Education and health in South Asia: What do we know?

During the last decade, at least three international conferences (the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995) sought to reshape a vision of women’s lives by placing gender equity, women’s rights, empowerment, health (including reproductive health), quality of life, equality and freedom at the centre of population and sustainable development policies and programmes. In the period since these international events, almost all States, as signatories of the action agendas of the conferences, have attempted to move closer to fulfilling many of the commitments. In this endeavour, they have also sought the help f both national and international non-governmental organizations, institutions and corporate sectors. However, certain challenges remain for many of the countries in terms of access to services for some of the marginalized groups. Perhaps more innovative approaches rather than the standard poverty alleviation approaches are needed to bring all within the fold of development.