Ruth Manorama to strive to empower women

By Fakir Balaji Oct 1, 2006, 15:06 GMT

Bangalore, Oct 1 (IANS) Ruth Manorama, the third Indian woman to bag the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, says she would continue to fight for the rights of Dalit women and strive to empower all women irrespective of caste, creed and class.

In an interview with IANS, the 54-year-old activist said she would utilise her share of the award prize ($91,667) in building a resource centre for women in Bangalore, where one of her organisations - the Karnataka State Slum-Dwellers Organisation - had bought land.

'We will seek the state government's support for early clearance to build a resource centre for all sections of women. The award money will be utilised to equip the centre with all facilities.

'The facility will also double up as a crisis centre where women, especially from the marginalised sections can seek redressal. It will be a nodal centre to monitor all our activities, including plans to achieve basic rights such as housing, education, healthcare, jobs and better wages,' Manorama told IANS in an interview.

Though the Chennai-born Dalit Christian is the 11th Indian to receive the Livelihood honorary award, better known as the 'alternative Nobel Prize', she joins Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Ela Bhatt of SEWA, the other two illustrious women who were honoured by the Stockholm-based institute in the past.

The Bangalore-based rights activist will receive the award at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm Dec 8 along with Chico Whitaker Ferreira of Brazil and Daniel Ellsberg of the US, the other two award-winners for 2006.

Dedicating the award to the millions of deprived Indian women, Manorama said the international recognition would strengthen her resolve to fight for empowering women.

'We will be launching a national movement for the early implementation of the 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. Though such a reservation is in practice at the local body level in gram and zila parishads (panchayats), the representation is not in proportion, as many women have not come forward to contest due to discrimination, illiteracy and lack of political awareness.

'Apart from empowering the women politically and socially, the challenge ahead is the acceptance of our role in nation-building, changing the mindset of the people in a male-dominated society and providing equal opportunities to the deprived women in education, healthcare, jobs and the right to voice our stand in development issues,' Manorama said.

Manorama said she would expand the scope of her activities.

'Among my priorities are regularisation of slums in cities like Bangalore to provide well-built houses with basic amenities, abolition of manual scavenging and providing dignified jobs for women with equal wages, especially in the farm sector.

'The cities are not meant for the rich and educated only. There should be place for all, especially those who flock to cities and towns in search of jobs and livelihood. Why should these deprived sections of society be denied basic amenities?

'We will fight for granting special funds to develop slums and colonies. We hope the governments, non-government organisations and civil societies will join us to strengthen our cause and contribute their mite for social equity,' Manorama said.

Lamenting the menace of untouchability faced by Dalits irrespective of gender across the country even 59 years after Independence, Manorama said, 'If apartheid could be eliminated in South Africa after years of struggle, why can't untouchability of Dalits be eradicated in India?'

Incidentally, the Karnataka government has began implementing from this fiscal (2006-07) two of Manorama's schemes - to provide bicycles for school going girls belonging to the weaker sections and Rs.10,000 for every girl child living below the poverty line to prevent female foeticide. Their education will also be funded up to college level by investing the fund in long-term deposits with higher interest.

Recognised for her struggle to uplift Dalit women and fight for women's rights in general, Manorama was also honoured with the Rajyotsava award by the Karnataka government and the Ambedkar award by the government of India.

Besides heading the Karnataka State Slum Dwellers Federation, Manorama is associated with several women's organisations such as Women's Voice, National Alliance of Women, National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, Christian Dalit Liberation Movement and the National Centre for Labour.

Married to N.P. Samy, founder of the National Centre for Labour for the unorganised sector, Manorama lives in Bangalore with her two daughters.

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service