(b) Retention Rate (2006-07)

No	Level	RR	Remark
Girls	Boys	Total
1	Primary	67.1	67.8	67.4
2	Middle	78.8	75.1	76.9
3	High	99.6	95.1	97.3

(c) Transition Rate (2005-06)

No	Level	TR	Remark
Girls	Boys	Total
1	Primary to Middle	71.7	75.0	73.3
2	Middle to High	95.6	88.7	92.1

There is no gender disparity in education program in Myanmar . In Basic Education Sector, there are 33 747 Schools in 1987-88 Fiscal Year (FY), however, in 2007-08 (FY), the number of schools is increased to 40 553. The percentage of increas e is 20.17 per cent. Similarly, 5.23 Million students in 1987-88 FY is also increased to 7.96 Million in 2007-08 FY. In the Higher Education Sector, there were only 32 Universities and Colleges with the 134,000 students in 1988. The number of Universities and Colleges is increased to 158 attending by over 5 , 52 0 ,000 students in 2007-08. As there is no discrimination due to gender in education system in Myanmar , it is not necessary to allocate budget related only to women or girls. By equal ratio of boys and girls, it can be seen that budget for girls is half of the whole basic education budget. By increasing budget allocated to education sector, year by year and by more opening of the schools, colleges and universities, the students in basic education sector as well as higher education sector have more access to education.

The Higher Education sub-sector of the Ministry of Education is implementing plan for uplift of the quality of education and the development of human resource. Faculty and administrators are assigned and students are selected to attend courses based entirely on qualification and not on gender. The following table shows the number of administrative staff, faculty and students in the higher education sector according to gender.

Sir.No	Staff/Faculty/Student	Number	Percentage
Male	Female	Male	Female
1	Administrative Staff	3428	6405	34.86	65.14
2	Faculty	1901	8890	17.62	82.38
3	Student	205038	292032	41.25	58.75
Total	210367	307327	40.64	59.36

Health

46. The Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association is all volunteered social organization. There are 64 central council members and 28 staff at the Headquarters. The Association has branches in all 325 townships throughout the country. Altogether 21,059 branches and 9,938,702 members. The members who have expertise in various fields voluntarily participate in the activities of the Association in health, education, economic and social sectors. It has its own independent fund which collects mainly from well-wishers, membership fees and income from its small business.

47. The health system had focused only on the conventional maternal, newborn and child care before 1988. After that period with the adoption of comprehensive reproductive health care in life cycle approach with emphasis on safe motherhood by ICPD (Cairo. 1994), Myanmar also disseminated the comprehensive reproductive health care into the conventional maternal and child health care programme. In accordance with the draft National Population Policy, birth spacing activities had been integrated into the family health care programme. The country has also tried to make considerable efforts especially through promotion of overall reproductive health with the aim of reduction of newborn, infant, child and maternal mortality. Myanmar Reproductive Health Policy was formulated in 2002 and approved by the Ministry of Health in 2003 aiming to attain a better quality of life by improving reproductive health status of women and men, including adolescents through effective and appropriate reproductive health programmes undertaken in a life cycle approach.

48. Myanmar Reproductive Health Policy has been formulated as follows:

(a) Political commitment should be sustained to improve reproductive health status in accordance with the National Health Policy and to mulgate rules, regulations and laws on reproductive health.

(b) Reproductive health care services and activities should be in conformity with National Population Policy.

(c) Full respect for laws and religion, ethical and cultural values must be ensured in the implementation of reproductive health services.

(d) The concept of integrated reproductive health care must be introduced to existing health services and programmes. Quality reproductive health care must be provided in integrated packages at all levels of the public and private health care systems.

(e) Effective partnerships must be strengthened among and between governmental departments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in providing reproductive health.

(f) Reproductive health services must be accessible, acceptable and affordable to all women and men specially underserved groups including adolescents and elderly people.

(g) Effective referral systems must be developed among and between different levels of services.

(h) The development of appropriate information, education and communication material must be strengthened and disseminated down to the grassroots level to enhance community awareness and participation.

(i) Appropriate and effective traditional medicines and socio-cultural practices beneficial for reproductive health must be identified and promoted.

(j) Adequate resources must be ensured for sustainability of reproductive health programmes.

49. Significant progress in the health status of children has been found all over the country including far and remote border areas, after introducing UCI, CDD,ARI and other relevant programmes with substantial assistance from various agencies. Performance status and its impact, which have been carried out in order to improve health status of mothers and children are significant. It was recommended that the reduction of maternal mortality ratio is the result of improvement in antenatal care, such as delivery by skilled attendants, effective health education, counselling and efficient birth spacing service provision to all eligible couples.

50. Myanmar is also driving to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), global targets 4 and 5 in maternal and child health with efforts to achieve in time. Approximately, 1.3 million women give birth each year in Myanmar , thus, intensive efforts have been put to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) services through various activities, especially focused on safe motherhood. While increasing the recruitment of more midwives in the health system, trainings for skilled birth attendants are also carried out by capacity building of Auxiliary Midwife (AMWs) in their midwifery skill in order to have at least one skilled birth attendant in each village. Now, the ratio of midwifery skilled providers (including AMW) to village is 1:2. In addition, clean delivery kits are supplied to pregnant mothers during their antenatal visit to health centers or during home visits of midwives. For the provision of skilled care at every childbirth, MOH has been striving for the provision of a continuum of care to pregnant mothers which include good- quality midwifery care and first level of health care for the family at health post.

51. In Myanmar , the Ministry of Health ranks abortion as the ninth most important health problem (Ministry of Health, 1998) and the third leading cause of morbidity (Ministry of Health, 1993). According to the “Nationwide Cause-specific Maternal Mortality Survey ” , carried out by the Department of Health in 2004-2005 , death due to abortion-related complication was 9.86 per cent of all maternal deaths. Complications following induced and spontaneous abortion are responsible for up to 60.0 per cent of obstetric deaths recorded in hospital studies (Ba-Thike 1997). The National Population Policy (1993) emphasizes to improve health status of women and children by ensuring the availability and accessibility of birth-spacing services to all couples voluntarily seeking such services. In Myanmar , birth spacing programme has been started since 1991, providing through community- based distribution system.

52. According to the ‘‘Nationwide Cause- specific Maternal Mortality Survey ” carried out by the Department of Health in 2004-2005, maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 316 per 100,000 live births at the national level and 89 per cent of all maternal deaths were reported from rural areas. The main causes of maternal deaths are shown in the following table.

Maternal death by cause and by urban- rural residence (Per cent)

No	Cause of death	Urban (%)	Rural (%)	Union (%)
1	Post-partum haemorrhage (PPH)	50	28.57	30.98
2	Eclampsia	-	12.71	11.27
3	Abortion related complications	12.5	9.52	9.86
4	Puerperal Sepsis	-	7.94	7.04
5	Hypertensive disorders		6.35	5.63
6	Prolonged/Obstructed labour	-	9.51	8.46
7	Ante partum haemorrhage (APH)	25	1.59	4.23
8	Ruptured uterus	4.76	4.23	4.23
9	Embolism	-	1.59	1.41
10	Indirect causes	12.5	17.46	16.90

Maternal Mortality Ratio by maternal age

No	Age (years)	Maternal deaths	Live Births	MMR per 100,000 LB
1	15-19	3	1007	297.91
2	20-24	10	5091	196.43
3	25-29	13	6414	202.68
4	30-34	14	5267	265.81
5	45-49	2	217	921.66
	TOTAL	71	22478	315.86

53. According to the “Overall and Cause-specific Under-Five Mortality Survey”, carried out by DOH in 2003, infant mortality rate was estimated at 49.7 per 1000 live births at the national level. The main causes of infant deaths and infant mortality rate are found to be as follows:

(a) Infant Mortality Rate by cause and by age

No	Cause of death	Age (<6 Month) (%)	Age (6-11 Months) (%)
1	ARI	21.76	31.89
2	Septicaemia	14.38	2.89
3	Brain Infections	12.78	14.49
4	Prematurity/ LBW	11.85	0.00
5	Beri Beri	8.58	1.45
6	Diarrhoea	5.78	26.09
7	Malaria	2.39	8.69
8	Congenital Anomaly	1.79	0.00
9	Accident Poisoning	0.00	1.45
10	Other	20.96	13.05

(b) Distribution of Infant Mortality Rate by sex

Sex	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total
	52.96	47.04	100

National AIDS Programme

54. National AIDS Programme has been implemented since 1989 under the guidance of the Ministry of Health. Since then, a planned national response was started and relevant Ministries, United Nations organizations, international and local non-governmental organizations and community based organizations have been implementing the five-year National Strategic Plan 2006-2010. The National Plan addresses 13 strategic directions which are most pressing needs of populations at greater risk and enhancement of the capacity of health systems.

55. AIDS is the disease of national concern and one of the most priority diseases in Myanmar . With this concern, the National AIDS Programme has initiated and led the national response to HIV and AIDS through implementation of 10 major HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities. The 100 per cent targeted condom promotion programme has being implemented for high risk populations since 2001 and has covered 170 townships. In line with Universal Access Approach, a total of 273,000 clients received counseling at 289 VCCT Centers during 2006.

56. PMCT services have been provided to prevent transmission of HIV to infants from HIV positive pregnant mothers since 2000 and have covered 115 townships and 38 general hospitals. During 2006, 182,688 pregnant women received pre- test counseling and 99,789 pregnant women agreed to HIV testing. Over 11,000 AIDS patients are being treated with ART therapy out of which 40 per cent are women and also received OI treatment.

57. HIV/AIDS prevention and care services are provided with gender orientation as the priority target groups for such services aimed at women as well as youth. HIV/AIDS awareness raising programs, life skills programs, reproductive health programmes for men and women of reproductive age are being implemented with various stake holders.

58. According to the three-ones principles, the National AIDS Programme is taking lead in the monitoring and evaluation system of national response. Standardizing the national indicators and prioritizing the target population and geographic areas are set up in accord with all stakeholders. The results of the national response are described in disaggregated figures on gender.

59. Based on the HIV/AIDS projection and demographic impact analysis workshop conducted in August 2007 using latest methodology developed by WHO and UNAIDS Geneva, it was noted that adult HIV prevalence in Myanmar reduced from 0.94 per cent in 2000 to 0.67 per cent in 2007. This figure is supported by the prevalence of sentinel groups from HIV sentinel surveillance survey which is conducted by the National AIDS Programme annually and represented for 34 townships.

60. The prevalence of syphilis testing among primigravida and multipara women declined from 3 per cent in 1993 to 1.8 per cent in 2006 and from 5 per cent in 1993 to 2 per cent in 2006 respectively.

61. The following table shown the annual budget of Health Sector in Ministry of Health and other Ministries for the fiscal year 2000-2001 up to 2008-2009.

(Kyats in millions)

F iscal year	Current	Capital	Total
1	2	3	2+3=4
2000-2001	5064.0	2624.2	7688.2
2001-2002	5684.9	3527.6	9212.5
2002-2003	7770.1	12111.0	19881.1
2003-2004	10203.4	10005.4	20208.8
2004-2005	15427.6	12142.5	27570.1
2005-2006	15051.7	8037.1	23088.8
2006-2007	35914.0	10717.0	46631.0
2007-2008	37949.0	10540.0	48489.0
2008-2009	40651.0	8868.0	49519.0

62. Women have no right to terminate pregnancy resulting from sexual violence. The Penal Code Section 312: Whoever voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry shall, if such miscarriage be not caused in good faith for the purpose of saving the life of the woman, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine , or with both; and, if the woman be quick with child, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. A woman who causes herself to miscarry is within the meaning of this section.

Employment, rural women, access to property and poverty (No correction)

63. Myanmar has been a member of ILO since 18 May 1948. It is a party to 19 ILO Conventions, including Forced Labor Convention No. 29. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued the Notification No. 1/99 on 14 May 1999 which amented some provisions of the 1907 Towns Act and Village Act and the Additional Decree on 27 October 2000. These Notification and Decree cover not only the Ministries concerned, but also police, military personnel, and local authorities. These Notification and Decrees were printed in ethnic languages and distributed in 63,000 towns and villages. Awareness raising talks were conducted to 263, 427 from 16,482 villages and wards, 66 districts and 325 townships in all States and Divisions. Legal actions were taken against the chairpersons of Village Peace and Development Council who violated the Notification and instruction according to Section 374 of the Penal Code.

64. The MoU between Myanmar an d ILO was initiated on 19 March 2002 in Geneva . Since then, the appointment of and ILO Liaison Officer has been accepted by Myanmar government on 26 February 2007, Geneva based Permanent Representative of Myanmar and a responsible person from ILO signed a Supplementary Understanding which aims for the development of a mechanism to handle complaints concerning forced labor. The Deputy Minister for Labor and the Executive-Director of the ILO signed the extension of the Supplementary Understanding for one year on 26 February 2008 in Yangon .

65. Concerning social protection, social insurance policies of the Social Security Scheme have been implemented. The Social Security Act was enacted in 1954 and has been implemented in 108 townships in 13 States and Divisions.

66. The Social Security Scheme has been implemented under the Social Insurance System, General Insurance and Occupational injuries Insurance. Sickness, Maternity, and Death Occupational cases are under General Insurance and Occupational accidents, Occupational diseases are under Occupational Insurance and Occupational accidents & Occupational disease are under O ccupational injuries. Insurance, 4 per cent of the salary is collected for insurance, of which ratio of contributions paid by employers and employees are 2: 5 and 1: 5 of the insured wages.

67. State contributions are paid by the Government if there is any deficit. Monthly premium is equivalent to 4 per cent of the monthly wages of the employee.

68. One per cent of the insured wages is paid by employer in occupational injury contributions and cash benefits. There are two main types of benefits: Direct Free Medical Care and Cash Benefits.

69. Direct free Medical Care covers all insured persons. Its objectives are to maintain, restore and improve the health of insured person. There are altogether 250 officers and 2,396 office staffs serving in the Headquarters, and 79 local offices. The patients are admitted to 95 Social Security Board dispensaries, Yangon Worker’s Hospital (250-bedded), Mandalay Worker’s Hospital (150-bedded) and Tuberculosis Hospital (100-bedded) respectively.

70. Medical Care Provisions include ambulatory care , antenatal, confinement and postnatal care , specialist consultation , hospitalization , s upply of pharmaceuticals and instruments , supply of prosthesis and orthopedics appliances , preventive measures and mass vaccination , various types of medical boards , medical education.

71. There are six types of cash benefits

(a) Sickness Cash Benefit provides 17 weeks of contribution in last 26 weeks immediately preceding the start of his incapacity.

(b) Maternity Cash Benefit covers 26 weeks of contributions in last 52 weeks before confinement and 2/3 of the rate of salary for six weeks.

(c) Funeral Grant is 40,000 kyats to the family members of a deceased insured worker who had paid contributions in kyats. US$ 200 granted contributions is in foreign currencies.

(d) Temporary Disability Benefit covers 2/3 of earnings, according to its insurance policy for up to 52 weeks.

(e) Permanent Disability Pension shall be granted to insured persons who have suffered partial loss of capacity which is likely to be permanent. A supplement of 25 per cent of the pension shall be added to the pension if he or she requires the constant attendance of another person.

(f) Survivor’s Pension Monthly survivor’s pension in case of death of insured workers due to employment accident is payable to their widows until they die or remarry and payable to their children under age 13 or 16 if they continue studying. It is payable to dependant relatives if there is no widow or children.

72. Old Age Pension covers short term benefits such as sickness, maternity and temporary disability benefits and long term benefits like permanent disability pension and survivor’s pension provided to insured workers.

73. There is a future plan to extend the scheme to cover more areas with the intention to cover the whole working population of the country and to introduce new benefits like old age pension, invalidity pension and unemployment benefit for insured workers in Myanmar .

74. The Union of Myanmar , Ministry of Labour, Department of labour law and inspection signed MoU on the establishment of the ASEAN Occupational Safety and Health Network in August 2000 to collaborate among ASEAN countries for the safety of working environment and health matter.

75. As a party to the MoU, Myanmar has made efforts on exchange of information, training, research , sensitization inspection of norms and standard of factories based upon its own human resources, financial resources and technical know how.

76. Pamphlets on Labour law , pamphlets on do’s and don’ts in factories and workplace , safety posters are distributed in factories and workplace. Awareness raising program are being broadcastion TV and radio occasionally.

77. In the training sector, male and female workers were trained to get awareness on vast accident which can happen because of fire broke out and leak of chemical elements at the gas factories , oil refineries and chemical factories by opening preventive training .

78. After 1988, Myanmar transformed its centralized economic system into market-oriented economic system. In Private sector, numbers of factories and workplace have increased with internal and external investment. Myanmar industrialized development committee was able to establish 18 industrial zones all over the country.

79. There is a plan to conduct training for male and female engineers and supervisors who are working at saw mills, engineered factories and chemical factories to perform their duties as safetyness in charge in the respective factories. The training program on safetyness and healthy environment of workplaces and factories are being carried out since 1999. Awareness raising programme for small-and medium-scale factory owners will be carried out to improve knowledge on safety ness of the workplaces and worker. Myanmar attended the workshop on Inspection Policy for Workplaces Safety and Healthy at Singapore . Myanmar Labour Law and Inspection Department has distributed knowledge on inspection policy which gained from workshop to the factories for the safety ness and health for the factories.

80. The inspectors of work places examine and supervise the factories and workplaces every year, giving priority to the dangerous workplaces and factories for the safety from danger, health and wellbeing of the workers. The inspectors investigate why accident happen at the factories and workplaces and instruct the factory owner not to cause the same accident and to provide preventive measures.

81. Male or female inspection officers are holding B.E degree (or) G.T.I Certificate and they were sent to attend the trainings conducted by the ASEAN Occupational safety and Health Network. As a result they also provided lectures in safety and health training programme in Myanmar .

82 The work-force of rural women is significant in Myanmar . They participate in the formal and informal labor sectors as primary school teachers, nurses, midwives, farmers and owners of small business.

83. The Department of Progress of Border Areas and National Races is implementing small scale business such as, food processing, weaving, and training on sericulture and silk weaving and masonry. These are being conducted in Kachin State , Chin State , Kayin State , Rakhine State and Mon State for the income generation of local women.

84. In the rural areas of Kokang Region, small scale business of sewing, making bags and slippers are created. Measures are being undertaken to open the Vocational Training Schools for Domestic Sciences for Women in Myaingyigu and Htokawkoe, Kayin State in the 2008-2009 fiscal year for the income generation of local women.

85. The MWAF has implemented micro-financing program in order to alleviate poverty in rural area. A total of kyats 102 million has been provided to 7,957 rural women as non-profit loan.

86. The 30-year Master Plan for Development of Border Areas and National Races (from 2001-2002 fiscal years to 2030-2031 fiscal year) has been formulated and implemented. It consists of roads/bridges construction sector, energy sector, communication sector, education sector, health sector, public relations sector, social welfare sector, agriculture sector, livestock breeding sector, forestry sector, mineral sector, trade sector , co-operative sector, transportation sector and religious affairs sector.

87. Kyats 76,927.56 millions for roads/bridges sector, kyats 24,251 millions and US Dollars (200.85) millions for energy sector, kyats 161.49 millions for communications sector, kyats 1,081.34 millions for education sector, kyats 120.38 millions for health sector, kyats 2,770.89 millions for public relations sector by the expenditure of respective department for social welfare sector, kyats 8,573.9 millions for agriculture sector, kyats 198.494 millions for livestock breeding sector, by the respective Ministry’s fund for forestry sector, by the respective Ministry’s fund for mineral sector, by the respective Ministry’s fund for transportation sector and kyats 2,028 millions for religious affairs sector are estimated to be utilized in the 30 year plan.

88. Two vocational training schools of domestic science for women in Myitkyina and Bamaw will be opened in the second short-term plan from 2006-2007 to 2010-11, in Taunggyi and Pha-an in the third short-term plan from 2011-12 to 2015-2016, in Sittwe and Tamu in the fourth short term plan from 2016-2017 to 2020-2021 and in Khamti and Mintatt in the fifth short-term plan from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026.

89. Moreover, one vocational training school for women in Naga region, one women development centre in Kachin special region No.2 and one women development centre in Kokang special region No.1 will be constructed as social welfare centres.

90. Budget for the 30-year master plan for development of border areas and national races is provided by the relevant Ministries.

91. In order to implement the development measures systematically and efficiently, the Government established the Central Committee for the Development of Border Areas and National Races on 25 May 1989 chaired by the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe.

92. The duties and powers of the Central Committee are as follows:

(a) Formulating the policy for implementation of the objectives mentioned in the Development of Border Areas and National Races Law;

(b) Confirming giving guidance and causing the implementation of long-term and short-term master plans drawn up by the Ministry for Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs and submitted through the Work Committee for the Development of Border Areas and National Races.

(c) Laying down development works for the border areas which should be implemented immediately.

(d) Laying down and carrying out measures with a view to preserving the culture, literature and customs of the national races.

(e) Laying down and carrying out measures for the maintenance of security and prevalence of law and order and regional peace and tranquility in order to increase the perpetual momentum of the development works at the border areas.

(f) Giving decision to determine development areas which should be expanded.

93. The Department of Development Affairs is carrying out the establishment of 4 model villages per township to implement rural development measures and activities which are to be undertaken in this connections are as follow:-

(a) Construction of 30-feet wide main road in the village.

(b) Construction of 20 - feet wide roads in the village.

(c) Construction of 30-feet wide village to village connecting roads and making 12-feet wide-along the roads and cultivation of 2 row shady trees outside the canal.

(d) Construction of sports-ground in the village.

(e) Renovation of schools, clinics, dispensaries and making the environment green.

(f) Construction of fly-proof latrines at every household by using local products.

(g) Making arrangements for getting clean and safe drinking water by using multi- sectoral methods.

(h) Construction and renovation of village hall places for cooking rice, halls for religious purposes and rest houses.

(i) Fencing houses by using local products.

(j) Posting and constructing the place for the village market.

(k) Installation of village lights post.

(l) Cultivation of shady trees, wind protected trees and small forests(at least 2 acres) and firewood plantations (at least 5 acres) .

(m) Erecting of signboards mentioning the population, household numbers of the village at the enhance of the village.

(n) Consideration of village cemetery and making it clean.

94. The Central Committee for the Development of Progress of Border Area and National Races and Development Affairs chaired by the Head of State has established 24 special development zones, 18 special development regions and 5 rural development tasks, which are to ensure better and smooth transport, to enhance rural health care measures, to promote educational and socio-economic opportunities for the rural children and women by establishing schools, vocational training centers, providing water supply system in far-flung areas. In Myanmar , there are over hundred ethnic national groups. There is no ethnic group under the name of Rohingya in Myanmar .

95. For the vulnerable groups, the Department of S ocial Welfare has established 5 5 schools for disabled and another 5 school for disabled are run by NGOs and 52 homes for the older person throughout the country to take care of disabled women and older people. Food, accommodation, recreation programme and rehabilitation programme are being provided in these centers. The Government provides partial funding for those old aged homes and some school for the disabled. Myanmar people, who are keen to share their wealth with the vulnerable people like disabled and older persons, always donate to the school for the disable and old aged homes.

96. Moreover, home care for older people programmers have been conducted in 35 townships since 2004 to take care of the vulnerable older people based on volunteerism. After 2009, the Department of Social Welfare in collaboration with Local NGOs intends to carry out this programme nation wide.

Marriage and family relation

97. According to Section 3 of the Majority Act, a girl who has attained 18 years of age only can take an oath and sign marriage certificate at the court. The legal age of marriage is 18 years for both girls and boys. Therefore, it is not necessary to raise the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years in order to bring it in line with article 16 of the Convention.

98. In different statutes governing individuals who fall under them according to the religion they profess, the approval of the parents or guardian is necessary to perform a valid legal marriage. However, in practice marriages are made only by two persons who are of age.

Optional Protocol

99. The process of accession to the Protocol is at the initial stage. The Optional Protocol to the Convention has been translated into Myanmar Language and distributed for in-depth study.