Advancement of Women

Implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women

Statement by Mr. Asith Bhattacharjee, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York on October 13, 1999 in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

Mr. Chairman,

It is indeed a privilege to address this Committee on Agenda Items 109 and 110 dealing with advancement of women and the implementation of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Let me record our appreciation for the Reports of the Secretary-General and those of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. We thank the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Ms. Angela King, Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM and Ms. Aida Gonzales, Chairperson, CEDAW, for their statements. We also associate ourselves fully with the Statement made by Guyana on behalf of the G-77 and China.

The 43rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, after three years of deliberations, finalised the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW and we are pleased that it was adopted by the General Assembly last week. This Protocol will serve as an important milestone in the advancement of women. We also strongly support the revitalisation of the INSTRAW which is perhaps one of the few Institutes of its kind.

Mr. Chairman, in India, where according to our 1991 census more than 407 million women of the world live, the Government has engaged itself constantly, to improve the lot of women through a continuous focus on institutional and other support with a special attention to the girl-child. The Department of Women and Child Development is the nodal agency within the Government charged with the task of advancing development of women in all their aspects with particular stress on rural women. Besides this, other mechanisms at the Central Government level are the National Commission for Women, a statutory body set up under the National Commission of Women’s Act, 1990, a Parliamentary Committee for the Empowerment of Women, a Central Social Welfare Board and a National Women’s Fund called "Rashtriya Mahila Kosh" (RMK). Amongst these, the National Commission for Women reviews legislation, enquires into specific complaints of discrimination, suggests remedial action and provides an umbrella for formulation of policies for the elimination of discrimination against women. This Commission bases itself on human and other rights.

The Parliamentary Committee for the Empowerment of Women functions as a watchdog and looks into mainstreaming of gender concerns and also does programme planning, particularly, on the basis of the 12 commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) acts as a national institution for credit to the poor and needy women in the informal sector. These credits are often converted to grants. Since its inception in 1993, an equivalent of US $ 11.4 million was extended as credit through 256 non-governmental organisations and till the end of last year, 250,312 women directly benefited from the programme. The Central Social Welfare Board works through more than a thousand voluntary organisations for the welfare of women. In addition, there are other significant mechanisms like Women’s Cell in the Central Ministries and Departments where gender main streaming is overseen and programmes like entrepreneurship development for women are executed.

A significant development has been the creation of Women Cells in police stations to combat violence against women. Some police stations are completely managed by women. In the "Special Forces" to deal with law and order, all-women contingents have also been raised so that gender sensitivities are respected. We have also given primacy to improving the delivery systems of social services to women. Gender specific support services through village level centres called ‘Aangan wadi’ have spread all over the country. In our current five-year plan, the goal of women’s empowerment has been given a primary status.

At the grass-root administrative level, we have a system of an elected Council of five called ‘Panchayat’ administering the village affairs including the implementation of developmental programmes in cooperation with the governmental administrative machinery. In the regular elections being held in the villages in India for these Councils, there have been a large number of women candidates who have been elected to manage the affairs of their villages. This would have been unthinkable earlier. Needless to say, this democratic grass-root process at the village level and the increasing participation of women in them shows the growing awareness that even rural women have of their rights, duties and responsibilities.

Since India resides in its villages, we cannot but appreciate the concerns expressed in the Report of the Secretary General on the status of women in the rural areas. Most of our own efforts are directed towards the women and the girl child in these settings which are both complex and daunting. Delivery systems of social services in these areas while maintaining a healthy income growth is a major effort that we are undertaking.

Mr. Chairman, we have travelled a long way from the concept of emancipation to advancement and now to the empowerment of women. The four World Conferences on Women and the work of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations have been milestones in this journey. While we can be reasonably pleased with the progress made, thus far, there are fundamental changes occurring in the world today which will have an impact on the status of women.

Firstly, I would like to mention globalisation which is sweeping across countries and contributing to increasing marginalisation of the poor. Income disparities have been accentuated by globalisation and continue to deepen even as the concept of governance shrinks to legislating and maintaining law and order. The inroads of capital in almost all sectors of the society have begun to impact societies in many ways by increasing exclusion. Today’s world, therefore, is a world of enhanced insecurity; insecurity of jobs, insecurity in access to health services, insecurity in access to education. These can lead to insecurity of communities as a whole with a potential to disintegrate societies.

Secondly, the bleak growth prospects of developing countries in the next four or five years is a cause for concern. Reports from various agencies, including from the UN, indicate that none of the developing economies would grow at the rate of 6 per cent per annum needed to fight poverty, unemployment and social degradation. The implications of globalisation with poor growth in developing countries on the advancement and empowerment of women does not require a crystal ball to understand. Unless arrested, we foresee these trends bringing about social exclusion and erosion in the status of women and bringing to naught all the efforts of the past. Environmental degradation, pressures on land and a burgeoning of the informal work-force with low wage rates will be a natural consequence. Health, particularly the reproductive health of women, hygiene and education will suffer the worst consequences.

These trends were recognised in the July 99 ministerial communique adopted by the ECOSOC at the high level segment of its substantive session. Against the prism of these trends, we look at the two forthcoming Summits in the year 2000 with the hope that these concerns would be debated and taken cognizance of. Perhaps, major initiatives would be globally accepted in the complementary processes of Beijing +5 and the Copenhagen+5 to turn the tide of the negative trends visible now. If the social development agenda does not succeed, the advancement of women would be at stake. Likewise, if we do not push ahead with the Beijing Platform, no social development and integration can take place.