Foster mothers in the past are now compelled to work as surrogate Mums

June 13th, 2010

“The overthrow of mother right was the world historic defeat of the female sex. The man took command in the home also; the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude; she becomes the slave of his lust & a mere instrument for the production of children.”

I would like to put my thoughts with these feelings of famous philosopher Frederick Angels. In this auspicious occasion of International Worker Women’s Day, I would sincerely denounce all forms of anarchies imposed for whatever reasons upon women by men.

In the initial days of GEFONT, presence of women in the policy making structures was almost zero. Realising the importance of women’s representation, we have ardently raised the agenda of women’s presence in all committees. We reviewed the history of union movement in other countries, studied their experiences and practices and discerned that women’s entry in the union was prohibited in some countries where in some others there were only women’s unions rather than both of men and women. The KWWU of Korea, KAD & practice of Denmark, SEWA of India etc are some examples in point.

Then we questioned ourselves: what are these all for? For the number? And, what are the numbers for? Is it for equal rights, decent work and dignified life?

Then we developed our opinion: men-women partnership. But what is this partnership for? 

Then we said equality as we mean is not that men and women are same. What we mean is the women remain like women and the men like men.

The role inherited in men be exercised by men and here the women should support them to exercise the right; likewise the role inherited in women be of the women and there the men should support the women to exercise the right.

We thought that the place we are working in is the tool for capital development where the workers are exploited using all means available, foul or fair: class-based exploitation and gender based social oppression!  

Then we reached to the conclusion that socially constructed such custom and practice brought division between women as oppressed and men as oppressor, and we called it patriarchy. Those who say ‘the patriarchy rains the society’ be they men or women; we called them ‘feminists’!

The notion “we are male, you are female” creates division between men and women in workplace and it weakens them to fight against economic exploitation. So we accentuate patriarchy as common enemy of men and women.

And, we accepted: as the capitalism propagates class based society through reinvention of production so does the patriarchy in male dominated society. This kind of power relations exist at home, in family, society and the state, and the result is discriminatory and repulsive society.                              

Admitting the fact, we for the first time formed Central Women Workers Department (CWWD) in 1992 aiming at breaking the “culture of silence” of the women who have been enduring the oppression for century.

Paulo Freire has said, change is not possible without sitting the oppressed and the oppressor together and listening to each other. As said by Freire, we drafted a policy with a provision that there would be 25 percent of women’s participation in each men related programme and vice versa. We prioritised as number one the physical presence of women in decision making level of the organisation and provisioned in the policy to invest in capacity building of women members.

We reemphasised each men and women member should, not only present in the committee but also actively participate in it. Then, we coined a slogan: Not only representation, but equal participation! 

With the passing of days, we could materialise the slogan and the result is this conference. Today as I stand before you, I proudly admit that GEFONT is one of the organisations to ensure 33 percent of women’s representation in its structures. And this is the provision as set by the reinstated House of Representatives to ensure women’s participation in all state structures.    

We assertively claim that whatever we have achieved in the last two decades in the sector of women in general and women workers in particular, the contribution of our joint struggle has always remained significant. At a time when we were voicing the women’s issues, our labour market was completely atrocious in terms of gender equality. On the one hand, the income generating activities supposed to be under the control of women in developing and developed countries was completely controlled by men workers in our country and on the other hand, informal sector works which was not recognised as income generating activities was like a sole responsibility of women. There was an incomparable gap between the men and women workers in terms of wage, opportunity and facility.    

There was a gulf of discrimination between son and daughter even in access to basic facilities like health and education. The sons were granted with opportunities including right to inheritance and clan where the daughters deprived of it. Even the participation of women in politics was zilch. 

All these above incidents may sound like a parable for us now. But they were reality some 20 years ago. At this moment, as I am speaking here in this conference, I recall Swasti Bajracharya, the first Coordinator of CWWD, and would like to thank her. ‘Comrade, the future generation will always bear in mind your contribution to our movement!’ 
 
I would like to express my gratitude to Honourable Defence Minister Bidhya Bhandari, for her leading role as Coordinator of CWWD even in such critical situation when the whole nation was mourning at the demise of People’s Leader Madan Bhadari. ‘Comrade, we owe you for your leadership role and mobilisation of women keeping hope alive in such crucial period.’

As I am giving a brief introduction about this conference, I must reemphasise that the National Women Workers’ Conference is aimed at changing unequal and inhuman behaviour persistant in society, workplace and at home within the ‘realm of GEFONT’. We have already organised three such conferences in the past aimig at addresing the labour issues, development and revision of labour policies, programmes and activities. These conferences have given abundance input and suggestions to the development of GEFONT Gender Policy in implementation now.

Our struggle was not easy and smooth in retrospect. I feel that the fight against inherent wrongs is more challenging than the fight against visible enemy. This is the essence of our struggle for about three decades now. In our understanding, those who hold power, be it political or community, never give it up easily and at their will. Change in power relations has never come through a smooth road. We must travel through a murky road to achieve change, and we must understand the fight between the groups of men women for their rights in this context.   

As the President of GEFONT, I must make it clear that the wrongs yet to transform within us are the hurdles to equitable workplace and society. On this ground, we have said that our struggle continues.     

If so, what are the focused agenda of our movement? First, we must internalise the changing context and patterns of employment owing the globalisation –

• Women have no control over their body even today. The women who used to care the children of aristocrats as foster mothers in the past are now compelled to work as surrogate mums. They are compelled to bear the brunt of rearing child even of those unknown but aligned to provide them love and affection. As Karl Marx said, this is the example of alienation of the century.    We must also link the domestic violence to this context and continue our struggle against the inhuman crime against women.   
• Our homes and villages are going to be ‘no men’ places. All men are immigrating to earn in foreign land. As a result the women are overburdened by double works both as bread winners and as carers of the family. This way they are double victimised and are pushed to further deteriorating condition. 
• Our society is gradually deconstructing the conventional social structures. The joint family is changing into nuclear one. The women of this generation and culture are entering in the labour markets. They are making their presence in the unconventional jobs. To dump the existing discriminations, we have to think from a new height – how we can bring balance between works and life!
• The representation of women has reached to 33 percent from zero. This is time to think how to sustain it and how to contribute to increase their capacity. If the women are more in the committees and less as members in the organisational structures, it may create a risk of imbalance within the organisation. So how can we organise the women in the world of work under the union movement?

Our conference will dwell upon and discuss these pertinent issues until the next day. It will also revisit the existing Gender Policy of GEFONT to fit it with the context.

The conference will seriously discuss how to institutionalise the achievements made to date, thereby making the slogan of equal right, decent work and dignified life a reality. It will widely discuss agenda to make the new constitution friendly to women workers.

As the President, I wish a grand success of the conference and best wishes on the occasion of 100th International Worker Women Day to all those present here!

(Keynote speech delivered in the inaugural session of the Fourth National Worker Women Conference organised by GEFONT in the context of 100th International Worker Women Day.)