India Post
News Service
January 24, 2007
http://www.indiapost.com/members/story.php?story_id=6089
NEW YORK: On the third day after the commencement
of the 37th Session of the United Nations Convention
for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), a 14-member Non-Government
delegation from India organized a seminar to flag
issues of importance.
This crucial seminar was held a day before the
Indian government pre! sented its responses to
the CEDAW committee. The delegation also expressed
its dissatisfaction over the replies given by
the Indian government to the CEDAW committee.
Led by Ruth Manorama, president, NAWO, the NGO
delegation members touched upon a range of issues
which included violence against Dalit women, displacement
of tribal populations and trafficking of tribal
and Dalit women, distress migration of landless
agricultural labourers, the need for law reform
and concerns of implementation, the plight of
women caught in armed conflict in the north-east
and the resultant displacement as well as violence
against women from minority communities, the flawed
understanding of women's empowerment as evinced
in government schemes of micro-credit as well
as the inertia of the government to bring about
qualitative changes in the educational system.
While urging the CEDAW committee members to consider
some of their recommendations in the light of
the government's presentation on January 18, the
NGO delegation members highlighted those aspects
which they said had been "obfuscated"
in the government's responses to the CEDAW committee's
queries.
The first speaker, Kalpana Kannabiran, a professor
of law and a civil rights activist spoke about
the violence that was experienced by women in
seemingly "normal times". She said that
the second and third reports of the government
to the CEDAW committee did not at all address
the question of caste discrimination on ground.
Other speakers and members of the delegation like
Cynthia Stephen from the National Centre for Dalit
Rights, Bangalore spoke of the "politics"
of witch-hunting and the absence of any government
intervention and policies.
While Pramila Swain from FARR, an NGO in Orissa,
spoke about the specific problems of displacement
of tribals in the context of development projects,
Sreekala MG from the North-East Network of Women
spoke on how women were caught in the cross-fire
of armed conflict in the North-East of India.
In this context, Ruth Manorama read out a letter
written by Irom Sharmila who is currently on a
protest fast since 2000 demanding the repeal of
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
Ruth Manorama, who mainly spoke on the pitiable
status of Dalit women, quoted the recent incident
at Khairlanji village in Nagpur district, Maharashtra
where Dalit women from a single family were raped
and murdered by an organized mob. She said that
government statistics themselves showed a very
low rate of conviction of crimes against Dalits.
Ruth Manorama said: "The government says
they will meet this challenge but the question
is how they will do it. The lack of implementation
of the law is reflective of the casteist mindset
of the government of India."
Another speaker Madhu Mehra from the Partners
for Law in Development, urged the CEDAW committee
members not to accept tokenistic legislative measures
but to push for content in law that fulfilled
substantive equality ideals. She stressed the
importance for a comprehensive law on sexual assault
that covered marital rape, child sex abuse and
decriminalized same-sex intercourse. The Communal
Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation
of Victims) Bill, 2005, she said, was directed
not so much at preventing and redressing communal
violence but appeared to protect acts of commission
by state governments.
Malini Ghose, founder of Nirantar, an organization
working on gender issues and the right to education,
felt that the government had a lot to do by way
of its Constitutional obligations towards the
marginalized sections. She pointed out the high
drop out rates all the way up to higher education
and said that basic access to education still
remained elusive for tribals, Dalits and minority
women.
Quoting the recent government appointed Justice
Rajinder Sachar committee's findings on the socio-economic
status of minorities in India, she said that the
notion that cultural factors were behind the poor
education of Muslim girls had been debunked. The
government needed to be more proactive in also
removing stereotypes in textbooks, she said while
acknowledging that some steps had been intiated
in this direction. Stressing the importance of
eradicating illiteracy.
Ghose also pointed out that the government had
not answered the CEDAW committee's queries on
"tracking literacy" as well as revival
of the continuing education programme. She said
that the present allocation for adult literacy
was as low as 0.2 per cent of the entire education
budget.
The issue of the victims of the Gujarat carnage
featured yet again as Sheba George, from Saharwaru,
an organization based in the state, spoke on the
continued violation of the rights of the minorities.
She said there was no gender disaggregated data
on Gujarat and the central government needed to
take more interest in the conditions of those
affected in the 2002 carnage as the aftermaths
were still being experienced.
