[00:07.34]Last Tuesday was World Population Day.
[00:12.98]The message this year was Saving Women's Livers.
[00:18.91]The director of the United Nations Population Fund,
[00:24.27]Nafis Sadik,released a statement in ovservance of the day.
[00:30.59]Doctor Sadik said that the lives of women around the world are full of risk.
[00:38.14]She said more than 500,000 women die each year as a result of pregnancy.
[00:46.47]She said many more pregnant women become sick
[00:51.49]or injured because of their condition.
[00:55.43]Doctor sadik said pregnancy is even most dangerous for young women.
[01:03.09]She said girls between the ages of ten and fourteen
[01:08.44]are five times more likely to die from the condition than women ten years older
[01:16.28]The UN agency director also discussed women and their increased
[01:23.72]risk of getting the virus that causes AIDS.
[01:28.69]Doctor Sadik said there are 2,000,000 more African women
[01:35.01]with the HIV infection than African men.
[01:39.87]She said women also are at higher risk for getting other diseases
[01:47.08]spread through sexual activity.
[01:50.81]The UN official urged all people to take action to save women's lives.
[01:58.86]She said people must support equal rights for women.
[02:04.21]Doctor Sadik said women should receive the same eduction
[02:09.96]and health care as men.
[02:13.02]The UN official said many women do not have the freedom
[02:18.95]to make decisions to control their lives.
[02:23.28]60% of the poor people in the world are female.
[02:28.72]Doctor Sadik said 65% of the people who can not read or write are women.
[02:37.15]And she said 350,000,000 women can not get reproductive health care.
[02:44.88]In some places,even knowledge about reproductive health is limited.
[02:52.23]Michael Vlassoff is the representative for the UN Population Fund in India
[03:00.77]He says people there know about very few methods to prevent pregnancy.
[03:07.82]He says most people in India only know about operations
[03:13.96]that end a woman's ability to become pregnant.
[03:19.60]Mister Vlassoff also says the UN is very concerned
[03:25.53]about the difference in the number of females and males in India.
[03:31.96]He says the most recent Indian government census showed that
[03:38.20]there are 927 females for every 1,000 males.
[03:45.02]The UN official says Indian culture values males more highly than females
[03:53.06]He says this leads too often to the ending of pregnancies
[03:58.92]in which the fetus is female. |