4 July

Myanmar Women’s Day was held online yesterday morning at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement under the healthcare guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Sports for COVID-19.

Participants in the discussion were the representatives of 11 groups from Myanmar National Committee for Women’s Affairs, the online members of the Myanmar National Committee for Women’s Affairs, the chairs of the women committees from states and regions and the secretaries, the invited guests from respective departments, the representatives from the UN agencies and women associations.

The ceremony was launched by broadcasting video clip with the song honoured to Myanmar Women’s Day, followed by the video speech of the State Counsellor.

The State Counsellor said that the year 2020 was a challenging year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the works and the events were held in the new way; the restrictions had to be done unavoidably across the world in order to prioritize to protect, control and treat the disease which caused the social and economical impacts; more or less in every country, that the women were more vulnerable to the disease than men; the gender-based violence and more domestic violence had occurred; Myanmar has lower number of such violence.

She said that women usually took responsibilities to take care of their home and family members; the family was the primary source of human society and it was important that the family members cooperate; the family spirit and the sympathy were the fundamental norms of Myanmar people; she believed that it is necessary to overcome the difficulties of the consequences of COVID-19 through family spirit and the sympathy. Moreover, she said that it was the ability to be adaptable with the change while facing the situations; doing businesses, performing tasks and socializing needed to be connected by changing with new normal.

She continued to say that there were also opportunities during COVID-19 period; people self-employed and sold online such as offering online courses; it can be found that the garment industries made the protection things for health; the situations in country side and city were different; to make it fair although it’s different while leading with new form, to make sure no one had left; the government was implementing COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP)to assist to everyone with necessary protection, social welfare, granting loan with less interest, and the plan to support pregnant women and children. She urged that the private sector should also cooperate with the government and not to leave behind the women sector as this was a significant year for gender equality.

She also suggested women to fulfill the needs of the country equally with the men and the government, private and social organization needed to think how to help them. She urged the social organizations to cooperate by presenting the needs and difficulties of the women, teaching necessary skills, helping them to be able to do professional works.

In conclusion, she said that the role of women was very important to build societies which had to be built with family spirit and empathy. She called for everyone to try to perform in fulfilling the needs of the country and the women, and to hand over the spirit and strength of unity to future generations.

Then, the performance of physical fitness from the Myanmar National Women sport association along with the music was showed by a video clip.

And the ceremony was continued with the round table discussion for Myanmar Women Day by the title “Role and Challenges of Women in COVID-19 Response” led by Dr Win Myat Aye, the Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and the president of the Myanmar National Women Committee, U Win Maw Tun, the deputy minister for Education, Doctor Mya Lay Sein, the deputy minister for Health and Sports and Daw Khine Khine Nwe, the joint-general secretary from UMFCCI. They discussed the role of the participation of the women in COVID-19 response in the sectors of economy, education and health and the difficulties they faced and to find the ways to overcome those and etc. Then, attended guests asked the questions and the people who participated in the discussion answered.

Afterwards, certificates of honour from the Myanmar National Women Committee were given to women healthcare givers and employees who served the country by working in protecting, controlling and curing the Coronavirus disease 2019, by Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr Win Myat Aye, chair of the Myanmar National Women Committee. Deputy Minister Dr Mya Lay Sein received them on behalf of them.

The round table discussion for Myanmar Women Day was held one week in advance by the respective scholars from the sectors of Health, education and economy and the discussion yesterday was to find ways and to make policies for women to overcome the challenges in COVID-19.—MNA (Translated by Ei Phyu Phyu Aung)