International Women’s Day
On 8th March 2002, the CUTS Centre for Human Development, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan celebrated the International Women’s Day, amidst a modest gathering of 50 women and 10 men, mostly from rural areas. Ms. Bhagawati Devi Jhala, leading social activist and member of zilla parishad (district-level self-governance body); Ms. Neeru Bai Ahir, member of the city municipality; Ms. Saraswati Devi Sharma, ward-member; and Dr. K. N. Bansal, Chief Scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra graced the occasion as speakers. Ms. Phepa Bai, leader of women’s self-help group chaired the contemplating session organised for the event. The Centre has been commemorating this event since last seven years.
The theme of this year’s discussion was “decreasing energy resources and challenges before women”. Objective of the deliberation was to disseminate information to the rural communities on the various sources of energy, current deficit in energy, and reasons thereof; and sensitise them on the subsequent adverse effects on women, so that they would be able to tackle the same.
The Government of Rajasthan has initiated power sector reforms in the agrarian state. Continuous drought has also affected availability of fuel-wood, cow-dung (an important source of alternative energy and cooking fuel), etc. among others. With these as backdrop and taking into account the ensuing problems of women, the Centre celebrated the day to evolve and take forward well-argued viewpoints and grassroots concerns in rural Rajasthan to the development community at large.
The participants identified the following issues:
- Need of energy for sustenance of life;
- Changing life-style patterns craving towards comfort/luxury and unsustainable consumption of energy;
- Limited resources of conventional energy;
- Lesser awareness on and usage of non-conventional and renewable energy sources;
- Severe exploitation of environment and inadequate replenishment of the same; &
- Most of the modern technologies benefiting the men.
- Complementary roles of women and men;
- Life-style and consumption patterns to be compatible with available energy sources;
- Protection, management and care of environment;
- Large-scale information dissemination on and awareness for non-conventional and renewable energy sources
- Increased and effective usage of non-conventional and renewable energy sources.
The following recommendations were proposed by them:
Ms. Shashi Prabha greeted the participants; Ms. Ganga Dadich and Ms. Hema Joshi coordinated the proceedings; Ms. Chandra Kala Purohit thanked the participants.
For detailed information, please contact:
Mr. Srinivas Krishnaswamy/Mr. R.K. Sharma
CUTS Centre for Human Development (CUTS-CHD)
Rawla, Senti
Chittorgarh – 312 025
Telephone: 91-1472-241472
E-mail: chd@cuts.org; cuts@cuts.org