By IANS,
New Delhi : Denied land entitlements, fighting for their rights and at the receiving end of many blind social customs – women activists and others, in order to improve their living conditions, have decided to form a national forum for single women.
Announcing the initiative at a press conference Tuesday, Ginny Shrivastava, an activist from Rajasthan, said the forum would be set up following a consultation that Oct 7-8 in the capital.
“We are here to redefine societal perspectives on single women and to sensitize the policy makers about the social marginalisation of widows and other single women,” she said.
Added Saraswati, who had come for the meet from Jharkhand: “We want to make sure that the day-to-day struggles that single women wage against unjust social customs like torture at the hands of in-laws, denial of social entitlements and the various forms of violence are made known to everyone.”
At a two-day consultation, where women representatives of 14 states will be present, all such issues will be discussed, experiences discussed and at the end, a national forum for single women’s rights will be formed.
Sushila Badala, member of the organising committee of the forum, said: “We won’t just finalise the forum formation but also work at sensitising a cross section of stakeholders, policy makers and others to the issue. We are also trying to meet the president and the Prime Minister’s Office in this regard.”
Amongst those who will be present in the consultation are Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Syeda Hameed, member of the Planning Commission, and Sushma Kapoor, deputy programme director of Unifem.