10-03-2004, 04:28 AM
Fight Hindutva forces, activists tell working women
By Our Special Correspondent
SALEM, OCT. 2. Women activists and trade union leaders have called upon working women to strengthen fora that are fighting the ``Hindutva'' forces, which attempt to stall women's emancipation. Education and employment alone could ensure their total emancipation.
Addressing a one-day South Zone Insurance Employees Federation's (SZIEF) 3rd LIC Working Women Tamil State Conference here today, they said <b>the country survived a close call from these forces of religious fundamentalism, which attempted to erase the secular validity of the Indian psyche. </b>
``Women in employment now enjoy the freedom of thought and deed. It should not be mortgaged to anti-women policies such as privatisation and voluntary retirement schemes,'' said Bala Bharathi, Dindigul CPI (M) MLA and assistant secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit of the All-India Democratic Women's Association.
<b>Hindutva proscribed women from stepping out of her house. It wanted them chained to slavery. Hence women should not permit Hindutva to rear its head again, she said. </b>
The reception committee chairman, Chitra Sampath, said women were being used as consumer commodities in advertisements in the print and electronic media. Even the serious issue of dowry harassment was used as an advertisement for cosmetics, she said. She asked working women to fight against harassment at working places.
The conference insisted that the Union Government give an assurance that no public sector firm would be privatised. The service tax on policy premiums should be withdrawn. The 33 per cent reservation for women should be made law.
Denial of rights, wage revision, filling up of vacancies, establishing crèches, women's hostels and preventing female foeticide were discussed.
C. Ravindranathan, SZIEF president; M. Girija and S. Sridevi, coordinators; and R. Govindarajan, AIIEA executive member, spoke. Members from all over the State and Kerala and Karnataka took part in the conference.
By Our Special Correspondent
SALEM, OCT. 2. Women activists and trade union leaders have called upon working women to strengthen fora that are fighting the ``Hindutva'' forces, which attempt to stall women's emancipation. Education and employment alone could ensure their total emancipation.
Addressing a one-day South Zone Insurance Employees Federation's (SZIEF) 3rd LIC Working Women Tamil State Conference here today, they said <b>the country survived a close call from these forces of religious fundamentalism, which attempted to erase the secular validity of the Indian psyche. </b>
``Women in employment now enjoy the freedom of thought and deed. It should not be mortgaged to anti-women policies such as privatisation and voluntary retirement schemes,'' said Bala Bharathi, Dindigul CPI (M) MLA and assistant secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit of the All-India Democratic Women's Association.
<b>Hindutva proscribed women from stepping out of her house. It wanted them chained to slavery. Hence women should not permit Hindutva to rear its head again, she said. </b>
The reception committee chairman, Chitra Sampath, said women were being used as consumer commodities in advertisements in the print and electronic media. Even the serious issue of dowry harassment was used as an advertisement for cosmetics, she said. She asked working women to fight against harassment at working places.
The conference insisted that the Union Government give an assurance that no public sector firm would be privatised. The service tax on policy premiums should be withdrawn. The 33 per cent reservation for women should be made law.
Denial of rights, wage revision, filling up of vacancies, establishing crèches, women's hostels and preventing female foeticide were discussed.
C. Ravindranathan, SZIEF president; M. Girija and S. Sridevi, coordinators; and R. Govindarajan, AIIEA executive member, spoke. Members from all over the State and Kerala and Karnataka took part in the conference.