ALL INDIA COORDINATION COMMITTEE OF WORKING WOMEN (CITU) MEETING AT HYDERABAD

The first meeting of the All India Coordination Committee of Working Women (CITU) after the 9th All India Convention, was held on 4-5 August 2010 at Sunadarayya Vigyana Kenadram, Hyderabad. The meeting was attended by members from all the states except Delhi, represented in the AICCWW. All the seven women office bearers of CITU and its President participated in the meeting.

A K Padmanabhan, President CITU, explained the decisions of the CITU Working Committee, which met in Delhi a few days ago and the immediate tasks before the working class movement, CITU and working women.

He recalled the call of the foundation conference of CITU to strengthen unity of the working class and said that the unity of the working class has reached a higher stage with the INTUC and BMS joining the other central trade unions in organising joint campaigns and struggles since September 2009.

For the first time after independence the INTUC joined the other central trade unions in giving a call for an all India general strike on 7th September 2010. Padmanabhan said that CITU should utilise the present unity attained at the top level and undertake an intensive and extensive campaign to approach all the workers, including members of other trade unions and those not affiliated to any trade unions.

Commending the role of working women in different struggles, particularly the anganwadi employees, ASHAs etc, Padmanabhan said that it was the responsibility of AICCWW (CITU) to ensure that a wide campaign was conducted among working women to create awareness on the demands and to ensure that working women in large numbers participate in the strike.

Hemalata, convener, AICCWW (CITU) placed the report which reviewed the 9th convention of working women and women’s participation in the 13th conference of CITU and representation of women in various committees of CITU. The report observed that the participation of working women from different sectors was better in the 9th Convention. The standard of discussions was higher and revealed the varied and expanding activities of CITU among working women. At the same time, it was also found that even after 30 years of AICCWW (CITU), the attitude towards working women still needs drastic change. Instances of women leaders of CITU finding being required to mobilise their own resources to meet travel expenses to attend meetings still occurred. Though there was visible increase in the representation of women in the conferences and decision making bodies of CITU, it was far below the women membership of CITU and needed to be improved.

The report made several important proposals on forming and improving the functioning of the coordination committees, identifying certain states as priority. Concrete proposals for the observance of the centenary of International Women’s Day were also placed.
25 members participated in the discussions on the report and fully endorsed it.

A compilation of some of the important CITU documents on working women, published by the CITU was released on the occasion. A book on the centenary of IWD was already published earlier on 8th March.

It was decided that a second publication on the occasion of the centenary of IWD, a book on the demand for eight hours work, would be published by November 2010 a series of pamphlets highlighting the demands of Equal Wages, Maternity benefits and crèches and 33 percent reservation for women in legislative bodies would also be published.

The meeting concluded amidst an atmosphere of great confidence and determination to organise working women to play their due role in the working class movement of the country.

Source: www.citucentre.org