Kumasi, April 19, GNA – The promotion of gender equality must begin in the early years in life to empower girls to develop their abilities, Madam Aba Oppong, a gender activist has proposed.
That would also empower them to compete for opportunities with their male counterparts, she said.
She made the proposition in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi.
Madam Oppong who is Executive Director of Rights and Responsibilities Initiatives Ghana (RRIG), a Non-Governmental Organisation involved in the promotion of the rights of women said there was the need for inclusivity for both males and females to ensure equal access to opportunities based on merit within their environments.
She said women and girls had since time immemorial struggled and continue to struggle to demand for their rights to life, education, health and other socio-economic rights.
“The right to education among other fundamental human and civic rights is curtailed when young girls are trafficked, defiled or given out in child marriage,” she pointed out.
She added that, “the right to education is also curtailed when young girls are forced into child labour and unsafe abortions, which leave most of them in perpetual hopelessness and poverty.”
When a family prefers a boy child instead of a girl, her needs are never attended to, hence, she ends up not enjoying the right to life in its entirety, she said.
Sexual and reproductive health services, according to her, were available to women but sometimes some of them refused to use them based on their religious, cultural and personal beliefs.
She urged women to embrace knowledge, communication and technology to make them whole, strong and have the ability to break barriers hindering their progress.
GNA