Nagaland Mahila Congress demands actions on women’s issues

DIMAPUR — The Nagaland Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee (NPMCC) has launched the ‘Nari Nyay’ campaign, an initiative spearheaded by the All India Mahila Congress to address key issues affecting women across the nation.

In a press release on Tuesday, the NPMCC stated that the AIMC has consistently been reaching out to the women to hear their views and the suggestions it has received are being outlined in the form of the Nari Nyay campaign.

Addressing concerns over inflation, the NPMCC stated that consistent price-rise and the failure of the government to regulate the prices of essential commodities have disproportionately affected women. Therefore the price of all these commodities need to be regulated and controlled on emergency basis, providing substantial subsidies on the same, it said.

It also advocated equal pay for equal work, and demanded that the government brings in regulations to ensure that the gender-gap parity is bridged at the earliest.

The NPMCC claimed that most primary health centres in villages that were set up during Congress rule are now either non functional or operating without any medical staff and the basic healthcare infrastructure for women is completely lacking. Calling for improvement of healthcare facilities, it said that the government needs to come up with a comprehensive health package along with ensuring basic health infrastructure, especially in rural areas.

It went on to state that the lack of basic toilets and sanitation facilities in villages is hitting women the hardest, and demanded establishing of sanitation facilities within a 5-kilometer radius for women in both rural and urban areas.

In the education sector, it said that cut down of budgetary allocation, lack of teachers and lack of safety of girl students are some of the rampant issues. “Education needs to be the top priority of the government along with ensuring basic safety to protect young girls from violence – physical, mental and cyber,” it added.

Criticising the BJP government’s ‘diabolic stand’ on women’s fight for justice, it highlighted cases where the government has allegedly remained silent on the injustices against women. “We demand the government, including the women leaders of BJP to take a strong stand against continuous injustice taking place against women,” it said.

It also called for ensuring that women like all citizens are ensured their constitutional protection and respect in all aspects, and demanded the immediate implementation of the Women Representation Act during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Further, the NPMCC expressed commitment to the constitutional values of the country and to fight for the rights of women who constitute half the population of the country, but whose issues affect the entire nation.