People's Democracy

18th Congress Resolution

THE 18th congress of the CPI(M) expresses its grave concern over the increasing violence and discrimination against women. The drastic fall in the juvenile sex ratio which is as low as 870 in the capital of the country, Delhi is shocking evidence of the extent of female foeticide and infanticide prevalent and of the declining status of women to which it is linked. Millions of girl children are being deprived of the basic right to exist and strong intervention is needed to bring this brutality to an end. The fact that this falling sex ratio is linked to increased dowry demands and expenditure on the marriages of daughters highlights the necessity for an intense campaign for social reform and gender equality.

Neo-liberal reforms have increased and added new dimensions to atrocities and discrimination against women in all spheres. Class violence against women has increased in both urban and rural areas and there is an increase in the number of vicious and humiliating attacks on dalit women especially. Industrial closures, growing unemployment and the crisis in agriculture have forced women to work longer hours for lower wages in unsafe environments and have rendered them more vulnerable to sexual assault and violence. The withdrawal of the State from the social sector deprives them of health and educational facilities, subsidized ration and other social welfare measures and is further increases their vulnerability. Incidents of sexual and violent attacks on women in the public sphere, at the workplace and in the home have all registered an increase. Unfortunately, official statistics do not reflect the reality. The passage of the Domestic Violence Bill is urgent. It is unfortunate that in spite of the Supreme Court’s directions given 5 years ago, the Central government has still not enacted a law against Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.

Communal and casteist mobilisations spawned in this era make women the special targets of their attacks. The increasing incidence all over the country of ‘honour killings’ of young men and women who dare to challenge caste, community and class norms by entering into self-choice marriages is one barbaric result of the sharpened caste and communal friction.

The role of the media, especially the electronic media and its blatant promotion of patriarchal values, consumerism, commodification of women and rituals and beliefs that promote son-preference and gender inequality has to be strongly condemned.

It is important to note that women are being targetted by coercive policies like the imposition of the 2-child norm, which even prohibits them from contesting local body elections and by imposition of family planning quotas. Their already fragile health is being further threatened by the use of invasive and dangerous contraceptives that have been introduced even in government family planning programmes.

Women of all communities continue to suffer from unequal personal laws that deny them equal rights in inheritance, marriage, marital property and custodial rights etc. and the reform of these laws is an urgent need..

The growing crimina-lisation of bourgeois parties has circumscribed the participation of women in the political sphere and their refusal to pass the Womens Reservation Bill keeps the numbers of women legislators and parliamentarians abysmally low.

It is imperative, therefore, that the issues of atrocities and discrimination against women not be seen as ‘womens issues’ around which struggles only by women are to be organized. They must be recognised as issues for general united, militant and consistent campaigns and struggles.

This 18th congress of the CPI(M) demands:

1. That womens rights to employment, equal wages, land pattas and ownership of property, to education, health facilities and access to credit be ensured.

2. Strict enforcement of laws against sex determination tests and campaigns against clinics and hospitals where such tests are being carried out.

3. Immediate passage of the Womens Reservation Bill.

4. Immediate passage of the Domestic Violence Bill and enactment of the law against Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act.

5. Complete rejection of all coercive population control measures, 2 child norm and invasive methods of contraception. Safe methods of contraception to be available to women.

6. Reforms of personal laws to guarantee equal rights for all women.

7. All court cases of crimes against women to be time-bound.

It urges that

• Campaigns be launched against irrational beliefs and practices that perpetuate gender inequality.

• Dowry-taking and ostentatious marriages be shunned.