Women’s Day: Rally Held Demanding ‘Work With Dignity”

TIRUCHIRAPALLI, TAMILNADU, MAR. 09, 2008 (CBCI News):

Welcoming ILO slogan for the International Women Day: “investing in decent work for women: not just a right but smart”, the CBCI Labour Commission held the International Women’s Day Celebration at Tamilnadu Laity Commission Centre, Pirattiyur, Trichy, on 7th and 8th March 2008.

The theme of celebration was the Women Empowerment and Micro Credit System. The meet had a special significance in the light of the recently concluded 28th General Body Meeting of CBCI which dealt with the theme: Empowerment of Women in Church and Society”.

In order to highlight the concerns of women, at the end of the two-day seminar, a huge rally of women workers was held at Kailasapuram, in which thousands of workers participated.

The rally, along with demand for decent work for women, they took a pledge to take steps for ensuring that the all labourers were made members of the labour welfare schemes of the governments. They also urged the government to set allocate five percent of the national income for the social security of laboures in unorganized sector and invest in decent work for women.

The two-day conference also felt that although women workers constitute a significant part of the country’s work force, they lag behind men in terms of equal opportunity and quality of employment. In order to improve their wages and working conditions, to enhance their skills and to open up for them better employment opportunities as well as to strengthen their bargaining capacity, the Government has enacted several legislations. These include the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 to protect and safeguard the interest of women workers at the workplaces. Even then the women workers are at a disadvantage, the participants lamented.

According to the 2001 Census, there are 127.22 million women workers in our country. They constitute 25.60 per cent of total female population of 496 million in absolute terms. The majority of women workers are employed in the rural areas. Among the women workers in the urban areas, 80 per cent are employed in unorganized sectors like household industries, petty trades and services, building and construction, etc. The employment of women in the organized sector (both public and private sectors) as on was about 4.935 million constituting 17.8 per cent of the total organized sector employment in the country. Majority of women workers in this sector continue to be employed in community, social and personal services sectors. The lowest employment of women has been noticed in electricity, gas and water sectors. In factory and plantation establishments women workers constituted 10% and 5% respectively while in mine establishments they constituted 5% of the total workers in 2000.

The rally was addressed by Tamilnadu minister Mr. K.N. Nehru, members of state legislature, K.N. Sekaran and M. Rajasekaran, CBCI Labour Commission Executive Secretary, Fr. Jose Vattakkuzhy, Trichy Vicar General Fr Thomas Paul Swamy, Fr. V. Louis and Mr. Jomon Cherussery.