The Kerala way of development and what the State has achieved cannot be seen as divorced from what is happening in the rest of the country, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat has said.
She was speaking at a seminar ‘Gender and development in Kerala,’ organised by the Women and Child Development department in connection with Keraleeyam, here on Sunday.
Ms. Karat said that when talking about gender and development and challenges that women faced, it was necessary to take into account the power of forces ranged against that.
Various indicators that the State was renowned for brought home the fact that inspite of scarce resources and hurdles that it faced in light of the “attack” on the federal nature of the Constitution, political will and ideological framework that saw natural and national resources as an entitlement of the people ensured that policies that provided benefits as rights to women could be framed.
Though the Constitution guaranteed certain rights, the trajectory of economic and social policies of the those in power in New Delhi indicated a trend that directly affected those entitlements. For instance, Kerala was the only State in the country that set apart 10% of its entire Budget to women in local bodies. However, it was up against a huge crunch in resources for such gender and women-driven development policies because of constitutional fragility and the Union government policy of extreme centralisation. So even if the State said the low wages of ICDS and ASHA workers were not acceptable and it wanted to increase it, its hands were tied as the resources themselves were under severe attack owing to centralisation of finances by the Union government.
She called on the women not to take the huge strides they had made for granted as the biggest challenge to their achievement was to defend it, especially since there was no bulwark in the rest of the country to prevent those policies from having a direct impact on them.
Palestinian cause
Expressing solidarity with the women and children of Palestine and of its people, Ms. Karat said this solidarity was closely linked to lives of women here and challenges they faced.
Women should not only be employees but also employers, Minister for Women and Child Development Veena George said.
The Minister said the percentage of women in higher education was 74%. Their number was increasing in medical education too. However, after securing employment how many of them continued in it was something that needed to be examined.
The Minister pointed out that the women participation in the workforce in the State was better than that in the State but it needed to increase further, she said.
Kerala State Planning Board former member Mridul Eapen, KREA University Principal economist Sona Mitra, former MP C.S. Sujatha, TISS former professor Vibhuti Patel, State gender consultant T.K. Anandi, Central Planning Commission former member Syeda Hameed, Planning Board member Mini Sukumar, transgender community representative Sheetal Shyam, and Women and Child Development department Principal Secretary Sharmila Mary Joseph spoke.
