Women's Political Manifesto

NAWO Women's Political Manifesto March 1996

The National Alliance of Women's Manifesto and Charter of Demands 1996, which is before you now, is the culmination of several meetings and consultations at the grassroots level all over the country with women from various sectors, classes, occupations and backgrounds.

This Manifesto and Charter of Demands was framed by networks of regional groups which form part of the National Alliance of Women (NAWO), and adopted at the National Consultation on Mainstreaming Women's Agenda in Electoral Politics organised for the purpose, held in New Delhi, March 20th to 21st, 1996.

We, As Women :

1. ■ Have been denied our social, economic and political rights over the years, and we represent ourselves as women, to redeem our social and political right. We, as a group, stand with others who are struggling against the denial of social, economic and political rights, especially the women who have borne the double and triple burden by being Women, part of Oppressed and Deprived Castes or Communities, and part of Oppressed Classes which -
2. ■ Represent half the population of the country, and yet are the vast majority living below the poverty line, as illiterate, marginalised.
3. ■ Account for three fourth of the production by toiling in the fields, factories, forests, mines, hills, rivers and seas, yet receive only one tenth of the total remuneration for our labour, not to mention the unpaid and invisible work that we do to produce and nurture future generations, sustain families, and communities.

We are Concerned About

1. ■ The globalisation of our national economy and the growing debt trap.
2. ■ The assault on our natural resources, resulting in dispalcement of millions of people, and the deprivation, denial of so many, to a life of dignity.
3. ■ The ecological degradation threatening life in al its forms.
4. ■ The dominant development paradigm which has marginalised local sustainable life systems.
5. ■ The commercialisation and privatisation of basic services resulting in basic needs being denied to the masses.