NAIROBI, 22 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - 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.