Women's equality stressed in May Day Message

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 11:37 GMT]
"Tamil Nationalism has embraced equality of women as a fundamental tenet. On this May Day we call upon everyone to join hands and work towards eradicating the remaining hurdles faced by women so that our social progress can reach still higher levels," said the Mullaithivu branch of the Centre for Women's Development and Rehabilitation (CWDR) in its May Day message released Friday.

More excerpts from CWDR's May Day message follow:

"Workers form the backbone of societies. May day is celebrated to reflect workers' aspirations and rights. However, we would like to stress that Women workers' rights have not been strengthened with the progress of time and advances in socio-philosophical thoughts.

"The world which recognizes the urgent need for the equality of genders, has also accepted that a disproportionate burden is carried by women. In work places, both official and domestic, women still struggle without parity in pay and without equal rights.

"While women are forced by modern needs to increasingly seek employment outside, traditional work at home is still expected to be carried out by her. She continues to function as the sole provider of childcare and all domestic work necessary for a family without any compensation. She has to confront sexual harassment, insecurity, and disparity in pay in many places of work.

"A solid foundation for the equality of genders is laid down in our national liberation struggle. Women have achieved successess equal to men in the battle field, in politics, administration and legal departments in Tamil Eelam. In the broad administrative framework established by our leader, women are not subjected to the web of discriminatory relationships based on physical differences.

"Let us all educate ourselves and join together in the journey to achieving progress in social relationships and economic prosperity. By eliminating gender distinctions and norms based on these distinctions, and respecting women's innate abilities, let us bring our women as a contented equal partner."