The Hindu : Women's organisations to support DPA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 25, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Women's organisations to support DPA

By Our Special Correspondent

MADURAI, MARCH 24. Five women's organisations, including three representing Dalits, have appealed to the electorate to vote for the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in the Lok Sabha poll.

This resolution was adopted at a meeting of the Federation of Dalit Panchayat Representatives, the Dalit Tribal Women's Federation, the Federation of Dalit Women Empowerment, the Tamil Nadu Women's Movement and the Women Development Resource Centre here on Monday. Eightytwo delegates from seven districts participated.

The meeting urged the activists to create awareness among the women in their localities to vote for the DPA to instal a secular Government at the Centre.

The organisations came down on some Dalit parties, which supported communal parties with an eye on power. Their stand would result in the dilution of the Dalit ideologies, the meeting said. It expressed dismay at the decision of the Dalit parties to enter the fray under the banner of `People's Front'.

Urging the parties to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in their list of candidates, the meeting sought adequate internal reservation for the Dalits, the Adivasi and minority communities.

Claiming that the State did not spend even the `meagre' funds earmarked under special schemes for the uplift of the Dalits during the past five years, the meeting urged the Government to appoint special officers to ensure that the measures reaches the target groups.

The other demands included redistribution of surplus land among the Dalits and Adivasis, adequate compensation to Adivasi and Dalit women victims of caste and communal riots, amendment to the Forest Bill. Pleading for implementation of total prohibition in the State, the meeting called for alternative schemes to augment financial resources for women and children.

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