MEDIA RELEASE: 24 February 2010, New Delhi

To celebrate the centenary year of the International Women’s Day, at 11 a.m. today thousands of women workers from across India who are members of trade unions affiliated to the New Trade Union Initiative marched to Parliament chanting:

We’ve marched a hundred years, We’ll fight another hundred years, To win equality!

Asha workers, anganwadi workers and helpers, ANMs, domestic workers, safai karamcharis, and women workers from the garment industry highlighted their bad working conditions:

• Much of women’s economic activity is not recognized as work and therefore most women workers receive none of the rights of workers.
• Women’s work is underpaid by employers.
• Most women are employed in the unregulated sectors.
• Women face violence, both physical and mental, in the public places, workplaces and at home.
• The responsibility of taking care of the household unjustly falls primarily on women.
• Women have to face the brunt of price rise and the decline of public amenities.
• The basic demand for women’s employment is work with dignity.

Amarjeet Kaur, an Asha worker from Faridkot, Punjab and President of the Asha Workers Union said that “we are not respected by the doctors and nurses when we take women to the hospital for delivery of their babies. How can we perform our jobs as the first contact for delivery of health programmes, if the women see that the doctors and nurses do not respect us or listen to us?” She added that “we are being exploited in the name of being voluntary workers. Does the government expect us to be able to survive on a few hundred rupees a month? Why are we not recognised as employees of the health department and given at least minimum wages and other statutory benefits as workers?”

D. Thankappan, President, New Trade Union Initiative said “the responsibility of taking care of the household unjustly falls primarily on women. They also have to face the brunt of price rise and the decline of public amenities. Women are paid far less than men, even for the same job. This forces women to make their children work with them and even then it is not enough to meet basic daily necessities.”

M. A. Patil, Convenor of the Akhil Bharatiya Anganwadi Karamchi Kriti Samiti said that the Government is discriminating against Anganwadi workers and helpers by “not giving them the status of government employees” and by “not increasing the honorarium of 28 lakh workers who are given honorarium far less than minimum wages even as the government has revised service conditions of lakhs of government employees and given them substantial increase in emoluments.”

V. Chandra, Vice-President, New Trade Union Initiative demanded that “all women workers should be given one month’s earned leave every year and medical leave with full pay.”

Ashim Roy, General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative said that “We must unite to oppose all forms of discrimination based on gender as also those rooted in divisions of caste and religion. Working class unity can take roots in society only by eliminating it of all forms of discrimination and prejudices. The basic demand for women’s employment is work with dignity. In this centenary year of International Women’s Day the NTUI affirms to strive to build a working class solidarity based on principles of equal, democratic and just social relations between all sections of the working class to win our demands.”

The women workers and their unions vowed to fight for the following demands:

• At Work: Dignity of labour, to include:

- 8-hour work-day norm;

- Equal wage for equal work;

- Revision of the Minimum Wage to equal the living wage;

- Laws and public policy to ensure adequate and equal education and skilling for women;

- Ensuring an administrative mechanism so that equal skilling also translates into employment;

- Strict enforcement of workplace regulation to prevent harassment;

•  In Society and in the Family: Social and Economic Justice, to include:

- Immediate implementation of the  Social Security law;

- Legally guaranteed subsidised food for all through the PDS

- Decent housing for all;

- Public transport, to make travel safe for women and children;

- Schemes for crèche, childcare and children’s education;

- Equal right to property;

- Both parents to have equal rights in naming of a child;

- Immediate and proper implementation of the Domestic Violence Act;

 And bring an end to all forms of violence against women!

 For further information, contact:

• V. Chandra, Vice-President, NTUI (098 22 69 52 10);
• M. A. Patil, Convenor, Akhil Bharatiya Anganwadi Kriti Samiti & Vice-President, NTUI (098 20 01 39 61);  
• Ashim Roy, General Secretary, NTUI (098 25 02 74 12);
• Sujata Mody, President, Penn Thozhilarl Sangam & Joint Secretary, NTUI (099 62 50 01 69);
• Germanjit Singh, State Convenor, Mulazim Manch, Punjab (098 55 99 62 10)
• Harinder Singh Dosanj, President, Sehat Mulazim Manch, Punjab (098 14 67 01 46)

 New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)
B-137, First Floor, Dayanand Colony,
Lajpat Nagar IV,
New Delhi 110024
Telephone:               +91 11 26214538         +91 11 26214538
Telephone/ Fax:               +91 11 26486931         +91 11 26486931
Email: secretariat@ntui.org.in
Website: http://ntui.org.in

Source: http://www.unionbook.org/pg/pages/view/21302/