By Sophie Hardefeldt, Intern – Gender Training Institute.

The Southern Regional workshop on “Strategising Advocacy for Effective Implementation of Women Friendly Laws” organised by WomenPowerConnect and the National Commission for Women was held in Chennai on 25 January 2012.

The workshop brought together representatives from government agencies, legal bodies, academics and non-government organisations from across Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu including Smt. Anita Agnihotri, Justice Prabha Sridevan, Justice D. Sreedevi, Ms Jyoti Nirmala, Ms. Saraswati Rangaswamy, Ms. Bimla Chandrasekar and Centre for Social Work Director Dr. Ranjana Kumari to discuss concerns regarding the implementation women friendly legislation. The workshop focused on three pieces of legislation that address women’s rights violations throughout India. These include the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA-2005); the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA); and the Pre conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act (PCPNDT).

There is a concern about the implementation of these laws amongst women’s rights and civil society organisations across India and the workshop gave representatives the opportunity to review the implementation and impact of each law across the four states. Representatives also devised strategies to strengthen gender friendly legislation throughout India.

Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
Representatives across all four states were concerned about the perpetuation of Domestic Violence in spite of the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. The highlighted the need for increased funding for services providers, more support and funding for institutions to become service providers and an increase in the number of protection officers across all states.

Kerala’s development of 999 local councils aimed at addressing domestic violence at the panchayat level was outlined as the best practise amongst the four states and representatives called for this approach to be closely studied in order to assess whether is should be replicated in other states.

Prohibition of Child Marriage Act
Representatives highlighted the tendency for confusion about the legal age of consent for sexual intercourse and the legal age of marriage to be used as justification for the perpetuation of child marriage across the region. 186 child marriages were prevented in 2011 in just Tamil Nadu whilst 50% of women are married before the age of 18 in all four states. Child marriage has implications for maternal health as well as maternal and infant mortality rates.

Participants outlined a need for more action from women’s institutions at the state and national levels. Particularly the National Mission for Empowerment of Women, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for women.

Pre conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act
Participants discussed the rising sex selective abortion rates in all four states and the implication this has for women and for gender relations.

The perpetuation of the dowry system in each state, in which payments of 1-2kg of gold or a car plus 1 crore rupees are commonplace, reinforces traditional patterns of discrimination against women and the preferencing of male children. Dowry prices are increasingly going beyond the financial limits of families which is a further deterrent to having female children.

Andhra Pradesh’s coordinated campaigns to address sex-selection and sex-selective abortions was highlighted as the best practise for implementing this legislation. Tamil Nadu is also doing well to address this issue.

Participants also discussed the Law Commission’s report on dowry cases and decided they would not accept the intention to compound dowry cases. They also stated that judgements made in South India regarding the sexual assault of women are inappropriate. These judgements focus on women, and state that women lose everything from sexual assault. This places the burden of the crime on women rather on the perpetrator of the crime. The onus of these judgements should be on the perpetrator not the victim. New laws on sexual assault should take this into account and insure the perpetrators of sexual assault are held to account.

The regional Advocacy Strategy Document developed during the workshop will be released at the National Meeting on March 8, 2012. This report will be used by each organisation to lobby governments for the effective implementation of women friendly laws.

“There is a need to start looking at women as human beings first rather than victims. Women are capable of looking after their own issues if the government gives them the right to governance, which has been on the back burner for decades”, said Director Ranjana Kumari at CSR’s National Conference 2011 on Why Gender Matters on Monday.

The conference, held at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi on 21 November, brought together leaders from India’s government agencies, civil society and renowned academic institutions to discuss action-based solutions to the issues of gender inequality and women’s rights and empowerment. Various speakers took to the mic throughout the day to address some of the key problems troubling women and girls across the country: pre-natal sex selection, domestic violence, human trafficking and gender and governance.

Kicking the event off during the inaugural session, Bharati Saliwal from UN Women said, “Changing the status of women needs a mindset change. Violence against women is not excusable, acceptable or pardonable.”

Three brave survivors then recounted their experiences of gender discrimination and of overcoming incidents of domestic violence and trafficking. One of the victims was forced to undergo the abortion of her second child since she already had one girl. When she subsequently fell pregnant with a third girl child, she was forced to leave her home and was abandoned by her husband. Another victim, a 48-year-old woman from Western Uttar Pradesh, talked about being married to a HIV positive man who died a year later. She tragically suffered domestic violence at the hands of her in-laws. However, with the help of CSR, the woman has since been able to obtain widow pension and register her daughter for the government’s Ladli scheme.

Nonetheless, the work to be done extends far beyond individual efforts and empowerment. Speakers of all four sessions at Why Gender Matters spoke passionately of the need for better laws and better implementation of those laws in order to improve Indian women’s lives. They also stressed the need for more interaction between media and the government.

Focusing on the promotion of action-based change through experience sharing and participatory discussion, Monday’s conference aimed to establish policy, programme or budget input for government agencies and representatives. The relaxed environment provided a strong platform for collective action amongst non-government organisations and civil society, and resulted in innovative recommendations for new approaches and activities for those working at the grassroots level on gender.

Attendees included key figures from the government, civil society and academic sectors. Esteemed speakers included Smt. Bharati Silawal, EVAW Specialist, UN Women, Dr. Roma Debabrata, President of STOP, Ms. Varsha Despande, a Lawyer from Satara, Maharashtra, Ms.  Bijayalaxmi Nanda,  University of Delhi, Ms. Poonam Kathuria, SWATI, Ms. Lotty Aloric, Lok Sabha TV, Ms. Padma Devasthali, CEHAT, Ms. Indira Jaisingh, President of Lawyers Collective, Ms. Madura Dutta, Resident Manager of Banglanatakdotcom, Mr. N. Sanyal, Additional Sec. MOWCD, Professor Simhadri, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, Ms. Arti Dogra, District Magistrate Bundi, Rajasthan, Ms. Anupama Jha, Transparency International, Ms. Sunita Sehrawat, Ex-Sarpanch, Haryana and Dr. Praveen Kumari Singh, Ministry of Home Affairs and ACP Pratima Sharma of the Special Police Unit for Women and Children.

On April 25 and 26, members of our research team, including Head of Research Dr. Manasi Mishra, were invited to participate at key speakers at the second Beti Bachao (Save the Girl Child) conference in Panipat, Haryana state. Beti Bachao was founded last year in Ambala by activists from 14 Indian states and meets annually to strengthen the campaign.

Organised by the Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) and Asha Parivar, the conference was jointly inaugurated by Chaudhary Virendar Singh, General Secretary of All India Congress Committee; Manimala, social activist and writer; Veena Behen from Gandhi Global Family; and eminent Pakistani peace activist Saeeda Deep. More than seven hundred people from across India participated in the conference.

By Claudia Schütz, a German intern with Centre for Social Research’s Research Department. Claudia will complete her Masters degree in Austria in 2012.

“Time has come to act,” said Professor Govind Raj of the Indian Society for International Law at the recent “Issues Relating to NRI Marriages” conference. As the coordinating agency for complaints related to Indian women who have been deserted by overseas husbands, the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs organised the conference to review the progress so far made on addressing the issue and to call for further recommendations.

Over the course of the last few years, we’ve witnessed an increase in the number of people misusing marriages between NRI (non-resident Indian) grooms and Indian brides, who quickly move abroad post-wedding to join their husbands. NRI grooms have often been found to be taking advantage of Indian women, who can find themselves isolated in new and foreign countries.

The conference saw the revision of earlier recommendations as well as an urgent appeal for the full implementation of others. CSR’s Director, Dr. Ranjana Kumari, contributed with a presentation that emphasised the urgency of a “single window approach”. As the problems emerging from NRI marriages involve numerous national laws as well as international agreements, NGOs and governments need to coordinate and work together to achieve our mutual objectives of helping these women.

By the end of the conference, participants had agreed on a number of recommendations, including:

• Agencies must ensure that NRI men are single and eligible to marry beforehand,
• All marriages and registrations of Indians abroad should be sent automatically to Indian embassies,
• Misuse of dowry must be recognised as a legal cause for divorce,
• A 24/7, toll-free helpline should be created in India and broad for potential and already married Indian women, and
• Indian women betrothed to NRI men should have access to sufficient information about their new country.

In order to chalk out strategies for reducing crime against women in the capital, we partnered with the Institute of Social Sciences to organise a consultative meeting named, “Rising Crimes against Women in NCR: Corrective Strategies”. The meeting, held just yesterday, brought together representatives of the Indian women’s movement, NGOs, researchers, academics, select government agencies, UN bodies in India and multi-lateral organisations.

Women’s organisations were quick to note that policing is only part of a wider, integrated solution: There should be more coordination amongst and between governmental and non-governmental agencies alike. Our own Director, Dr. Ranjana Kumari, commented, “The police, government machinery, legal system and NGOs are working in their own zones. There should be a horizontal connection and more coordination amongst those who are working in this field.”

Overall, participating agencies and institutions drafted a list of commitments and long-term goals to be shared amongst all meeting members, including:

• Ensure that national laws and policies reflect a commitment to human rights and gender equality,

• Lobby for legal amendments per the changing times and circumstances,

• Facilitate and emphasize gender sensitization of various government units,

• Educate the public and various institutions on gender and sexuality,

• Endeavour to work more closely with the media,

• Develop plans to address violence against women while keeping homelessness in mind.

View the full photo gallery from this event at Centre for Social Research’s Flickr account.

An alliance of nearly 35 of India’s most influential women’s organizations held a demand meeting today to pressurize parliamentarians to pass the much delayed Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha. Nearly 1,000 activists participated in the meeting to lend impetus to the women’s struggle towards political equality.

The alliance included Centre for Social Research, WomenPowerConnect, Stree Shakti, Action India, All India Women’s Conference and Mahila Congress.

Some of the most prominent meeting attendees included Smt. Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission of Women; Smt. Chandresh Kumari, Member of Parliament (MP); Dr. Ranjana Kumari, President, Women Power Connect ; Director, Centre for Social Research; Mr. Madhu Yakshi (MP); Shivanand Tiwari (MP) and Ms. Prabha Thakur, President, Mahila Congress.

“The Bill has been facing strong opposition from the Yadav trio. Our meeting will bring together the collective voices of women who want political equality. We will continue to mount pressure and garner support from parliamentarians to ensure that the Bill gets passed in Lok Sabha,” said our own Dr. Ranjana Kumari.

The bill has evoked sharp opposition from the Yadav trio, who’ve demanded a quota within the quota for women from backward communities and minorities. Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad have threatened to withdraw support if the government signs the Bill in its present form.

The passage of the Bill in Rajya Sabha (Council of States) in March 2010 was a historic moment when the major national parties reached a political consensus. Despite the vast political differences between each party, all supported the Congress-led bill, including the BJP and the Left who were in the opposition.