The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘Issues troubling women are alike everywhere’

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Saturday, Aug 25, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘Issues troubling women are alike everywhere’

Staff Reporter

New Yorker visits Medak to study women’s issues

Frances Donegan Ryan

Sangareddy: Frances Donegan Ryan of New York, USA, is on a two-study tour to Medak district. She is here to look into the working of the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) a Centrally-sponsored scheme with the help of Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samatha Society.

On the first day Ms. Frances visited the Zilla Parishad High School in Bodmatpalli and she is slated to visit another Government school at Sultanpur. The study tour is a part of her internship for AIESEC, a global leadership initiative.

Similar problems

Speaking to The Hindu at the District Educational Officer’s chambers here, Ms. Frances said that issues that trouble women were the same everywhere in the world. She observed that many of the women who graduate from US univers ities end up being a housewife. “Again out of the few who find employment, realise that they cannot go beyond a certain level in the higher echelons of power due to motherhood and other family related problems,” she said. Comparing the status of women to that of India, particularly Andhra Pradesh, she sought to know how far women could go in the rural areas. Ms. Frances equipped with a questionnaire and is trying to find out whether women are really empowered.

Equal enthusiasm

At the Bodmatpalli school Ms. Frances spoke to girls and boys and found out that girl students were as enthusiastic and outgoing as the boys. DEO P. Laxma Reddy pointed out that the programmes like Akshara Jyothi, Self-Help Groups and UNICEF sponsored Sankalp encouraged women in the district to speak for themselves. Ch. Shanthi of APMSS Medak unit is accompanying Ms. Frances, who would be staying in Hyderabad for two weeks and then return to New York to submit her report.

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