Weed Out Gender Discrimination at Homes First, Panellists Tell At ICGE

KOZHIKODE:
Discrimination against transgender individuals must end at the domestic level primarily for society to extend them a level playing field and ensure their social and financial betterment, an international event noted today.

Also, the government should devise a system that recognises the work of women in household activities. The voices of rural and urban women in the informal sector must find their place in public policies, according to speakers at the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-II) here at The Gender Park campus in Kozhikode.

Transgender individuals must no more face social stigma, Kerala Health, Social Justice and Women and Child Development Minister K K Shailaja Teacher said. “They need nobody’s sympathy either. It is equal opportunities that should exist for them in a civilised society,” she said in the opening session of the February 11-13 conclave. “Our state guarantees that no child will be treated differently on the basis of sex. Transgender children will get the same educational privileges like anyone else in schools.”

The second edition of ICGE-II is being organised by Kerala’s Department of Women and Child Development in partnership with UN Women, a body of the United Nations. With 90 speakers and 16 sessions, the high-profile conclave explores measures to boost the economic potential of women and transgender persons to equip them as sustainable entrepreneurs.

The Minister, while delivering a special address at a session on ‘Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment, said the government was going ahead with its reforms in the sectors of education and health in ways that take care of women and transgender persons. “All people are entitled to a dignified life,” she added.

Transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam noted that absence of vocations forced non-binary people into beggary or sex work even in cities. “Rejected at home, school and society, most of them miss a good education. They migrate to urban centres, but fail to find a decent job,” said the speaker, who runs the Sahodari Foundation for underprivileged transgender people. “More than short stay homes, they require acceptance from the family. None should treat them as sub-humans”, she added.

Kalki highlighted the need to include transgender persons in employment-oriented skills for them to earn white-collar jobs too. “Some of them are potential entrepreneurs. There are product-makers, but most of them have no exposure to marketing techniques,” the speaker said, exhorting for their training and monitoring. “Further, they should be given counselling on psychological and physiological matters.”

Renowned economist Dr Jayati Ghosh said women stand most affected owing to Covid-19, which has dealt a body blow to the Indian economy. Social policies should give a fresh focus to ‘stress test’ for the resilience of those deeply affected by unexpected shocks of wide ramifications, she said.

“Women were disproportionately thrown out of their jobs, domestic violence against them has increased, they are reeling under hunger and to top it all their household chores had increased during the lockdown,” said Dr Ghosh, a Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Calling upon women to take up economic activities in a big way, she said cooperatives could take a lead on this front.

Social worker Renana Jhabvala, who heads SEWA Bharat that promotes the low-income and independently-employed female workers, said women should themselves recognise the value of labour they put in. “Administrations and researchers, too, ought to take account the value of women’s activities in the household,” she said. “Women must be entitled to not just payment, but housing and insurance for their work. They must find representation in policy-making bodies at the local, national and international levels.”

International Labour Organisation Director (Enterprises Department) Victor can Vuuren the present pandemic can work as a wake-up call to recognise the role of women in the informal sector. As the oldest agency under the UN, the ILO recommends, among others, a policy for female entrepreneurs, inclusion of transgender individuals in its formulation, non-discrimination in payment and encouraging their entry into marketing, he added.

The three-day conference, which commenced on Thursday abiding by the COVID-19 protocol, will conclude on February 14.