Guyanese women issues discussed in London

Dec 04, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I salute the organisers of last week’s Guyana conference against domestic violence. Issues affecting Guyanese and other women were also discussed at a London meet organised by the Global Organisation.
An impressive array of speakers from around the globe addressed the London meet – including GOPIO V.P Ashok Ramsaran of Berbice, novelist Lakshmi Persaud, whose novel For the Love of My Name is based on Guyana and who taught at Queen’s College, and the well known Guyanese Chief Executive of Experience Corps Maggie Semple, who possesses an OBE and an Honorary doctorate for her lifelong work. Persaud’s presentation on the history of female migration to Guyana and West Indies captured the attention of the audience that included prominent Guyanese Profs. Bishnodat Persaud and Clem Seecharran and former West Indies cricket captain Alvin Kalicharran.
More than what was achieved at the Guyana meet, the London participants committed to propelling women at the centre of international development.
And like in Guyana, they spoke on the role of women in sustainable development, legal and marital issues of women, gender issues in education, culture and health, women in industry, multiple roles of women in education, social and economic development, politics and professional life and the influence of role-models on women to encourage them to make changes in their lives.
Lady Shruti Rana convened the conference. Her Holiness Anadmurti Guruma started the meeting with an inspirational invocation. Lord Diljit Rana, International President of GOPIO, spoke about the role of women in the Diaspora. Hon. Basdeo Panday, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, spoke about the dire issues concerning women and offered suggestions on how to address them. Ramsaran spoke on the many achievements of Guyanese and other women and the wide-ranging challenges they face. Lord Meghnad Desai also spoke on the problems facing women calling on governments to take steps to end their abuses. Baroness SandipVerma, Government Minister for International Development, Women & Equality resolved to harness the power of international women’s networks to bring about positive social and economic change for women.
Other speakers included Baroness Shreela Flather, Lord Narendra Patel KT, Dr. Piyush Agarwal, Lawyer Leela Ramdeen, Lakshmi Persaud; and Kamala Lakhdhir, US Consul General to Northern Ireland.
Lakshmi Persaud gave a brief history on the migration of Indian women to Guyana and Trinidad. She explained how and why Indian women were taken to colonies to halt the rapid decline of the sugar monoculture there and their contributions to society. “They came with a complex, comprehensive culture intact: a spoken and written language, food preparation rituals, their religion with its many festivals; music and dance; birth, marriage and death ceremonies, as well as an established hierarchy of people”.
Persaud noted that with emigration Indian women got “the opportunity to cast off aspects of tradition like the caste system which was debilitating and impeded human progress, giving them possibilities to be upwardly mobile”.
She also examined the role of education on Caribbean women. She pointed out that one of the most pitiful and harmful aspects of Indian Culture, was a neglect of the education of women and concern for their welfare. “This aspect of life was not perceived as the way forward for the family, by fathers and later by husbands and in-laws. The tradition they brought which had served them well and with which they tied their identity, was held on to, with the tenacity of a people who felt threatened by their lack of power in an alien, harsh environment”.
Persaud said that women being house bound and illiterate “had enormous long term, dire consequences. They were unaware of the pressing need to become literate in English in order to understand the expanding, changing world of progressive ideas as modernity marched through North America and Western Europe”.
But as women became more assertive, “fathers and husbands saw the pecuniary advantages that came with education, the once closed pattern became an open, ever expanding one of possibilities”. Today, women are taking full advantage of primary and secondary schools, national and regional universities. They have entered a wide field of endeavour attaining the pinnacle of their profession and today Trinidad proudly claims a woman prime minister”.
Persaud stressed that, “a good education is essential to the development of women; it forms the basis for all other aspects of development we are here concerned with, be it marital, industrial, legal, cultural and health issues”. But she noted that education alone will not give women equality because they face discrimination in salary and positions. She feels the workplace needs to be fair to women so they can become truly equal.
GOPIO plans to have its second International Women’s Conference – tentatively scheduled for August in Durban South Africa. The theme will be ‘The Role of Women in Leadership and in Society”.
Vishnu Bisram

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