The 16th All India Conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) held in Chennai recently called for women’s ‘jail bharo’ agitation on March 6 to further the struggle for women’s equality in all respects and against social oppression.
Though it was planned to organise the struggle on March 8, the International Women’s Day, it was advanced since March 8 falls on a Sunday.
Expressing deep sense of anger and concern at the increasing violence and atrocities committed on women and children in the country, a resolution adopted in the conference in Chennai alleged that violence against women and children had seen a sharp rise since the BJP government-led by Modi came to power at the centre.
“On the one hand, discrimination against women in all spheres continues unabated, on the other, their economic exploitation and social oppression utilising the prevalent social attitude of treating them as second class citizens, had reached extreme proportions under neoliberalism,” the resolution said.
“On the other hand, discrimination against women in all spheres continues unabated on the other their economic exploitation and social oppression utilising the prevalent social attitude of treating them as second class citizens, had reached extreme proportions under neoliberalism,” the resolution said.
The conference pointed out that as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, women’s work participation rate had fallen from 41.6% in 2004 to 22% in 2017-18.
“Women who seek jobs mostly get precarious jobs, which are recognised neither by the society nor by the government as ‘work’; nor are they reflected in statistics. It is estimated by a high level panel of UN that over 51% of work done by women in India is unpaid and not counted in national statistics,” the resolution further said.
Lower wages
The conference said it was estimated that women’s wages are 34% less than that of men doing the same job in rural areas, and 19% less in urban areas in our country. “India has the highest gender wage gap. Contrary to popular belief, this increases with high qualification and seniority,” the resolution added.
Another resolution demanded the immediate repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and rejection of NRC and NPR.
The conference elected K. Hemalatha as the president of the CITU and Tapan Sen as the general secretary. The treasurer is M.L. Malkotia.
