Annual Report 1999-2000 at the village, taluka, district level local government institutions and in municipal councils. However,the proposal to provide a 33%reservation for women in the State Legislatures and the Parliament has not yet been successful in obtaining the approval of the Parliament. 2.19 India is asignatory to the Convention on the Elimination ofAll Forms ofDiscrimination against Women(CEDAW)and its first country report became due to be submitted to the Committee established under the tteaty in 1994.However,the reportwas submitted inJanuary 2000, when the Department of Women and Child Development (Ministry of Human Resources Development)presented it to the CEDAW Committee.After critically examining the compliance report, the Committee made the following observations in regard to discrimination against women in India (See Annexure 1 for details): □ Widespread poverty, social practices such as the caste system and son preference, higher incidents of violence, significant gender disparities and adverse sex ratio are major obstacles to the implementation of the Convention. □ The Convention and the Beijing Platform for Action have not been integrated into policy, planning and programmes. □ The proposed gender empowerment policy should integrate the Convention and the Beijing Platform of Action with the rights based approach. □ There is an urgent need to introduce comprehensive legislative reform to promote equality and the human rights of women. □ The government should take affirmative action within a time-frame and with provision ---of^dequate resources, to give girls equal access to education and eradicate adult illiteracy, and for tliis purpose, primary and secondary education should be made compubory. □ There is high incidence ofgender-based violence against women and discrimination against women belonging to particular castes or ethnic or religious groups; this is also manifest in extreme forms of physical and sexual harassment. □ Women and girls are exploited in prostitution, and inter-state and trans-border trafficking. 2.20 The Indian Government was required to place its first report before the Committee to monitor the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1995. However, the report was filed two years later, on 7July 1997. Afour-member team ofthe CRC Committee visited India in October 1995 to assess at first hand, specific problems ofchildren inIndia. The CRC Committee considered India's report inJanuary 2000 and its concluding observations were made in the meeting held on 28 January 2000. In the concluding observations of the CRC Committee (Copy at Annexure II) also, there are recommendations relating to the removal of discrimination faced by women and children with special reference to girls: □ The Committee is concerned at highmaternal mortality and very highlevels oflow birth weight andmalnutrition amongchildren, includingmicronutrient deficiencies, linked to