It is with a sense of pride that I compose this address from the deskof the Chairperson, Reception Committee of this National Conventionthat is of momentous significance. The Confederation of Central Govt.Employees and Workers at whose call this conference is being held isone of the largest and the most important of the EmployeesOrganization in the country, and , as an active member of the Women'smovement in India I feel happy that the Working Women in theemployment of the Central Govt. have decided to hold this NationalConvention I believe it is the first of its kind, Hence there is anadditional pride in being invited by the organizers in the State, tohead the Reception Committee. From this desk I extend a hearty welcometo all the distinguished guests and participants. Welcome to Kolkata,'the cultural capital of India' in this important year of 150thanniversary of Rabindranath Tagore's birth.Women in the Globalised World are under special threat. Their labouris being devalued every day, and the areas of security are shrinking.Since most of them are in the unorganized sector, they hardly have andrights, as they cannot organize to fight for themselves. Despiterecommendations of the Arjun Sen Gupta Committee, one does not seemuch signs of their forming Unions. It is, therefore, doubly importantfor fully unionized bodies like the present one to fight for muchgreater extension of union opportunities for the grossly underprivileged and deprived of our working women.Unfortunately, the mantra of this first globalizing country of oursis privatization. It has been said that the Globalisation has stoodthe basic tenets of democracy on their head, because, it isglobalization of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The growingdisparity between the rich and the poor has reached obscene proportion: while hundreds of thousands of farmers have had to commit suicidefor not being able to make the two ends meet. One of the richest ofour industrialist is boasting of building a palatial residential housecomplete with three helipads in the heart of city of Mumbai.Despite many movements of protest, women have been feeling theunbearable burden of this exercise of these excess of late capitalism.In the name of choice women are being projected as arch consumers ofluxury goods, fairness cream and elaborate jewellery, when, for 90% ofour women survival with good security is a major problem. In the nameof freedom movements across the globe, we see a phenomenal increase inmigration which is being criminalized and is leading to a new kind ofslavery. In case of women this takes the form of trafficking of minorand young women. The trafficking is conducted locally by some poorpeople in the locality who are known to the family of this girls andwomen. But trafficking is the third largest profit marketing activityin the World, the first two being arms and drugs. From the local tothe Global there exists networks that offer lure of a marriage ofopportunities of a better life, but in fact, these turn out to be anightmarish existence of bondage without access to the minimum rightsof a citizen. A noxious family practice that is spreading with theexpanding greed unleashed in the society by the market-centeredmentality is the system of dowry and ostentatious spending by thebride's family during weddings. This ultimately devalues the girls inthe eyes of the family and contributes to trafficking, often presentedas a cashless wedding with rich family often lured into assistingtrafficking. Another are in which the evil practice the dowry as had anegative impact is in the willful killing of female fetus. Socialinsecurity is aggravated the prevailing son-preference in our societyand the additional burden of having to marry off the daughters withdowry has contributed to the wish to eliminate the birth of girls.Thus the technological advance in the pre-natal assistance to safebirths has been misused to bring down the birth rate of girls. ThusIndia, in the aggregate, has had a steadily declining sex-ratio, from972 per thousand male births in the 1901 Census to 927 in 1991 (whichwas raised to a meager 933 in 2001 and, that too after a lot ofcampaigning). This reduction has reached alarming figures in Haryana,Punjab and parts of Himachal Pradesh. Haryana has been known totraffick girls from West Bengal to make up for their dwindling femalepopulation! The other social evil that has been aggravated by dowry isthe problem of child marriage, as it is perceived, that the older thegirl to be married, the more dowry she will have to be given. Whatcomes out in this vicious cycle in which Indian girls and women arecaught, is that a sustained and socially committed movement forsecuring better rights for our women will be a major challenge for allthe groups fighting for a just and equitable society. Thoughapparently unconnected with trade union rights of working women,ultimately the trend in the situation of all women is bound to have anegative impact on those rights.Correspondingly, these threatened rights of Indian girls and womenget a clear boost when a major employees' confederacy to initiate thefirst Women's National Convention. We are proud that Kolkata is theirchosen venue. Kolkata has long history of fights for worker's as wellas women's rights. This city also spearheaded that social reformmovement led by men like Raja Rammohan Roy and IshwarchandraVidyasagar and women like Swarnakumari Devi and her daughter SaralaDevi Choudhurani, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, who founded theSakhawat Memorial School for Girls, which is celebrating its centenarythis year. Kadambani Ganguly, the pioneering medical doctor who,together with Chandramukhi Bose was the first women graduates in theentire British Empire. I hope this Convention will articulate clearlyhow women's special demands can be made central to the demands beingformulated by the Co-ordination committee of Central Govt. Employees'and Workers' Unions and Associations.In 1979 the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Eliminationof all forms of Discrimination against women. India is signatory tothe Convention. The Govt. has already passed a rather innovative Act.for prevention of Domestic Violence and has tabled in the Parliament aBill on Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace. If implementedproperly this Bill ensures women's rights to work with dignity andphysical and psychological security. I hope the Convention will findtime to consider the adequacy of the existing rights of working women,such as maternity benefits, crèche facilities, all of which will beunder attack in the current scenario of privatization. The workingwomen will, I hope, consider breaking the glass ceiling whereby reallyable women workers do not reach high, decision making levels in thedepartment , as well as in the Trade Union. Working Women have amplyproved their mettle and should consider the full recognition of theirown worth. I would like to caution against the patriarchal mind-setfrom which neither women nor men are always free.Finally, I hope that consideration of women's rights will include acommitment to the responsibilities towards the clients who often arehelpless citizens. The women from poor and deprived sections of oursociety deserve especially sympathetic attention from the womenemployees. The clients who approach you with real need must be madepartners in your just fights for rights.Let us deliberate the ways of fighting, in a spirit of solidarity,against all the attacks on employees and workers, especially in viewof the increasing pressure of market-driven privatization policies theCentral Govt. is adopting increasingly. The battle is not an easy one,but we shall overcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment