Top UN official lauds women's empowerment and representation in India

New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): Top United Nations official Deirdre Boyd on Tuesday said that women's political representation in the local bodies of India is more than the entire elected women representatives of the world.

Deirdre Boyd, Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in India, said this during a function to mark the release of 'The Millennium Development Goals (MGD) Report 2009' at New Delhi on Tuesday.

"There are lot of success stories of women empowerment in India particularly when we look at the women's political representation at the local level. India has nearly one million locally elected leaders...more than the elected women representatives of the world put together," said Deirdre Boyd.

She also hailed the new Union Budget that was revealed on Monday and said that the new proposals will help in achieving the Minimum Development Goals (MDGs) specified by the UN.eirdre Boyd also added that India has made progress in areas of poverty eradication and primary education.

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 has observed that in India there has been a gain of 11 per cent in primary school enrolment between 2000 and 2007. The report also mentions about the progress made by India in the arena of enrolment of girls in the schools.

Further, the report has highlighted the progress made by India to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

"Progress has been made in addressing problems of HIV-AIDS, but other diseases like malaria and tuberculosis in particular have made a comeback. It (tuberculosis) is the real challenge that many countries in South Asia including India will face," said Biswajit Dhar, Director General, Research and Information System for Developing Countries, United Nations. (ANI)