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| Wednesday, 22 September 2004 |
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Gender Dialogue: Poor response women's rights Bill by Nadira Gunatilleke It seems the public response to the proposed Bill on 'Women's Rights (Sri Lanka)' is very poor. Specially the women's response to this new Bill which is to be presented in Parliament. It is sad to see that even though women represent 52.03 per cent of the Sri Lankan population, they are hardly interested in the new legislation which will benefit them immensely. Because of this situation they will miss the valuable chance of presenting their proposals (based on their own experiences) to the relevant authorities. The new Bill has addressed women's rights and their problems from the very basic level. But apart from very few non governmental organisations (NGO) nobody takes much interest on this Bill. Violence against women begins at home and within the nuclear family. Therefore it is very important to protect women from domestic violence. Article 7(1) ensures that women will be protected within the family. According to article 7 (1) of the proposed Bill, the State shall work towards taking all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations in particular and shall work towards ensuring a basis of equality among men and women. According to the above article, the same right is ensured in the following to women: to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent, the rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution, the same rights and responsibilities as parents, irrespective of their marital status, in matters relating to their children, so that in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount and there is no discrimination in any manner whatsoever between married and unmarried children. At present situation it is husbands or generally men (father, eldest brother or male guardian) who take above decisions very often. They hardly listen to their wives, sisters or daughters. But wives hardly admit it because they do not want get to involved in unnecessary conflicts with their husbands or reveal extremely personal family problems. The same article of the proposed Bill also states that women should have the same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights to be granted to the women, the same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose a family name, residence and domicile. At the moment Sri Lankan women hardly enjoy above rights. There should be a proper mechanism to ensure that all women enjoy those rights equally. At present only rich, educated and powerful women enjoy above rights because they have full control over their lives. But when it comes to poor, less educated rural women their lives are totally dominated by men (the father, elder brother, husband or eldest son). Some of those women do not know that rights exist in this world or they believe that demanding rights are going against traditions. Therefore a strong process that leads to a positive social change is needed parallel to the legislation. It is time to say openly what Sri Lankan women really want and what they do not approve. Sri Lankan women who represent 52.03 of the total population should not let this golden opportunity slip away from their hands. All of us can see that the legislation is the most powerful weapon available today against crimes. |
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