On Rights of Women

The 17th Congress of the CPI(M) recognizes that women’s rights have become a major casualty of the offensive of liberalization polices on the one hand and also of the fundamentalist and communal forces, particularly the reactionary ideologies and polices of the Hindutva platform on the other. The 17th Party Congress while reiterating its demand for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, expresses its deep concern at the continuing marginalisation of a vast majority of women in the political as well as the economic sphere. Even while sabotaging the 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies, the NDA Government ‘s economic polices have hit women hard with a decrease in growth rate of women’s employment from around 8 per cent in the decade of the eighties to less than 2 per cent in the nineties. A shocking example is from the Coal industry where a special scheme to force women to retire is in operation affecting the employment of over 15,000 women More women are being pushed into the unorganized sector where there is no protective legislation, nor credit facilities or marketing facilities for self employed women.. The impact of the new agricultural policies which have decreased work days in the rural areas combined with the severe cuts in employment generation schemes have led to increased male migration and additional work burdens on women while inequalities and discrimination in wage rates have grown. The growth of fundamentalism regardless of the religion negatively impacts on women. Constitutional rights are sought to be replaced by anti-women interpretations of religious texts. Patriarchal practices are imposed in the name of tradition. The blatant gender bias in the the Hindutva platform is reflected in changes sought to be made in academic syllabus’s which strengthen stereotypes of women’s roles, denying women an independent identity. A stark illustration of the continuing devaluation of women’s status is in the declining sex ratios in the 0-6 years age group from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. The worst record is from the more prosperous States like Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, which shows that capitalist development in the Indian context has actually reinforced and created new forms of sex discrimination. Liberalisation policies have also in their social impact intensified violence against women, with the most shocking increase of 15 per cent in the incidence of child sexual abuse. While struggles to improve and strengthen laws such as against domestic violence and sexual assault are essential and towards which the CPI(M) is committed, at the same time it is important to have widespread and broadbased mobilizations and struggles against retrograde social practices like dowry, increasing expenditures at weddings and other traditions which strengthen prejudices against women. The 17th party congress calls upon its units all over the country to initiate and conduct struggles and campaigns in defence of women’s rights and in particular for wide movements for social reform in policies and practices degrading to women including against dowry, female foeticide and violence against women. It also pledges to extend support to women’s movements for equality and justice while drawing women into the common struggle against class exploitation.