New Delhi, February 11 (MExN): 28 organisations and 126 individuals have written an Open Letter to the President of India and the Chief Minister of Nagaland expressing their solidarity with Naga women asserting their democratic rights. These strong voices of socio-political change from all over the Indian Union have demanded that the Nagaland State Government “uphold the rights of women, in this and other areas of law and governance” while implementing the “33% political representation of women in local bodies with immediate effect.”
The feminists have sharply condemned the “anti-women” position taken by “male dominated tribal bodies” such as the Nagaland Tribes Action Committee “in the name of protecting their tradition and customary practices that bar women from participating in decision-making bodies.” These bodies, the Open Letter noted, have chosen to ignore the “Constitutional principle of equality before law, thus denying the Naga women their electoral rights.” Through all this, the State has become “complicit in protecting patriarchal traditions to the detriment of principles of gender equality.”
Asking the government to resume the electoral process as well as “stop colluding with powers that promote anti-women practices of communities,” the group of activists, academics, journalists, writers, teachers, among others, has reiterated that Urban Local Bodies “are not traditional Naga institutions recognised by Article 371(A) of the Constitution but rather, Constitutional bodies under Part IX of the Constitution over which the traditional Naga bodies have no mandate.”
While the “unconstitutional demands” made by the tribal bodies have been condemned, the signatories to the Open Letter have strongly supported the struggle of Naga Mothers Association and others who have “consistently been fighting for peace, justice and the rights of Naga women for political representation in local bodies.
