The United Nations has declared October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, as the International Day of Non-violence to honour a lifetime devoted to the pursuit of non-violence.

On this occasion, this year, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is launching a nationwide campaign for prevention of violence against women to create greater awareness about the issue.
Addressing the media on the eve of launch of the campaign in the national capital, Krishna Tirath, Union Minister of Women and Child Development said that women empowerment and welfare was a high priority for the Government.
“Though women constitute more that 48 per cent of the population and are acknowledged as the very foundation for the development of the society and the country as a whole, the issue concerning them, and more importantly, the abuse of their rights, remains often neglected. In fact, the incidence of violence against women within the home and outside is quite alarming,” Tirath said.
The Ministry has taken many important steps to protect the rights of women and ensure their welfare, development and empowerment.
“Schemes such as Swadhar and Short Stay Homes and Ujjwala provide relief and rehabilitation to women in distress. However, there is a need to bring to center stage the issue of promoting non-violence and preventing all forms of abuse and violence against women in our society through mass awareness programmes,” Tirath said.
“The Government efforts will yield desired result only when all sections of society come forward to contribute and support these efforts,” Tirath added. he Minister further said that to mark the occasion, the ministry is holding a meet of more than 5000 women at the India Gate Lawns on October 2. These women will be Aaganwadi Workers as well as Self-help Groups and representatives of various walks of life.
The participants at the meet will form a human chain to express solidarity for the cause of non-violence and upholding the rights of women.
The meet will be attended by many dignitaries including member of Planning Commission Syeda Hameed, Lt.Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna and many eminent women who are dedicated to the cause of empowerment of women and heads of some of the prominent National Organizations working for women.
Tirath also said that during the campaign a number of activities will be carried out to create mass awareness about the issue at the grass root level besides strengthening and launching new schemes for the empowerment of women and welfare of children
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Geneva, Sep 10 (DPA) The most dangerous place in the world to travel on roads is in the impoverished East African state of Eritrea, says the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its first report on global road safety.

To identify the most hazardous roads, WHO experts sifted through a mass of data which showed that around 1.3 million people are killed each year on the world's highways. A further 20 to 50 million people sustain non-fatal injuries.

The global record for road deaths per capita goes to the former Italian colony of Eritrea where figures showed an estimated 48 deaths per 100,000 people.

Road travel in the Cook islands in the South Pacific is nearly as dangerous too, with a statistical 45 deaths per 100,000. The archipelago north-east of New Zealand is home to just 13,325 citizens and five of them died in road accidents in 2007. Egypt (41.6) and Libya (40.5) also both had a poor road safety record.

Driving too fast, drinking and driving along with the failure to use seatbelts and talking on mobile phones while at the wheel were given in the report as key contributing factors to the high number of fatalities and accidents on roads around the world.

'These are stunning figures that need not, should not, be so high. Over 90 percent of these deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have less than half of the world's registered vehicles. This is another statistic that tells us something is wrong,' WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement.

Chan said the report's findings would serve as a basis for discussion at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which is due to take place in Moscow in November 2009.

'This will be a milestone event in international road safety that will serve as a call to action to reduce the impact of road traffic crashes over the next decade,' said Chan.

The safest road conditions were found amid the islands and atolls which make up the Micronesian nation of the Marshall Islands. Here 59,000 residents have a mere 2,487 vehicles between them. Only one fatal road accident was recorded in 2007.

France and Germany suffered 7.5 and six fatalities per 100,000 respectively compared to Britain (5.4) and the US where more than 251 million vehicles are registered. The quota here was 13.9 fatalities per 100,000 people. A similar level could be found in Sri Lanka, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

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