Women Issues

Empowerment is the key
International Women’s Day observations in the Indian Capital focused on gender equality, political and legal empowerment of women. On issues of justice, equality and social order, the consensus is emerging that no law; culture or religious discourse should be invoked to discriminate against women. Despite constitutional guarantees, gender equality only existed in books. The problem was in implementation. " Men must rise to the occasion. They have to recognize that women are equals and have individuality. Society has to change its attitude and education is a crucial means of social change. Gender issues have to be made essential parts of policy making and impact assessment. We must know in which direction we are going." Redressal of social problems can only help the progress of the women’s movement Å. She must be unburdened of poverty first, the mother of all problems. (National general secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Organization (AIDWO), Ms. Brinda Karat)The self help route to empowermentThe 1990’s have been increasing recognition of the centrally of women’s empowerment to the success of development programs. The empowerment of women was essential to the declarations and platforms for action of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All, the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the 1993 Human Rights Conference,he 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, and the Regional Preparatory Conference for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. This increased appreciation for and understanding of women’s pivotal role in the development process has also been reflected in the goals and priorities of organizations and agencies in the United Nations system. In this regard, the United Nations Resident Coordinators are being called upon to play a key role in facilitating inter-agency cooperation on gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women, with particular emphasis on operational activities at country level. There has been a growing realization that the community is now accountable to the women for full filling the significant commitments it has made to help make empowerment a reality of women’s lives.

Face to face with rural women
Secretary General, and his wife, Nane came face to face with thousands of dynamic rural woman on Saturday and saw their achievements for themselves. Mr. Nane Annan felt proud that the DWCRA movement started with only 15 women, each saving one rupee a day to grow to the staggering strength of five million and combined savings of $ 180 millions in a short time.

Policy for empowerment
The cause of gender equality and justice is set to get a fillip, with the Indian government clearing a national policy for empowerment of women, under which a time-bound action plan would be drawn up for their advancement, development and empowerment. The Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said council would be set up at the national and State levels to over see the implementation. The national panel would be headed by the Prime Minister and the State panels by the Chief Ministers.

No gender divide
THE latest issue of The Economist has an interesting box item titled "Women’s Rule". It reports a "social experiment" in Bolivia’s capital city, Bogota. On March 9, the city’s mayor, Mr. Antanas Mockus, an unusual man for many reasons, declared that the city would be out-of-bounds for men. The women-only night gave women the sole responsibility of running the police and emergency services and voluntary curfew was imposed to keep men off the streets. Those men who attempted to break the curfew-some even dressed as women!-were heckled, jostled and had flour bombs thrown at them. The "social disease" of corruption at every level clearly does not discriminate between the genders. This is one area where there does not seem to be any real gender divide.

Legal literacy for women
The need for creating awareness among women of their lawful rights is the motive behind legal literacy campaign. . Women were unable to derive the benefit of the protection provided by law because of their lack of understanding.

Low social status no deterrent to women’s movements
Women in Andhra Pradesh attracted the attention of social researchers last decade with their movement against the liquor lobby and by achieving a drop in childbirth from four children per women in 1970s to 2.3 in 1998-99.

Poverty

Digital divide
The secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, expressed concern over the ‘digital divide’- the growing gap between the information havens and have-nots – and said there was a danger that the world’s poor will be excluded from the knowledge-based global economy. Mr. Annan was concerned about State monopolies that charged exorbitant prices for the use of bandwidths, and countries that lacked the trained workforces and legal and regulatory frameworks to attract investments. Information Technology was not a magic formula, which could solve all problems by itself. But IT, when imaginatively applied, may offer poor countries the chance to leapfrog some of the long and painful stages of development that other countries have had to go through, Mr. Annan said.

Budget of poverty & poverty of budget
Planning and budgetary process are considered to be instruments towards eradication of poverty, by providing the minimum basic needs of literacy, health and housing, employment and social justice to all the people. If production growth and creation of wealth are accomplished without equitable of distribution of benefits, it will not only widen the gap between the rich and the poor, but it will make the lives of the poor more miserable with galloping price-rise and fall in living standards. The budget for poverty alleviation is itself in a poor state of health, limping and disabled. The budget for removal of poverty will be effective only after removal of poverty of the budget itself.

Child

Education and child labor
An integrated National Education Program – the Serva Siksha Abhiyan has been launched for universalizing elementary education and a National Mission constituted with the Prime Minister as Chairman. The program aims to provide eight years of quality elementary education for all children up to the age of 14 years in a Mission mode with a thrust on community ownership, disadvantaged group and girls’ quality education and alternative modes of education.

Nothing has remarkable an impact on children and young people as a quality education. As the foundation for lifelong learning and human development, it enables them to make genuine choices over the kind of lives they wish to lead. Ultimately, education opens an infinite number of doors that might otherwise stay closed. But for more than 130 million children-the majority of them girls-the doors remain bolted shut as their fundamental human right to education is denied. This loss of potential is not for girls alone. The social and economic benefits of an educated female population have been documented in the country. So have the positive effects that accrue for all students – boys as well as girls – when educational systems are free of gender bias.

The practice of Child Labor system is prevalent in the State in the various occupations such as Agriculture, Shops and Establishments and also the hazardous occupations. It estimated that there are 16,61,940 Child worker in the age group of 5-14 as per 1991 census. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to eliminate the employment of children in all the fields by effective implementation of child labor laws and rehabilitation measures as spelt out in the Vision 2020 Document. These efforts are towards providing Education and rehabilitation of Child laborers and are in addition to efforts being made by the enforcement agencies of the labor department who are enforcing Acts and Rules relating to child labor. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is aware that the right place for every child is the school and it would make all possible efforts to put all the out of school children to the school in phased manner by the year 2005 in order to achieve universalisation of elementary education, and elimination of child labor. Greater emphasis is to be laid on the Special Nutrition Program for infants, pregnant and lactating mothers along with juvenile welfare, correctional service and welfare of street children.

Sale of female babies
The large-scale sale of newborn girl children by the poor Lambada community people has come to light in Chincholi taluk in Gulberga District. According to the General Secretary of the Akhila Bharata Bhanjara Seva Samiti, Mr. Subhas Rathod, so far more than 200 girl children have been sold by the dayis (midwives), who acted as middle-women to an orphanage, "Sarasvati Anathashrama", at Tandur in Andhra Pradesh.

The agenda for education
Education is a fundamental human right. It is the key to sustainable development and peace and stability within and among countries, and thus an indispensable means for effective participation in the societies and economics of twenty-first century, which are witnessing rapid globalization. Achieving EFA goals should be postponed no longer. The basic learning needs of all can and must be met urgently.

Environment

Ecological aggression unfair:
The head of the United Nations Environment Program feels "the ecological aggression of developed countries against developing countries" is unfair. Dr. Klaus Toepfer, speaking exclusively to The Hindu at the end of the three-day forum meeting of the World Commission on dams said this was so because the consumption patterns of the developed world had not changed. He was speaking in the context of global climate change and decreasing bio-diversity.

Global warming
The Group of Eight Environment Ministers reached a compromise today on how to declare their commitment to combating global warming, an issue that had divided European members and the U.S., French delegation sources said. A draft final communiqué seen by the AFP said the G-8 members expressed " concern about the seriousness" of the phenomenon. " A successful outcome (at Bonn) is necessary to allow early entry into force of the Kyoto protocol. For most countries, this means no later than 2002, with timely ratification processes," the draft document said.

The is a growing need to find ways and means of maintaining an eco-friendly environment and tackle the problem of solid wastes in developing countries Urbanization and industrialization had brought in their wake problems of environmental imbalance and ecological disturbance. Water air and noise pollution levels had been registering a steep increase. Global warming, discharge of industrial effluents and indiscriminate use of plastic were some of the challenges facing society today.

UN backs India on Kyoto protocol
United Nations has come to the defence of India and China in countering Bush administration's criticism against the Kyoto protocol for not assigning greenhouse gas emission target for these "populous industrialising countries." "The emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel combustion (the main source of greenhouse gases) in developing countries was some two tonnes per head," chief of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat Michael Cutajar said. "The per capita average of the developed countries was about 12 tonnes of these emissions with the US alone emitting more than 20 tonnes per head," he said. "Fairness suggests that the developed countries act first to limit emissions," he said. Cutajar's remarks were his first public comments in the debate surrounding the decision by US President George W Bush not to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant to be regulated under the US Clean Air Act which was also accompanied by criticisms of Kyoto protocol and its scientific foundations.

Compiled by

Arabinda Acharya