National Congress for the progression of Women’s resource base…

On Thursday, I went with Bridgit to a national conference for womens’ rights. One of Bridgit’s Indian friends had organised the conference and Bridgit does a lot of work in support of the women’s rights organisation she runs. Bridgit was there to type the minutes and so I asked whether I could tag along.

It was a very interesting day with women from many different regions in India there to share their experiences and put forward their proposals. The conference was conducted in Hindi, Tamil but mainly English and began with some traditional songs about equality and putting an end to poverty, as well as a ceremony where an oil lamp was lit and then coconuts were presented to the main speakers.

I learned that in India women make up only 35% of the workforce as opposed to over 50% in Europe. The whole day was quite fascinating as we heard of many projects in place where women who wouldn’t normally work were being given skills in agriculture and masonry. The consensus seemed to be however that many things currently being done to help women and reduce poverty here are extremely short term and there needs to be more focus on long term schemes which allow women to become a part of the working community and support their families financially.