Women’s human rights: an insight

— Dr Tapati Baruah Kashyap The idea of women’s human rights came into existence when Mary Wollstonecraft published her book Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.Wollstonecraft also wrote Thoughts on the education of daughters (1788) as well as an autobiographical novel titled Mary (1788) which were based on her own experiences as the daughter of a violent father and as a governess and teacher. Wollstonecraft was also against Rousseau’s views about women. Rousseau asserted that women’s purpose in life was to serve and entertain men. Thus a gradual protest against women’s existence started evolving in western countries. In this context, the contributions of the nineteenth-century women writers are also noticeable. Between the late eighteenth and nineteenth century novels, the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Fanny Burney of England and Madame de Stael of France described the world of women and the role of women during that time. Gradually, women came to realise their own subordinate position and started raising voice against it.

The idea of women’s voting rights and the struggle to achieve it was started in Great Britain and United States during the nineteenth century. However, these countries were not the first to grant women the right to vote. By the early years of the 20th century, women had won the right to vote in national elections in New Zealand in 1893, Australia in 1902, Finland in 1906 and Norway in 1913. In Sweden and the United States they had voting rights in some local elections. In the United States, the territory of Wyoming led the way by granting women full voting rights in local elections as early as 1869. On the national level, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B Anthony led the drive for women’s voting rights. By 1918, all major political parties favoured universal suffrage, and the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1919 granting women equal voting rights with men. After the Second World War, women in France and Italy could vote. Full suffrage for women was introduced in India by the constitution in 1950. In Pakistan women received full voting rights in national elections in 1956.

The last developed country to grant women full voting rights was Switzerland in 1971. The United Nations convention on the political rights of women, adopted in 1952, provides that ‘women shall be entitled to vote in all elections on equal terms with men, without any discrimination.’ Although the right to vote for women marked a significant and positive step in the history of women empowerment, yet women’s position is not a significant one till today. Women still need some more opportunities to go ahead with their male counterparts.

While drawing a picture of women in Assam, we must try to incorporate women from both urban and rural background and that can only give us a comprehensive picture of women’s status in Assam. Undoubtedly women have been progressing in every field, which, a few years back, were exclusively occupied by men. Women have now been able to handle their works successfully even at petrol pumps, shopping malls, hotels, hospitals and everywhere. But this is not the final picture of our state. In this context if we take an example of Asam Sahitya Sabha, ‘we see that only two women have occupied the president’s posts in this apex literary body of the state. That is why the UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW), provides a comprehensive framework for the advancement of women and provides a framework for understanding the concept of equality – equality of opportunity and equality of results.

The broad structure of the convention comprises 30 Articles. 1 provides a definition of discrimination and forms a fundamental basis for eliminating discrimination. Article 2-4 outlines the nature of State obligation in the form of law policy and programmes that the State needs to undertake in order to eliminate discrimination. Articles 5-16 specify the different areas under which governments are obliged to eliminate discrimination through measures described in Article 2-4. These include sex roles and stereotyping and customary practices detrimental to women (Article 5), prostitution (Article 6), political and public life (Article 7), participation at the international level (Article 8), nationality (Article 9), education (Article 12), economic and social benefits (Article 13), rural women (Article l4), equality before the law (Article 15), marriage and family relationship (Article 16). Articles 17-22 detail the establishment and functions of CEDAW (the committee) and Articles 23-30 deal largely with the administration and other procedural aspects of the convention.

This UN Convention is considered to be the passport to equality, which needs to be interpreted to each woman in our State. There are still a major chunk of women who are being deprived of the knowledge of CEDAW and their genuine rights. The traditional norms of society still act as a hindrance to their progress. For them earning money to get both ends meet is more important than enjoying their genuine rights. The government has recently introduced several new and innovative policies relating to the empowerment of women. But in the urban arena, poverty is a chronic issue fora large section of women. The major noticeable thing is that there are still a large, section of women whose status remains as it was and whatever they have been achieving as benefit from different women-friendly policies are not enough.

Half the population of the world are women. Women play a vital role in the socio economic development as producers, providers, managers of natural resources, and of the overall well being of the communities, but often they are marginalised and discriminated by the society. Article 2 (b) of CEDAW enjoins the State to take all appropriate measures including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, registrations, customs and practices, which constitute discrimination against women. Yet it is woman who constitutes to be targets of exploitations, violations, discriminations and abuse. Gender disparities make women more vulnerable and that results in high rate of poverty. The 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals and the international community’s action plan for eradicating global poverty lists gender equality as one of its eight targets and considers women’s empowerment essential to achieving all of them. Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen had once said, “Nothing is more important for development today than the economic, political, and social participation of women. Increasingly women, who were long treated as passive recipients of aid, are now regarded as active promoters of change, who can help society at large. And various studies specifically show that the benefits of promoting women are greatest when assistance focuses on increasing their education, their control over resources and their political voice.” Thus, educating girls and women is the single most effective way to empower women and that can eradicate poverty in the long run. ASSAM TRIBUNE