27 National and International Committees & Organizations for Women

Sarala Gopalan

1. INTRODUCTION

I am Dr.Sarala Gopalan, formerly Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Human Resource Department, Department of Women and Child. I started my career as a lecturer in Economics and then went into Civil Service. I have been in the Civil Service for 34 years and served in various Sectors, including Social Development. Policy formulation and implementation and evaluation of Programmes have been my major tasks. I have been associated with the United Nations Organizations both while I was in service and after retirement. I have been able to have a close association with Non Government Organizations in various capacities during and after my career in the Civil Service. This gives me a fairly good insight into the developments in the social development sector for over half century. In this lesson, we will look at global and national efforts that have been made by the UN and National Committees to influence social contracts in society, particularly in understanding gender issues and change required for establishing an equitable and fair society with harmony and peace for all.

2. THE TRADITION IN INDIA

India had a culture in the long distant past of venerating women in the family and the homes. The Manu Smriti laid down“yathra narayasthu poojyanthe, thathra ramanthe devathaha Yathrasthu na poojyanthe savasthatraaphalaha kriyaah” Meaning where women are honoured dinity blossoms there.Where they are not honoured, all actions become fruitless”This reflects social attitudes. Social behaviour recognized respect for women, ‘poojyanthe’ refers to respecting women in this contest and not literally worshipping them.

3. THE GENDER ISSUE

The female is biologically stronger and superior to the male in all creation. Social conditions have reversed this biological recognition in the case of homo-sapiens, making the female not equal but inferior to the male. Consequently, deprivations and suppression become rampant in the domestic as well as the public sphere. Unfortunately, this is a global situation and not just in India. Women lost security most times even within the family, being driven to destitution levels when they lost their husbands and became widows. The main reason attributed for this condition, is the mindset of ‘patriarchy’. Property rights vested with the male.The male was the head of the family. Family is the institution through which the legacy of generations passes. Generally, this is through the male leniage. There are some communities which practice Matriarchy, where the legacy passes through the female. Since patriarchy is the general practice, women without right to property have stepped behind and remained socially and economically deprived. People have now realized that there are strategic issues in the society which requires understanding the way people are governed, which can be changed by legislation and rules that get prescribed by Governments. There are practical issues emerging out of behavioural standards due to attitudes, traditions, availability of infrastructure (like supply of water, fuel, schools, training and many other things). Both need to be attended to and established by the Government and community for the benefit of different groups of people, and specially women, according to their specific needs.

4. THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

Women realized their powerlessness and the domination by men in the society and demanded equality. The battles started in the United States as early as the 18th century. The main thrust was on getting a right to vote, so that they could elect the leaders who in turn would make national policies and appropriate legislation to bestow equality on women. This battle went on for centuries. The world was ravaged by two World Wars. The first was from 1914 to 1919 and the Second was from 1939 to 1944. Women geared up their strengths and helped the men fight the wars by nursing the wounded, feeding the soldiers and assumed many other roles. After the FirstWorld War, the Suffragette Movement (right to vote) gathered greater momentum, and women in Britain got the Right to vote in 1931.

After the First World War the League of Nations was established to end war. It was not effective. The Second World War broke out in 1939 and ended in 1944. With all the misery that befalls warring nations, the nations were determined to end Wars and established the United Nations in the place of the less effective League of Nations.

5. CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The Charter of the United Nations was signed in June 1945. The three main Goals were

1. To prevent future wars by fostering peace and security;
2. To promote social and economic progress; and
3. To define and protect the rights and freedoms of every human being regardless of race, sex, language or religion.

The Preamble of the UN Charter begins “We the peoples of the United Nations” and reaffirms not only “faith in fundamental human rights” and the dignity and worth of the human person”, but also “the equal rights of men and women”.

The Charteris like the Magna Carta on Human rights and Women’s rights. [The Magna Carta means the ‘The Great Charter’ which is one of the most important documents in history as it established the principle that everyone including the King is subject to Law. It guarantees the rights of individuals, the right to justice and the right to a fair trial. (King John signed this Document in the year 1215 in London)]. There is therefore a great deal of sanctity for the UN Charter for all.

6. COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations established the “Commission on the Status of Women” in June 1946 and inaugurated in February 1947. Its two basic functions were

1.Prepare recommendations and reports to the Economic and Social Council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields, and

2.On urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights.

In 1987, it was expanded to include such activities as the advocacy of equality, development and peace; monitoring the implementation of internationally agreed measures for the advancement of women; and reviewing and appraising progress at the national, subregional, regional and global levels.In 1988, the Division for Advancement of Women was established to support the Commission.

The most significant among the various Conventions and declarations proclaimed by the United Nations since its inception with serious implications for the status of women are:

1948 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1952 – Convention of Political Rights of Women

1979 – Convention Against All forms of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW)

1993 – Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The Committee on the Status of women organized the major conferences on women at which the global situation of women were analysed and recommendations for the further course of action at the national, regional and global levels resolved.

1975 – 1st UN World Conference on Women at Mexico

1980 – 2nd UN world Conference on Women at Nairobi

1985 – 3rd UN World Conference on Women at Copenhagen

1995 -4th UN World Conference on Women at Beijing

THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION THAT EMERGED FROM THE 4TH UN CONFERENCE ON WOMEN BECAME A PACE SETTER TO GUIDE NATIONS TO PRIORITISE AND PURSUE ACTION PLANS IN DIFFERENT SECTORS OF THE GOVERNMENT. This has been followed for monitoring achievements and reviewing activity at the Member State level by the UN Committee on the Status of Women periodically. It takes this opportunity to call for explanations of the State if targets set are not achieved.

Other significant declarations of Associated UN International organizations are

1951 – ILO Convention on Equal Remuneration

1994 – International Conference on Population and Development (IPCD) at Cairo

The ILO Convention is very important for employment and equal wages for equal work by women. This has been contested often, as women’s wages are fixed lower than for men. The ostensible reason given by Governments is that women’s productivity is lower due to lesser physical ability. The struggle in this area is still on.

The International Conference on Population covered a lot of issues relating to health and conferred Reproductive Rights for women, so that they could choose on various matters relating to bearing children. Here again, exercising this right is difficult in a patriarchal society like India, where the husband and in-laws still prefer sex selection and abortion if the foetus is a female.

7. THE INDIAN SITUATION

India has a poor social record on the status of women due to tradition and a lot of cultural factors, including the priority of her security, in a society prone to violence against women. However, as all Constitutions which have come up after the establishment of the United Nations, India has incorporated Women’s Rights, through Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. A great deal of new legislation as well as amendments to existing ones have taken place addressing various entitlements. Significant are those relating to ownership of property, age of marriage, divorce, abolition of bigamy, custody of children etc.

8. THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

It was believed that the promulgation of the Constitution of India, in 1950 enshrining principles of Equality, Liberty and Justice to all would confer these privileges on all and liberate women. When the Committee on the Status of women studied the ground truths and analysed the statistical data they came to the conclusion that there was hardly any change for a quarter century in the country and the recommendations made by them were accepted. It covered broadly a number of legislative changes, creating an infrastructure exclusively for looking into Women’s Affairs comprising a separate Ministry and a National Commission for Women, intensive programmes for Women’s Development.

9. SEX RATIO

Based on the biological factor, among homeo-sapiens (human beings) 1005 boys are born against 1000 girls, to compensate the wastage of the male at birth, and thereafter maintain the sex ratio, that is 1000 females to 1000 males. In most cultures the ratio of females to males is equal or near equal. India has noticed that this is not the case since the country started counting the population in the National Census from 1901. In fact, the sex ratio has declined from 970 females to 1000 males in 1901 to 927 in 1991, and is since increased to 940 in 2011. The Committee on the Status of Women reiterates the view expressed by Annie Besant as early as 1914, to the statistics on Illiteracy, child widows and the incidence of death of women between 15 and 30 years of age. The condition had not changed very much even a quarter century of the Committee’s Report, by 2001. The Committee observed “Higher death rates for females compared to males during infancy, early childhood carried through the age of 34 underscores the profile of women’s health”. Infant and child mortality still continues to be higher for the female compared to the male, maternal mortality is still high in India, though it is reducing very slowly. The slight improvement seen in the Census of 2001 and 2011 is more due to Life expectancy at birth increasing for the female more than the male, again proving the biological superiority of the male. Another phenomenon seen in India where the male child is at a premium is sex-determination in pregnancy and abortion of the female feotus. Despite strict legal provisions imposing punishment for doctors and clinics engaged in scanning for sex determination, the practice has not been stopped completely. The Committee on the Status of Women therefore strongly recommended measures of greater healthcare for women at all ages of their lives.

The identification of the “sex ratio” as an indicator of social development and women’s status in a society by the Committee on the Status of women was lauded by the United Nations and Dr. Veena Mazumdar, Secretary of the Committee was awarded by the United Nations.

10.  DEVELOPMENTS AFTER THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

The Parliament of India was shocked by the conditions of women in India as brought out by the Report and adopted it in 1977 after a lot of discussion. Several measures have followed in the subsequent years. The infrastructure for dealing with women’s issues was created. A woman Minister for Social Welfare was appointed. In the Sixth Five Year Plan, all developmental issues concerning women were incorporated in a n exclusive chapter on women. The Ninth Five Year plan looked at a Component Plan for women to track resource allocations and expenditure. The allocations were found to be less than 1% of the Plan! This led to a realization that investment in women fetches higher returns to the Government. The women’s movement argued that in the health sector focus should be shifted to total health for women through their lifecycle rather than “Reproductive health” only.

In 1992, The National Commission was established to look into various legal issues relating to women as also other developmental issues and recommend measures to Government.

The Constitution Amendment on Panchayati Raj in 1993, was a landmark which provided one third of the seats in the Panchayats for women. It also mandated that one third of the Sarpanches should be women. The reservation has now been enhanced to 50% since.

The Women’s Movement has been seeking Reservation of one third seats in Parliament. A draft bill was formulated and introduced in the Parliament, in the Lok Sabha, but expired as it was not passed. Now the Bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha to avoid its lapsing. Though different arguments for not passing it are being made, the crux of the issue is that men do not want to lose their seats, by yielding to reservation of a good proportion of 33% to women against 10% they hold currently. One third is critical mass, to bring out change conducive to women.Wherever there have been Women Presidents they have changed the content of the programmes- water supply, security, schools, lighting, roads to markets, infrastructure, tried to install good teachers in schools, markets closer to homes etc. Women leadership with effective partnership from men could ensure a better economic and social environment for women with good understanding of their needs.

Millions of girls were being lost to the nation due to female infant and child mortality due to the neglect of the girl child. When technology for determining the sex of the foetus became available through ultrasound techniques, female fetuses were destroyed. Subsequently, in their quest for a male child, families went in for medical assistance for sex selective conception. By law, sex determination tests were made a crime in 1996, which was further amended to ban sex selective conception.

Harrassment of women at the work-place and violence against women at home and outside are persisting issues of great concern to the society. The molestation of an Angwadi worker (Banwari Devi) in Rajasthan for preventing child marriage and the long-drawn agitation by women thereafter invited the attention of the Supreme Court which passed the judgement in Vishaka and others Vs. the Government of Rajasthan and provided guidelines to set up a grievance procedure at work-place. The Domestic Violence Act, 2005 prescribes punishment for domestic Violence. The horrific rape and murder of a paramedical student in December 2012 in Delhi ‘known as the ‘Nirbhaya case’, resulted in The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhya Act) which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, Code of Criminal Procedure,1973 on Laws related to sexual offences. All these are progressive measures showing the sensitivity of the Government and the Judiciary to Social conditions.

11. CONCLUSION

Several changes have taken place at the global and national levels to bring in gender justice, with greater analysis and understanding of women’s problems at home and outside and to ameliorate them. Girls and women are often portrayed as objects for advertisements. Some-times they are looked upon as toys for leisure. Creating a social environment conducivefor respect and partnership, could take a long time, as it involves change of mindsets of men and women. It is true that the advancement so far has taken three to four centuries, but now we cannot lose more generations to ill treatment. There is no doubt that women should become capable and must recognize their individuality and dignity. Men too should understand. Nations should count them as persons, and partners in progress and development.

12. SUMMARY

Women have asserted all over the world to break the shackles of discrimination and attain equality with men in every sphere of life. The establishment of the United Nations in 1945 and the promulgation of the UN charter have ushered in Equal Rights for women, along with men. Elimination of violence against them in varied circumstancesshouldguarantee security of women. The UN has guided the Member States to change their legislation, governance methods to establish justice for all and particularly gender justice. India too, has followed these prescriptions and brought out a great deal of change. Yet mindsets do not change easily, and women are still not free from violence, and equality is still eluding them in some spheres. Hopefully, this will change. The social contract of men and women should be for the care of each by the other for the benefit of both, to make for secure families, well knit communities, strong nations and a peaceful world.

Questions for self examination

1. What do you understand by ‘gender issue’?
2. What is the difference between Patriarchy and matriarchy?
3. When was the UN Charter adopted?
4. What are the important features of the UN Charter?
5. Name some Conventions of the United Nations.
6. What does CEDAW refer to?
7. When was the Declaration on Voilence Against Women adopted by the UN?
8. Which is the Agency in the United Nations specially responsible for overseeing matters relating to women?
9. List the dates of the UN World Conferences on Women?
10. Explain Sex Ratio?
11. When did the Parliament of India adopt the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women?
12. What is the special importance of the Sixth Five Year Plan for women?
13. In which Five Year Plan was the Component Plan for Women introduced?
14. When was the domestic violence Act passed?

References and Web links

• Government of India, Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Education and SocialWelfare, December 1974: Towards Equality-Report of the Committee on The Status ofWomen In India.
• World Health Organization and Voluntary Health Association of India. –Country Profile –India. National Profile on Women, Health and Development. Edited by Gopalan, Sarala Dr.and Shiva,Mira, Dr.
• Government of India – National Commission for Women, 2002. Towards Equality – The Unfinished Agenda- Status of Women in India- 2001, GopalanSarala, Dr.
• United Nations, New York, Department of Public Information; The United Nations and TheAdvancement of Women 1945-1995.
• The Constitution of India, The Universal Law Publishing Co.Pvt.Ltd.2007- Bakshi P.M.