There’s a landmark picture doing the rounds – of 37 women and 4 men standing proud as they posed during the first W20 session held at Ankara, Turkey. Most of you know about the G20 talks by now and the importance they hold. W20 falls under the same umbrella, launched only this year to discuss women’s issues in a global arena. A few decades down the line, this photo would have made it to the halls of history as the inaugural session, the founding stone for these talks. And there’s not a single Indian face except for a statutory UN official present there.
Why? Because India failed to nominate a female representative to attend these talks. Delegates from host Turkey, Australia, the US, France, Germany among other big economies have held forth on the burning issues of empowerment and employment in these meetings. India’s absence was conspicuous given its size and place among the members.
Officials in the host camp blamed India’s absence on the government’s failure to finalise the names. They denied that it reflected India’s reluctance to send delegates but said the government was probably unable to choose three persons from the crowded field of contenders wanting to be in W20 and Y20.
Dr Gulden Turktan, W20 president, told TOI, “W20 wrote to India in June for three names but there has been no response.” She expressed hope that India would revert soon as the engagement groups finalise their reports to be factored in by the G20 in its heads of government summit in Antalya in November.
Given the kind of burning issues of gender discrimination and enforced backwardness that women in India face, it makes it all the more important that we made sure our voice was heard there. Incidentally, a forum for youths, Y20 too was inaugurated. But here too, no Indian was nominated to represent the country at the forum.
Even if this is not due to our government’s reluctance to send delegates, it is very likely the result of the applications itself being buried under the giant mound of paperwork that marks our over-large Indian bureaucracy. Probably a babu who doesn’t check emails (because he/she is still not computer savvy), or a minister who sat too long on the names by which time the last date was already past.
Whatever the reason might be, it’s a poor excuse to cut such a sorry figure on a global forum. It gives the impression that our government probably doesn’t care that much about women’s issues, which may probably be true. We are after all governed by politicians who don’t hesitate to blame women for everything.
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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