Give women their due

SOME very thought-provoking observations made by President Mahinda Rajapakse on International Women's Day, we hope, would help in bettering the condition of the Lankan woman.

Such thought inputs should lead ideally to structural changes in our political system which would eventually conduce to women's empowerment.

The Mahinda Chinthanaya manifesto was right in pointing out the need for increased women's representation at all levels of governance for the purpose of ensuring enhanced women's well-being.

This is, at bottom, a problem of democratic development. It is political power that leads to women's empowerment and as long as women are not adequately represented at the relevant levels of governance, women's empowerment would remain a distant dream.

If women are enabled to access decision-making bodies and contribute substantially and actively towards law-making, the chances are that their lot would improve vastly.

Therefore, the quality of local democracy matters a lot in this context. If the local political system is not sufficiently democratized, the possibility of empowering women would proportionately decrease.

If the political system is sufficiently accommodative and promotive of women's participation in the democratic process, women's empowerment would prove a distinct possibility and we would have women's advancement to a substantial degree.

The task, therefore, before decision-makers and policy-planners is to sufficiently democratize our political order to enable women's full participation in the democratic process.

More and more women should run for election to local, provincial and national legislative bodies and get into the seats of power. This would enable them to influence the policy and law-making process and render it sensitive to women's interests.

Now as never before are these top priorities. As President Rajapakse has pointed out, it is women and children who suffer most as a result of conflict and war.

The armed conflict in the North-East may not have contributed towards resolving minority grievances but it has produced vast "armies" of war widows and orphans - North, South, East and West. So grave are these problems that one would tend to agree with the President that taking-up arms is tantamount to being anti-woman and child.

Hopefully, such inhumanity would not be our lot. Peace should be established to enable every man, woman and child of Sri Lanka to lead useful, effective lives.

Besides, it should be fully realised that the women of this country are silently and indefatigably powering the country's economy. The Lankan woman tends to be taken for granted perhaps because she labours noiselessly most of the time, thinking dolefully that fate has decreed her sad lot.

This, however, should not be the case in a vibrant democracy where every citizen matters. Women, who contribute some 60 percent of the national income and bring in Rs. 70,000 million annually in foreign exchange, should be given parity of status with men and enabled to savour her inherent dignity.

An obstacle to achieving these aims is the patriarchal nature of Lankan society.

Women continue to be viewed through a conservative lens and are relegated in some sections to second-class status.

The fact that we obtained Universal Adult Franchise in 1931 would not prove important as long as women are prevented from participating fully in the democratic process. This disheartening situation must change.