City Of Fears: Is Delhi Any Safer For Women?

By Kajol Singh / INN Bureau

For a city that has witnessed unprecedented anti-rape protests, boasts four helplines for women — 100, 1091, 1096 and 181 — has Delhi become any safer? Not really. Revisiting the Munirka bus stop from where the young physiotherapy student took a private bus on December 16, while women continue to travel in buses that ply in late evenings, their journeys are fraught with  fear.

Deepa Joshi, a 25-year-old who boards a bus from the stand five days a week told the newspaper that her parents still get worried and call her up to ask her whereabouts.

Like many women who use public transport out of necessity, Joshi feels safer because she abides by a set of unwritten rules for women in the city. She dresses demurely, makes no eye contact, avoids the more crowded buses and gets home early. In short, she takes all the advice that was handed out to women by the police and politicians in the wake of the December protests.

Fair edge: Women voters outnumber men in 6 states

By Kajol Singh

More Women Show Up At Booths But Remain Under-Represented In Parliament

Political parties may be chary of agreeing on 33% reservation for women and they might still be under-represented in Parliament, but they form an influential votebank that netas can ill afford to ignore as there now are about 33 crore registered women voters, only marginally less than 36 crore male voters.

According to the 2009 electoral rolls, women voters are in a majority in six states — Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Puducherry. While Andhra has 2.86 crore women voters as opposed to 2.80 crore men, in Kerala the ratio is 1.11 crore women to 1.03 crore men and Manipur has 8.97 lakh women compared to 8.29 lakh men.

While Meghalaya has 6.48 lakh registered female voters and 6.28 lakh men, Mizoram accounts for 3.17 lakh women in comparison to 3.08 lakh men. The state of Puducherry boasts of 3.91 lakh women to 3.63 lakh men on its voters’ list.

It is no surprise that even in states where women do not outnumber men as voters, governments have made it a point to announce women-oriented schemes, with Madhya Pradesh being a good example. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced several schemes for women and girl children. Even the Delhi government has a ‘ladli’ scheme and the poll manifestoes of parties are bound to devote more than a few paragraphs to this important constituency.

According to records, while the total number of registered female voters has increased from 32.19 crore in 2004 to 33.75 crore in 2009, the number of women-majority states has come down from seven to six.

There is a slight departure from the 2004 poll data where Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Daman and Diu had more registered women voters than men. But in the 2009 rolls, the number of registered male voters has overtaken women in both TN and Daman and Diu. However, Meghalaya made an entry as a state with a higher women voter registration. This is unlikely to stop the ruling DMK from announcing schemes like free stoves and gas connections.

Incidentally, turnout of women has been around 60% in the last two general elections (1999 and 2004) with Lakshadweep recording the largest number of women voters.

Participation of female voters has been traditionally 10% lower compared to male voters.

There has been an upward trend in participation of female voters. In 1962 elections, only 46.6% female voters made their way to the booths which increased to 57.86% in 1998.

The highest poll turnout was in 1984 during which 59.2% women cast their votes.

This has, however, not reflected in the representation of women in Parliament which is about 8%. In over 50 years of Independence, the percentage of women in the Lok Sabha has increased from 4.4 to 9.02%, a figure that continues to be lower than the 15% average for countries with elected legislatures.

Neighbouring countries have already implemented a quota for women — such as Nepal with 33%, Pakistan with 22%. Even Bangladesh has a 14% quota.

Encouragingly, during the last four elections, large but relatively backward states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan elected a higher number of women MPs compared to more developed and urbanised states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Women MPs from these states accounted for more than 40% of the total number of female representatives in the three successive Lok Sabhas since 1991.

On the contrary, the four relatively developed states accounted for only around 30% of the total women MPs in 1991 elections and less than 20% in 1996 and 1998 and about 25% in the 1999 elections.

‘ISLAM GRANTS WOMEN RIGHTS TAKEN BY PATRIARCHY'

By Bismah Fatima / Hyderabad

Author and curator Samina Ali has written a novel, founded a feminist organization, been an ambassador, and the one strand running through all her work is her determination to create a greater awareness about Islam. “There’s nothing in the faith itself that diminishes women – it’s power, politics, and sometimes a purposeful misapplication of Islamic law,” said Ali. Ali’s most recent project is the International Museum of Women’s Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art and Voices, an online exhibition about Muslim women that she has curated. INN chat informally in an interviewed with Samina ali. Excerpts of the chat:

The Power of 49 - Can Women Change 'Vote Bank Politics'?

By Siddhi Sharma | INNLIVE

POLITICAL INSPIRATION Comprising 49 per cent of the electorate, Indian women could easily skew the general elections any which way they like. 

Power of 49 initiative for women, was launched in August 2013 with an objective to awaken women, inspiring them to cast an informed and independent vote and exercise the power they have to make or break a government in the forthcoming elections. The campaign was born out of the insight that women do not get their due from the establishment because they don’t participate fully in the electoral process.

'Power of 49' is a campaign to encourage women to vote this election. Indian Woman today influences the economy , the growth and also the stability of our nation. As it is famously believed that , A man has his will but women has her way. It’s evident in every facet of life that women influence a lot of decision-making around us.

Can Islam liberate women?

By Sameera Altaf

Muslim women and scholars think it does - spiritually and sexually.

We're sitting in a stylish club, ArRum, in Clerkenwell, central London. Firelight is flickering on the leather sofas, there is contemporary art on the walls and delicious "fusion" food on the table, but what distinguishes this club from its many neighbours is that it is Muslim, there is no alcohol on the menu and downstairs there's a prayer room. The stylish place conveys a complex ethos - modern, yet true to its Muslim identity.

A suitable setting, then, chosen by the six Muslim women who agreed to meet me to discuss Islam and the position of women. All university graduates, all in their mid-twenties in careers ranging from journalism to teaching, all have chosen in the past few years to wear the hijab (a scarf wrapped tightly around their heads to conceal every wisp of hair). Most strikingly, however, all of these women fluently and cogently articulate how they believe Islam has liberated and empowered them. The Islam they describe is a million miles away from that of the Taliban, let alone the Islam practised in many Muslim countries from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, but they insist - and back up their points with Koranic references - that the Islam they first discovered when they were teenagers is true to the Prophet's teachings. They don't need western feminism, which, they argue, developed as a reaction against the particular expression of western patriarchy.

Within the Koranic tradition and the life of the Prophet lie the rights and inspiration a woman needs to achieve her full potential - the challenge ahead is to educate Muslim girls and women so that they have that knowledge. They justify wearing the hijab, either as a public statement of their own spiritual quest, or of their political identity in a world where Islam perceives itself as under threat, or both.

Shagufta, the 25-year-old editor of the Muslim magazine Q News, was brought up in London, in a traditional Pakistani home where the emphasis was on cultural conservatism rather than piety. A marriage to a cousin from Pakistan was arranged for her when she was about 10. Her parents had no wish for her to continue her education, and her adoption of the hijab was her rebellion against this traditional cultural background. "When I first put on hijab, my parents were shocked," she says. They would have been happier for her to wear the Pakistani shalwar kameez and a loose headscarf. "But I found liberation in Islam. It gave me the confidence to insist on a good education and reject the arranged marriage. Islam made sense to me, and I could understand it, as opposed to what I had grown up with. Plus, it was compatible with being British - being a British Muslim, rather than Pakistani."

Shagufta was influenced by her friend Soraya's decision to put on hijab. Soraya's French Catholic/Muslim liberal background could not have been more different but, like Shagufta, she found in the Koran an affirmation of herself as a woman: "The Koran says that men and women are equal in the eyes of God, and that we are like a garment for each other to protect one another."

Again and again, the women emphasise these two themes, evoked in richly poetic Koranic metaphor: first, the equality of the sexes in the eyes of God (the most meaningful equality of all, they argue), and second, the complementarity of the sexes. As the Koran puts it, "I created you from one soul, and from that soul I created its mate so that you may live in harmony and love."

It is true that there is plenty of material in the Koran that is more egalitarian than the western Christian tradition, which was heavily influenced by the misogyny of Greek thought. Perhaps the most fundamental is that the Islamic God does not have a gender. Arabic may refer to him by use of the male pronoun, but he is never described as "father" or "lord" as he is in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, the Islamic God has characteristics that are expressly feminine; one of his most important "names" is al-Rahman (the All-Compassionate) from the Arabic rahma , which comes from the word rahim , meaning womb. In Islamic mysticism, the divinely beloved is female, unlike in Christian mysticism - for example, Bernini's famous statue in Rome of St Teresa of Avila is in love with the male Christ. As one Muslim women, Sartaz Aziz, writes, "I am deeply grateful that my first ideas of God were formed by Islam, because I was able to think of the Highest Power as one without sex or race and thus completely unpatriarchal."

Jasmin also escaped from an arranged marriage by discovering Islam. Her transition to full religious observance came after university, when she was working for a television company. "I went to Agadir on holiday, returned with a fantastic tan, but went back to work in a hijab. One week in a skimpy swimsuit, the next in a hijab. One of my colleagues couldn't understand. She was crying as she said to me, "One moment you were a sex kitten, the next you're all wrapped up. She thought I was repressing myself; I felt I had achieved liberation.

"The attention I got from the other sex changed. Instead of a sexual approach, they had to take an interest in what was in my head and in my personality, rather than my body. Sometimes, when I flick through a fashion magazine, I think of taking off the hijab, but it passes quickly. Too many women exert power through their sexuality, and that's degrading to women. It's a form of enslavement."

The importance of each of these women's decisions to wear the hijab leads quickly to a heated discussion about where and how and why one expresses one's sexuality. All the women agree that this is one of the biggest sources of misunderstanding between western feminists and Muslim women. They do not wish to express their sexuality in public, and believe that its proper place is in the privacy of an intimate relationship. Sexuality is not to be used to assert power but to express love, they add. What they hotly deny is that veiling, and modesty in public, is a form of repression. It is not about shame of the female body, as western feminists sometimes insist, but about claiming privacy over their bodies. The Moroccan writer, Fatima Mernissi, ponders on how, in the west, women reclaiming their bodies has led to the public expression of their sexuality, whereas in Islam it is about modesty. The associations with shame and repression stem from the influence of the Christian tradition's hostility to sexuality and hence women, and the legacy of confusion and guilt that has bequeathed western society. Islam, on the other hand, has a healthy honesty and acceptance of human sexuality, which is evident in a wealth of detail in Islamic jurisprudence, they argue.

Dr Tim Winter, a Muslim convert and Cambridge lecturer, probably one of the most respected Islamic scholars in Britain, corroborates the assertion that Islam does not accept the mythology of Eve seducing Adam, and thus triggering the Fall and the endless cycle of death and procreation. According to Christian thought, sex was the result of human beings' fallen state and was traditionally regarded with distaste; celibacy was promoted as a sublimation of sexual energies in pursuit of God, epitomised by Christ's celibate life.

Nothing provides a sharper contrast with that model of holiness than the life of the Prophet Mohammed, who took 12 wives after the death of his first wife, Khadija. His love for his wives and sexual relationships with them are referred to in the hadith (the sayings of the Prophet). One reference even extols the Prophet's virility, revealing how he could visit all of his wives in one night. This, says Dr Winter, makes him a full, complete man, closer to models of holiness such as Krishna or a Jewish patriarch such as King Solomon with his many wives.

Indeed, one of the injunctions on a husband is that he must sexually satisfy his wife; the Prophet recommends foreplay, and a great Islamic scholar, Imam Ghazali, warned men not to come too quickly. As Mernissi points out in Beyond The Veil, Islam always understood that women's sexuality was active, while western Christianity socialised women into accepting sexual passivity - the "lie back and think of England" approach. The latter, argues Mernissi, was a way of internalising in women the control on female sexuality that men wanted; Muslim cultures used external controls of segregation and male authority.

Back at ArRum, the women say that, for them, the affirmation of women's sexuality in Islam renders pointless many of the battles fought by western feminists. They have no need of Madonna-style exhibitionism to assert the power of female sexuality. Indeed, one woman said that the one achievement of feminism that she admired was to break down the restrictive passivity of Victorian perceptions of female sexuality.

Aisha and Khadija come out as the two top Koranic role models for these women, and both are quoted as examples of the prominence of women in the development of Islam. Khadija, the Prophet's first wife, was old (40) by the standards of the day when she proposed to the 25-year-old Mohammed. His first believer, she was his sole wife and a close adviser until her death. It was only then that the Prophet took other wives; he married several older widows, but Aisha was much younger than the Prophet, highly intelligent and assertive. There are several stories of how jealous she was of the Prophet's other wives and of how much he loved her. He died in her arms, and she became one of the first teachers of Islam after his death.

All the women I interviewed roll off a long list of hadiths and Koranic verses to support women's rights: the right to education; the right to work and their right to keep the money they earn, while men must use their earnings to look after their womenfolk; property rights; in one school of Islamic thought, women don't have to clean or cook for their husbands unless they are paid for it (wages for housework long before the 20th century thought it had invented it); the fact that the Prophet, according to Aisha, was something of a new man, and used to clean and sew when he wasn't praying; and then there is the praise lavished on the emotional qualities engendered by motherhood of nurturing and patience, with the Prophet's repeated injunctions to honour your mother.

But there are other parts of Koranic tradition that, to a western eye, seem deeply shocking. By some accounts, Aisha was only nine when her marriage to the Prophet (who was then in his fifties) was consummated. Or that, although the Koran insists that a man should treat all his wives equally, the Prophet admitted that he had a favourite, Aisha. Or the controversial incident when the Prophet glimpsed the wife of his adopted son and, after she had been divorced, he married her. Worst of all to a sceptical western eye, the Prophet often invoked God to explain such incidents.

This is very sensitive territory for devout Muslim women. For believers, the Prophet's life was perfect and according to God's plan. They haven't the freedom to develop the critical analytical tradition of western feminism, which has been so important in understanding how patriarchy has influenced religious, legal, moral and political systems. So, either they offer long explanations (such as that Aisha's age was due to the custom of the time and was probably not much different from the Virgin Mary's), or they acknowledge there are some things that they find very difficult. As one woman put it, "When I read about the Prophet's life, I feel it is unjust: he favoured one wife over another, and that makes me uneasy. I haven't found a scholar who can explain it, but I believe in a just God and the wisdom of the Prophet, so I take it on trust. That's faith. To have real knowledge of Islam is to study it for a long time; eventually, I might find an interpretation that satisfies me."

These are the sort of explanations that simply fail to convince a sceptical western mind. Perhaps one of the hardest things for a woman to accept in the Koranic tradition is polygamy and, indeed, many of the women I spoke to conceded some unease here. Although some were prepared to consider a polygamous marriage, they all confessed that it would be very difficult; one married woman had even included a prohibition on a second wife in her pre-nuptial contract (a Koranic invention that is mutually negotiated and can cover everything from housework to the frequency of sex). They had various explanations for why the Koran allows men to take four wives, such as the need to provide for war widows in a nomadic warrior culture. With the advent of the welfare state, such arguments are hard to sustain, as several of the women admitted.

Dr Rabia Malik, a psychotherapist, sometimes finds herself in the difficult position of having clients who want to take another wife: "Usually, the first wife doesn't satisfy them intellectually or sexually, and they start to think of taking a second wife, and I try to help them find solutions within their existing relationship."

Both Dr Malik and Humera Khan, founder of the women-run organisation An-Nisa, believe that the Koranic conditions on polygamy are so hard to meet that they virtually rule it out: only those men who can treat their wives equally are allowed more than one. But the fact remains that polygamy, though by no means the norm, is practised in all Muslim countries. Mernissi believes that this is an explicit humiliation of women, because it asserts that one woman can't satisfy a man; interestingly, Mernissi, a stout critic of certain aspects of Islam, is regarded with some suspicion by many of the women I spoke to.

Dr Winter takes a different tack, defending polygamy by arguing that it is widely practised in the west, from Bill Clinton to Prince Charles. It is, he says, simply more cruel in the west , because all the "wives" bar one are deprived of legal status and dignity. Controversially, he insists that "men are biologically designed to desire a plurality of women... and will always do so".

Such gender stereotypes (which are guaranteed to infuriate most western feminists) peppered all my interviews. The Muslim women I spoke to happily talked of women as being "more emotional" and men as "more rational". This was not the result of socialisation, but of nature, and western science was only finally catching up with Koranic insight into the profound differences and complementarity of the sexes. But they denied that this meant that women had to stay at home and men go out to work - they pointed out that many Muslim women work, both in the UK and abroad. The point was that equality did not mean the same in the two cultures, so that the preoccupation in western feminism to achieve and compete on equal terms in the public sphere was a response to the west's own history of seeing women as inferior. What the vast majority of women really want to do is to have and care for children, they said, and a genuinely equal society would be the one that honours that role and provides them with the financial resources to concentrate on it. After such responsibilities have been met (and, with the extended family, there are many to help with childcare), the woman is free to work. To Muslim women, equality means giving their femininity equal worth in the purpose of every human life - to know God. That's as possible in the domestic life of home and children as it is in the marketplace.

As Humera points out, Islam is a home-centred, family-oriented religion that, given the central role of women in both, explains the power of women in Muslim society. Part of the reason why westerners often don't grasp this, explains Dr Winter, is because this home life is private. Muslim cities don't have the grand civic spaces of European cities; they have little alleyways and the vibrant family life takes place behind high walls. The debate about the balance between the private and the public sphere has become much more acute, he says, with the development of industrialisation and the men leaving the home to work long hours. Dr Winter is sharply critical of the west's resolution of the balance between private family life and public life, arguing that the home has almost become a dormitory where the exhausted two-career couple meet briefly, rather than a setting in which children and the elderly can thrive, and where there is a range of familial relationships.

The way in which the traditional segregation is breaking down is one of the most problematic issues in current Islamic thinking. Dr Winter believes that some form of segregation would benefit women in the way that single-sex schooling helps girls develop more confidence, and would help prevent the problems of marriage breakdown experienced in the west: "Segregation has proved a spur in Iran to employing more women, for example," he says. "They now have quotas in the universities so women can be taught by women." But he goes on to acknowledge that "the practice of early Islam did not mean strict segregation, and the historic record is of a more relaxed and open society".

Many Muslims argue that the Prophet's injunction that no one address his wives except through a veil is the model for relations between the sexes. Strict segregation with women confined to the private sphere has been the rule in most Muslim cultures, though rarely as extreme as under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Dr Winter admits that total segregation in the workplace is not practicable, so that leaves devout Muslims with a dilemma of balancing the woman's right to work and be educated with the need to keep to Koranic tradition. The women I met at ArRum all live with their families or relatives, yet they work in mixed environments and travel to attend study courses (they claim they are allowed to travel more than 50 miles from home without a male companion if they are studying Islam). They say they naturally prefer a degree of segregation, enjoying deeper female friendships, rather than the confusing ambiguities of friendships with men. But the result is intense pressure on the women themselves.

All the women I spoke to, without a moment's hesitation, dismiss the restrictions in the many Islamic countries that oppress women as unIslamic "cultural practices", for example women not being allowed to drive or travel alone in Saudi Arabia. Blaming Islam for practices such as female circumcision, they claim, is the equivalent of blaming feminism for domestic violence - it is linking totally unrelated phenomena. Again, the absence of a critical analysis of the tradition is striking, and there is no answer to the question of why, if Islam offers women a bill of rights, it has not liberated more women. The point, they reply, is that male chauvinism and its bid to control women exists the world over; it simply takes different forms, and when women are educated and know what Islam really means, they can fight back.

They refuse to accept that some of the provisions of Sharia law seem to institutionalise inequality, such as the rule that a woman's evidence must be backed up by another woman. Shagufta admitted that she could see how an outsider might find the idea of stoning adulterers to death, the punishment prescribed in Sharia, as horrific, but, as her friends quickly pointed out, it requires four witnesses to the act of sexual penetration to convict an adulterer - a standard of proof so exacting, they claim, that it would be virtually impossible to achieve.

What women such as Shagufta, Maha, Soraya, Fareena and Jasmin want is to return to the freedoms that Islam brought women in the 7th century and beyond, when women became prominent Islamic scholars, poets and thinkers."We need a reformation in this global community," said Fareena. "We need to go back to the Islam of the golden age from the 7th to the 13th century." Soraya recognises that this desire to return to the 7th century is paradoxically close to the avowed aims of the Taliban and other fundamentalist groups, but the struggle is over interpretations of what is the true Islam, and British Muslim women are all too well aware of how fragile their position is, defending themselves against criticism from all sides - both from the westerners who accuse them of being oppressed and from the traditional Muslim cultures shocked by their independence and "westernisation".

The biggest danger is of a backlash in which the position of women is politicised as it was under the Taliban, where women were not allowed to work or be educated. In such a context, Dr Winter says, women are repressed to salve the sense of Islamic pride wounded by western hegemony and the savage poverty of many Muslim countries. Women are the traditional symbol of honour, and find themselves subjected to restrictions to safeguard their (and the next generation's) contamination from western culture.

So there is a striking bravery in these British Muslim women in their struggle to understand what they see as timeless truths and apply them to 21st-century life. They assiduously attend home-study circles, travel to California and the Middle East for special courses, take up correspondence courses with Islamic scholars and read to deepen their knowledge of Islam, and they believe they are pioneering a spiritual renewal and a rediscovery of their faith that empowers women.

Women lag in India's polls

By Neeta Lal

It is a sad reflection on the world's largest democracy - the one that gave the world its second female prime minister, Indira Gandhi - that despite 14 general elections and six decades of independence, Indian women still have an abysmal representation in parliament.

In other words, a demographic that constitutes over 50% of India's 1.1 billion population - or 340 million voters out of a total electorate of 710 million in 2009 - constitutes a lowly 9% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha (Lower House). Voters will head to the polls for this year's national election in phases from April 16 to May 13.

The lack of women's representation in India is all the more ironic considering it currently has a woman president, Pratibha Patil and the capital, New Delhi, has a female chief minister well into her third term, Sheila Dixit, and a female mayor, Arti Mehra.

Even at the national level, the head of the ruling Congress coalition - the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) - is Sonia Gandhi.

Regional politics has several women in leadership. Tamil Nadu has the chief minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram - leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party - while in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, there is Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati - a likely prime minister candidate. In West Bengal there is the leader of the Trinamool Congress Party, Mamata Banerjee.

However, this is more or less where female supremacy ends in India. Because when it comes to actual power - say the berths in council of central ministers - barely 9% of the people at ministerial rank are women. Surveys have repeatedly highlighted that in the councils of ministers - both at national and state levels - Indian women are under-represented, with the country never having had more than one female cabinet minister at one time.

Furthermore, none of the major portfolios (External Affairs, Home or Finance) have ever been in the hands of women. If they have been, this has been due to makeshift arrangements. Similarly, in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), where members are appointed and therefore can be more easily chosen to represent a wide spectrum of India, only 28 of the 242 seats currently are held by women.

The recent list of candidates for the upcoming general elections announced by major Indian political parties contain disproportionately low numbers of the fairer sex. In the Communist Party of India list, for instance, only three out of the 60 contesting candidates are women. The Congress Party's list of 24 candidates for Uttar Pradesh features only five women, while the main opposition party - the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party - has only 26 women among its 166 candidates. The Samajwadi Party has just six women candidates out of a total of 71 standing for election.

This unequal representation of Indian women in national and regional politics is all the more disquieting given that the Indian constitution guarantees gender equality in the Articles 325 and 326.

The Women's Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve 33% of seats for women in parliament, has stalled in the absence of political consensus. Although in the recent past heated debate has been raised over the bill by women activists and different sections of Indian society, support for it has not gathered enough momentum to ensure its passage.

Women's organizations sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in May 2008 demanding that the bill is voted on urgently, arguing that election year is a good opportunity for the government to ensure its passage. But there's been no action on this front. The incumbent UPA government has often been accused of betraying the commitments made in its programs to bring more women into the legislative process.

Repeated attempts to ensure places for women in parliament have invariably invoked stiff resistance amongst parliamentarians, mostly male, who feel threatened by the move. No sooner is the issue raised than pejorative terms like "caste" and "gender-based reservation" are deliberately raised to inflame tempers and prevent its passage.

This is concerning as most countries across the globe - including India's neighbors - provide a fair quota for women. Nepal has 33% reservation for women, Pakistan 22% and Bangladesh 14%. In March 2007, statistics released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union revealed that India ranked very low - 108 - among 189 countries so far as the percentage of women lawmakers in its Lower House was concerned.

This is not to say that India has not witnessed some growth in the participation of women in politics. In 1952, there was only 22 (4.4%) in the Lower House, but this reached 34 (6.7%) after the next general election. However, the trend reversed in the next three elections with women representing a meager 19 (3.4%) in the sixth Lower House in 1977, the lowest ever. Subsequent elections witnessed some growth, except in 1989 when the number of women in parliament plummeted to 27 from 44 . From 1991, the number has been on an upward trajectory, reaching 44 in 1998 and 49 in 1999.

Interestingly, poorer states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan seem to have elected a higher number of women members of parliament than more developed and urbanized states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Brinda Karat, a Rajya Sabha member of parliament and a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), recently told Indian media that the low presence of women in the Indian legislature stems from the perception that they will be unable to mobilize adequate funds and, hence, are not considered "winnable".

"The Indian system has repeatedly sent out a message that unless there is a legal mandate on political parties, we will continue with this dismal picture," said Karat. "It is a shame on our democracy that even after 60 years of independence less than 10% of women get elected in state elections across five states and that we haven't been able to pass the Women's Reservation Bill. This will continue unless there is a change in the mindset of political parties," she added.

It would be a good idea for Karat to begin by changing the "mindset" of her own party, which didn't field even a single woman candidate out of the 34 seats it contested in Rajasthan. However, she raises a valid point, that the Indian "system" will have to politically empower its women if it is to one day achieve holistic national development.

The ‘Beauty’ Of Money

By M H Ahssan

Why should women be conservative in investment planning? HNN explores the options at your end to make the most of the market.

Investment traditionally has been a man’s world. It’s not that women are not permitted, but traditionally it has been like that. The entire system of markets and investment mechanisms has been developed by men; with women largely remaining at the periphery of these systems. While women do participate in investing, men far outweigh them in the number and volume of investments. Women make up roughly half of the India’s population but their presence among active investing population is negligible in the country.

Financial planning is becoming imperative for women now as an increasing number of them especially in urban centres have regular jobs and careers. They now need to plan for critical life stages of education, work, marriage, maternity and retirement. For women, one of the major steps towards empowerment is achieving financial security and independence through gaining control on investing decisions.

The financial world is gradually waking up to the reality that increasingly that the ‘better half’ now has money in her hands that is waiting to be invested. The recent bull market has helped in accelerating this change process. An unprecedented increase in women participants was seen in hey days of the rally. We saw working women, college girls and even housewives getting their first exposure to capital markets. While most restricted themselves to trading on small bets, some became involved in serious investing.

While the conventional tools of investing prevail, marketers of financial products are now increasingly designing products targeted at the fairer sex. Be it insurance policies or saving bank accounts, financial companies are now creating women-centric products to tap a huge market, which has not yet been justifiably penetrated and serviced. For instance, LIC launched Jeevan Bharati, an insurance policy exclusively for women first in 2003. Last year, it launched Jeeven Bharati – I, an updated version of the earlier policy. Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like special bank accounts, saving schemes etc. Who knows we will soon have mutual funds especially designed for women just as we have funds targeted at senior citizens or children.

A woman investor, most of the times invest in safe investments like gold jewellery, fixed deposits etc. Investments under mutual funds or ELSS schemes are done primarily with an objective of tax planning. Very few women would go ahead and try their hands at investing in exotic products like derivatives, interest rate swaps, arbitrage products etc.

Interestingly, the styles of investing differ between the two genders. Tradition and science both have testified that women are more risk averse than men. They are more conservative and less likely to take business risks. Budgeting comes naturally to them by virtue of handling household expenditures. Investment decisions also differ between the two genders. Many times women know less of the various investment options available, and hence are less confident about the decisions they take about their investments.

If you are a woman reading this, be prepared to get more involved in the investment decision-making process. Financial decisions are no longer a man’s domain. Knowledge about various financial products is freely available - online as well as offline. Relationship managers, some of them being women, are more than happy to service women customers. Thanks to their discipline, women as a category of investors are better placed to make money in the current markets than their male counterparts.

And there is no dearth of pampering on this count. Marketers of financial products are aggressively wooing the new generation woman. With increase in working and independent women, the marketers of investment products are coming around to address the changing gender roles in the world of investing. Many micro financial institutions cater to women’s financial needs and offer special financial assistance. Customised products, women-specific tax concessions, communication and counseling are being rolled out.

In the current difficult times of financial uncertainty, it is time for women to be ready to take the burden of any contingencies like job loss, pay cut etc. rather than be a helpless witness to the unfortunate turn of events. While she performs a balancing act between career, home and family, a woman today also has to add financial investing into her ‘things to do’ list. And women’s day seems quite appropriate to make this promise to yourself to financially empower yourself, thereby empowering your family too.

INVESTMENT OPTIONS
- Investment strategies differ between the two genders
- Financial planning is no longer a man’s domain
- Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like bank accounts, saving schemes etc.
- Many micro financial institutions cater to women's financial needs and offer special financial assistance
- Customised products, womenspecific tax concessions, communication and counselling are being rolled out

The ‘Beauty’ Of Money

By M H Ahssan

Why should women be conservative in investment planning? HNN explores the options at your end to make the most of the market.

Investment traditionally has been a man’s world. It’s not that women are not permitted, but traditionally it has been like that. The entire system of markets and investment mechanisms has been developed by men; with women largely remaining at the periphery of these systems. While women do participate in investing, men far outweigh them in the number and volume of investments. Women make up roughly half of the India’s population but their presence among active investing population is negligible in the country.

Financial planning is becoming imperative for women now as an increasing number of them especially in urban centres have regular jobs and careers. They now need to plan for critical life stages of education, work, marriage, maternity and retirement. For women, one of the major steps towards empowerment is achieving financial security and independence through gaining control on investing decisions.

The financial world is gradually waking up to the reality that increasingly that the ‘better half’ now has money in her hands that is waiting to be invested. The recent bull market has helped in accelerating this change process. An unprecedented increase in women participants was seen in hey days of the rally. We saw working women, college girls and even housewives getting their first exposure to capital markets. While most restricted themselves to trading on small bets, some became involved in serious investing.

While the conventional tools of investing prevail, marketers of financial products are now increasingly designing products targeted at the fairer sex. Be it insurance policies or saving bank accounts, financial companies are now creating women-centric products to tap a huge market, which has not yet been justifiably penetrated and serviced. For instance, LIC launched Jeevan Bharati, an insurance policy exclusively for women first in 2003. Last year, it launched Jeeven Bharati – I, an updated version of the earlier policy. Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like special bank accounts, saving schemes etc. Who knows we will soon have mutual funds especially designed for women just as we have funds targeted at senior citizens or children.

A woman investor, most of the times invest in safe investments like gold jewellery, fixed deposits etc. Investments under mutual funds or ELSS schemes are done primarily with an objective of tax planning. Very few women would go ahead and try their hands at investing in exotic products like derivatives, interest rate swaps, arbitrage products etc.

Interestingly, the styles of investing differ between the two genders. Tradition and science both have testified that women are more risk averse than men. They are more conservative and less likely to take business risks. Budgeting comes naturally to them by virtue of handling household expenditures. Investment decisions also differ between the two genders. Many times women know less of the various investment options available, and hence are less confident about the decisions they take about their investments.

If you are a woman reading this, be prepared to get more involved in the investment decision-making process. Financial decisions are no longer a man’s domain. Knowledge about various financial products is freely available - online as well as offline. Relationship managers, some of them being women, are more than happy to service women customers. Thanks to their discipline, women as a category of investors are better placed to make money in the current markets than their male counterparts.

And there is no dearth of pampering on this count. Marketers of financial products are aggressively wooing the new generation woman. With increase in working and independent women, the marketers of investment products are coming around to address the changing gender roles in the world of investing. Many micro financial institutions cater to women’s financial needs and offer special financial assistance. Customised products, women-specific tax concessions, communication and counseling are being rolled out.

In the current difficult times of financial uncertainty, it is time for women to be ready to take the burden of any contingencies like job loss, pay cut etc. rather than be a helpless witness to the unfortunate turn of events. While she performs a balancing act between career, home and family, a woman today also has to add financial investing into her ‘things to do’ list. And women’s day seems quite appropriate to make this promise to yourself to financially empower yourself, thereby empowering your family too.

INVESTMENT OPTIONS
- Investment strategies differ between the two genders
- Financial planning is no longer a man’s domain
- Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like bank accounts, saving schemes etc.
- Many micro financial institutions cater to women's financial needs and offer special financial assistance
- Customised products, womenspecific tax concessions, communication and counselling are being rolled out

The ‘Beauty’ Of Money

By M H Ahssan

Why should women be conservative in investment planning? HNN explores the options at your end to make the most of the market.

Investment traditionally has been a man’s world. It’s not that women are not permitted, but traditionally it has been like that. The entire system of markets and investment mechanisms has been developed by men; with women largely remaining at the periphery of these systems. While women do participate in investing, men far outweigh them in the number and volume of investments. Women make up roughly half of the India’s population but their presence among active investing population is negligible in the country.

Financial planning is becoming imperative for women now as an increasing number of them especially in urban centres have regular jobs and careers. They now need to plan for critical life stages of education, work, marriage, maternity and retirement. For women, one of the major steps towards empowerment is achieving financial security and independence through gaining control on investing decisions.

The financial world is gradually waking up to the reality that increasingly that the ‘better half’ now has money in her hands that is waiting to be invested. The recent bull market has helped in accelerating this change process. An unprecedented increase in women participants was seen in hey days of the rally. We saw working women, college girls and even housewives getting their first exposure to capital markets. While most restricted themselves to trading on small bets, some became involved in serious investing.

While the conventional tools of investing prevail, marketers of financial products are now increasingly designing products targeted at the fairer sex. Be it insurance policies or saving bank accounts, financial companies are now creating women-centric products to tap a huge market, which has not yet been justifiably penetrated and serviced. For instance, LIC launched Jeevan Bharati, an insurance policy exclusively for women first in 2003. Last year, it launched Jeeven Bharati – I, an updated version of the earlier policy. Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like special bank accounts, saving schemes etc. Who knows we will soon have mutual funds especially designed for women just as we have funds targeted at senior citizens or children.

A woman investor, most of the times invest in safe investments like gold jewellery, fixed deposits etc. Investments under mutual funds or ELSS schemes are done primarily with an objective of tax planning. Very few women would go ahead and try their hands at investing in exotic products like derivatives, interest rate swaps, arbitrage products etc.

Interestingly, the styles of investing differ between the two genders. Tradition and science both have testified that women are more risk averse than men. They are more conservative and less likely to take business risks. Budgeting comes naturally to them by virtue of handling household expenditures. Investment decisions also differ between the two genders. Many times women know less of the various investment options available, and hence are less confident about the decisions they take about their investments.

If you are a woman reading this, be prepared to get more involved in the investment decision-making process. Financial decisions are no longer a man’s domain. Knowledge about various financial products is freely available - online as well as offline. Relationship managers, some of them being women, are more than happy to service women customers. Thanks to their discipline, women as a category of investors are better placed to make money in the current markets than their male counterparts.

And there is no dearth of pampering on this count. Marketers of financial products are aggressively wooing the new generation woman. With increase in working and independent women, the marketers of investment products are coming around to address the changing gender roles in the world of investing. Many micro financial institutions cater to women’s financial needs and offer special financial assistance. Customised products, women-specific tax concessions, communication and counseling are being rolled out.

In the current difficult times of financial uncertainty, it is time for women to be ready to take the burden of any contingencies like job loss, pay cut etc. rather than be a helpless witness to the unfortunate turn of events. While she performs a balancing act between career, home and family, a woman today also has to add financial investing into her ‘things to do’ list. And women’s day seems quite appropriate to make this promise to yourself to financially empower yourself, thereby empowering your family too.

INVESTMENT OPTIONS
- Investment strategies differ between the two genders
- Financial planning is no longer a man’s domain
- Most banks today cater to women customers through specially designed products like bank accounts, saving schemes etc.
- Many micro financial institutions cater to women's financial needs and offer special financial assistance
- Customised products, womenspecific tax concessions, communication and counselling are being rolled out

Telangana People's struggle

Under the British, India was ruled basically by two types of rulers: (a) the British administered provinces of India The Provinces of India were those portions of India ruled directly by officials of the British East India Company and, from 1858 to Indian independence in 1947, by Great Britain. known as British IndiaBritish India



The part of the Indian subcontinent under direct British administration until India's independence in 1947.



.......and (b) 'princely India' or those state governed by princes, maharajas, rajas, and nababs. Among them, Hydarabad was the largest one, which was under the Nizam prince, and Telangana is one out of three linguistic regions--Telagu, Marathwada and Kannada--of Hydarabad. The Telangana revolt began in the middle of 1946 and lasted for five years. It was an armed resistance of women and men to the feudal oppression or against the princely state A princely state is any state under the reign of a prince and is thus a principality taken in the broad sense. The term refers not only to sovereign nations ruled by monarchs but also to lower polities ruled by various high nobles (often vassals in a feudal system). in Telangana. It was a struggle against the autocratic rule of Nizam and the Zamindari system. (1) There were three types of land holding systems--sarf-e-khas (the land controlled by Nizam and his family from where revenues collected were used for their personal expenses) and Jagirs (the land which has given to Jagirdars) and diwani or government land. Jagirdars were those who were loyal to the Nizam enjoying their own police, revenue, civil and criminal systems. They had received Jagirs and become revenue officers or generals in the army. They also had right over forest and fisheries fisheries. From earliest times and in practically all countries, fisheries have been of industrial and commercial importance. In the large N Atlantic fishing grounds off Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, European and North American fishing fleets have long , and exercised police and judicial functions. Having all the power they compelled people to various illegal exactions and forced labours. The peoples' conditions of Jagir areas were far more oppressed a people who were oppressed by tyranny.



2. than in the sarf-e-khas lands; the jagirdars and their agents were free to collect a variety of illegal taxes from the actual cultivators. Jagir lands were even above the jurisdiction of civil courts. There was also the Vetti (free services (O.Eng. Law) such feudal services as were not unbecoming the character of a soldier or a freemen to perform; as, to serve under his lord in war, to pay a sum of money, etc.



See also: Free to the proprietors) system. Every peasant was compelled to contribute Vetti to the Zamindar zam·in·dar also zem·in·dar

n.

1. An official in precolonial India assigned to collect the land taxes of his district.



2. . Only after completing operations on the landlord's fields, peasants and labourers could work for themselves. A tenant and his family had a compulsion COMPULSION. The forcible inducement to au act.

2. Compulsion may be lawful or unlawful. 1. When a man is compelled by lawful authority to do that which be ought to do, that compulsion does not affect the validity of the act; as for example, when a court of to leave food in their plate and go to the landlord whenever called.



Women were more suppressed under this rule. Women were not allowed to feed their babies while working in the landlord's field. Women were repressed re·pressed

adj.

Being subjected to or characterized by repression. , not only in the field of free work or Vetti, but also sexually harassed and exploited. There were many examples of such suppression; if the landlord fancied a woman, she was taken as a consort. Sleeping with the landlord on the first night was a compulsion to newly married women. It was the landlords' prerogative An exclusive privilege. The special power or peculiar right possessed by an official by virtue of his or her office. In English Law, a discretionary power that exceeds and is unaffected by any other power; the special preeminence that the monarch has over and above all others, . So, peasant women, along with men, came into the Andra Maha Sabha (AMS AMS - Andrew Message System ) and started an armed struggle against the 'oppressive feudal system and the fundamentalist fundamentalist



An investor who selects securities to buy and sell on the basis of fundamental analysis. Compare technician. militia of the Nizam--the Razkars".



In 1928, people established Andhra Maha Sabha converting it from the Andhra Jana Sangam For other uses of Sangam see Sangam (disambiguation).



Sangams were Tamil academies, which according to Tamil legends, enabled poets and authors to gather periodically to publish their work.[1]. , which was established in 1921 with the objectives of social and cultural uplift of the Telugu people Telugu people are an ethnic group primarily located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India and neighbouring areas such as Pondicherry, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Orissa (the areas bordering Andhra Pradesh). . It changed not only the name but also the objectives from socio-cultural to political activity. Earlier, it was common organization to all--The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A syndication format that was developed by Netscape in 1999 and became very popular for aggregating updates to blogs and the news sites. RSS has also stood for "Rich Site Summary" and "RDF Site Summary. , Congress and even to the nonpolitical--who wanted change in society. In 1930, the Andra Mahila Sabha and, in 1937, the Mahila Nay Jivan Mandal had formed in co-ordination with AMS. These organizations are credited to bring women into the movement. During 1940-42, some important leaders of the AMS went under the communist leadership and assumed AMS into the character of a mass organization. AMS went into an armed struggle with decision made in November 1946. The struggle was extended form of grass root level resistance, using local weapons to resist against the regime. The movement was also considered in which "the Mao's thought was first put into practice out of China" (Louis 2002:49). The first struggle took place to support Ailimma, a women who was threatened by landlord's Goondas, taking up of local arms e.g. lathis, slings and stones for volunteers and pounding sticks and chilly powder for the women as well. Later, volunteer squads were not only formed but also trained in using these kinds of weapons. They started to make local weapons professionally. They even used modern weapons. Several struggles took place between squads and Nizam's supporters. The rebels seized arms 'raiding police stations and landlord's houses'. But women did not leave their strategy to use local means to defend themselves against the police. Women used to attack the police with pots full of chilly powder.



Ruler's oppression was not a single cause of women's participation in the revolt. Women-oriented programmes of Sanghams were other reasons; when such women's issues like wife-beating, early marriage of child age come up, the Shangam immediately called the people concerned, held debates and resolved the matters. Misbehaviour MISBEHAVIOUR. Improper or unlawful conduct. See 2 Mart. N. S. 683.

2. A party guilty of misbehaviour; as, for example, to threaten to do injury to another, may be bound to his good behaviour and thus restrained. See Good Behaviour.

3. to the women was started to be severely punished. These rules were practiced even in their organization which attracted women to join the Shangam. For instance, Shankar, a member of organization was accused of raping and mismanaging the party funds, and faced the firing squad. According to according to

prep.

1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.



2. In keeping with: according to instructions.



3. them, these punishments were declared by the people themselves as the correct line of action.



"Large number of peasants spontaneously participated in the struggle directed against the government, landlords and their agents. The insurgents Insurgents, in U.S. history, the Republican Senators and Representatives who in 1909–10 rose against the Republican standpatters controlling Congress, to oppose the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the dictatorial power of House speaker Joseph G. Cannon. had neither firearms This is an extensive list of small arms — pistol, machine gun, grenade launcher, anti-tank rifle — that includes variants.



: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z



A



A-91 (Russia - Compact Assault Rifle - 5.

nor training but were required to use them. A few volunteers' corps had come into existence, which were not so much well organized guerrilla squads, but ad hoc For this purpose. Meaning "to this" in Latin, it refers to dealing with special situations as they occur rather than functions that are repeated on a regular basis. See ad hoc query and ad hoc mode. formation in response to the situation. Initially the revolt was spasmodic spasmodic /spas·mod·ic/ (spaz-mod´ik) of the nature of a spasm; occurring in spasms.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



spas·mod·ic

adj.

1. Relating to, affected by, or having the character of a spasm; convulsive. " (Dhanaghare 1983: 195) and later it became regular and usual between the people and state security forces when the rebellion received support from all, especially the women. By such enthusiastic participation both men and women, they were able to carry some social transformations in the society. They ousted several police stations from the village, Vetti was abolished and thousands of acres of land distributed, debts to be paid were dismissed. The struggle could not reached in the aim of the organizer; when the Indian union armies were deployed against the Nizam, the movement also started to face lots of troubles. After the Nizam surrender in September 1948 to the Indian Army, the communists and the movement became the target of the Indian Union Army. Then, the party and its cadre (company) CADRE - The US software engineering vendor which merged with Bachman Information Systems to form Cayenne Software in July 1996. were compelled to leave the villages. Party tried to organize the tribal people for fighting against the local governmental institutions e.g. forest officials and moneylenders "who subjected them to exploitation". However, it was not an alternative to continue emergency. The politburo politburo, the former central policy-making and governing body of the Communist party of the Soviet Union and, with minor variations, of other Communist parties. of the party, finally, took the decision on 21 October 1951 to call off the struggle citing "the increased repression by the Indian union army."



The Maoists Movement in Nepal



The Maoist insurgency in·sur·gen·cy

n. pl. in·sur·gen·cies

1. The quality or circumstance of being rebellious.



2. An instance of rebellion; an insurgence.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

insurgency, insurgence

1. , for the last ten years, spread all over the country. Some 15,000 people have already lost their lives since 13 February 1996. The cost of reconstruction of development infrastructure, until 2003, that was destroyed by the Maoists, is estimated to be NRs. 200 billion (2). Developmentalists argue that the Maoist insurgency 'is basically a social and economic issue and is produced and sustained by failed development' (Pandey 1999:12). It is true that the epicenter and heartland of the Maoist insurgency is Mid-west hill districts--Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Dailekh, Jajarkot etc.--which the Human Development index categorizes as the lowest rank districts of the country (NESAC NESAC National Electronic Switching Assistance Center (AT&T) 1998: 264-65). Not only this but also some political exclusions and brutal human rights violations are also fostering factors for the insurgency.



The involvement of women in the People's War People's War (Chinese language: 人民战争), also called protracted people's war, is a military-political strategy invented by Mao Zedong. The basic concept behind People's War is to maintain the support of the population and draw the enemy deep into (PW) lacks reliable data to determine the actual%age of women in different roles within the organization. Even statistics given by the Maoists are different from leader to leader. Hisila Yami Hisila Yami, alias Parvati (born June 25 1959 in Gorkha District), is a Nepalese politician and architect. She is a politburo member of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and a former president of the All Nepal Womens Association (Revolutionary). , the central committee member of the Maoists, has given tentative data by writing, "the participation of the women in people's liberation army People's Liberation Army



Unified organization of China's land, sea, and air forces. It is one of the largest military forces in the world. The People's Liberation Army traces its roots to the 1927 Nanchang Uprising of the communists against the Nationalists. are from 30 to 40 per cent" (Yami 2006: 66). For Sapana, company commander, more than 40 per cent are women in the People's Liberation Army (Mulyankan, Bhadra 2061: 14), and for Uma Bhujel, a central member who broke Gorkha jail and came back under open sky, the ratio is approximately 40 per cent in army and more than 50 per cent in other field (Ibid: 16). This is more closer to the number of figures in party and militia comprising approximately 40 per cent and in autonomous government and in industries, the number is above 50 per cent (Janadesh 2006: 8).



Here, a question must be raised about the causes, which inspired or compelled Nepali women to join the movement. It is said that some women are forced to join the Maoist movement by the Maoist and some are compelled to join by misbehaviour of the security forces. For example, Ganga and Sobha Thapa, who were 16 years old each and studying in grade nine in Satakhana School of Surkhet district Surkhet district, a part of Bheri zone, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Birendranagar as its district headquarters, covers an area of 2,451 km² and has a population (2001) of 288,527. , were abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point by the Maoist on 29 September, 2005 (3). Shanti

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shanti (from Sanskrit शािन्‍त śāntiḥ) can mean:

Inner peace

Ksanti, is one of the paramitas of Buddhism



16, Resmi 16 and Binita 15 are the examples of how the security personnel irritated ir·ri·tate

v. ir·ri·tat·ed, ir·ri·tat·ing, ir·ri·tates



v.tr.

1. To rouse to impatience or anger; annoy: a loud bossy voice that irritates listeners. the students and general people. (4) Brutal suppressions of security forces have also encouraged young girls to join the militia either for their own security or for taking revenge. Being revengeful after the murder of their relatives by the security forces, women have participated in the Maoist organization. Sarita is a perfect example to support the argument. She took gun after her innocent brother was killed by the army (Paudel,2004:14). For the sake of revenge, she joined the movement. Low success in school leaving certificate The School Leaving Certificate is the final exam in Nepal secondary school system and is commonly called the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) Examination. Every student must appear in this exam after they complete grade 10th of their study before they join the higher examination and lack of training options for engaging students failing their school level examination is another main factor for their joining the Maoist movement in order to escape idleness and frustration (Karki and Bhattarai 2003:5)



Apart from that, propaganda of women's liberation Women's Liberation

Noun



a movement promoting the removal of inequalities based upon the assumption that men are superior to women Also called: (women's lib) , equality in the Maoists organization in opportunity, in award and promotion, the hope of all kinds of emancipation, and on-going women related social reform programmes like anti-alcohol, anti-gambling campaigns, anti-sexual violence programmes, anti-women exploitation programmes are the main attractions for women participate and support the movement. Some are there only for "romance, pleasure, and luxury". But, there is a consensus that the credit has to be given to the Maoists for "widespread women's awareness in the Nepalese history" (Mulyankan, August-September 2004: 13).



Slogans about 'progressive education' rather than 'bourgeois education' and love/ courtship courtship



paying attention to a member of the opposite sex with a view to mating; occurs in farm animals but is not highly developed other than estral display by the female and seeking by the male, activities that are rather more pragmatic than implied in the definition. is also a vital factor for women's attraction. Orthodox social system towards the widow is another cause for compelling women to join. In Nepal, generally, girls are not allowed to choose their own partners and to decide her marriage; still the society does not tolerate love marriage easily. If the love affair is inter-caste, acceptance is difficult by both, the parents and the society. Increment To add a number to another number. Incrementing a counter means adding 1 to its current value. of Widow population and the unchanged social perception on widow marriage seems another factor, which led women to join the movement. After Maoist movement, 15,000 people are killed; most of them are male leaving behind young widows in the society. However, the society does not accept a widow-marriage easily. In a patriarchal society in Nepal, if people are involved in these activities, a female have to face social degradation in comparison to their male counterparts. In such a situation, the Maoist movement became accommodative to socially mistreated women. It is said that a majority of women in the movement are "influenced by superficial factors (Bhool Bhulaiya) than deep knowledge and understanding of state affairs, political process, gender exploitation, women rights etc" (Adhikari 2006, an unpublished paper). Denying these factors, Hisila Yami, a senior woman Maoists leader said that the women are not recruited for party's "contemporary advantages" but hired because of "their double resistance capacity than man" (Mulyankan, August-September, 2004: 12-18).



To sum up the social reality, which promoted women to join the Maoists movement, we can agree with the argument made by a political scientist Kapil shrestha. He argues, "after democracy in 1990 some positive changes towards women participation in politics has appeared, but sociologically speaking most of the Nepalese women politicians belong to 'the small upper strata of urban, middle class, upper caste caste [Port., casta=basket], ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. and educated elite background not from the rural, grassroots or low caste background" (Shrestha 2001).



Comparison



We can compare both struggles on the basis of its objectives, goals and achievements. Apart from that, the paper tried to examine validities and reliabilities by observing available narratives, and data of both the movement. First, the Telengana movement was declared against the Nizam's oppression. The Telengana struggle supported to abolish the Nizam feudalism feudalism (fy`dəlĭzəm), form of political and social organization typical of Western Europe from the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire to the rise of the absolute monarchies. from Telengana. It seemed that the Telengana struggle was more focused on democracy and freedom. However, the Maoist Movement in Nepal has been launched after the restoration of democracy in 1990, which provisioned, at least, freedom to the people. Abolishing the monarchy and establishing the "Democratic Republic" were the said specific objectives of the Maoists of Nepal.



Second, the Telengana movement had supported the independent struggle of India from British colony. If such a disturbance had not occurred in several parts of India, Britain could have taken the independent struggle at face value and they could have tried to use more force against the struggle. People were able to raise slogan against the feudal and brutal regime and able to abolish not only local principality but also it's backbone--the colonial power. Ultimately, the Nizam principality was abolished after the departure of the British from India.



Although the Maoists have shown their eagerness to join the "competitive democracy" and signed different agreements (12-point agreements in November 2005 and Eight points agreements in June 2005) with seven party alliance (SPA), their earlier targets were SPA cadres in the villages undermining democracy. The Maoists killed, injured in·jure

tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures

1. To cause physical harm to; hurt.



2. To cause damage to; impair.



3. and compelled people to leave the village, who were believed to be at least progressive than any feudal regimes. The SPA cadres were not only tortured but also banned from launching political activities in the Maoists-influenced-areas. Apart from such 'undemocratic' behaviours against the democratic forces, the Maoists claimed that they had a "tacit understanding" with King Birendra. These activities of the Maoists compelled the people to be skeptical. The doubt of the people was 'the objectives of the Maoists movement was not to strengthen the freedom and democracy but to support the undemocratic and feudal regime'. The suspicion of the people over the Maoists was obvious because the monarchy itself has been considered as "the main obstacle for strengthening the democracy in Nepal".



The doubt of the people over the Maoists increased, when both Maoists and the king trapped democratic forces or parliamentary parties, in Nepal. On the one hand, as mentioned earlier, the Maoists banned the movements of the parliamentary parties in the countryside, which made the government unable for holding of the parliamentary and local elections. On the other, the king started ruling the country blaming the democratic government for its' 'incompetence' to holding the election and for maintaining the peace and security in the country. It is said that the democratic process was initially disturbed by rampant violent activities of the Maoists; even the democratically elected government was triggered to impose the state of emergency and termed the Maoists as 'terrorists'. The Maoist activities became major 'trump card' for the king to be used in asking support for his autocratic regime.



As a consequence more than forty thousand women's representation in different democratic agencies was directly hit antagonizing them. However, the Maoists defended such antagonism antagonism /an·tag·o·nism/ (an-tag´o-nizm) opposition or contrariety between similar things, as between muscles, medicines, or organisms; cf. antibiosis.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



an·tag·o·nism

n. as the initial compulsion when they were weak. Prachanda, in an interview defended it and said such strategy was there only for "extended political disclose to establish the ideology and to preserve the power when the party was overall weak in ideology, politics, organization and physical power". Now, according to him, they are trying to bring all possible force together because they are now "strong and reached near the strategic aim" (Prachanda in Janadesh 2006: 15-16).



Third, both the struggles, the Maoist movement and Telengana movement have definitely empowered women, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Although the Telangana struggle was called off without success, it has has brought some qualitative changes in women and in their life. After 40 years of the unsuccessful struggle, women still have no guilty feeling for the struggle but they took pride on it. Somaka of Vimpati who participated in Telangana struggle says, "in those days, could we sit and talk to you like this? Today we can do that. If we dressed up well, if we put kumkum The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter.

Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. they used to say, what does she think herself?" (Sangathana 1989: 16). For her, that sort of empowerment was gained by the struggle, although the entire problems were not solved. Another woman participant Kausila was also satisfied by the achieved things. She says, "we didn't know what was behind this wall. We could never go out. Now we go out and look to our agricultural works (Ibid: 16)."



One question may be raised about how the women are empowered by the Maoist's movement. Some direct and indirect factors created by the movement, however, have led the women to be empowered. The Maoists' conflict compelled majority of the male members to leave their home into urban area or escape to the jungle to join the Maoist guerrilla force Noun 1. guerrilla force - an irregular armed force that fights by sabotage and harassment; often rural and organized in large groups

guerilla force . Women have thus been 'compelled to take the responsibility of running households. They have compulsion to go and take part to express their opinion in front of mass and so on. Women were compelled even to plough the field to feed their family members, which was restricted earlier. Engaging more in the public life than ever before, they have become more vocal in community activities.



On the other hand, the active involvement of women in both political and military organizations of the Maoist party has boosted the confidence of the Nepali women as a whole. This has indeed produced a wide-ranging impact on the Nepali state. Now, the government itself has started to recruit women into the Royal Nepal Army. The parliamentary forces also have realized the need to launch more progressive and reformist programmes to increase the role of women in the political participation.



Taking all these factors into consideration, we can conclude that women were sensitized sensitized /sen·si·tized/ (sen´si-tizd) rendered sensitive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



sensitized



rendered sensitive.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



sensitized cells

see sensitization (2). and made aware about their role in the society. On the other hand, they are affected badly by the ongoing conflict. Women have become double victim due to the People's War. First, they are the direct victims of the security force as they are participants, relatives, wives, daughters and mothers of the rebels. They are continuously threatened, tortured and harassed in the name of inquiry as well as raped, killed, and disappeared as suspects, rebellion and also relatives of rebels. Second, the Maoists also demand lodging, food, money and sex from women any time and any day. Rapes by the Maoists have been frequently reported in the press and field work reports, conducted by individual visitors and human rights groups. The Maoists are also following the security forces' footstep to torture people suspecting them as informers, opponents and class enemies. Third, women are compelled to bear the double burden because of absence of their male members who are either killed or are compelled to flee from their domicile domicile (dŏm`əsīl'), one's legal residence. This may or may not be the place where one actually resides at any one time. The domicile is the permanent home to which one is presumed to have the intention of returning whenever the purpose .



Although, the Maoist claims itself as a radical party but it is also not far from being feudal towards the issue of women. Only two women members--Hisila Yami and Pampha Bhusal--are among the 27 Politburo members. The same women members of the Politburo are also in the 39--member Central Committee. In the case of female leaders, only two women--Pampha Bhusal and Hisila Yami--among the 40% women representation in the Maoist movement--have represented in politburo and central level. In the military wing, there is no single woman in the division commander where most decisions are made. But We have to say that the issue of gender is highlighted and sensitized in the Nepali society.



After having a look on Latchampas elaboration, we can conclude that the women in Telangana struggle faced same problem whatever Nepali women are facing now; the fear of rape and sexual harassment sexual harassment, in law, verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, aimed at a particular person or group of people, especially in the workplace or in academic or other institutional settings, that is actionable, as in tort or under equal-opportunity statutes. , torture etc. They kept secrets and protected other party workers especially the male by facing all the troubles of the state security (5). But they blamed the party for not being able to evolve any policy regarding the women. The charges over the party by women is not only about its policy towards women in the organization, their main grievances are that the party initially appreciated and welcomed women's support in the movement by wooing, and later it distressed them in the way without any alternatives. Some of them left their husbands, kids and home in the name of 'emancipation', but they got nothing but more trouble. Reminding Party's promise to women thwarted thwart

tr.v. thwart·ed, thwart·ing, thwarts

1. To prevent the occurrence, realization, or attainment of: They thwarted her plans.



2. their involvement in the struggle, Mallu Swaraj, who commanded a guerrilla squad and was a legend in the Telangana, says:

In the party, they will see only what the movement needs ... So

when struggle was withdrawn they told us to go and marry ... we

fought with them. We said that even if the forms of struggle had

changed we should be given some work (Sangathana 1989: 271-272).







But when the movement was called off, the party had not fulfilled its promise by giving work to women. They themselves, who spent their whole active life in the movement, often felt suppressed when the party withdrew the struggle and asked the women to go back and marry. Women are mentally tortured by such an immature decision of party. Priyamvada who spent years in the struggle said that "she often felt like committing suicide" (Sangathana 1989:272)." Sugunamma's observation is an example how they got frustrated frus·trate

tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates

1.

a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: after party's order to women "go back and marry". She says:

They have used us so long and now they say go stay at home. How

could they even understand what the situation was at home? What

mental torture--I was really upset. That was my first taste of

suffering (ibid).







Kamalama and Salama are the examples of exploitation by the party where Kamalama, now, is begging in her village to feed her children and is carrying "liquor and worked as a wage labor to bring up her sons" (Ibid). They themselves are in doubt whether they got some achievements or not because, according to Pesara Sattemma (Sangathana 1989: 221-227), the struggle's initial aim was for land ownership and against the Vetti. Vetti was abolished but women were not successful in getting land on their own name. Women considered that situation as big blow and insult to them. Priyambada, another women participant in the struggle, explained struggle as failed action to address the agenda of women. She says, "after the parliamentary election and police action, these dreams This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.

You can assist by [ editing it] now. were--smashed-crushed like an egg. What a blow it was, after the elections, do we know where we were? Like a proverbial pro·ver·bi·al

adj.

1. Of the nature of a proverb.



2. Expressed in a proverb.



3. Widely referred to, as if the subject of a proverb; famous. rug ... lying exactly where it was through" (Sangathana 1989) Ultimately, when the movement was ended, women neither got land, nor enjoyed other sort of settlement. The slogan 'all sorts of emancipation' remained a fantasy.



Everyone who knows the situation of women after calling off the Telengana struggle has always raised the question, fearing whether the Maoist movement will also go the same way as that of Telengana struggle? The fear is real because there were no women participation at the decision-making level in Telengana movement. The condition remains the same in the Maoists movement because only two women members--Hisila Yami and Pampha Bhusal--were among the 27 Politburo members. No women are there in standing committee, which is the supreme body of the party. And, only three (two representing in politburo also, and another was Uma Bhujel) members are in the 39--Member Central Committee. Now, the Maoist party has dissolved the standing committee and the politburo; all the power has been centralized cen·tral·ize

v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es



v.tr.

1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate.



2. , which according to them, is because of their forth-coming general convention. In the military wing, there is only a single woman, Sapana is the company commander where they claim 40-50 per cent women's are working under them. The party and its women are still eager to raise the agenda of women participation in all the sectors.



After the Janaandolan II (Peoples' movement), the reinstated parliament has unanimously provisioned 33 per cent reservation to women in Nepal. The concern of the people is how this decision of the parliament would be implemented. The decision of 33 per cent reservation to the women seems unique and progressive in South Asia This article is about the geopolitical region in Asia. For geophysical treatments, see Indian subcontinent.



South Asia, also known as Southern Asia . People are having a doubt over its' implementation because of the traditional thinking of all the political forces over women in Nepal; till date, every party has offered the opportunities to the women for fulfilling the quotas. Recently after the Janaandolan II also, the position of the parties on the issues of women remained unchanged. Only a state ministerial portfolio has been given to the women; neither the Maoists nor the SPA sent any women in their dialogue teams, and in the interim constitution drafting committee.



After reading the narratives of the participants of the Telengana struggle, the research has concluded that radical agendas would be harmful for society, if the agendas were raised just to woo the people. It will not only be harmful to the organizer, but also to the individual or participants making them frustrated. Such frustration may possibly direct another revolt. The Telangana movement should be taken as a guide in which the CPI (1) (Characters Per Inch) The measurement of the density of characters per inch on tape or paper. A printer's CPI button switches character pitch.



(2) (Counts Per I called off the movement in 1951 but the party was not able to control its' activists to join another revolt. Those who were not satisfied by both, the achievement and the party's decision to end the struggle, tried to reorganize re·or·gan·ize

v. re·or·gan·ized, re·or·gan·iz·ing, re·or·gan·iz·es



v.tr.

To organize again or anew.



v.intr.

To undergo or effect changes in organization. such a struggle. After being unable to resume revolt by the same party, they tried to form an alternate party Alternate party diversion is an optional feature of telephone services, where a call may be routed to a different number based on time-out and precedence schemes set up by the customer. . Ultimately, in 1964, the split took place in the CPI and CPI (M) was created in the initiation of those dissatisfied members, which again continued armed struggle against the Andhra rulers in 1969 demanding "separate Telangana state" (Mohanty 2005:11-15). So, one can conclude that if some one takes weapon, s(he) rarely will quit the weapons before reaching to his target. Experiences show that all revolutionary parties and their accountable leaders can analyze the entire situation and decide to compromise by suspending and even giving up the armed struggle but applying such theory in cadres and followers followers



see dairy herd. , who took weapons after suppressed and marginalized feeling, has not succeed properly. For them, 'do continue the revolt and die in the battle field' is better than being back before getting something. The leader of the Maoists must think to prevent such possibility, and hopefully that may be the signal of thinking over it by the Maoists supreme commander when he realized that "whatever has supported for successful development of the people's war, it is the both, main possibility and main threat."



It is the desperate need of time to Nepali Maoists leaders to think and rethink about the hindrances those hindrances felt long before by Priyamvada, Sugunamma, Kamalama and Sattemma, and that group which split and re-organized the revolt after the wind up of the Telengana people's struggle. Every top-level leaders of the groups including the Maoists, which raised the radical agendas, must learn lesson from Telengana before they take any step forward.

Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

By Aeman Nishath

Recently, a woman in Iowa was referred to a university hospital during childbirth because of possible complications. At the university hospital it was decided that a cesarean section should be done. After the cesarean section was completed and the woman was resting in her hospital room, she went into shock and died. An autopsy showed that, during the cesarean section, the surgeon had accidentally nicked the woman's aorta, the biggest artery in the body, which led to internal hemorrhage, shock, and death.

A cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby, or both. A cesarean section can kill a mother or her baby, or both. Every procedure or technology used during pregnancy and birth carries risks for the mother and baby. Whether or not to use any procedure or technology will be a judgment based on balancing the chances that it will make things better against the chances that it will make things worse.

We live in the age of technology. Since long before human beings landed on the moon, we have believed that technology can solve all of our problems. It should come as no surprise that doctors and hospitals are using more and more technology and invasive interventions on pregnant and birthing women. Has all this technology solved the problems surrounding birth? Let's look at the record. Is the increasing use of technology saving the lives of more pregnant and birthing women? In fact, the risk of a woman in this country dying from maternal mortality (i.e., causes related to pregnancy) has not decreased in more than 25 years. Each year, nearly 1,000 women die during pregnancy, during birth, or in the first week after giving birth. Nearly half of these deaths could have been prevented with better access to higher-quality maternity care. Hundreds of thousands of other women experience medical complications from pregnancy.2

The data also suggest an increase in recent years in the number of women dying during pregnancy and birth in the US.3 We have known for some time that maternal mortality in the US is underreported--in one state in one year, a third of the maternal deaths had not been reported.4 But the latest evidence suggests that "The actual pregnancy-related death rate could be more than twice as high as that reported for 1990."5

WHY ARE MORE AMERICAN WOMEN DYING?
It is difficult to pinpoint why more American women are dying before, during, and after giving birth--the data give only the leading or immediate cause of death, not the underlying causes. But if we look at the six leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the US, three--hemorrhage, anesthesia, infection--are often the result of invasive obstetric interventions.6 For example: Although the immediate cause of death is frequently given as "hemorrhage," in many cases the hemorrhage is associated with cesarean section (as in the case cited in the first paragraph). There is good research, both in the US and the United Kingdom, showing that the maternal mortality rate for cesarean section is four times higher than for vaginal birth.7-9 The rate of maternal mortality is still twice as high as for vaginal birth even when the cesarean section is routine, or "elective"; i.e., it is not an emergency procedure. With nearly twice as many cesarean sections as are necessary being done today in the US, the procedure could be a significant part of the reason for the country's rising rate of maternal mortality.10

Another possible cause of rising pregnancy-related deaths in the US is the markedly increasing use of epidural blocks for normal labor pain. Administering an epidural block doubles the risk that the woman will die; "anesthesia complications" are documented as one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the US.11

There is good reason to believe that other obstetric technologies also contribute to the rising number of women who die during childbirth in this country. Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that in the past ten years the number of women given powerful and dangerous drugs to induce labor has gone from 10 percent of all births to 20 percent.12 In the same ten years, the drug Cytotec, not approved by the FDA for labor induction because of insufficient scientific evaluation of risk--a warning often ignored by doctors--has become the single most popular labor-inducing drug. New scientific data show that inducing labor with Cytotec causes a marked increase in uterine rupture, an obstetric catastrophe in which a quarter of all babies die, many women die as well, and, of the women who survive, almost none can ever have another baby.

Why has the rate of Cytotec-induced labor doubled when the ability of women's bodies to begin labor has not decreased? Further CDC data show that the answer is doctor convenience. In those same ten years, the number of births taking place Monday through Friday greatly increased.13 Like taking prenatal X-rays in the 1930s, prescribing the drug di-ethyl-stillbesterol (DES) to pregnant women in the 1950s, and thalidomide in the 1960s, inducing labor with Cytotec in the 1990s is another obstetric intervention that has gone into widespread use without adequate scientific evaluation, with tragic consequences for thousands of women and babies.

The scientific evidence strongly suggests that the increasing use of obstetric interventions and technologies--cesarean section, epidural anesthesia, and drugs to induce labor--is not saving more women's lives, but ending them. Medical care was responsible for some of the earlier decreasing mortality of pregnant and birthing women, not because of high-tech interventions but because of basic medical advances, such as the discovery of antibiotics and the ability to give safe blood transfusions. There has never been any scientific evidence that such high-tech interventions as the routine use of electronic fetal monitoring during labor decrease the mortality rate of women.14 There is also no scientific evidence to prove that the fall in maternal mortality was because birth was moved into the hospital.15 The evidence does show that, as long as a system is in place that can transport women in labor within 30 minutes to a facility where antibiotics, blood transfusions, and necessary cesarean sections are available, there should be very little maternal mortality. For example, in the Netherlands, a third of all births are planned homebirths attended by midwives that refer women to doctors when necessary. The rate of maternal mortality in the Netherlands is far lower than in the US.

THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY CARE
The US spends twice as much as any other country on maternity care, and yet 15 other countries have lower rates of maternal mortality. There are at least two reasons for this, both having to do with access to quality care. More than 40 million Americans have no health insurance; many of these are women needing maternity care. If a woman applies for Medicare support for her maternity care, she must have means testing, which necessitates that she jump through many bureaucratic hoops before she can receive care. This can be a disaster. Furthermore, women receiving publicly funded care go to overcrowded hospitals staffed by interns and residents who are overworked and insufficiently trained.16 In addition, when poor women qualify for their maternity care to be funded by Medicare, they may be referred to a private practitioner, and receive this care in the doctor's private offices and private hospitals. There they often receive less attention than the women whose care is being funded by private insurance instead of public funds, in part because of the cultural and socioeconomic gaps between the poor women and their doctors. The delays and crowding, and lack of understanding and skill of some doctors, can all lead to pregnancy-related deaths.

The second reason the US has a higher rate of maternal mortality than 15 other countries is the way birthing women are cared for here. American doctors insist that women need to be in the hospital when giving birth, yet these same doctors who need to provide maternity care for them are not in the hospital when the women actually give birth, but in their offices doing prenatal checkups on healthy women, or in another hospital doing gynecological surgery, or at home eating dinner.17 So when the birthing woman who is in the hospital (or transported to the hospital) needs urgent attention for developing complications, the obstetrician is often not there, must be called, and may come too late. Research shows that, in more than 70 percent of cases, the main factor in the death of babies at birth is the doctor's absence.18

The US and Canada are the only countries in the world in which obstetricians provide primary birth care for the majority of normal births. The American obstetrician tries to be all things to women: a primary provider of maternity care for healthy pregnant and birthing women; a provider of preventive care for women; a specialist in women's diseases; and a highly skilled surgeon. No other doctor anywhere in healthcare tries to maintain competence at all of these levels and in so many areas because it is unreasonable to expect this from one human being. It's unlikely that an obstetrician can perform a six-hour gynecological surgical procedure on a woman with extensive cancer, then rush to his or her office and do the best job of quietly, patiently counseling a pregnant woman about her sex life. If you are considering a hospital birth with an obstetrician as your primary birth attendant, ask the doctor how much time he or she will spend with you during your labor. One of the reasons a midwife, rather than an obstetrician, is generally a better choice to attend your hospital birth is that, assuming a normal pregnancy, midwives have been shown statistically to be safer birth attendants than doctors.19 This is, in part, because the midwife is there in the hospital with you throughout your labor, while the obstetrician is not.

For more than 50 years now the US has had a system of maternity care that often boils down to this: A woman goes into labor, goes to the hospital, and is admitted by the labor and delivery (L&D) nurse, who examines her. The L&D nurse then calls the obstetrician, who gives orders over the telephone to the nurse. The obstetrician may or may not come by the hospital during the labor to check the woman. It is the job of the L&D nurse to monitor the labor and call the obstetrician when the birth is imminent so that the doctor does not have to hang around the hospital waiting for the birth.

During my 15 years as Director of Women's and Children's Health for the World Health Organization, I frequently visited the industrialized countries of Europe. I observed that in the 15 countries that lose fewer pregnant and birthing women than the US does--including those countries with the world's lowest rates of maternal mortality--obstetricians remain in the hospitals, ready to jump in and treat serious complications. In those countries, it is the midwives who are out in the community, giving prenatal and postnatal checkups, and who are also in the hospitals as the only health professionals at the births of 80 to 90 percent of women who give birth without serious complications.

It cannot be overemphasized that American women's lack of access to quality, immediate obstetrical attention in the hospital is a major reason so many of them die unnecessarily during pregnancy and childbirth. Put differently, every one of the 15 countries that have lower rates of maternal mortality has universal healthcare coverage for all pregnant and birthing women (with no bureaucratic hoops to jump through), and all obstetricians are hospital-based, ready to care for these women should they develop complications. Furthermore, maternal mortality is not higher in those countries where there are large numbers of planned homebirths with midwives, because there is a system in place for transporting birthing mothers to the hospital, and for managing complications with mutual respect and collaboration between out-of-hospital midwives and hospital staff.

Data from many states in the US show maternal mortality to be four times higher for African-American women than for Caucasian women, and nearly twice as high for Hispanic women.20 The markedly greater risk that African-American and Hispanic women will die during pregnancy and childbirth is because this group includes a higher proportion of uninsured women, poor women, and women who go to hospitals with insufficient and/or poorly trained staff. In short, African-American and Hispanic women have less access to quality maternity care.

WHERE'S THE DATA?
Occasionally, a group of obstetricians tries to get a handle on maternal deaths in their locale. In a study of ten hospitals in the greater Chicago area, reported in 2000, the maternal mortality rate there was twice as high as reported by the CDC.21 Furthermore, on investigation of each case, these Chicago obstetricians found that 37 percent of the deaths were preventable. In the preventable cases, mistakes by doctors and nurses were determined to be the cause of death more than 80 percent of the time. Unfortunately, as is nearly always the case, the study made no attempt to determine how many of the deaths were related to obstetric interventions such as induction of labor, epidural block, and cesarean section. Lamenting that state maternal mortality committees, which carefully review all maternal deaths, are now largely defunct in the US, the study urged that these committees be revived to investigate causes and develop programs of intervention and education.

There is an urgent need for careful auditing of every single maternal death in the US, with a thorough analysis of causes--including underlying causes--and presentation of the results to the public. The Federal Aviation Authority could not set policies for safe flying if they were unaware of half of the planes falling from the skies, and couldn't retrieve the "black boxes" of most of those planes they knew had fallen. But this is analogous to the CDC trying to set policy for safe motherhood when they have limited data on maternal mortality. Federal policy prohibits the CDC from making surveys of what is happening in all states with maternal deaths.22 At the state level, there are enormous pressures from state and local medical societies to prevent adequate investigation of all maternal deaths.23 It's not easy to get information about the nearly 1,000 women who die each year in the US around the time of birth. To begin with, it's difficult to track maternal deaths, as death certificates in only 16 states include a question concerning whether the deceased had been pregnant within a year of her death. Although some states have regulations requiring that such deaths be reported, in no state can anyone, including scientists who want to study why these women die, gain access to information about individual cases of maternal death. If there is an investigation of a maternal death by a hospital, it is a longstanding policy that this happen behind closed doors, which protects the doctor and hospital involved. There is no public accountability. Public knowledge of pregnancy-related deaths does not fit well into any HMO or healthcare facility's marketing efforts. Employees of most hospitals know that their job security often depends on their willingness to keep silent, and the tribal loyalty of doctors is a powerful deterrent to accessing information. The CDC is doing everything it can to push states to improve their maternal death audits. It has had some successes, but today only a few states conduct thorough audits of all maternal deaths, and only one state, Massachusetts, has a law, passed after intense lobbying by consumer groups, mandating that newspapers report maternal deaths.

We know that at least half of these maternal deaths are not reported anywhere, that nearly all of these women die in the hospital, not at home, and that, with adequate medical attention, close to half of these women need not have died. The possibility of liability due to inadequate medical attention has doctors terrified of litigation, and reluctant to release information concerning maternal mortality. American women need to know that their chance of dying around the time of birth is increasing. They have a right to know why.