives
to save India’s girls, through the Government’s Beti Bachao Beti
Padhao programme and other initiatives.
Prime Minister Modi has spoken passionately and publicly about
the scourge of violence against women and the discriminatory
attitudes that encourage it. It is notable that the Government of
India has mandated a health sector response to sexual assault
and violence. It is equally important that the health sector and
health personnel be sensitive to the causes and consequences
of gender based violence and tackle this as a health issue. This
would make for a powerful addition to India’s Reproductive
Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health programme,
because domestic and other forms of violence against women
greatly affect reproductive health outcomes.
Such initiatives are critical if we are to change the harmful
practices and social norms that jeopardize the health and
wellbeing of women and girls, keep them from reaching their full
potential, and serve as a drag on development.
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No country can advance while leaving half its population behind.
UNFPA looks forward to exploring new opportunities to expand
and deepen our collaboration with the government and other
partners in India, including the private sector.
This evening, in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, we will be launching a Centre of Excellence on
Youth and Adolescents to improve the availability of relevant
knowledge, services and data, enable informed policies and
investments, and informed choices by young people. This
includes a Research and Development Centre that will serve as
a critical knowledge hub on adolescents and youth and online
platforms to provide cutting-edge data, information and services
on and for young people.
The Centre will engage actively with South Asian and other
international centres and universities, fostering regional and
South-South cooperation.
We know that by unleashing the power of people, particularly
young people, enabling them to exercise their rights and
contribute to and share equally in the benefits of development,
we can advance dramatically towards realizing the dignity and
human rights of all.
This year, around the world, over 59 million girls will turn 10
years of age. So, as we embark on an ambitious, universal post-
2015 development agenda to follow the Millennium Development
Goals, we have 59 million chances to do it right, to catalyze the
dramatic transformations they – and we – so desperately need.
We know what we can achieve with the right investments in our
young people.
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JRD Tata did as well, funding post-graduate scholarships for
promising Indian students, investing in the health and education
of women and children, empowering the poor and vulnerable.
“Money is like manure,” Mr Tata said. “It stinks when you pile it;
it grows when you spread it.”
Words to live by in our increasingly unequal world…
Sexual and reproductive health is one of the
most cost-effective yet neglected investments in
international development.
Education, including comprehensive sexuality
education, is one of the best investments countries
can make.
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If we enable a girl’s birth to be welcomed in the same
way as her brothers’,
If we keep girls in school and out of marriage,
If we give them access to the information and
services they need to avoid motherhood in childhood,
If we protect them from violence
and harmful practices,
If we equip them – and their brothers – with skills and
opportunities to participate in the workforce and in
decision-making, they will transform their
communities,
India and the world.
The formula is simple:
Empower, Educate, Employ!
The time is now.
Thank you.
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