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Bhutan’s Queen Mother Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck has been awarded the United Nations Population Award in the individual category for 2020 for her work on sexual health and ending gender violence.
About United Nations Population Award
- The United Nations General Assembly established the United Nations Population Award in resolution 36/201 on 17 December 1981.
- The Award is presented annually to an individual or individuals, or to an institution or institutions or to any combination thereof, for the most outstanding contribution to the awareness of population questions or to their solutions.
- The Committee for the United Nations Population Award selects the laureates of the Award. The Committee is composed of 10 representatives of Members States of the United Nations elected by the Economic and Social Council for a term of three years (2019-2021).
- UNFPA serves as its secretariat.
2020 awardees are:
- Queen Mother of Bhutan(Individual category) and
- HelpAge India(organizational category) _ works on elder care
Previous awardees from India
Only two Indians have been awarded in the past four decades since the award was established in 1981: former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983 and industrialist-philanthropist J.R.D.Tata in 1992.
About United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
- UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
- UNFPA is formally named the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.
- The organization was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”
- Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies and protocols, increasing access to birth control, and leading campaigns against child marriage, gender-based violence, obstetric fistula, and female genital mutilation.
- UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care, and comprehensive sexuality education.
Source: The Hindu & UNFPA
