Women, especially in the developing world, who continue to bear the burden of the negative impact of globalisation, must fight for their rights, a Kenyan civil rights activist said on Monday at the World Social Forum (WSF).
"We are not powerless; women are standing together in spite of the burden to dispossess us," Wahu Kaara, an activist and one of the organisers of the WSF, said at the United Nations offices in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The seventh WSF, under the banner, ‘People’s struggles, people’s alternatives - Another world is possible’, began on 20 January in Nairobi. It is intended to counter the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where leaders from business, politics, academia, the media and civil society discuss how to improve the world economy.
Monday's conference by the World Court of Women on Poverty was entitled ‘Lives, livelihoods and life worlds’.
Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of UN Habitat, said globalisation had contributed to the suffering of women as they continued to bear the burden of its negative impact.
Because of globalisation, Tibaijuka said, increasing urbanisation had resulted in larger slum areas, thereby propelling many women into destitution and poverty and exposing them to violence and insecurity.
"Slums pose a serious challenge to development and the girl-child and women continue to bear the brunt of urban poverty because they lack basic facilities, ownership, credit facilities and education," she said. "They are also exposed to prostitution, HIV/AIDS and risk being trafficked across borders."
Participants spoke against violence, saying they wanted the world to continue to hear their voice. A woman from Bangalore, India, who asked to be referred to as Shokun, said violence was a major cause of death for women in India.
"An average of 100 women die every month due to burns from domestic deaths," she said.
She added that domestic violence was not as a result of cultural orientation but because of the pressure women face due to increased consumerism and globalisation.
"The so-called development and progress have taken away women's source of livelihood," she said. "Urbanisation has taken away land that was used for agriculture and now the woman has to look elsewhere for food and if she does not provide, she's in trouble with the husband. Dowry has never killed a woman in India; this violence is a new culture."
Shokun said urbanisation had also contributed to increased prostitution and trafficking of women and children who were sold for sex and as cheap labour.
A participant from Kenya, Milly Wanjiku, who is the sole breadwinner for a family of seven and lives in a slum in Nairobi, spoke about her plight as a casual labourer.
"Women workers have no say at all. I carry stones the whole day and at the end of the day, I go home with only Ksh100 [US$1.50] that does not cater for the needs of my family; sometimes the money does not even come on the same day. These people exploit us," she said.
The World Court of Women is "a space for women to come together to hear and support each other in the struggle against poverty, violence, oppression and war", Corinne Kumar, the international coordinator of the court, said.
ro-lo/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
