The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Naxals accused of sidelining women cadre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Naxals accused of sidelining women cadre

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 1. Women's rights groups in Andhra Pradesh have questioned the lack of gender concerns on the naxalite agenda. The issue came up at a recent meeting of the women's organisations and the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the CPI (Janashakti) in the State where feminist groups drew the attention of the "revolutionary parties'' to a lack of representation of women in the higher ranks of their political structure and leadership.

"If there is parity between men and women then why is it that women are unable to rise to intellectual and political positions of the movement?'' women activists in an open letter to various naxalite groups have asked.

Speaking at a conference on "Role of Conflict Widows in Healing a Hurt World'' organised by the Indian Women's United Nations Report Network and the Guild of Services here, Vasantha Kannabiran, Volga and Kalpana Kannabiran, said even when the Concerned Citizen's Committee was set up four years ago by the naxal groups, there was only one woman on the committee at that time who, too, dropped out, when in fact there were so many in the State who had an active interest in various aspects of this issue.

The three women had participated in the meeting and distributed the open letter to the participants. "Similarly, when talks were fixed between the naxalites and the Government, none thought of inviting women to be part of the deliberations that affects thousands of women who live in remote areas and were victims of the conflict,'' the letter pointed out.

The letter further stated that women had an active interest in process of democratisation and secularisation of civil society. "We believe that women's survival rests on the complete abatement of conflict and the elimination of all forms of conservatism and orthodoxy."

Gujarat riots

Referring to the Gujarat riots, the letter said it was a stark reminder of the grave assaults that women must bear in situations of conflict and moral policing. And, this had more to do with patriarchal ideologies than with any specific religious ideology.

On sexuality, the women activists said the inherent belief that female sexuality must be controlled to maintain social order was responsible for the multi-layered oppression of women which revolutions had totally been unable to eradicate.

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