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From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Mon Nov 14, 2005 Subject: Empowerment Of Women Globalisation Empowerment Of Women Globalisation [We are reproducing here the paper presented by Stree Vimukti Sanghatana, Andhra Pradesh, at the Seminar organized by the Kakatiya University, Warrangal, in the month of October 2005 ??“ Editor] The women who form half of the society are struggling every day to live fully with dignity and peace amid many problems and issues encompassing them. The women, who create all the wealth with their toil and blood and play a key role in reproduction, are living without any rights and freedom besides being subjected to exploitation, harassment and patriarchal suppression even till today. The present production system, which is having the private individual property as its basis, has institutionalized the ideology of patriarchy in the society. With this the status of women is degraded. Women lost their rights over the means of production. Even today, the women are considered as a second rate citizens. Feudal system oppresses and suppresses the women. It reduced women as a person of dependence, person incapable of independent thought, person of no importance, person lacking any rights and person who shall cater the needs of men and patriarchal society and even today it keeps the women in the very same state. Capitalism and imperialism considers women as a commodity and as a source of income. The present day Indian society ??“ a combination of both the above mentioned social systems ??“ the semi-feudal and semi-colonial system - is throwing the women into a much complicated state of degradation. The Indian social system while protecting the feudal chauvanism and narrowness in the social and human relations on the one hand, is incorporating commercial relations into the society on the other. Majority of the women are toiling masses. In our country where 80 per cent of the people live on agriculture, people belonging to the middle and poor peasantry are enduring their lives without even satiating half of their minimum necessities. Women while endlessly toiling are being subjected to exploitation of labour besides being subjected to the sexual harassments and molestations by the despots. The laws of minimum wages and equal pay for equal work to women and men remains on the pages of statute books without any effort to implement them. Though the education of adult girls has considerably increased in the recent years than in the past, this education of girls is being continued under an atmosphere of various pressures and tensions. Since the education has become a costly commodity, but not a right to all, in view of other domestic expenses and limited income of the households, even today the education of girls has remained as a last priority of the family. Even in the case of educated women, except a few, the majority are working in the private sector on temporary, casual or contract basis with out any job security, minimum rights and amenities and are thus selling their labour at cheaper rates under such unfavourable conditions. They are living under the conditions of domestic work-load, mental tension and pressure, discrimination at work place and sexual harassment. The so-called anti-dowry act had never come to the rescue of the unmarried girls. The law is never restraining the grooms from demanding dowry and existed for the namesake. Around13.4 million dowry harassment cases are pending in various courts through out the country. It is unknown how many cases that have not reached to the courts. Irrespective of the age of the women, the brutal rapes, molestations and sexual harassments are increasing to a dangerous proportion day by day. We are living amidst such a dangerous conditions for any women, however dearest to her parents, at any time may fall victim to a rape, and the conditions for any women to live with dignity are almost nil. While the women are waging life and death struggles against exploitation, patriarchal suppression and harassment, the imperialist countries in order to bail out from the crises they are mired with, are bringing forth the policy of globalisation to capture the natural and human resources and for the uninterrupted flow of their capital into developing countries. Wherever capital existed, there poverty, unemployment, inequalities, violence and wars will be emanated and grow deeper and widened. The imperialists and their supporting Indian rulers, by announcing that the globalisation provides opportunities to any one enabling to participate in the competition of world market without any restrictions on the production, distribution of commodities and export of the capital between the countries and that by such participation in the competition of world market one can prove his/her ability, started to implement the policies of globalisation in our country. But the recent experiences of various countries already brought to light the failure of policies of globalisation. Due to implementation of these policies in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia and Thailand, the wages of workers are decreased considerably. The service sectors have been privatized. Unemployment became rampant. Disparities between the rich and poor increased further. We witnessed women forcibly thrown out by the circumstances into prostitution having nothing for livelihood. Today in our country, we are already witnessing the dangerous results of the policies of globalisation being implemented. While the population living below the imaginary poverty line was 33.4 per cent before the implementation of these policies, it raised to 50 per cent after their implementation. The number of landless dalits has increased. The opportunities provided through rural employment schemes have been dwindled to one third of the total opportunities. Thus it is understood by all that in the competition of market finally the products of the imperialist MNCs having large capital at their disposal alone will win and control the entire world market. In order to control the world market, imperialist capital seeks the labour at cheaper rates and thus capital flows to where the labour is cheaper and extends its tentacles of exploitation everywhere. In this background, the World Bank and the Department of Human Resources of Government of India have found that the labour of the women in the developing countries as the cheapest resource for easy exploitation. For the women thus being exploited of her labour at cheaper rates, the burden of domestic work, that lacks any recognition and caring of the children, have too been remained as a responsibility. Without mentioning about the ruthless exploitation of women in the organized and unorganized sectors, just by projecting some amount of income earned by women in some toil or the other as the development of women, by making some improvements in providing some amenities and making some changes, the rulers are intending to show-case it as the progress of women and to continue the exploitation. But in reality the policies of globalisation are throwing the women into further insecurity and inequalities. In this background, only the slogan of ???empowerment of women??? is brought to the fore. In the specific Indian conditions empowerment of women means emancipating the women from all kinds of exploitation, harassment and suppression and all kinds of economic, political, social and cultural fetters binding them away from the real freedom; and to acquire the ability to take proper decisions and to implement them in all social, political and economic structures and also in personal and individual life duly protecting their self-dignity. By taking up democratic reforms and making such changes in the relations of production and its distribution in the place of existing monopoly, the foundations for the empowerment of women in those fields and sectors can be laid. To bring out the comprehensive empowerment of women, the economic empowerment is a fundamental precondition. But despite the initiation first five year plan in 1951 and many subsequent plans, a considerable part of the people of our country are living below the poverty line. Majority of them are women. The effects of poverty and its burden are more heavier on the women. In our country, the women depend principally on agriculture for their earning through toil. In the agrarian sector, land relations play the key role. As the implementation of land reforms is nominal, even today the land is concentrated in the hands of few people. Even from 1947 our economic policies have been formulated so as to serve indirectly the interests of imperialists. These policies have been instrumental in increasing the wealth of landlords, compradors and imperialists and making the poor further poor. This process of the rich becoming more rich and the poor becoming more poor is accentuated when the Indian rulers started implementing the new economic policies and globalisation with more speed and more cruelty, and is continuing. Once our country ,which is self-sufficient in foodgrain production, is turned into a production base for export oriented commercial crops, it will enhance the miseries of people. The experience of African countries like Morocco and Ethiopia proves the same which lost their self sufficiency in foodgrains and became death fields once they implemented the World Bank dictated policies. Millions of women and children became victims of hunger. These policies in our country have thrown the agriculture into the mire of crises. Due to the entry of MNCs, the prices of fertilizers and pesticides have increased to unreachable hights and at the same time due to cut in the subsidies to agriculture, the cultivation has been turned into the business of the rich who have surplus money for such activity. The imperialists who are preaching free market as panacea for all the systemic ills are protecting their industrial and agricultural sectors by various protectionist methods including huge subsidies to the agricultural products. At the same time, they are dictating the policies that deny any protection to the peasantry in our country, thus bringing ruination to the Indian peasantry. The poor middle peasants are thus loosing their land and are swelling the ranks of landless agricultural labourers. Due to commercial crops, aquaculture, mechanization etc, the availability of number of work days is on decline. Even being victims of the atrocities, harassments and molestations of the landlords and despots, the women are bearing the burden of the family welfare at their own expense. As the irrigation water became scarce and costly due to the reforms, the women who own a patch of land are forced to sleep with the despots for getting the water for their fields. The conditions of poverty and misery and recurring droughts and floods are chasing the women into most degrading means of livelihood ie.prostitution. They majority of women in prostitution on Goa are migrated from other states in search of livelihood. While the peasants are committing suicides unable to repay the debts incurred for cultivation, the women of such families are enduring untold difficulties by bearing the family responsibilities. The women displaced from the agricultural sector are migrating to the towns and cities and are toiling hard at low wages in the construction and other unorganized sectors and as domestic servants. For them there is no job security; no rights of any sorts; no protection from the law and no enactments to their rescue. Moreover, at work places they are subjected to harassment by the male supervisors and atrocities and molestation of the despots at every hour of the day; and it has become a common occurence. The tribal women who are principally responsible for production and reproduction are being removed from their abode forests and are denied their rights over the forest resources. Majority of the women in the industrial sector are employed as casual workers, contract workers and unskilled workers. Out of the total workers employed in our country, 41 per cent are women, while those of regular employment is only 2 per cent. , Even in this sector, lakhs of industries have downed their shutters due to the implementation of policies of globalisation. Due to opening up the economy to the competition from the MNCs, lakhs of small and medium industries have been closed down and women employees were thrown on to the roads as the first choice of removal. Due to automation, computerization and closure of factories and implementation of various schemes of retrenchments, the worst and first hit are women. In the case of livelihood, the women are in a perpetual state of uncertainty and indignity. The growth of employment opportunities for the women in basic sectors like mines, quarrying and electricity is negative. Down-sizing the work-force, disinvestments and closure of PSUs and such other policies are nothing but driving the people forcefully to the private sector. Uncontrolled and unregulated private sector is expanding without giving any job security, rights and amenities to the women workers. The eight-hour work norm own after valiant struggles is being denied and converted to 12-hour work day. In the EPZs and SEZs, only young unmarried , healthy girls are being recruited. Lowest wages; incessant work for 12 hours; if they go to even toilets, they are penalized with wage cuts; and prohibited to form unions/associations. Thousands of women are working in these industries under the threat of termination at any moment o any pretext. Moreover, all these industries are being paraded as high tech and developed ones. The rulers are propagating that so many opportunities are available for women due to the policies of globalisation. But today while the small and middle level capitalists are perishing in the competition from monopoly corporations, could women of below the poverty line families, who were doled out small amount of loans to manufacture traditional items, withstand and survive at such a ruthless competition? With this, the concentration of women in unregulated sector is increasing. If the labour is available at cheaper rates in other regions or countries, the monopoly capital flows out to that region or country rendering the employees jobless. The handicrafts have perished with disastrous effects for women. As the incomes of the family are falling drastically, the burden of family maintainance is weighing down the women. The women belonging to the toiling classes are subjected to the drudgery, to caste discrimination, sexual harassment, besides the drudgery of work as they engaged in tendu leave collection, domestic service and construction etc. As a consequence of implementation of globalisation, the Indian government is withdrawing from the social welfare sectors like education, health and medical services and civil supply. To a woman, who utilizes everything sparingly except her labour and plays key role in the life of the family and society, the nominal services provided by the government in education and medical facilities were useful to some extent. With the entry of corporate interests in education and health sectors, their access to the people has been denied. The budgetary provision for scholarships to the girl students of BPL families has been cut by 7 per cent and provision for hostel facilities has been reduced by 14 per cent. The budgetary allocation for special education for girls of scheduled castes and other weaker sections is only one lakh rupees. At the lowest estimate, the number of girls eligible under this scheme would not be less than one lakh in our state; that means one rupee per one girl student! Only 10 crores were sanctioned for adult women education. The funds for providing health services to the poor were cut by 33 per cent. For improving water supply in towns, the government sanctioned only one lakh rupees. All these measures are part of the dictates by the World Bank to contain the deficit budget under 5 per cent by avoiding the so-called ???unnecessary expenditure???. Withdrawing from the responsibility of maintaining public services means denying these services to the women who are already discriminated in many other fields. Introducing certain training courses that facilitates the MNCs to exploit and utilize the labour of women at cheaper rates, the rulers are show-casing them as women??™s education. This sort of education instead of enhancing the empowerment of women will diminish it and reduces them to the status of slaves. The participation of women in the science and technology that can not cater the needs and interests of people is not at all a symbol of women??™s empowerment. Even in th3e IT sector, which is being projected as the symbol of women??™s progress, the women are suffering from lower employability, discrimination, heavy working pressure without specific work hours, lack of job security, besides un-escapable family responsibility, patriarchal oppression and lack of any right over their earnings. The budgetary allocation for Rashtriya Mahila Kosh has been drastically reduced by 67 per cent and that of Mahila Samruddhi Yojana by 47 per cent. As the medical and health services are being privatized, these services are being increasing denied to the women. Heavy work load, overtime, drudgery of house work, bringing up children,, living in the slums ??“ the women of the toiling classes are dragging on their lives without access to medical and health facilities even they fell ill. In recent deaths of thousands of people in the Visakhapatnam and Adilabad districts falling victims to easily curable diseases like malaria and gastritis, majority number are women and children. This is the real face of the so-called development by the rulers. If the means of production are owned by the women, there is no need of dole outs by the government in the name of balanced diet and nutritional programmes for pregnant women and children. The flooding of western cinemas with overdose of sex and violence and the decadant culture, are shattering the lives of the women. The expenditure on advertising the cosmetic products is more than double the expenditure on the control of malaria.All this is being intended to commodify the physical beauty of the women and turn the same women as consumers of these products.The globalisation is promoting the culture of market that is centred around the individual and not the community. This culture of globalisation, on the one hand prepares the ground for exploitation of labour of women widely at cheaper rates and on the other, restricts the women and subdue them to the confines of patriarchy making them incapable of enjoying their rights and questioning any injustice meted out to them. In this background, the culture of consumerism has entrenched into the lives. As a result, dowry harassments have been on the rise. While the unemployment is growing, dowry has become an easy way to earn property. While it is considered that the participation of women, who are being looked down as second rate citizens and are being subjected to exploitation and patriarchal oppression, in social, economic and production sectors as a way of their emancipation, without any radical change in the existing social system, their burden is being increased manifold turning their situation akin to falling from frying pan into fire itself. The nature of patriarchal power and harassment has percolated into social sectors and the number of individuals, institutions and structures that control the women are also increasing. Under these circumstances, the women are forced to exist and work in social sectors with all their energy, and thus falling victims to physical and mental illness. This again has become a pretext to restrict their entry and active part in social sectors and to strengthen the prevailing view of weaker sex (abala). This is the dangerous consequence of joint attack by the imperialist and feudal cultures. Women have to be recognized as the creators of future generations with their reproductive capacity and have to be supported by the government as it is a social responsibility, by providing medical care, financial assistance and ensuring the future of children. But no facilities are being provided to the toiling women who mare discharging the responsibility of reproduction. In these days when it is claimed that there is a greater development and modern medical facilities have been brought into our back yard, lakhs of women and infants are dying at the time of delivery. 40 per cent of the malnutritioned children in the world are Indians. Every sixth child born is dying at the time of birth due sexual discrimination and unscientific beliefs. On the one hand, the task of giving birth is being considered as a mere animal function, and on the other, with the beautiful title of ???motherhood??™ and the concurrent ideology woven around it, the women are being turned into mere machines for child birth and rearing them. The existence and continuation of feudal culture, along with the market culture that penetrates to facilitate the imperialist exploitation are having a commanding grip over the lives of women. Every worst feature existed in the society is making the lives of women more difficult and complex. The women still have to acquire the proper consciousness to recognize the various forms of discrimination and oppression practiced by the patriarchal society. By obfuscating the women??™s consciousness in recognizing the real enemies, and instigating the unseen enemies against the women, the rulers are bringing forward various pseudo-slogans to divert the women??™s attention. Getting one third of the seats in the elected posts is being paraded as embodiment of empowerment of women. Until now their representation in the state assemblies and Parliament is only 8 to 10 per cent. Even those women who were elected have come to the arena to fulfill their own and class interests and not to represent the interests of people and women. Their say in the policy-making is nominal. There may be some women industrialists who are wielding power. But they are acting as the representatives of their own class, but not as representatives of toiling women. The situation is the same in case of management cadre. There is a trend that empowerment of women means having equal rights and equal say in the policy making in the existin society. The unequal relation and oppressive relations between women and men are the sole cause of lack of empowerment of women is another trend prevailing today. This neglects consciously or unconsciously the exploitative class relations between women and exploiting classes. They deny the fact that the exploiting classes do behave with the same cruelty and ruthlessness to exploit the labour of men. Both the self- reliance of women economically and empowerment in social matters are inter-related. If the women have to achieve the social empowerment, firstly they have to fight against the patriarchal ideology existing in the society and to fight against the economic policies that make their lives miserable. The right over the means of production and resources such as land, democratic relations in the production and overthrow of imperialist exploitation are the crucial conditions to attain the empowerment of women. The only a basis for prevalence of the democratic values in the society comes into existence. Unless we consolidate, fight unitedly and make the attempts of the imperialists and exploiting landlords to drag and sacrifice us at the altar of the blind world that can not visualize anything other than profits, women can not attain free, independent dignified lives with respect and livelihood. Let us not wait till the ???worst??™ comes to us, and till we learn from our own experience. Let us free from the fetters of individualism. It is the immediate task before women to understand the conditions, situation and root causes that impede the real empowerment of women and to unite to oppose and fight against such hindering real causes. (Translated from Telugu) |
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| << November14, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]Dalits in Gujarat -interview |
November15, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]The Law of Qisas and Diyat in Pakistan >> |
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