Kerala - Kozhikode   

Meet highlights woes of women in State

Kozhikode: Kerala State Women’s Commission Chairperson D. Sreedevi has said that 80 per cent of the women in society were grief-stricken.

Presiding over the seminar and observance of International Women’s Day organised by the Commission here on Saturday, Ms. Sreedevi noted that women suffered a lot in Kerala society. None could blame them even if the women strayed into prostitution. The right kind of awareness was needed for women to achieve freedom from this situation.

The Commission had conducted nearly one hundred awareness programmes in the months of January and February itself. The films and documentaries on women empowerment made by the Commission would be shown in each and every village of the State so that it moves the hearts of the public and drive home the message.

The former judge said that there was a need to pressurise the government to implement the suggestions that the Commission had forwarded to the government and which had not been implemented so far.

She lamented that degradation of moral values had happened in society. Human beings were not hesitant to kill one another. The demand for dowry was on the increase. Women had to suffer physical abuse and were often driven out of their homes in the middle of the night by drunken husbands. She also said that other grama panchayats should take a cue from Panencherry and Azhutha grama panchayats on how to implement women empowerment programmes.

She said that the Commission had already studied the problems of women entrepreneurs and widows in all the 14 districts of the State. It was still in the process of studying the problems of home nurses.

Mridul Eapen, member, State Planning Commission, inaugurated the seminar on the topic ‘Women Component of Plans (of Local Bodies) – Review from 1996 to 2000.’ She said that the need of the hour was to gender sensitise the society. It was for the first time that the State’s Finance Minister had talked of allocating at least 10 per cent of the State Plan fund for projects benefiting women.

Meenakshi Thampan, member of the Women’s Commission, said that various women’s organisations were agitating for implementing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament. Though the BJP had 33 per cent reservation for women in the party, it should have reservation for women in the decision-taking committee of the party if it was really genuine in its intentions. The Election Commission had already left the onus on implementing the reservation on the parties.

P.K. Sainabha and T. Devi, members of the Commission, also spoke.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Janasakthi convention
e-Learning course for teachers
Free training
Road repair: action panel sets ‘deadline’
Kannur: pleas pour in for peace
Women’s Day celebrated
Tribal artisans to showcase skills
Elderly couple found dead
Meet highlights woes of women in State
Kozhikode Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu