PRESS RELEASE & INVITE
Round Table Conference
INTERFACE-Dialogue Women and Government
Sub-theme 1: Strategizing To Ensure Land Ownership for Women
16 November 2012, Board Room, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
Sub-theme 1: Strategizing To Ensure Land Ownership for Women
Governance can be seen as the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences.
Women face numerous obstacles in achieving representation in governance. Their participation has been limited by the assumption that women’s proper sphere is the “private” sphere. Whereas the “public” domain is one of political authority and contestation, the “private” realm is associated with the family and the home. By relegating women to the private sphere, their ability to enter the political arena is curtailed. With only 10.8 per cent of women representation in the Lok Sabha and 10.3 per cent in the Rajya Sabha, India ranks 98 in the world, according to the data released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international group that works for promoting democracy, peace and co-operation in the world.In order to bring changes to socio-economic and political processes, women need to interface/dialogue with government at all levels.
The economic reality that Indian women possess less than 1% of agricultural land and few have control over own lands, led IWID to explore strategies to ensure agricultural land for rural women with ‘access and control’ over land. IWID identified more than individual ownership, collective farming by women will be an effective strategy towards ‘access and control’ of land by women and to build stronger ‘women alliance/unity’ which also will be a good strategy to build ‘Women Farmers’ body, an important political capacity of rural women.
India has signed in CEDAW and pledged to eliminate discrimination against women through plans, schemes, policy and legislation. It is important to lobby with Govt. to negotiate for rural women.
The National campaign for Women Farmers and Collective farming serves as a bridge between illiterate exploited rural women and educated sensitive urban women. This bridge will strengthen women alliance/unity to negotiate space in governance and bring equality to women
It is important to build a strong women forum/ group to negotiate and create space to lobby for land rights for women in the capital city of India.
In order to bring changes to socio-economic and political processes, women need to interface/dialogue with government at all levels. In order to do this; we are convening a one day round table conference on the topic “INTERFACE-Dialogue Women and Government:Sub-theme 1: Strategizing To Ensure Land Ownership for Women” on 16th November at Board Room, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.
For more information, kindly contact:
Ms Binalakshmi Nepram
Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network
Convenor, Northeast Women Initiatives for Peace
Email: Binalakshmi@gmail.com, Phone: 011-46018541
Dr.Neelavalli, Ph.D
Director, Initiatives: Women In Development
Email: neela2valli@gmail.com, Phone: 044-24799855