Amartya Sen supports anti-rape protests, notes Dalits' plight

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen Friday welcomed the strong protests in India and demands for curbs on crimes against women, but noted that violence against Dalit women has been going on for long without protest.

"I am happy that violence against women is getting attention now...but Dalit women have been undergoing violence without protest for long," Amartya Sen said while delivering the inaugural address at the launch of the International Centre for Human Development here.

There has been country-wide public outrage against the gang-rape of a young woman, who died of her injuries later, and the subsequent demands that women be better protected in India.

Prof. Sen, known the world over for his "development with a human face" ideas, stressed that basic indicators like healthcare, education and nutrition and human rights should get more space in the public and political debates.

India-born British economist Lord Meghnad Desai suggested that a new human development index for women's well-being and security should be developed in India.

Both Sen and Desai contributed significantly to the human development index developed by Pakistani economist Mehboob-ul Haque in 1989. - IANS