National

'Women's interests ignored'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 22. The All-India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) has criticised the United Progressive Alliance Government for "ignoring" the interests of working women in the country.

Addressing reporters here today to announce the Association's fourth national conference on Wednesday, the AIPWA president, Srilata Swaminathan, said there were lacunae in the national common minimum programme (NCMP) as far as women's issues were concerned. "The Union budget says nothing about women's issues and neither has the Government committed itself on the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament,'' she said.

Referring to Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, the constituency of the Union Labour Minister, Sis Ram Ola, Ms. Swaminathan said women still carried human faeces on their heads and were given only a little food in return. "If the Labour Minister cannot stop this practice in his constituency, he must resign," she said while demanding a survey of such women and a monthly compensation of Rs. 1,000 to them.

Ms. Swaminathan said besides being paid low wages, women in the farm sector were sexually exploited. The condition of women weavers in Benaras and tea garden workers in Assam was no different.

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