Just 20 per cent

Come May 5 and 10 Downing Street will reflect any political change that Britain?s general elections might bring in. A few things, however, will remain the same, sadly. For instance, the low percentage of women candidates contesting the elections. According to official figures, just 20 per cent of the candidates are women, despite attempts by all major parties to increase the number of women MPs. The Tories cut the poorest figure of all, fielding just 122 women candidates. The Liberal Democrats do a shade better with 145 while Labour manages 171.

And this because issues such as violence against women, inequality in pay and lack of job opportunities have been mostly ignored by the major players in the poll. Women?s concerns have been mostly restricted to maternity and childcare. According to Eleanor Laing, the shadow minister for women, female voters in Britain are not likely to ?settle for four more years of talk?. Whatever, it doesn?t help that there aren?t enough of their kind to voice their concerns in the portals of power.

Soul food

It?s about baby girls and it?s on its way to the Independent International Film and Video Festival in New York, to be screened on April 28. An Indian film ? Atmajaa (Born From the Soul) ? deals with discrimination against the girl child, leading to foeticide. Produced in collaboration with the ministry of health and family welfare, the half-an-hour-long film is being followed up by a serial that will take its message forward. Already 13 episodes have been made that explore a wide range of related topics ? from the laws governing pre-natal diagnostic tests to gender violence to anti-dowry campaigns. (PTI)

Health for all

Six government officials in Wisconsin, US, are fighting it out together. All six are lesbians who want the office to provide them and their partners the same health insurance and family leave benefits as married state workers get. They filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, contending that the ?discrimination? against same-sex couples violates the ?equal protection clause? of the Wisconsin Constitution. Since the 1990s, courts in Montana and Oregon states have ruled that the authorities have to provide health insurance to same-sex couples.

Special cell

Some things can get only worse. One such constant is the rate of atrocities against women. Expressing serious concern over ?increasing? cases of atrocities against women in Bihar, Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, urged governor Buta Singh to set up a special cell to tackle the problem. She said special arrangements should also be made to register complaints of women at every police station till exclusive units catering to them are set up. Later, however, Vyas remarked that the attitude of the state administration was not very positive. (PTI)

It?s cold outside

They set off on a 360-mile trek to the North Pole on Friday on one of the toughest races ever. The Pink Lady Polecats ? comprising UK?s Felicity Aston, Sam Eve and Tori James ? is the only women?s team to be taking part in the renowned Scott Dunn Polar Challenge this year. A total of 16 international teams will trek in temperatures as low as ?40 degree Celsius from Polaris Mine to Issachen Mine. The trio are looking forward to their first four days in the Arctic, which, experts say, are the hardest to survive.

Overheard... that a jury in Oregon, US, awarded Kevin Turner a compensation of $122,225 in a gender discrimination suit filed against a restaurant where he worked. Turner, a gay man, alleged that he faced a hostile work environment because he failed to display ?conventional male behaviour?.