Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Drastic efforts are crucial to ending genderinequality and violence against women and girls, said Le Khanh Luong, ViceDirector of the Gender Equality Department under the Ministry of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs.
Speaking at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on October 16 oncommunication training on gender equality, gender and domestic violence prevention,Luong said that women and girls are still victims of trafficking, abusing,sexual assault and violence.
He said that the first action month against gender-based violence, partof a national action programme on gender equality and domestic violence, washeld in 2016 with more than 800 activities involving over 200,000 people.
This year, the action month, starting from November 15, aims to changepublic awareness of gender equality.
Ha Thi Quynh Anh, an official from the United Nations Population Fund saidthat inter-sectoral support, including health care and legal aid, is necessaryto help women and girls recover from domestic violence.
She also stressed the need for stronger communications to raise publicawareness of gender equality.
Nguyen Thi Diem Chi from Ho Chi Minh City Women’s Newspaper said thatthe newspaper’s hotlines have received many reports on domestic andgender-based violence, which show that the problem is still common.
Statistics show that as many as 34 percent of married women have sufferedfrom physical or sexual abuse, the majority of whom did not reveal theirsituation or seek help from public services.
Meanwhile, backward concepts have caused a serious at-birth gender imbalanceat 112.2 boys over 100 girls (2016). It is predicted that in 2030, up to 4.5million Vietnamese men will be unlikely to have spouses.
From 2005-2009, nearly 6,000 women and girls were victims of humantrafficking in Vietnam.-VNA
VNA
