Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, May 13, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Budget `Women must be consulted on Budget' Our Bureau
KOLKATA, May 12 DR Poornima Advani, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, has suggested here that women groups should be consulted before preparing the Union Budget. "Views of 50 per cent of the population should be reflected in the annual financial exercise'', she said at a seminar on `Empowerment of women' organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce. "Institutions far too long in the country have denied women their rightful space — be it in Parliament or in the media'', she added. She felt the ruckus over the Women's Reservation Bill was not a stray example of a male dominated system. "Be it violation of the Factories Act or non-compliance of regulations regarding sexual harassment in a work place or child marriage or dowry deaths or declining sex ratio in the country — an appalling silence is the dominant response from the society,'' she observed. She also cited an example to drive home her point. The commission had requested some State Governments to take steps to stop large-scale child marriages on the "Akkha Tij'' day this year. "The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Digvijay Singh, responded by being present at one of such public child marriage function in his State on that day'', she said. The commission was also at a loss to discover that much after the Supreme Court's general directive (in the case of Vishakha vs State of Rajasthan) on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, many public sector units had failed to take the very first step — setting up a complaints committee. It was a well-accepted practice in Indian factories to employ either a maximum of 29 women workers — 30 women workers would mean providing for a creche under the Factories Act — or none at all. Statutes were followed to discriminate and disempower women, she said.
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