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Set up SHGs in large numbers, Buddhadeb tells women

Special Correspondent

Women’s movements cannot move forward without Left support: Brinda

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

FOR EMPOWERMENT: A section of the crowd at an open session of AIDWA in Kolkata on Sunday.

KOLKATA: Women’s organisations have a pivotal role in initiating women into the development process and to ensure their right to live with dignity, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Sunday.

“Political slogans are not enough…What is imperative is to ensure their right to earn a livelihood for which employment opportunities, particularly in micro-enterprises, need to be opened up to them,” he said, urging women to get together in greater numbers and set up self-help groups.

“There can be no development without bringing women in the forefront of the development process,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

He was addressing an open session on the concluding day of the four-day 8th national conference of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA).

There had been claims of a fall in the inflation rate, an 8 to 9 per cent rise in the growth rate. “We are now looking at the 11th Plan period but what is the point of such plans if people do not get jobs. There have been claims of a rise in growth rate but are there a commensurate generation of job opportunities? The bane of social unrest and communalism cannot be addressed unless people are ensured a livelihood,” he said.

Import of wheat

He said: “We are asking Manmohan Singh’s government why farmers are being driven to committing suicide in different parts of the countries and being denied remunerative prices for their produce. Why are we having to import wheat after all these years and why the rise in prices of essential commodities?”

On dowry, child marriages and reluctance of mothers in the very economically backwards sections to send their children to school, the Chief Minister said there was need for women to resist with greater intensity the social scourges and injustices they were subject to in a “society where being a woman is still considered to be a crime.”

“Mothers should rally together on issues like dowry and early marriages, and women’s organisations must play a greater role in ensuring that all children attended primary school.”

Earlier, Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said women’s movements across the country could not move forward without the support of Left forces.

The inspiration for such movements came from the “alternative path of development being adopted by the Left Front government in the State – an alternative path based on serving the interests of the poor,” she said.

“And among the issues that emerged at the conference was the major responsibility of the Left front in the context of the complex political situation in New Delhi,” Ms. Karat pointed out.

Also, the other issues that were highlighted were the need for the protecting women’s rights, their right to having jobs and the need for a judiciary that is independent, accountable and trained in “gender-sensitivity,” Ms. Karat added.

Subhasini Ali, who was re-elected AIDWA president, said the conference resolved to continue the fight against imperialism, communalism and to eradicate gender inequalities.

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