One out of three women
suffers physical and sexual violence in the society, the Lagos State government
has said.
Commissioner
for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Mrs Lola Akande made the remark while
decrying the challenges faced by the girl child in the country and the world by
extension.
She
spoke at the International Day of the Girl Child, at the Chapel of Christ the
Light, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
Mrs
Akande said: “The International Day of the Girl Child celebration focuses
attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote
girls’ empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights.
“Despite
all, there is still a great deal to be done to realise the world we want.
One in three women suffers physical and sexual violence. After more than a
year, over 200 girls who were kidnapped from their school in northern Nigeria
have not been found and the world has largely gone silent. An estimated 222
million women don’t have adequate access to reproductive health care and nearly
50 per cent of the world’s employed women are not protected by equal labour
laws and practices.
“As I speak, Lagos State
has graduated 5,951 trainees who successfully completed their training in
vocational skills and trades at the ministry’s skill acquisition centres
with start up equipment given to them.”
She
said gender equality must be achieved in order to realise all the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) , adding: “I am making this clarion call to all
stakeholders to come on board and ensure the attainment of the SDGs, especially
the attainment of goals 4 and 5 which border on education and gender equality.”
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