Month for gender equality, gender-based anti-violence to be launched

The event is organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the United Nations in Vietnam and the People’s Committee of Hanoi to carry out the Prime Minister’s decision approving the national action plan on gender equality in 2016-2020.

Vietnam has made tremendous progress on removing the gender gap in the past 20 years, particularly in jobs and health care due to numerous policies and laws on gender equality, said Nguyen Trong Dam, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs at a press conference on November 9.

However, the gender gap is still prevalent in many fields, he added. 

The biggest challenge faced by Vietnam in achieving gender equality is gender-based violence, especially violence against women and female children. 

Female children are not only the victims of domestic violence but also human trafficking, sexual abuse and violence from outside the family. A national survey on domestic violence against women and children reported that there was an average of 1,000 cases of girl child sexual abuse every year.

Themed “Joining hands to remove violence against women and girl children”, the month-long campaign, starting from November 15, aims to encourage the involvement of agencies, organisations and people in efforts to ensure gender equality and prevent violence against women and girl children.