Realities of HER story

UN celebrates with the theme 'Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality':

Origins of International Women’s Day

The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975. Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

March 8 (Tuesday) is International Women's Day, a day fought for and declared by the progressive international women's movement in militant gatherings and mass actions against exploitation, oppression, poverty and injustice.

The origins of Women's Day dates back to 1917, when Russian women chose the last Sunday in February to strike for 'bread and peace'. Four days later, Czar Nicholas ll was forced to abdicate and the Provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

Bread and Peace are still relevant issues for women in Sri Lanka, perhaps more so today, as the country faces the challenge of converting the January and August 2015 election victories to meaningful good governance and ensuring the economic wellbeing of a nation.

The near 30-year war ended in 2009. But seven years on, many of the women in the North and East are still suffering the consequences, which forced them out of their houses, left them widowed and made them sole breadwinners for their family. Many more across the country are caught in the vortex of an unforgiving economy that places upon them the onus of putting bread on the table and keeping the home fires burning.

The UN sponsored theme for this year's International Women's Day is 'Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality'. Governments are expected to focus on new commitments under UN Women's 'Step It Up' initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women's empowerment and women's human rights, while at the same time, reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals.

However, from a Sri Lankan perspective, given the economic burden that is being increasingly placed on the woman's shoulders and the spike in violence against women where sexual harassment, rape and murder have become everyday occurrences, it is pertinent that the day not be wasted on mouthing platitudes that mean diddly squat in real terms, but concrete measures be put in place to ensure that women are given due respect, due recognition and their safety is ensured cementing the commitments on gender equality, women's empowerment and women's human rights.

Essential rights of women

Any act that violates the essential rights of women should be deemed an act of violence. This means safeguards need to be in place against not just brutal acts of the physical kind, but also issues like economic disparities, women's rights in the work place, their vulnerability in the post-conflict situation where they have become sole bread winners and care givers of their families, and their wellbeing when they become migrant workers.

Though we've come far in advocating women's rights, these are areas that need attention, now more than ever, as the country battles to wade its way from the muddy mire of a disintegrating economy in the home front and accountability issues beyond its borders.On a global scale, we have recorded significant advance in gender development with a ranking of 89, which is higher than the average for an Asian country.

However, gender empowerment, when compared with modern standards remains relatively low. This is ironic given the fact that Sri Lanka was the first country to produce a female Head-of-State. We've even had a female Executive President.

It's the development/empowerment disparity that underscores the essential realities affecting Sri Lankan women.

The quarter century long war has had a debilitating effect on women and their status in society - leaving many widows, creating a situation where women with very little knowledge of income earning methods, few skills and financially marginalised have been thrust into the role of breadwinners. Paradoxically Sri Lanka's economy rests to a very large extent on the shoulders of women, with earnings from foreign employment, the tea and garment sectors constituting the bulk of the country's earnings.

Tale of woe

Marginalised women represent around 80 per cent of the unskilled migrant labour force working in the Middle East and South-East Asian countries.

Over the past few years there have been numerous new reports highlighting the tales of woe where many of these women have suffered untold hardships, including beatings, torture and even death, due to lack of cross-border employment agreements and regulatory practices between national governments.

Tea plantations account for two thirds of all plantations and employ a very large number of women but almost all are in unskilled or semi-skilled work such as plucking tea-leaves, sweeping and collecting tea dust.

They work in semi-slave conditions weighed down by illiteracy, malnutrition and improper sanitation. Almost all plantation workers are organised in trade unions but the number of women holding positions in them is negligible and to date they rarely, if ever, take up specific issues affecting women workers.

Women in Sri Lanka certainly have political empowerment; after all universal franchise was an established fact in the country long before it become a reality in many other countries.

Unfortunately, this does not necessarily translate a high political profile for the average woman, nor does it represent the involvement of women in policy-planning and decision-making at higher levels.

All this indicates just how vulnerable women are in 21st century Sri Lanka. Her role as a worker, as an important cog in the human resources chain may have become crucial for the country's economy, but her position still remains vulnerable. 'Step It Up for Gender Equality' may be part of this year's Women Day theme, but how can there be gender equality as along as women continue to be vulnerable and if there is no clear identification or recognition of their rights as human rights?