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Our Objectives
To study and research the various aspects of women's
subordination in Sri Lanka in order to sensitize men and women on gender issues.
To establish a forum for women to express themselves as writers, researchers, poets, and novelists; to publish their works in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
To disseminate information relating to women and create awareness and increase consciouness on feminist issues.
To strengthen the women's network locally and internationally.
To extend co-operation to and solidarity with other oppressed and marginalised groups in Sri Lanka (such as refugees, unemployed and slum dwellers) with projects for rehabilitation and general upgrading of their lives.
To serve as a resource and documentation centre in Sri Lanka that will become part of the network of research and study centres on Women's Studies in the Third World.
伞
Women's Education and Research Centre
WERC

CONTENTS
Editorial 4.
WERC’s Ideology and Activities 7
Conciousness Raising in Nf Kumari Jayawardane 10
The Voice of the Oppressed Woman: Three Works of Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison
Neuka Silva 14
Ignorance - Selvy Thiruchandran 31
The Use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to Promote Equal Rights in the Family
Norma Monika Ford 32
Female Revolt - Saintly and Veiled Selvy Thiruchandran : 56
Listening to Young American Poets, Prairie Lights Jean Arasanayagam 83
Dilemmas of Development for Women Kamala Bhasin 84,
Tourism and Child Prostitution Maureen Seneviratne 99
A Woman’s Lament: An Inversion of Vocabulary Sukrivi 105

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Reprinting of any material published in Nivedini requires the prior
written permission of the editors .
The views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the editors
Board of Directors
Ms, Anberiya Haniffa Ms. Bernadeen Silva Dr. Kumari Jayawardena Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran
Editors
Selvy Thiruchandran Neluka Silva
Cover design : Breaking Free
Sudath Pushpallal Liyanage
Women's Education and Research Centre No. 17, Park Avenue Colombo 5.
ISSN 1391 - 0.027

EDITORIAL
W ERC's inaugural journal provides a good opportunity for us to reflect on how far Sri Lankan women have progressed in the struggle for liberation and how much further they have to go. The decade of women from 1975 to 1985 saw significant changes in promoting consciousness levels of women all over the world.
In Sri Lanka too this new awareness of the exploitation
and oppression of women coincided with a period of
economic and political changes. During this period of the
Socio-political changes women workers in the Free Trade
Zone, the house maids who went to the Middle East and women in the Service Sectors are seen as entering into new
avenues of employment as part of the ongoing develop
ment strategies. But that their exploitation levels also
increased, was treated as a non-issue when it was placed
dichotomously against income generation. However this process of new entry into traditional labour force am
biguously treated as non traditional jobs increased the
consciousness of the labouring Women.
In the traditional sphere of agriculture and plantations too women's labour has been crucial to the Success of these sectors. While women provide cheap labour in all these areas and in the domestic sphere, their resistance to subordination, to oppression and to exploitation grew. Many women's organizations took up these issues and campaigned for a better future for women.
Today the Struggle continues among women of all ethnic groups for equal and better pay, for decent working conditions, for reform of personal laws, and for the treatment

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of woman as an equal partner with the male in all spheres. The struggle also continues against violence directed at women, against patriarchal domination, against Sexual harassment at home and at work, against the abuse of the image of women in the media, against Sexism in language and in text books and newspapers and against Social discrimination in general. Women also demand the right to control their bodies to make their own decisions about who they will marry, how many children they will have, and whether they will have an abortion.
In the 1990's we have to bring our message about women's liberation to other democratic organisations and we have to win the Support of men, especially young men, in Our struggle for democratic rights for women. For there can be no doubt that the women's movement is a democratic one and that it is also linked to the achievement Of democratic rights for all. In this period in our history, it is also necessary to emphasise the importance of human rights - which of course, includes the civil and political rights of women. Women's Rights as Human rights is the new slogan that has come up now among the developmentalists. This is obviously not being apologetic or a case in point where feminism is subjected to revisionism.
Even if all these goals cannot be achieved instantly or in the near future, it is important nevertheless to re-affirm Our commitment to the liberation of all women in Our Society - and to Speak out against the Subordination of women whether they be Sinhala, Tamil, Burgher or Muslin.
The Women’s Education and Research Centre was formed in 1982 and has concentrated on research, publications and women's Studies programmes.

Nivedini marks anotherlandmark in a series of significant research and women's studies projects that WERC has implemented since its inception. Nivedini attempts to present scholarly articles written by women's activists and academics interested and involved in women's issues both in Sri Lanka and overseas. The articles range from Sociological, historical, literary, economic, legal perspectives to women's issues. The journal attempts to highlight the ways in which women are oppressed and the ways in which these forces have been challenged and contested.
In this bi-annual journal, WERC hopes to engender critical debates on women's issues and promote Scholarship in areas which can sensitize and politicize women and men, with a view to attempting long-term changes at the fundamental levels in terms of both policy and practice which could ameliorate the situation for women in Sri Lanka.
Nivedini also makes note of and contributes effectively to
the changed perceptions of the women's movement from women's issues to gender issues, and its significations in the context of contemporary Socio-political develop
h6>ntS.
We also feel that our journal now fulfills a need in Sri Lanka for a feminist journal that cuts across all ethno-linguistic barriers to reach to men and women and See problems as common to all of us. The English Nivedini will be followed by a Sinhala and Tamil Nivedini Soon. Despite the contemporaneous trends of ethno-linguistic nationalism we still have difficulties to get people to make contributions in Swabhasa.

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WERC - Its Ideology and Activities
WERC is an independent, non-governmental faminist organization committed to work for democracy, ethnic harmony Social change and the liberation women of all communities in Sri Lanka.
Among its objectives is the study and research of various aspects of women's subordination in order to sensitize men and women on gender issues. Within the last year, WERC’s sphere of activities has broadened considerably. Several research projects pertaining to the status of women in Sri Lanka have been carried out. As a part of this, a Media Monitoring Committee was set up. Generally women are being under-represented and occupy less central roles in all media projections. The media depicts marriage and family as being more important to women than to men. The fifteen member committee has selected the following areas to monitor.
Cinema Teledrama Newspapers and journals Advertisements Novels and Short Stories
WERC hopes to being out a publication based on the findings. The publication is tentatively titled The Image of Women as Reflected in the Sri Lankan Media. The publication is expected to be completed by August 1994.
Research
Other research projects include the Impact of Janasaviya Poverty Alleviation Programme on Women (This is available for sale at the WERC office and at leading bookshops in Colombo). Research on the above was completed and the findings presented in the form of a report. On completion of the research, WERC organised a workshop for

over a hundred participants from a cross section of members of other NGO’s, government policy makers, researchers and members of the Janasaviya Trust. Some of the objectives of the workshop were to formulate recommendations to the Janasaviya Commission, to formulate an action-oriented project to fulfil the identified needs of the women studied.
WERC has diversified its interests on a practical level. Included in its agenda is the extension of cooperation and Solidarity with other oppressed and marginalised groups in Sri Lanka (such as refugees, the unemployed and slum dwellers) with projects for rehabilitation and general upgrading of their lives. A Rehabilitation programme for marginalised women and children has also been realized. The programme on the urban poor has been Successful. The children of the urban poor women from the City of Colombo are rehabilitated from two areas, Gregory's Avenue and Narahenpita. Their needs have been identified as lack of proper educational facilities resulting from lack of motivation from parents, malnutrition and a lack of appropriate Social manners for interaction. The programme includes activities relating to several spheres Such as education, where the children are divided into two groups of School-going and non-school going and education facilities are provided. In addition nutritional food such as triposha and multi-vitamins are Supplied. Games and Sport are included in the curriculum with a view to building group Solidarity. There is also a focus on Other activities such as drama, to foster the talents of the group. As a part of this project, WERC conducts periodical medical clinics with the help of doctors who provide voluntary Services.
A training programme for refugee women has got underway. Thirty women in the refugee camps have been trained

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in poultry farming and goat rearing. It is hoped that once they return to their homes they will be able to implement these skills towards income generation. Under the umbrella of this programme, a self help project and training for or marginalised women was set up.
Non Traditional skills for women
Several women have received assistance on an individual basis in the form of training in non-traditional activities such as bucket making, office assistants, bicycle repairs, driving and electrical engineering.
An innovative scheme that was launched by WERC was the training programme. Training girls in the non-traditional spheres is a pioneer effort in Sri Lanka. The availability of the women for work in this field was brought to the notice of the public. The girls were hired on an ad hoc basis by members of women's groups in order to instil a sense of confidence. Several participants have secured permanent employment.
Publications
One of WERC's targets is to establish a forum for women to express themselves as writers, researchers, poets and novelists, to publish their works in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Hence, several significant publications have been produced.

Consciousness Raising in the 1990’s
Kumari Jayawardena
In Sri Lanka it has become common to talk about democracy, but as the anthropologist Newton Gunasinghe Once remarked, Ours is a Socially backward Society. While SOciety has hierarchical caste and class Structures, Our backwardness is also revealed in the prevailing gender relations. In spite of some progress being made in the past twenty years due to the agitation made by womens groups, the subordination of woman still prevails. Apart from discrimination under archaic Dutch and British colonial laws - based On the premise that a man is the head of the household - One finds numerous Other areas reflective of women's subordination. Laws can be changed to Suit changing SOcial relations and enforce gender equality, but changes in attitudes to HVOmen balSed On tradition, Culture Or religion die hard. Meaningful changes can Only come with an increase in consciousness about women's oppression and exploitation and a desire to remedy this situation. This is what feminism aspires to and below is an tentative agenda of some possible changes for the 1990's.
Feudal and patriarchal attitudes to women have to be exposed and Conabatted by the more progressive elements in Society which Seek Social change and real democratization. The basic attitude that has to change is that a woman’s rol is one of wife and mother and that her other roles are peripheral. One persistent attitude to women (irrespective of whether they work Outside the house or not) is that women are solely responsible for household chores and the bringing up of children. These must change; SO also must the enforcement of male authority in the family through domestic

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violence. At present the prevalence of wife-battering in Sri
Lanka is phenomenal. Instead, equality in sharing work in the home must prevail and wife battering must be regarded as a serious offence.
While doing unpaid labour in the home, women have also been a source of cheap labour in agriculture, factories, plantations and offices. The exploitation of female labour is ever-present, especially today in Free Trade Zone industries where unionization is virtually prohibited. In agriculture, wages between men and women remain unequal, while in otherfields women are given the less skilled jobs. Continuous public exposure of the conditions of women's work must be made and pressure brought on employers to change their practices. . .
Another area which merits change is the outdated notion of virginity and chastity, along with puberty ceremonies and the double standards of morality. Women should be discouraged from early marriage and the right to remain single should be recognized rather than deplored. Superstitions hostile to widows should also be condemned.
The home, the workplace, transport and the street must be
made safe for women from sexual harassment and from insults in all their varied forms; and shelters for battered women are an urgent need. Women too must be advised on methods of resistance to this intrusion of their rights as һитапs.
Dress reform is long overdue. There should be equality in choice of clothes and hair styles and women should not be pressurized to wear traditional clothes and have their hair long, but have the freedom to choose their mode of dress.

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A significant change for women will only come with changes in local food habits which are terribly time-consuming. Women have to be liberated from labour-intensive cooking and from ritual, religious duties' and celebrations involving cooking and entertaining, especially at New Year (Sinhala and Hindu), Christmas and Ramazan. Enlightened men must discourage women from these activities and encourage them to participate in more Secular pastimes, outside the հՕme.
Sexism in the media, including articles ridiculing women or treating them as sex Objects must also be combatted. Films and teledramas which stereotype women as long-suffering mothers and crying, helpless beings should be severely criticized and advertisements derogatory to women should be deplored and those products boycotted. Advertisements for marriage which refer to dowry and caste should not be published.
Women should have control over their own bodies, abortion Should be legalized, incest made an offence, prostitution de-criminalised and dowry made illegal. In addition, the 19th century patriarchal rape laws must be changed and the age of consent raised from the present 12 years, which is a national disgrace.
The current trend in international human rights conventions has been to interpret women's rights as human rights. This Changes certain earlier assumptions that made the distinction between the private and public spheres. Now it is no longer acceptable to treat the private sphere as an area where human rights do not apply. The historic (1981) United Nations Convention. On the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) requires governments in the political, social, economic and cultural fields "to take all appropriate measures, including islation, to enure the

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full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men". (Article 3)
Laws in Sri Lanka, including religious and customary laws which are discriminatory to women should be superseded by international conventions such as CEDAW (which Sri Lanka has signed) and by the fundamental rights provision, in the constitution. This would mean that all discrimination against women in Tamil, Muslim, Kandyan and Roman Dutch Law can be challenged in Court as going against the fundamental right (to equality) as guaranteed in the Constitution of 1978. For example, why are we silent when under (Sri Lankan) Muslin law a girl can be married without her consent? And under Tesavalamai law, where a married woman cannot dispose of her immovable property without her husband's consent? Most of all, what about the Roman Dutch law which governs the majority, where the legal age of marriage for females and age of consent (in rape cases) is 12?
Although we hear much about the high quality of life of Sri Lankan women in terms of life expectancy, health and education, subordination persists since the basic structures of SOciety, (including the family) and attitudes to women have not changed very much. It is well known that we have no Brahmins, yet Brahmin' attitudes to women prevail. Are women moving into the 21st century in conditions as backward, in many instances, as existed in the 19th century?
The decade for women began the process of consciousnessraising. Today renewed efforts must be made to make women's organizations more activist and interventionist to change laws, policies and attitudes in order to wipe out the last vestiges of Women's subordination.

The Voice of the Oppressed Woman: Three Works of Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison
Neluka Silva
T raditionally, portrayals of Black women in literature have been circumscribed by a few narrow stereotypes. These portraits were/are invariably overwrought and polarized into extreme Stereotypical images of, on the One hand, the hanfisted matriarch, strong in defence of the white family she serves, and on the other, the immoral, instinctual slut. Both these subject positions precluded the utterance of the various forms of subjugation that Black women faced.
This essay looks at the way in which three Afro-American women work against these narrow subject positions by broadening the boundaries, testing them and in some cases inverting/Subverting the stereotypes through the articulation of oppression. The writers span more than a hundred years and in conventional terms belong to different literary genres. Three representative texts by Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison will be examined - id in Lif (hereafter Incidents), Their E W Watching (hereafter TEWWG), and Beloved respectively. While these texts are read as progressive in many ways, the extent to which they actually subvert the status quo will be analyzed.
The protagonists in the texts are women whose experiences are portrayed essentially through their eyes. While it appears the case that marginalised groups in Society are

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allowed a voice, in effect, the benevolence of the mainstream institutions obviate the enunciation of oppression. These texts uncover the underlying forces of discrimination, the double bind of slavery in terms of race and gender: being Black and women. They are subjugated by the patriarchal institutions of marriage, slavery, motherhood, but they also encumbered by the onus of poverty, of Supporting their families.
Incidents which reaches furthest back in time is an account of Harriet Jacobs' life in slavery and her Struggle for freedom for herself and her children. The text creates a Space for a woman to reveal not just the triumph of her efforts to prevent her master from raping her, to arrange for her children's rescue from him, and finally to achieve freedom; but simultaneously presents her Subversion of adhering to sexual Standards Stipulated by a white patriarchy. Jacob's freedom to reconstruct her life was limited by a political reality that suppressed subjective experience in favour of abolitionist polemics. If slave narrators in general were restricted by the anti-slavery agenda, Jacobs was doubly bound by the form in which she wrote, for it contained a plot more compatible with received notions of masculinity than with those of womanhood. AS Valerie Smith notes
The slave narrative typically extols the hero's stal wart individuality. Jacob's tale is not the classic story of the triumph of the individual will, rather it is more the story of a triumphant self-in-relation.'
Incidents presents a mother Struggling for freedom and a home. Jacobs Subscribes to the role of mother. Her freedom is essentially in terms of freeing her children. Marriage is not the ultimate reward she seeks. She runs away to Save her children from slavery. Instead of

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dramatizing the idea that the private sphere is women's appropriate area of concern, Incidents embodies a Social analysis asserting that the dominant and familial values by chattel slavery is a social issue that female readers should address in the public arena. Jacobs' story is frightening. The position of the slave in the chapter "The Slave New Years Day" is a blatant account of the maltreatment that Slaves were subject to.
The whip is used till the blood flows at his feet and his Stiffened limbs are put in chains.
The values placed on motherhood are upheld in Incidents, as in Beloved. There are attempts though in both texts to show that the value - judgements placed on the role of mother are extremely oppressive and difficult to break away from. Both Jacobs and Morrison point out that the Stereotypical role of mother is constantly inverted and threatened through the process of slavery. Nonetheless the women are judged by the same Standards that apply to the mainstream white mother.
Though Jacobs is spared the anguish of having her children taken away from her, this is the torture that Sethe faces in Beloved. For Jacobs to be able to even talk about Other women's plight albeit in a restrained manner, is a progressive Step.
But to the slave mother New Year's Day comes ...with peculiar Sorrows. She sits in her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning, and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns.

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This wish is fulfilled in Toni Morrison's Beloved, where Sethe resorts to what she perceives as the only course of action open to 'save her children, killing them before the white man captures them. For Jacobs then this space
personal level, but to point to the problematic position of slavery in general.
The genre of the slave narrative, as with the seduction novel did not sanction the discussion of Sexual activity. In this text, for the first time perhaps in the genre of the slave narrative, the sexual dilemma, and the dilemma of exposing it in the arena of publishing becomes a issue. In her letters to Amy Post, Jacobs talked about the conflict she felt about making her life public. Couched within the Christian rhetoric, Jacobs shows that she flouted the sexual Standards of the mainstream that she was forced to subscribe to. She treats her sexual experiences obliquely and when addressing the reader concerning her sexual behaviour pleads for forgiveness in the overwrought style of popular fiction.
When Dr. Flint learned that I was to be a mother, he was exasperated beyond measure. I had a fine head of hair, and he often railed about my pride of arranging it nicely. He cut every hair close to my head, Swearing and Storming all the time. "Pity and pardon me, O virtuous reader".
Admittedly, the element of sexual error and guilt becomes like a confession and links the text to a popular genre, the Seduction novel. In fact Jocob is constantly trying to vindicate herself of her Sexual activities with Mr. Sands. These are treated obliquely. The Style changes completely, and She begs forgiveness as a heroine in a romantic

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novel and pleads for mercy. The very fact that she needs to ask forgiveness is a marker of her adherence to the value System, which proScribes Sexual activity outside marriage. Yet despite the constraints of this genre, she brings out her position as a woman. For instance,
Dr. Flint had Sworn he would make me suffer to my last day. In the midst of his vituperations, I fainted at his feet.
Through this overwrought style, she portrays with conviction the vulnerability of the slave women. Although this confession is traumatic, on deciding to commit herself to this project, Jacob's refuses to embrace the tragic mulatto Stereotype. This is implicit in her response to her grandmothers old mistress Miss Fanny, who wished that:
I and all my grandmother's family were at rest in our graves, or not until then should she dream that I was planning to bestow peace upon her, with regard to myself and my children, not by death but by securing freedom.
In Jacobs' hand the pathetic, seduced tragic mulatto of White fiction is metamorphosed from a victim of white inale deception and fickleness into an inexperienced girl innaking desperate choices in her Struggle for autonomy. Even though her Sexual encounters are only dealt with obliquely in the text, there is some voice given to them. Jacobs does not characterize herself as passive but is an effective moral agent. She takes responsibility for her
Cll()Ih S.
I will not try to screen myself behind the plea of compulsion from a master or it was not S.O. Neither can plead ignorance of thoughtlessness.

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I knew what I did and I did it with deliberate calculation O
For the time in which Jacobs wrote Such an admittance can be perceived as a breakthrough, and the ability to talk about slavery and Sexuality (even in a fairly circumscribed way) opens a channel for the articulation of the other forces of Oppression that woman faced. But then Jacobs' is not the archetypal slave. Rather, she is, as One gathers from the text, a special slave'.
I was born a slave but I never knew it till 6 years of happy childhood had passed. My father was a carpentero.
This opening Statement immediately locates Jacobs position as being privileged within a particular Subaltern milieu. That she knew her father, reinforces her uniqueness. This uniqueness is highlighted particularly against another text almost a hundred years later, in Beloved. Linda has a family to support her. Her fight for freedom is within the context of family Support. Her grandmother occupies a respected place in the community and instills a degree of fear in Dr. Flint, her master. Dr. Flint's treatment of Linda points to this distinction. It is amazing that he portrays such restraint, for in other instances the master would never attempt to obtain a slave woman's consent.
He was a crafty man and restored to many means to accomplish his purposes...Sometimes he assumed a gentleness that he thought must Surely subdue.
Jacobs herself gives the position of other slaves.

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The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licen tiousness and fear. But resistance is hopeless. The little worm shall prove her contest in vain".
That Linda has a white man as a lover is also significant. Mr. Sands acts as a means of securing her children. For Jacobs to have sympathetic access to a man holding an eminent position in Society immediately sets her apart from other slaves. Jacob therefore, is granted a voice because though she is oppressed, she is privileged.
Jacobs though exposing her condition, yet is denied total autonomy to express the reality. The text was carefully edited by her editor Maria Child who veils the cencorship with comments like :
I put the Savage cruelties in one chapter entitled Neighbouring Planters in order that those who Shrink from 'Supping upon horrors might omit them without interrupting the thread of the story
This statement locates Child's own stand. If Child did edit, how much of the account is authentic? From within the ellipses and ironies, linguistic narrow spaces of the text, she expresses the complexity of her experience as a Black Slave woman.
The heinous crimes committed against Slaves come to light Ofaly a hundred years later in texts like Beloved. Toni Morrison describes Some of them in an interview with Time -
There were masks slaves wore when they cut cane. They had holes in them, but it was so hot inside that wheಗ್ಗ they took them off the skin would come off.

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Incidents also illustrates the oppression that mainstream Christianity engenders. The Christian notion of suffering is shown as no panacea for the trauma of slavery.
When separations come by the hand of death the pious Soul can bow in resignation and Say Not my will but thine be done, Lord.
In a progressive way, the discourse questions the power of religion as a solace. The notions of Christianity are undermined in Subtle ways,
But can that hour of Singing and Shouting Sustain them through the dreary week toiling without wages under the constant dread of the lash?"
Thus this text was a path-breaker which influenced the writings of later Black women writers including Zora Neala Hurston. TEWWG revolves around the quest for freedom of a woman oppressed not only by her Own race but by male dominance in general. Her only desire is to procure a 'voice to tell her stories. Janie the protagonist is victimised by the men in her life and finally discovers her voice only when she has relinquished men almost completely. She uses her voice to assert her own authority in a world of Speech makers and tale-tellers. From her childhood Janie is denied an opinion. She is oppressed first by her grandmother, who forces Janie to marry a man much older than herself. Typically she becomes the victim of persecution by her first husband. One of the few options available to women and which Janie sees as a way of asserting herself is marriage. Each time though it is more oppressive. She yearns for freedom from Logan and Jody Starks. With her third husband Tea Cake though, she confines herself once again to the role of wife, this time though she "chooses" to do so. The Sexual politics at work

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reveal that she uses her emancipation' from Jody Starks only to be circumscribed by the same role that she rebels against". In her relationship with her last husband Tea Cake she feels that she finds fulfillment. The oppressed woman only wants a voice to tell stories. She is not politicised to use her voice to identify her position in Society and fight against that.
She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest'.
I lowever, despite Janie's weak rebellion, there is also subordination on the part of her. The patriarchal ideology is imbued in the language. Even Tea Cake who seems the most liberal of the three men in the novel nonetheless fits easily into the role of husband.
Being able to whip her reassured him in pOSSession.
Ibsen voiced this kind to discrimination in 1878.
In practical life, woman is judged on masculine lines, as though She weren't a woman but a man. It is an exclusively role Society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine Stand point.
Yet Janie fails to see that she is once again the victim of male domination. The voice’ she is allowed is a nominal voice but She is subject to more insidious forms of violence.

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Janie stayed home and boiled big pots of blacked peas and rice. Before the week was over he had whipped J anie.*
Janie only perceives that this is subjugation once she is free from the shackles of marriage and men. The novel captures the plight of a woman oppressed vis a vis marriage in a Black milieu and these attitudes and the origins of oppression of women stem from the patriarchal institutions. Hence simplistic notions that it is only the whites who oppress are dispelled in TTWWG. Hurston reveals that even the whites in the text are benevolent to Janie only because their position of authority is not challenged by her.
The white woman Criಲ್ಗಲ್ಗೆ and stood around her like a protecting wall."
The degree of oppression is illustrated in the following
So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man to pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his woman folks."
Hurston overtly sets the plot within the genre of romantic fiction. The ingredients of the romance paradigm are in place, the beautiful woman, the macho' hero, the quest for happiness through marriage. But in effect the romantic genre is deployed to subvert the conventions of the patriarchal system or male domination. Hurston inverts this paradigna. Janie's father is not an influence on her life, and even while Janie's three marriages become the inStitutions for perpetuating male dorminance, ultimately she triumpks in her emancipation frem these shackles. Janie is able to tell her own story.

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The novel also throws into question notions of motherhood. There is a sense of failed mothering in the novel. Molly Hite states that both in Alice Walker and Hurston's novels, mothers are no generators of succession or legitimacy and mothering is a slippery, even reversible relationship. Janie's relationship with her grandmother is fraught, for though Nancy has Janie's best interests at heart, nonetheless She is selfish and autocratic. There is no indication whatsoever that Janie herself is a mother. That children are not mentioned is an indicator that She seems to repudiate the role of mother. Yet like in Incients, this is not brought into the open, but can be elicited from the subtext. If we are to make assumptions that she has used contraceptives, it has to be deduced from the subtext because the genre impeded the license to discuss this issue.
TEWWG centers on the oppression of wife and this is aligned to the Oppression of motherhood, an institution that even the most progressive women refuse to acknowledge as oppression. Beloved deals with this issue. It uncovers oppression of perhaps the most insidious kind. Sethe does not see this as oppression and she is not politicized enough to recognize Society's (particularly the white mainstream) complicity in almost enforcing a slave woman into a position of killing her child to protect him/her from slavery because her "love was too thick". As She States:
I stopped him, I took and put my babies where. they'd be safe. School teacher didn't get them."
Throughout her life, Sethe is a victim of some form of slavery. Firstly, she is a victim of a special form of slavery u nder the Garners, which is me nacing because it masquerades under the guise of goodness, even freedom.

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The Garners it seemed to her, ran a special kind of slavery, treating them like paid labour. ()
The text then becomes a voice of a woman so oppressed by motherhood that the whole novel becomes an expiation of her guilt of not fulfilling her duty as mother. In this sense she reinscribes the conventional role of mother and is not a rebel. What is particularly poignant is that the entire onus of what is for her the ultinate act of love is on her.
A society which is capable of acts of the most heinous kind (bondage of human beings) expects Sethe as a black woman to fit into the role constructed for her as a mother. She is constrained and judged by the same Standards that are used for the white woman and men. Sethe's situation in a strange way can be compared to Nora's conflict in A Dolls House. A mother in modern Society like certain insects retires and dies once she has done her duty by propagating the race. Everything must be borne alone. Sethe's condemned by her society in two ways, firstly in imposing an obligation to be a good mother, but on the other hand pushing her into circumstances where the conventional morality of saving a child's life becomes almost impossible. The standard discourse makes it clear that the conventional morality is completely inadequate to explain this situation. When Sethe refuses to conform to this stereotype, she is treated in the harshest terms. The economy of slavery circumscribes not only the process of . individuation and subject formation but also heightens and intensifies the experience of motherhood of connection and separation.'" It reviews questions about what family means. Beloved explains an anger handed down through generations of black mothers who have no control. over their children's lives, no voice in their upbringing. An anger which is/must be political. Beloved Suggests why that anger may remain unspeakable for language itself

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becomes incapable of expressing the pain but how it might
8 nevertheless be spoken." What is perhaps paradoxical is that in the novel this 'anger' has to be manifested through the supernatural, a ghost. The oppressed is otherwise denied a space for even today the politics of publishing preclude the discussion of certain issues.
Toni Morrison here opens a space for the maternal narrative, a channel through which woman as mother can be represented. Sethe reinforces the oppressed mother and at the end when Paul D says
"You your best thing.... You are" she says, "me
C.
She allows herself to question only for a moment the hierarchy of motherhood and Selfhood for which her life has rested. But ironically she is only able to do with a man, Paul D, who bolsters her by holding her hand. Ultimately for Sethe to come to terms with herself, and to sort out her life, a man has to 'save' her. She is dependent on Halle, or on Paul D to relieve her situation.
Only this woman Sethe would have left him his manhood like that. He wants to put history next to hers.
AS Harriet Jacobs in Incidents claims
Still looking back calmly on the events of my life, I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same Standards as others.
Both she and Morrison seem to Suggest that women like Seth and herself should be judged (like men) on complex moral grounds rather than (like woman) on the Single

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issue of their conformity to the sexual/social behaviour mandated by the patriarchy. The fact that these women are not judged according to their unique circumstances exposes the underlying oppression, and problematizes notions of justice and morality. Conventional justice cannot hold for an experience that is so horrendous. Morrison's way of signifying this is by completely working against the genre, using a form sans punctuation or any conventional devices. The section which describes the slave trade through Beloved's eyes is the most significant and volatile part of the text. By presenting it through the poetic form and given a surrealistic face it draws attention to itself demanding a closer reading.
Beloved's story throws the reader into a state of flux. The facts about slavery are interwoven with the poetry in such a way that one almost misses the significance of this. But there lies the stark reality - the values embodied by the White man. He/she can use and abuse the Black in any way he/she chooses, and has the audacity to expect the Black to conform and work within these same values. This 'story is so harsh that statements such as "why did you leave me who are you?" This straddles two identities which Sethe has. One which as mother deems that she conforms to the precepts of this role, and Sethe as an individual who again has a role constructed for her as a Black Slave in society. The constant reiteration of 'Who are you?' in the text epitomises the struggle of Sethe.
All of it is, it is always now there will never be a time when I am not couching and watching others... the men without skin bring us their morning water to drink...
This section voices subjugation of the most heinous kind. Morrison points out that the beginning of Sethe's act does

28
not lie at the point where the four horsemen come to convict her. The beginning is where '60 million and more' are put onto slave ships as labour.
In an interview with Time magazine Morrison talks of the problems of slavery in a much more open, even militant way. What is stated in the poetry of Beloved's story becomes an alibi for avoiding confronting the issue.
Slave trade was like cocaine now - even though it was against the law, that didn't Stop anybody. Imagine getting $1000 for a human being. for Black people anybody might do anything at any moment. Two miles in a direction you may run into Quakers who feed you or Klansmen who kill you.
Yet the values in the text shows that despite attempts to break away from his normality, Morrison appears to subscribe to the values of the mainstream in her interview with Time magazine she is willing to flout all conventions.
I don't think a female running a house is a problem.Two parents can't raise a family any more than one. The little nuclear family is a paradigm that doesn't work.
looking at Incidents and TEWWG, despite the fact that the women here are bound by the roles of wife andmother, these ultimately are able to break free from the Stereotypes, which Sethe is unable to do.
In the three texts, slavery of various forms is exposed and denounced as a Social structure supporting/condoning male domination specifically represented as Black and White male domination of Black women. A revolutionary

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literature has as its central goal the education for critical consciousness; creating awareness of the forces that oppress and reggnition of the way those forces might be transformed.” În all three texts this could be seen as a primary goal. One important aspect of the slave narrative as reevaluation text was the instance that the plight of the individual narrator be linked to the oppressed plight of the Black people so as to arouse support for the organized political effort for Social changes. For oppressed and the oppressor the process of liberation - individual selfrealization and revolutionary transformation of society - requires confrontation with reality, the letting go of fantasy. While the authors overtly seem to be fighting against the existing System, Valorizing rebellion, underlying this position is an unconscious perhapS) adherence to keep to the values of the mainstream. This indicates the extent to which women have internalised the prevailing ideology. In their Own way, these texts enable the reader to discern a development or progression of language, an ability to articulate Opinion through time. Beloved which One expects to be the most revolutionary seems in some ways mild in comparison to writers like Angela Davis and to the Others particularly Incidents. With the passage of time, women will use their voice to enunciate those experiences which are the most horrific to them, in many ways then these three texts are a ray of hope, for it has become a conduit for Black Women to articulate experiences, whic
they and women everywhere face.
Toni Morrison, it is of interest to know, has been awarded the Noble Prize for literature, for 1993.

15
6
17
18
30
Valerie Smith. "Loopholes of Retreat"Reading Black,Reading Reminist. p.217
Harriet Jacobs. Incidents. p.15
Ibid. p.16
Shirley Anne Williams defines the tragic mulatto as: too refined and sensitive to live under the repressive conditions endured by ordinary blacks and too colored to enter the white world. Introduction to Their Eyes WereWatching God, p. vii
Harriet Jacobs. Incidents. p.XXX
Ibid. p5
Ibid. p51
Harriet Jacobs. Incidents p.XXXII
Toni Morrison. Interview with Time. 22/5/89.p.121
Chris Weedon notes that the family most obviously offers power to men, who may have none outside it. p. 19
Zora Neale Hurston. TTEWWG p.200
Ibid. p.218
Ibid. p.280
Ibid. p.29
Ibid. p. 164
Toni Morrison. Beloved p. 140
Ibid. p.428
Marianne Hirsch. Maternal Narratives'. Reading Black, Reading Feminist. p.428

Page 17
Ignorance
Religious ignorance may close the doors to nirvana, moksha or god-hood, a blockade unto your personal self. A teacher's ignorance may ruin unquestioning students, a ruination but to a few, Political ignorance cause nations to perish with blood-shed,
a destruction to masses of humans, Blissful it is not, to be ignorant Feigning scholarship, mounting falsehood on the academe, ignominy falls on you when those whose I Qs are high weed away your pseudo-science, throw it away into the dust-bin and call you a discard in the dialogue, - Blissful it is not, to be ignorant.
Selvy Thiruchandran

The Use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to Promote Equal Rights in the Family
Norma Monika Ford
Introduction
The true significance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (The Convention) as an international human rights charter for women has been variously scrutinised and rightly so." States which have ratified or acceded to the Convention expressly and publicly accept and undertake a conmitment that equality for women will be a primary goalio Like other treaties, the Convention is an agreement which creates legal obligations between entities with international personality. States possessing contractual capacity agree to create rights and obligations and to establish relationships governed by international law.
Article 29 of the Convention reinforces the legal obligations principle. It provides for states parties to settle disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention by negotiation, by arbitration, or by reference to the International Court of Justice. In accordance with the law of treaties, article 28 describes the procedure for dealing with reservations generally." Article 29 specifically allows States parties, through the reservation process, to elect, not to apply the stipulated methods of settling disputes. The inclusion of this express right to reserve contemplates reservation on this provisiono The probability of litigation between states in the International Court of Justice, concerning the application of the Convention, is

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slender. There is no traceable record of any legal proceeding instituted against a non-conforming state. No active discussion on the incompatibility principle on the basis of juristic theory abounds. Rather, several states have expresed reservations on article 29.6 Perhaps an element of disputation may be gleaned from the objections submitted by States to the general reservations and declarations made by other states." Further, the settlement of disputes between states through international litigation remains debatable. Such litigation is subject to the consent and acceptance principle, consent and acceptance in relation to jurisdiction and decision.
A judicial comment is this :
So far, a major deficiency in the development of human rights law is one of enforcement. The implementation of human rights law largely depends. On the consent of nations. However, even if that consent is forthcoming, an adverse judgement against a consenting nation may or may not be effectively enforced. Currently, the implementation and enforcement of human rights law are largely dependent on Voluntary compliance, moral pressures, and other forms of influence.
For these reasons enforced application of the Convention between States is remote. Therefore it is to national law and policy that attention must be directed when the positive application of the Convention is in issue.
The Convention and The Family
Because the focus of the Convention is discrimination against women a proposition that the substantive

34
provisions all relate in some way to the family is not excessive. Such a proposition is not to be regarded as merely conventionalizing the position of women in the society. Much of the discrimination against women occurs within the family, or because of the perceived notion that, inevitably, women will become the second member of the family partnership. Multilateral convention, of necessity, set general standards in relation to concrete situations while seeking to achieve a measure of particularity. The Convention mirrors this pattern. Its general provisions call for appropriate measures to halt discrimination, but it deals in detail with family rights. It traverses family relationships from conception to succession.
The Convention's treatment of reproductive rights for women is unqualified. It considers the application of these rights as they pertain to education, health and Social and cultural criteria.
Article 10 requires States parties to take appropriate measures to ensure that there is equality in education for men and women. This article calls for a co-ordinated and effective System of education, fairly administered and equally related to all the citizens in any particular country. It seeks to guarantee that at all levels of education, the same programmes, the same studies, the same vocational training, the same professional and higher technical education, in short the same opportunities are made available to girls and boys. Equality in education should lead to equality in participation in national life. However, the contribution of education to the economic and Social wellbeing and stability of the family should not be minimized. Additionally, this article emphasises health education. The imperative is that girls and boys women and men are made aware of their family responsibilities. Clear informed advice concerning family planning is essential.

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The Convention in article 10 underscores the fact that women should exercise reproductive rights from the basis of educated choice.
Education is translated into action by article 12 when the access to health care services requirement is introduced. Access to health care is to include access to family planning services for women and men. Family planning reality dictates the active participation of both partners and the consideration of infertility as well as fertility. Appropriate health services for women must incorporate those services which relate to essential care during and after pregnancy and confinement. That these Services should be made available without charge is an important extension.
Added support for family planning rights is found in article 16. This article succinctly States that women must have equal right "to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of children". 11 Further, women must be given an opportunity to acquire the requisite information and education and must not be denied the means to assist them in exercising this right. These opportunities and Services are to be made accessible, equally to women living in rural areas. 12
Collectively, these articles speak with clarity to the principle that women would have the unfettered right to make reproductive choices. An allied comment is this :-
The ability of women to control their own fertility forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights.
The contribution of employed women to the family wellbeing is undeniably of substance. This is recognized in article 11. Equality in remuneration and safe working conditions are essential. So too are maternity benefits.

36
These should comprise, not only monetary benefits, but retaining employment opportunities, seniority and allowances without the imposition of any sanctions. The essence of this article is that family members must have the option to choose, freely, the profession or employment they wish to pursue. Family events such as pregnancy must not inhibit employment prospects.
Article 15, often labelled the civil rights article, attacks the traditional restrictions placed on women, principally in business transactions. The right to enter into contracts, to initiate tort actions, to establish a residence, nationality, or domicile of choice, as a separate individual, customarily, is qualifies by various legal rules.
Where applicable these rules are capable of creating serious hardship. A woman may be forced to adopt a nationality, or domicile which conflicts with her present wishes or actual residence. An important limitation may then be the inability to seek remedies from the courts for lack of the proper legal standing. The nationality of women must be taken into account when the nationality of children is under consideration. The transmission of citizenship to children by married women, is an unsettled issue which should be addressed." Single women's rights are not similarly circumscribed.
These restrictions hinder women from enjoying full participation, as equal marital partners, in commercial activity which would be of value to the family. They not only limit women's personal development but also their capacity to make practical legal decisions which affect their children.

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Achieving enhanced Standards in relation to civil rights, particularly as they affect the status of married women, should lead to a more balanced, stable family unit.
The first paragraph of article 16 sets the tone for the other provisions which follow. This paragraph mandates states parties to pursue a policy which aims at eliminating discrimination "in all matters relating to marriage and family relations". The article then details the manner in which family rights and responsibilities should be equally shared.''Women must be allowed to contract marriage freely, giving their full consent and must not be forced into marriage by threat or duress. A minimum age should be determined, below which a valid marriage must not take place. Through these measures, arranged marriages, child marriages and marriages entered into as a result of coercion are discouraged. 6
Husband and wife must have an equal right to decide on the family name and to engage in a profession or occupation of choice. Guardianship, custody and adoption matters must be administered fairly, so that neither parent predominates. Rather, this article urges all legal systems to apply the customary principle that, in matters relating to children, the interests of the children are paramount.'
These interests are strengthened by article 5 which states that "the interest of the children is the primordial consideration in all cases." The marital status of parents is not to be the criterion for equal family involvement. All parents, both in and out of wedlock, are expected to share responsible commitment to the welfare of their children.
Both spouses must have the same right to acquire, own, manage and dispose of property. The importance of these rights cannot be overstated. Tradition decrees that property must be administered for women and not by

38
women, even in cases where the legal ownership is properly vested in them. Article 16 requires a change in this old paternal attitude in favour of a more rational approach of equal opportunities for property ownership and disposition. This article views spouses as partners who should enjoy the benefits and bear the burdens, equally, both during the marriage and on its dissolution.
The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee) determined that violence against women is discriminatory treatment of women. The Committee arrived at this conclusion after examining a number of the articles of the Convention." At its eighth and eleventh sessions the Committee recommended that States should ensure that protection be provided for women against violence of any kind occurring anywhere. The Committee's statement on family violence is this :-
"Family violence is one of the most insidious forms of violence against women. It is prevalent in all Societies. Within family relationships women of all ages are subject to violence of all kinds, including battering, rape, other forms of Sexual assault, mental and other forms of violence, which are perpetrated by traditional attitudes. lack of economic independence forces many women to Stay in violent relationships. The abrogation of their family responsibilities by men can be a form of violence, and coercion. These forms of violence put women's health at risk and impair their ability to participate in family life and public life on a basis of equality."
The Convention enjoins states parties "to take appropriate measures to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women." As the Committce Suggests, "prostitutes are especially vulnerable to

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violence because their status, which may be unlawful, tends to marginalise them.' Prostitution affects existing and prospective family relationships. The far-reaching health consequences of prostitution in the current age of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) should compel urgent action.
The objective of the Convention, an end to discrimination against women, is repeated in all of the Substantive provisions. Ending discrimination is based on achieving equality with men. The premise must be that interrupting the historical pattern which restricted the involvement of women in all aspects of societal development is the Originating circumstance.’ The laws and practices which inhibit equality in family relationships are singled out for comment and proposed change. The Convention may raise expectations as to the kind of reform which may be initiated to effectuate such change. Whether it has inspired any appreciable change is another matter."
The Convention, The Family and The Law
The Convention becomes effective either by direct internal application in countries whose legal system allows for confirmed treaties to have immediate effect, or indirectly by the enactment of municipal or domestic legislation.
Direct Internal application, on the face of it, is certainly desirable. The fact that women may be in a position to litigate to enforce property rights immediately on their State's ratification or accession to the Convention can be of great value. However, although apparently uncomplicated, direct application is not entirely free of implementation problems. Two of these surround the constitution of a state and the generalizations in treaties. The

40
provisions of the treaty may prove to be inconsistent with the constitution. Again, treaties are usually expressed in broad, general terms. In both of these cases the distinction between direct and indirect application disappears. Municipal legislation becomes necessary to resolve the inconsistency in the first case and to provide detailed and specific legal rules in the second. For example the Convention may include general provisions relating to violence against women. The Committee may submit general recommendations. Constitutions may afford fundamental rights such as security of the person. But curtailing the incidence of this violence involves re-examination of the criminal law, the civil law, particularly family law, in order to clarify offenses, sanctions and compensation procedures. The question of incompatibility as a result of religious and cultural differences is not overlooked. In this instance, resolution through legislative change is equally relevant.
The principles which circumscribe indirect application are straightforward. A state is expected to take positive action in order to reconcile its international and municipal obligations. Justice Haleem explains with clarity as he comments on the relations between international human rights norms and domestic law.
"The obligations imposed on a state by international law with a view to ensuring the implementation, in municipal law, of the terms of an international treaty to which the said State is a party, is the means of guaranteeing harmony and material agreement between the two legal orders.
A state has an obligation to make its municipal law con
form its undertakings under treaties to which it is a
tA)
party.

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Municipal law which purports to conform to the Convention, necessarily, must be wide-ranging. Articles 15 and 16 insist that the law governing family matters be revised and updated. Article 2 takes a more Sweeping approach. States are urged to adopt new laws, to modify or abolish existing discriminatory laws and to repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women. States are required to embody the principle of equality in their national constitutions.
Constitutions entrench fundamental rights and freedoms including freedom from discrimination. As the Supreme law, constitutions are the source of national protection. They authorize a hearing before an impartial court for any contravention of these rights. Some constitutions simply State that discrimination on the grounds of Sex is illegal. One declares expansively:-
"Women and men have equal rights and the same legal status in all spheres of political, economic and social life. All forms of discrimipation against women on the basis of their sex are illegal.
Such constitutional declarations may be without positive legal effect, particularly when found in contemporary conStitutions which preserve continuity of law through the inclusion of provisions which save existing laws. Problems may arise in respect of existing laws clauses when general law reform is tardy. The dismissal of two pregnant teachers was upheld by the court despite the contention that the dismissal was contrary to the fundamental rights and equality provisions of their country's constitution. The dismissal Order was issued pursuant to an existing law which the court recognized as "in full force and effect."

42
If constitutions are to meet the expectations of those who hail them as protectors of human rights, three elements merit attention. First the constitution itself must include the protecting provisions, in this case the necessary equality provisions. The second element invites a careful examination of Saving laws clauses as they affect the general and relevant existing laws. The third relates to interpretation of constitutions. Commenting on the interpretation of constitutions at a meeting of judges, a former Chief Justice of India Stated:
It must be remembered that a constitution is a totally different kind of enactment than an ordinary Statute. It is an organic instrument defining and regulating the power Structure and power relationship: it embodies the hopes and aspirations of the people; it projects certain basic values and it sets Out certain objectives and goals. It cannot therefore be interpreted like any ordinary statute. It must be interpreted creatively and imaginatively with a view to advancing the constitutional values and Spelling Out and Strengthening the basic human rights of the large masses of people in the country."
The controversy encouraged between the original interpretation and the "creative and purposive" approach did not go unnoticed. It is clear, however, that the originalists were not favoured in that forum. The constitutional provision considered in "the Teacher's case" directs that existing laws are to be construed with Such modifications, adaptations, qualifications and exceptions as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the constitutions." Analysis of this provision must continue to prompt debate on the Court's decision. When it is considered that the public law remedy citizens of a country are likely to seek, as a final resort, is that offered by the constitution, interpretation flexible enough to take into

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account international human rights legal norms should be encouraged.
Public Law remedies based on constitutional rights are not initially sought when family matters are in question. Private law relating directly to the particular issue is the primary source of litigation and settlement. The Convention is best served when municipal law is in conformity with its precepts.
The right to reproductive choice remains controversial in several countries. This right can be transformed into practical reality by termination of pregnancy and providing adequate family planning education and Services, without necessarily restricting the choices. In his book explaining family law in Australia, Finlay recognizes the emotive and moral issues raised when termination of pregnancy is the Subject of discussion. He agrees that the matter can be settled by legislation, but accepts that policy is the driving force.' Where policy is transposed into politics, expedient interference with the rights of individuals can result.
The formula for promoting equality in education and health services adopted in the Convention, may readily be facilitated by legislation. The enabling legislation has been enacted widely by states parties. The delivery of these Services is often limited by economic and in Some cases, geographical factors. Certainly, these limitations adversely impinge on the quality and extent of the education and health care services which developing countries can offer, but developed countries cannot claim to be entirely insulated.
Equality in employment, as the Convention envisages it, relates not only to work opportunity and job protection,

44
but to Security benefits, family leave and support services. States parties generally agree to the principle of equal opportunity for employment and equal pay for equal work is not yet universally accepted or implemented. States have enacted a variety of employment legislation. The influence of the International Labour Organization's Conventions is often evident.' The concept of family leave is not yet widely reflected in the law. Maternity leave legislation is gaining approval universally, however, paternity leye is challenged by traditional Social and cultural values.
The legal restrictions associated with the involvement of women in contract and tort actions have largely been removed. The Convention requires that such restrictions "be deemed null and void."
The law governing domicile and nationality has not yet been as satisfactorily reformed. Domicile indicates the country in which a person is presumed to be permanently resident. It is an important legal concept in common law jurisdictions, for the purpose of deciding which legal System governs one's personal rights and obligations. A married women acquires the domicile of her husband, a domicile of dependence. This domicile of dependence disadvantages a woman who needs to litigate On matrimonial causes. Other legal Systems act on the nationality of the person. The contemporary approach also focuses on nationality. Modification of the domicile law has assisted married women. Legislation introduces change in three ways. A woman who is "ordinarily resident" in a country is permitted to petition the court in the country. A woman is allowed to choose her domicile for the purpose of instituting proceedings in matrimonial causes. The third method of bringing about change completely abolishes the married woman's domicile of de

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pendence and permits her, like anyone else, to have a domicile of choice.
Family Law reforms in accordance with article 16 of the Convention simplifies the law which governs family matters. Much of the uncertainty and inequity resulting from the application of traditional legal rules and principles can be clarified. If both parents are given the same rights in relation to children and the interest of children is paramount then custody proceedings can be diffused. If a minimum marriageable age is fixed then this aspect of capacity for a valid marriage is settled. If the law establishes the nature of the threat which is sufficient to satisfy the test for duress, then entering into marriage with "free and full consent" is given clear legal definition. In some countries the law has been reformed SO that On the disSolution of a marriage, fair distribution of family assets may be authorized. The succession rights of family members are similarly defined. Ensuring that municipal or domestic law accords with the provisions of the Convention is within the competence of developed as well as developing countries.
Commentary
Undoubtedly, the Convention can be used as a Standard against which a State may measure its domestic legislation. The articles of the Convention provide guidelines for the enactment, where necessary, of suitable laws which promote equality rights in the family. This kind of argument presupposes that a state has ratified or acceded to the Convention and regards, with seriousness, the resulting obligations. A state which has signed the Convention and not yet ratified it may also be included. Such a state is

46
expected to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty until it has clearly shown that it does not intend to proceed to ratification." Viewed in this way, the influence of the Convention should be widespread enough to affect, in a positive fashion, family rights universally.
A constant criticism of this and similar conventions is the absence of enforcement provisions.
"... these instruments lack machinery capable of enforcing compliance in any Systematic or rigorous Way with the obligations they create"
The machinery for ensuring compliance is detailed in Specific conventions. The procedures generally comprise monitoring, Supervision and complaints. Apart from these procedures the international and regional agencies which address glaring violations of human rights continue to function. Comment on the functioning and effectiveness of these agencies has variously been made. Arguments and decisions in cases heard bv. their legal divisions have been selectively documented. Evident from comment and decision is the fact that a limited selection of cases reach these agencies. Submission by one commentator concerning accessibility is accepted. An individual or a group may not pursue a cornpaint before an international or regional human rights agency because of a lack of knowledge of human rights and of the existence of the systems established to provide human rights protection. Surrounding Socioeconomic and political conditions and the unavailability of legal and other expert existence are among the inhibiting factors.
Reforming national legislation and enforcing human rights through international and regional complaints pro

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cedures are the strategies mentioned, so far, through which equality rights in the family may be promoted. Now meriting consideration are the functional methods, national judicial decision and reporting to the Committee as the Convention mandates.
First, national judicial decision. At a meeting of Commonwealth Judges the challenge was issued to national courts:
Since there are few international tribunals and their jurisdiction is very limited, domestic courts can play a major role in the interpretation and development of international Organizations, in their turn, can accord Substantial weight to judgements of domestic courts."
National courts are already facing up to the challenge. In a case from Bermuda, the Privy Council, the highest Court of Appeal, considered international conventions in an effort to give "a generous interpretation" to a provision of the Bermuda Constitution. In a case from Australia, the Federal Court viewed the Convention as complementary to its interpretation of domestic legislation. Rooting domestic judicial decisions in international human rights legal norms is a practical method of incorporating the principles of conventions into national jurisprudence. The stature of domestic courts can influence governments to comply with international obligations and where necesSary, even to regularize existing legislation.
States which have ratified or acceded to the Convention are expected to Submit reports on the measures they have taken to give effect to the provisions of the Convention. These reports must detail legislation, judicial and administrative decisions Orany Other action appropriate to the Commitment which has been undertaken. Reports are submitted by governments and considered by the

48
Committee. The Convention does not authorize the Committee to hear individual or group complaints or to compel any action. This lack of authority is sometimes viewed as - a serious defect of the Convention. Advocating a "strong" Convention ignores the weakness of international enforcement and the comparative strength of internationall negotiation. This statement presumes the exercise of legal international enforcement and not an unacceptable display of military might. International and regional bodies which are given Stronger enforcement powers must follow the exhaustion of local remedies principle. Decisions reached which may be unfavourable to a state are implemented by first seeking to promote a friendly settlement, then followed by recommendations to that state. The committee relates to states parties to the Convention through discussion dialogue, suggestion, encouragement and recommendation. The Committee issues guidelines not demands. The method of implementation, reporting and monitoring, authorized by the Convention and engaged by the committee does not place states under pressure of being exposed to international ridicule.
The effect of the Committee's discussion with states parties and the Committee's recommendations which have been published must not be underestimated. The Committee's effort in respect of all forms of violence against women has resulted in a heightened awareness of this problem. Legislation is being considered and in fact, has been enacted in some States. The value of a report as a compilation of information pertaining to women, which may provide a source for a state's development planning, must not be discounted. States in which law reform is needed may be inclined to look at suitable international standards which are constantly presented by the Committee. It is true that states often fail to Submit

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timely reports. It is true that states insist on an adherence to religious and cultural patterns which seem to run contrary to the provisions of the Convention. It is true that positive change comes only gradually in Some States. By its existence the Convention affirms that the promotion of equality rights in the family is an international concern as well as a national responsibility. By its nature the Convention accepts that principles of Sovereignty must be respected.
The Way Forward
The Way forward is familiar, yet in some instances not so familiar. It Signposts national action and international co-operation.
The familiar relates to ratification and reporting. States are being urged, persistently, to ratify or accede to the Convention and having undertaken the obligation, to Submit adequate reports, taking into account the guidelines and recommendations issued by the Committee. States which have found it necessary to enter reservations are encouraged to withdraw such reservations.
The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the Women and Development Programme, Human Resources Development Group, of the Commonwealth Secretariat have mounted Successful Seminars in order to promote ratification and to explain r porting.
Follow up contact is of importance if the best results are to be achieved. The Committee is not authorized to make "on site" investigations. However, the Division and the Secretariat may be in a position to provide for such continuing personal contact. Financial implications are of

50
course, important considerations, but whenever possible, one-to-one consultation is invaluable, particularly in developing countries.
On a national level, the way forward requires review and if necessary, reform of the law in conformity with the provisions of the Convention. It obliges effective and equitable application of laws and practices. The Forward Looking Strategies furnish detailed and practical information which can give direction to review, reform and application. Publicizing the Convention is essential. So is publicizing the law review and reform and the reports. General publicity is vital but focusing on Special groups is also an imperative. Attorneys and judges must know the Convention if they are to introduce it into legal argument. The way forward calls for recognition of individual rights and family rights as human rights, not in rhetoric but converted from rhetoric into reality.
Now to the international aspect. The New World Order and the International Economic Order underline the vulnerability of many states, particularly those categorized as Third World or developing states. These states are vulnerable to economic and military action which, devastatingly, affect families and family rights. International agencies, while Supporting the principle of women and development impose conditions which profoundly affect the lives of women and children. Structural adjustment programmes are intended to ensure economic efficiency. At the same time these programmes adversely affect the most Susceptible groups, the children, the disabled and women. The diversity of States points to their political, economic, Social and cultural differences. This diversity is Sometimes disregarded by agencies and individuals who display a tendency to categorize and Zone states for the purposes of expediency and comment. The way forward

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requires recognition of this diversity. The way forward needs sensitivity combined with policy.
Emphasis is placed, in this paper, on the incorporation of international human rights norms into national law and practice. The positive application of the Convention as a method of promoting equality rights in the family is advocated. The practical means of achieving this integration is legislation supported by enlightened interpretation in courts, which are willing to consider international instruments and decisions. While the primary responsibility rests with the legislators and the courts, community effort involving non-governmental organizations and special groups is equally fundamental. A challenge from an Australian Judge to One Special groups is phrased in this way :
"Our duty as lawyers is to make ourselves aware of the gradual evolution of international statements of human rights and the jurisprudence developing around them, even where domestic law does not bind us to apply them. Thev are becoming part of the law of the world we live
v.
ll.
Accepting this challenge is an imperative.

5
6.
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Notes
Convention adopted by U.N. General Assembly in 1979 and entered into force in 1981. For comment on the Convention Sce c.g., Hilary Charlesworth, Christic Chinkin, Shelley Wright, "Feminist Approaches to International Law", (1991) 85 American Journal of International Law 613 - 645 at 631 ; "Putting Our World to Rights, Towards a Commonwealth Human Rights Policy", Report by a non-governmental Advisory Group chaired by Flora MacDonald, August 1991, pp. 108 - 115.
At August 1992, 114 states ratifical or acceded to Convention.
D.W. Greig"International Law"2nd ed. Butterworths, London 1976, p.450.
See the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Art. 19 to Art.23, "Basic Documents in International Law" edited by Ian Brownlie, 2nd cdition, Oxford 1972, p.233 - 266; Fitzmaurice, "Reservations to Multilateral Conventions", (1953)2 I.C.L.O.
p. 1.
Art. 29, (2).
Some 22 statics have reserved on Art. 29.
Nine slates have entered objections.
For example, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v United States of America), Merits, Judgement, (1986) I.C.J. Reports 14. Sec also Keith Highet, "Evidence, The Court and the Nicaragua Case", (1987) 81 A.J.I.L., pp. 1 - 56; Gary Scott & Craig Carr, "The I.C.J. and Conpulsory Jurisdiction: The Case for Closing the Clause", (1987) 81 A.J. l.L. pp. 57 - 76.
Justice Muhammad Haleem, "The Domestic Application of International Human Rights Norms", paper presented at Judicial Colloquium, Bangalore, February 1988, "Developing Human Rights Jurisprudence", Commonwealth Sccretarial Human Rights Unit, London 1988, p.101.

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10.
11.
12
13
14.
16.
In
17.
18
19.
20
22.
23.
Several articles are considered, articles 5, 10, 12, 15, 16.
Art. 16 (d).
Art. 14.
"The Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women", adopted by 40th Session of U.N.General Assembly, resolution 40/1081 December 1985, p.39 para 156.
Art. 9 of the Convention deals with nationality. See Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana 1980-2, Art.44, mothers can transmit citizenship to child.
Art. 16 (l) of the Convention.
See Maragh v Williams (1990) 16 W.L.R.322 in which the marriage of a girl below the minimum age, 15 years, was declared to be contrary to public policy and therefore void.
Hirani v Hirani (1982) 4 F.L.R. 232 it was held that pressure on a young girl to enter an arranged marriage rendered that
marriage a nullity.
The Convention, Art. 16 (1) (f). See J.V.C. (1970) A.C 668, particularly Lord McDermott's statement at p. 710.
The Convention, art. 5 (b).
The Convention, Arts to 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 14, 16. Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Eleventh Session, United Nations 1992, pp.5-7.
Ibid. p.7, para. 23.
Thic Convention, Art. 6.
Report supra note 19, p.6, para.15.
Charlesworth, supra notic (1) pp. 631-632 for comment on the Convention's definition of discrimination.

24.
25.
29.
30.
31.
54
Antonio Cassese, "A New Approach to Human Rights: The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture", (1989) 83 A.J. l. L pp. 128 - 153.
Dircct application in Dominican Republic, indirect application in Commonwealth Caribbean countries.
Justice Muhammad Halcem, op.cit.p.101.
Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana Act 1980, art. 29.
Giraud and Jn. Pierre v A.G., St. Lucia Supreme Court Judgements, Civil Appeal No. 12 & 13 of 1986. In this case the St. Lucia Court of Appeal upheld a decision to terminate the services of two unmarried teachers. A regulation was in cxistence to the cffect that unmarried teachcrS should be dismisscd on a sccond pregnancy. This regulation was made pursuant to thc Tcachers Service Commission Act, a previous Act savcd by the existing laws Clausc of the Constitution. The argument that the regulation was contrary to thc fundamental rights and cquality provisions of thc Constitution was rejected.
Justice P.B. Bhagwati, "Fundamental Rights in their Economic Social and Cultural Context", Judicial Colloquium.supra. note 9, p.60.
St. Lucia Constitution Order 1978, Schedulc 2, art.2.
H.A. Finlay, "Family Law in Australia", Butterworths 1983, 3rd cd. p. 151, para 473. See U.K. Abortion Act 1967 as amended 1991. Barbados Melical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1983, Cap. 44A. Publicity surrounds recent issues in Germany, Ireland and U.S.A.
Recent U.S.A. Supreme Court decisions remain controversial, e.g. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey, U.S. Law week, June 30, 1992 Vol. 60 No. 51.
See Initial Report of Ghana, CEDAW/C/GHA/1-3, p.15 et seq. Where education and health services discussed Barbados citication Act 1981, Cap.41. Education and health scrvices dominate the international news, currently.

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34.
35.
36.
E.G. I.L.O. Convention No. 100. See Ghana Report, ibid, p. 27 et Sec.
See Jamaica Maternity Leave Act, 1979; Barbados Employment of Women (Maternity Leave) Act Cap. 345A, leave up to three pregnancies, no sanctions.
Art. 15 (3). See Trinidad and Tobago Married Persons Act, cap. 45:50, S15. The Court is authorized to stay the action if it appears that no substantial benefit would accrue to cither party and if the matter can be more effectively dealt with in other proceedings.

Female Revolt - Saintly and Veiled
Selvy Thiruchandran
This paper deals with two women saints of the Tamil region and discuss the Signification of the symbols used in their hymns and try to understand them from a Social and psychological point of view. Of the two women (1) Karaikal Ammayar and Andal, attention will be focussed first on Karaikal Ammayar (2). Karaikal Ammayar was a Saiva Saint and Andal was Vaishnava Saint (3).
Avvaiyar of the Cankamage is sometimes treated as a saint (Chakravarty 1989:18) and this creates some confusion, as to whether she fits into the cast of a saint. Her life story shrouded in mystery has left behind a literary tradition about her birth as an abandoned child. She has been credited with a poetic gift, an acute perception, a Sense of humour and wit and a common sense which led her to play an effective role both in the social and political life of the country. She advised kings, prevented wars, composed moral treaties, protested against married life, disowned her beauty and youth. The myth has it that she became an old woman by the grace of god to prevent marriage being thrust on her. She remained a spinster and wandered through the Tamil region independently, advising, rebuking reprimanding and ridiculing kings and Social equals, men and poets, yet enjoying their company. Any claims to spiritual attainments have to be dismissed though she renounced youth and good looks, and with those, her womanly decorum. She mingled with the secular so much that the works she has left behind speak of moral values

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state-craft and polity, Virtues of a good wife and the household dharma. She advises children and elders alike.
What is significant in the life of Avvaiyar is the symbolic meaning which emerges out of it. The total rejection of feminine appearance and feminine decorum and norms is one. She did not have the right to remain single and reject marriage. But she did both. How she does it, is rendered into a myth of divinely intervention. She is made an old woman instantly. This is done On the assumption of a world view that youth and beauty are hindrances to a Single woman. Female sexuality posed problems here not for her as much as it was for men. Once She attained Old age, she is found to be mixing freely with men (kings and poets and Ordinary men) wandering through kingdoms, leading an independent life, disassociated from a kinship circle and accepting all and Sundry as her companion. In this process she commanded respect and fame which she deserved. Hence in all the roles she played, her gender and Sexuality are neutralized by the myth.
Bhakti and its Social Psychological Meaning
The Bhakti (Devotional religious experience) has emerged as a form of dissent to existing religious experiences. We take this premise to understand and explain the emerging new Social phenomenon of a historical period. The highly didactic moral treatises bereft of emotion, and the rationalistic approach which explained the phenomena of birth and death as cause and effect (the karma theory) left no room for human corrections and attempts at improvement at a worldly level. In Buddhist philosophy the "divine" is eliminated. Renunciation by

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which a desirelessness was aimed, did not meet with thisworldly aspirations.
Economically the country was moving towards acquisition of surplus and this worldly engagement now needed a religious principle based not entirely on renunciation. In this process the people moved from the religious aim of anabstract Buddhahood to a personal God. Anall conSuming emotional devotion was both a reaction to the rational principles of Buddhism and the meditative technique of concentration of the gnana and karmayoga of the sanskritic vedantic Hinduism (4). In fact the social dharma, duty custom and decorum were cast away in the path of bhakti. This is particularly so with the women saints for some women it has become an alternative to marriage (Andal, Karaikal Ammayar, Mahadevi akka)
Kosambi (1962:29-34) givestwosocial functions of bhakti vis a vis reconciling different sects and Schools of thought among the ruling class during a period of abundant economic surplus and the need for divine intervention in times of human distress - The Second reason could be expanded to include gender distress for the emergence of women saints. Both women Saints were from high castes. The first reason applies only partly to the Tamil region. There was no indication of abundance of Surplus production but the indicators are there, towards the creation of surplus. To this can be linked to Chicherov's (1971) contention that the rise of bhakti has connections with the rise of commodity production. This is true of the period which he covers from the 16th century to the 18th century. In the Tamil region too the rise of a merchant community thriving on the inter-regional trade was witnessed. Karaikal Ammayar is herself the daughter of a rich merchant and SO was her husband from a rich merchant family dealing in trade across the regions by sea.This had resulted in the

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formation of new castes, though the caste structure and the supremacy of the Brahmins have not been eroded fully. Strict and rigid caste codes could not be maintained. The dependance of the artisans on the market had freed them from their feudal lords. However the reasons for the rise of the woman saints have to be analyzed from a perspective of gender specific social relations. Unlike the men saints the women Saints are from high castes.
One could not overlook two other factors which are not totally independent of the above reasons. First, the spirit of an incipient nationalism which saw Buddhism and Jainism as foreign elements,converged on an argument for a Tamil religious Sentiment. This did accommodate partly the Sanskritic Hindu elements. The convergence was on a Tamil Hinduism which accommodated elements of Tamilness and Some elements of Sanskritic Hinduism though it rejected the pure vedantic line of Hinduism. In this context it has to be asserted that the experience of the cankam period life and literature which were one with nature and with the human pathos of love and war have Still not receded into oblivion. Attempts are made to revive the former, but into a divine love of bhakti.
Bhakti emerged as a reaction not only to the rational principle of Buddhism but also against the renunciation which insisted on a denial of sex and family life. Bhakti combined piety within the household and family and used the symbols of the aham (5) poetry of the cankam period. The aham idioms were revived on the mortal/GOd relationship. So in the war against Buddhism which had a greater impact on Tamil regions than Jainism, the rise of nationalism included in its fold the lower castes along with the Brahmins. The climate was conducive to include women as well into the fold. As wives, Sisters and mothers, Women had a role to play in the reconversion of husbands

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and brothers from Buddhism and Jainism (Mangaiyarkarasiyar, Thilagavathy and Isai Gnaniar)
The mass appeal of Buddhism and Jainism in the Tamil region was now viewed as a Social crisis and this necessitated a situation where all and Sundry (low caste and women) could be included. Whereas the Social climate that had arisen now could accommodate women's religious experience, there were other reasons which had contributed to the emergence of women. The sentiments expressed by women were recognised within the religious fold as sacred. However the reasons for the women to become Saints are indeed different.
From Punitavati To Karaikal Ammayar
A short note on the life story of Karaikal Ammayar is not out of place in our attempt to understand the background to her revolt. One of the problems of ancient history is to sift the history from myth. The primary source of information is the Periya Puranam which is an epic form of literature with as many as sixty three Saiva Saints as herOS and heroines. The contents of Periyapuranam were recorded centuries later and it is possible that the author culled the information from the oral tradition. While these limitations have to be kept in mind, her own poetical work gives us some insights about her deviance and her yearnings.
Karaikal Ammayar whose real name was Punithavati was born to a rich merchant, also the local headman. She was a devotee of Civa even in her younger days. Being the only daughter of a rich merchant, she was brought up with love and care and her marriage was arranged by the elders. The father was reluctant to send her away with the husband as

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was the custom. Due to his wealth and Social position he was able to arrange a matrilocal marriage and the Son-inlaw lived in his house and set up a business for him. According to the text she was a dutiful wife anda beautiful maiden. Her devotion to Civa was not a hindrance to her household dharma and She fed Civa's devotees at her house. Though the husband was not particularly concerned with her religious activities, he did not prevent her from doing service to devotees.
Life was pleasant, till one day,when the lunch was not ready, she fed one of the devotees with one of the two mangoes the husband had sent home. When the husband came home, and ate the other mango, he found it delicious and asked her for the other. Placed in a dilemma, She went in and prayed to Civa and the fruit was replaced. When the husband ate it, he found it even more delicious and founc out that it was not the mango, he had sent. He ther, demanded an explanation. Unable to lie to him she revealed the truth. Laughing mockingly at her and unable to believe her, he demanded that she produce another mango. This she did. Astounded and perplexed at her Supernatural powers and her divine involvement he was convinced that she was not an "ordinary women". He left her, went away to an adjoining Sea port resumed his busineSS and remarried. When news reached that he had married again, her relatives took her to him. He came to receive her with his second wife and child and fell flat at her feet. He had named the child Punitavati. When the relatives questioned him about the unusual behaviour of prostrating before his wife he explained the reason and said "she was no ordinary woman".
Astounded at all these, Punitavati then prayed to civa that the flesh of her body which had sustained beauty for his sake, may now be removed from her physical frame and

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that she may be granted the form of ghost which dance around Civa. She was then transformed into a ghost with skin and bones, a form loath-some to the mortal eye. She roamed about in her ghostly form. There is internal evidence in her poem for this. In one verse she says.
To be one of that God's ghost herd I am (Atputat Tiruvandadi 86).
Bhakti as Symbolic Protest
From the life story of Karaikal Ammayar inferential evidence will be drawn out to Support a hypothesis of gender based Sufferings which she had to undergo due to the unjust and inequalitarian Social Structure of the period. This would also lead to a social psychological discussion of the experiences of a woman who was affected. This in turn would be connected to the contents of her work and shown that certain facets of her thinking are indeed symbolic manifestations of deep distress, and deprivations.
The early childhood of Punitavati was one of intense care
and attention and love. Her father, according to the myth, contracted a matrilocal marriage to avoid being Separated from her. The comforts and luxury of an affluent life style were there for her. We are told that her father was a rich merchant. She was beautiful and talented as proven by her poetical compositions. There is evidence in her hymns, of her familiarity with the cankam literature. A note of incompatibility was hinted at when the author says that the husband has no inclinations towards serving the devotees but did not prevent her from doing this.

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During that period in history the cultural life of the people (music, art, and literature) was closely connected to the religion of Hinduism. Significantly the author is silent about the qualities or achievements of the husband but naively hints at the differential aptitudes and accomplishments between them, when he compares the wife to a peacock and the husband to a bull. The author however is emphatic that she served the husband as a dutiful wife. However, one cannot but question as to why the wife could not tell the husband freely that she had given one of the mangoes to the devotee. This would lead us to conclude that:
a) She did not have the right to give away anything
without the husband's permission.
b) He did not like her entertaining the devotees.
c) She did not feel free to tell him what really happened
but has to seek divine help to produce another fruit
The "bull" metaphor also could refer to other qualities of insensitiveness to culture. Reading between the lines a series of Signifiers point to very clear patterns of incompatibility and a subject lord relationship between them. The episode of the mythical mango is brought in as a justification for the husband to finally abandon her. His pronouncement that "she is no ordinary woman" is clearly due to his realisation that she is far Superior to him in intellect, and in cuitural accomplishments. He then naively accepts that she is Socially not suitable to be his wife.
A man could easily reject a wife on the premise that she was unsuitable with any one of the following reasons, unchaste, frivolous or disobedient. No divine involvement was necessary. In this case no false allegations were pos

64
sible as her behaviour was immaculate and within the wifely dharma. It was not possible for a "peacock" to reject a "bull" as womanly decorum and feminine code of conduct laid down in the laws did not allow divorce at that time in history. However, leaving her, would not have left Punithavati happy. His desertion had social implication for her and her family. An inauspicious State has descended on her and dishonour on her family. Remarriage was forbidden by law. The rejection would have been socially interpreted as a personal failure of the wife. The author is silent as to what happened or how she spent the time till She was told that her husband had married
This must have been a period of intense depression for
her. The second marriage had convinced her, that she had
been rejected completely and this had shattered her. How
ever, as polygamy was the norm she was prepared to go
back to him and live with his second wife. Upto this stage
it was clearly indicated that there was no other options and
alternatives for a woman other than to go back to the husband who had rejected her and married again. This has to be understood as to why Punithavathy did not feel free and unburdened when the husband had left her. To Punithavathy the final blow was the second rejection when he came with his Second wife and daughter and Said," you are no ordinary woman' and fell at his feet. The Sequence of the emotional grievances have to be understood - her childhood of intense happiness, an adoring father, wealth education and talent, dis-equilibrium of a married life with an incompatible husband, but whom she had to obey and serve and be a dutiful wife, the husband abandoning her, facing Social Ostracism as a result, his rejection and his preference for another woman for a wife, lack of alternatives in life, (socially, married life was the only fulfillment and the goal in life for a woman) another attempt to reach him, a Second rejection, and confrontation with his Second

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wife and the child,- and this is the final stage. Her personal failure now stares naked in the form of the wife and child and her husband. Mentally she is now ripe to renounce the world. The only alternative available was religion, a search outside the bonds of marriage family and household.
Her deprivations are now cast in a religious idiom. This
did not go as far as directly questioning the social defini
tions and stereotypes of proper feminine behaviour or the
institutionalised forms of sexual inequality. They remain. only as experiences of an individual who was oppressed. Attention has also to be drawn to the general theme of the
bhakti cult by male Saints. They were viewed as radical
protest against an oppressive social structure some of them belonged to the lowest strata of the Society.The god
was viewed as a friend and a redeemer with emotionally
close and deep links due to the worldly suffering of pain
and misery. Godhood has become the heart of a heartless
world and the "opium" or the pain killer. Revolt here finds
expression through a cultural medium, with a religious
idiom of an individual soul and a universal Soul. The Soul
as suffering and wandering, without knowing its goal is
trying to find Solace in godseeking guidance, direction and
finally unification.
Having been freed from the bonds of marriage, Punithavati resorts to unconventional life-style defying feminine behaviour and taboos. This can beacheived only within a religious garb for women.
The contents of her hymns will now be analysed to show the connection of her life experiences and her peculiar deprivations to her poetic expressions and the un-conventional mode of thought which are startlingly different. Though Karaikal Ammayar's hymns in general were the expression the terrible worldly suffering pain and misery

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that found a natural outlet in her devotional songs they have a difference which is peculiar to her experience in life. Her hymns form three parts.
1. Arputa Tiruvantati, of hundred and one verses 2. Tiru Irratai Manimalai of twenty verses 3. Muta Tirupatikam of eleven verses
The first composition of the hundred and one verses are expressions of intense love and devotion to lord Civa. A textual analysis of these verses betray a feeling of helplessness and loss of faith in humanity. She is longing for moral Support and seems to be leaning against him in times of inner turmoil and intense pain of mind. Her overall identification with god is that of a father figure, she transplants the earthly figure of her father to god though loving and caring her real father could do nothing to alleviate her sufferings. Hence her choice of a divine father. On verse five she refers to Civa as "my mother"
"Calling you my mother, I beseech to you God. You would solve my intense sorrow".
Her mortal parents failed her to give solace and happiness. She knew they were helpless. In verse three she is determined and vows emphatically.
"In all my seven births, I will belong to thee, my devotion is only for you. Except for you I will not belong to anyone else, anytime".
Her devotion to the mortal husband had become meaningless. Humanity failed and rejected her. So she transfers her devotion and herself to be possessed by the immortal God.

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In verse ten, she reiterates
"My father who is sweet, will be kept on my heart as a Sweet possession, I took him for me, I am pleased to take him as my lord. There is, for me, something rare"
Reading through the hundred and one verses, one gets the feeling of a lost Soul searching for its bearings, for support and Strength. There is an ardent desire to possess and Own Someone which She could call hers, On whom she could depend as a savior who could relieve her of the pain and misery. It was a Search for Something honourable and Stable.
The mental agony and her traumatic experience had affected her physical body. She has been reduced to a skeleton, perhaps also due to the fact that she rejected food. A similar phenomenon of ascetics and those possessed by Spirits becoming like skeletons and losing as much as much as Sixty pounds in a short time was observed by Obeyesekere (1981:77) in his study of women ascetics in Sri Lanka.
Punitavati acquired the form of a ghost, loathsome to the mortal eye.Having got this form she revelled in it and called herself as "Karaikal Pey" (ghost from the district of Karaikal) in her hymns. The casting away of her bodily flesh was a Symbolic expression of aversion towards her own body and Sexuality. The beautiful form and her sexuality were both rejected by her husband. This was a symbolic communication with the world. From this developed the whole psychology of ghost, cemetery, and all the paraphernalia of the gruesome hostile attributes of a loath-Some experience to which she takes us in the "Muta Tirupatikam".

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In the eleven verses in Muta Tirupatikam no details of horrors are spared.The feelings of estrangement due to a complete alienation is visible here. Alienation is used here in the sense of being alien to other human beings, to the nature in which she lives and the entire surroundings. Her beautiful form, her intellect, have all been plundered from her. The humanity that surround her, her husbandparents kith and kin have become alien to her. Her alienation is a self alienation. Reverse the gender of the self here and there are a number of alternatives. A second marriage can be contracted and the concubinage system afforded the man a companion and a sexual partner. These were closed to women. The shame and dishonour that falls On a woman has serious psychological dimensions when interpreted as a personal failure. In preference to human beings, she has Sought the company of ghosts and has converted the human habitat into that of a cemetery in which ghosts reside. It is a misplaced hostility, a symbolic rejection of all the trivia which were of no use to alleviate her Sufferings. This is how One can contexualise the reactions of the bitter and startling details of the cemetery and ghost herd that is supposed to reside in the cemetery with lord Civa.
The Imagery of Ghosts
In Hinduism, there have been traditions built up through myths and fables about demons, ghosts and spirits. Ghosts and Spirits possess' human beings and they are exorcised by priests. It is commonly believed that they reside in the cemeteries and that some of the dead turn into ghosts and spirits. This theory is founded on the theory of rebirth and on an assumption that those who die with unfulfilled desires turn into ghosts and harass those near and dear to them. Lord Civa while residing in the cemetery has a herd

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of ghosts who keep company with him. The "Peymahal" of the cankam literature was supposed to have resided in the battle ground eating corpses, vying with Vultures and monkeys. They were also represented as fierce. With flesh of bodies in their hands , they dance wildly. (Maturaikanchi) and they are "with dry hair, protruding teeth, gaping mouths, green eyes that roll with rage." (Tirumurkarrupatai lines 47-51) One of the poetesses of the cankam literature was called Peymahalir Illaveyini'. The epithet was perhaps added later by some one to Suggest that she was ugly. It was likely that Karaikal Ammaiyar was aware of the "peymahalir" concept of the cankam literature and picked up the ideology and used it as a means of symbolic communication with the world. The signification of this is many faceted.
In the Hindu mythology, Civa is assigned the task of destruction whereas Brahma creates the World and Vishnu preserves it. Civa destroys the world at a time when sin abounds, by his dance called "urttuva tandavam". World is then recreated with new beings and with fresh dharma, by Brahma and So it goes in a cycle. This dance of destruction takes place in a cemetery with an audience of ghosts and spirits who revel in it. Karaikal Ammayar's choice was "urutuva tandavam", the concept of destruction. She begs lord Civa to dance. She is keen to destroy herself and the universe. The site of destruction is the cemetery which is also called a forest (emapurankadu) in Tamil.
Unable to bear the heat of the forest, flesh of the corpses are melting away, the ground is wet as a result, ghosts with long teeth, Sunken eyes, take the corpses and relish them, dancing wildly
(Muta Tirupatikam 2).

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"The eagles and other birds peck the corpses making holes in them"
(Muta Tirupatikan 3).
In the first stanza of Muta Tirupatikam she describes herself thus
Breast Sagging, body shrunk with protruding veins, eyes sunk, two white teeth protruding out, stomach hollow, hair red, long feet, in this form of skeleton, in the form of female demon, I see with glee the dance of my father, in the cemetery Surrounded by ghosts.
She has chosen a combination of a ghost form, the stage of a cemetery and the dance of destruction. Whereas the hymns of other Saints, were set to music and sung in temples, at home and at devotional gatherings, Ammayar's hymns of the last two works were set aside and do not form a part of the bhakti hymns.
Ramunujan (1989:14) has drawn our attention to a contemporary phenomenon in South India. A woman who was deceived Or violated by a man flies into a fury as a reaction. This fury gives her powers and she is made into a goddess. These goddesses do not descend from heaven, but human beings who ascend into a deviant and at times a demonic divinity. Anger becomes the main theme in these goddess cults.
Along with the other saints, Karaikal Ammayar is also worshipped in temples in her skeletal form.

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Kotai's Rejection of a Mortal Husband
The tradition of krishna bhakti originated with the twelve Azhwars in the Tamil region in South India. The Alwars were Vaishnava saints (6) They were collectively called Alwars. As saints they have delved deep into bhakti. The hymns of the twelve Alwars collected into one volume by the vishnu devotees is called "Nalayira Thivya Prabhandam." (Collection of four thousand divine hymns) Andal whose real name was Kotai was the daughter of Vishnu Chittar also called "Periyalwar" (the eldest of the Alwars). Andal is the feminine form of Alwar. She lived around the 9th century (Ragava Iyengar 1931) and is the only woman among the twelve Vaishnawa saints.
Andal's birth is shrouded in mystery. It has a similar theme to that of the birth of Sita.In the myth, she too emerged from the earth as a gift of mother goddess. Her father was a temple priest, himself an ardent devotee doing service in the temple. The legend has it,that one day Kotai was seen by the father wearing the garland he had made for Lord Vishnu. He considered it profane and reprimanded her and told her not to repeat the irreverent act. It however appeared that she was in the habit of doing this daily. Periyalwar did not use that garland and was perturbed. In his sleep, Vishnu appeared before him and said he liked to have the garland worn by Kotai. Thereafter Kodai was called "Cudikoduta Nachchiyar" (The one who wore the garland before giving) She,it appeared had turned into a devote of Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu and considered him as her lover lord and wanted to be married to him. She rejected marriage to a mortal man. Her devotion had found expression in two major works called "Tirupavai" with thirty stanzas, an innocent feeling of love to a personal god of a young girl and "Nachchyar Tirumoli with 143 stanzas, the ardent and passionate love pangs, of

72
young maiden languishing in love, begging for union with her lover. The legend ends by the father taking Andal to the Vishnu temple in Sri Rangam dressed as a bride where she disappears into the temple and takes the form of a statue next to Vishnu. م
In her village, Srivilliputtur, a temple had been erected for her. In some vishnu temples, the statue of Andal dressed like a bride with long garlands is found next to Vishnu. Her Tirupavai hymns are Sung in the Vishnu temples daily and in vaishnava homes. However, her Nachchiyar Tirumozhi hymns are less known because of the use of bridal erotic image in them. They are neither recited in temples nor homes, except one hymn where the dreams of Andal getting married to Krishna is depicted. This is recited in Vaishnawa weddings as part of the marriage rites.
Symbols and Significations of the Legend and the Reality of Andal
For Andal's father Vishnuchittar, Andal was a divine gift, a godsend. His life had been one of loneliness. It appears that the father daughter relationship was one of mutual love and regard. The father did not present an image of a cold patriarch who ordered or commanded her. His was the mother figure and the maternal affection in the life of Andal who was motherless was provided by the father.
The second factor, which is even more significant in Andal's life was her early association with the bhakti and the signs and symbols of the Krishna cult. Her father was a temple priest. Hence Andal grew up in an atmosphere charged with devotion and rituals. In the bhakti cult there were variations in the treatment (bhavas) of gods who

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were brought into a human kinship relation. For the men saints the God was the husband and lover. They were the beseeching lovers/wives for union with god. For Karaikal Ammaiyar, Civa was the father figure. For Andal's father however, Krishnu was a little son whose frolics were admired and appreciated with devotion.
Vishnuchittar in four hundred and seventy three verses describes vishnu's life story from his birth in detail in the various stages and the legends of Vishnu and his avatars with deep involvement and feelings. This emotion packed bhakti episode must have had an impact on Andal. The child image of Krishna presented by her father grew in Andal's mental scenario and enraptured her. Krishna was a great polygamous lover whom many young maidens called the "gopis" (the cowherd women) and longed to marry. Krishna philandered with them promising to marry each of them. In Andal's childhood fascinations Krishna was an enriching experience. She had begun to treat her as one of the gopis. Hence her desire to wear the garland made for Krishna by her father.
Perialwar was partly responsible for the development of this fantasy in her mind. As noted earlier, his fondness for her grew. His love for Krishna as a son was transformed to Kotai as a daughter. He had begun to see andal as a divine figure. He had been cultivating a divine figure of Andal in him. A feeling of veneration had developed in him.This had manifested in a dream fantasy where he had been told by Lord Krishna that he loved to wear the garland worn by Kotai. This could be testified to in one of his hymns where in the role of a mother, he laments the loss of his daughter to god. This is usually interpreted as his personal loss.

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I had an only daughter, and goddess like I brought her up, the fair eyed god has taken her. , f'
Tirumoli III VI - 4
s
The dream of Periyalwar and his request to Andal to wear the garland made for Krishna before taking it to the temple has profound significance. Flowers and garlands are symbols of marriage and matrimony in the mortal world. They symbolize the auspiciousness of married life. A married woman has to wear flowers, and garlands are exchanged as part of a marriage ritual by the bride and groom. Flowers are ritually removed from a widowed woman and they become taboos for widows in the Hindu world. Periyalwar by his devotion to Child Krishna had been instrumental in elevating Kotai as a divine consort for Krishna. His dream and Kotaiadorning the garland are testified to by the name bestowed on Kotai as "Chudikuduta Nachchiyar.
When the father found Andal on the garden he gave her the name Kotai which meant (flower) garland. This is also symbolic of the flower garland he was giving to Vishnu daily as part of his daily ritual. م به. ' ,' :ة.
The childhood fantasies which were in a way influenced by the Surroundings and the physical environment in which Kotai lived (temple, rituals, bhakti hymns flowers and garlands) and the unconscious mould within which Periyalwar had placed the daughter with the symbolic signs of flower garland have all helped in Kotai, to develop within her the image of Krishnaas lover and husband. This grew into an intensely passionate love relationship and she breaks into hymns. The legend tells us that Andal refuses to marry a mortal and declared herself as the bride of lord Krishna and threatened to destroy herself if pressurized into accepting a mortal husband. The Tamil concept of

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Karpu (chastity) has played a role in Andal's rejection of a husband. Having considered herself not an ordinary devotee but a devotee in the role of a bride who was seeking consummation of marriage with Krishna, she could not accept another husband.
Andal's Bhakti Experience as Witnessed Through Her Hymns and Their Deviance
Women's body has been seen as a thing of beauty by many poets. Cankam literature has reference in abundance to the feminine form and figure which are described poetically with similes and metaphors picked up from the fauna and flora.
The next period in history saw a threat in the women's body. It became the means of seductive evil to those who wanted to renounce the world and to achieve a Sexual desirelessness, both Buddhistic and Hinduistic. These kinds of sentiment have been diffused in the bhakti cult where femaleness was discovered as close to emotionality and feelings. The saint poets opted for a woman to express their devotion but in Andal, one finds a complete breakdown of body taboos.
Andal's anatomy was not her destiny. She breaks down the cultural constructs of male and femaleness. To Andal her body and form in the times of marriage and bridal mysticism were sexual objects, the experience of which was a normal part of sex. Through devotion Andal had challenged the attempts to reduce all sex of women to its reproductive functions. The devotion was expressed through her body. Andal's experience was not a revolt but only a dissenting opinion. It is a conscious violation of

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social taboos imposed on the feminine gender as a strict code of conduct. While sex itself is within the confines of a taboo for an unmarried young maiden, to speak of that, to find that as a source of pleasure were taboos even for married women. It was a freedom allowed for the devadasis and Andal had come within the devadasi limits in her role as a devotee. Karaikal Ammaiyar renounced sexuality and got rid of feminine beauty and form, a total rejection, but Andal revelled in her sexuality, within a framework of bridal mysticism.
"There is no need of shame for me" (Nachchiyar Tiru Mozhi 617) Andal says breaking conventional notions of modesty . -
"My breasts are for Govindan (Nachchiyar Tirumozhi 620).
"I pine and languish inside
But that thief and plunderer that
Govarthan (another name of vishnu)
never cares whether I am alive or
not, if I See him
These breasts which are no use
I shall pluck from the roots
and fling them at his chest
so will I extinguish my fire"
Nachchiyar Tirumozhi.634
This is the climax of her desperate longing for consummation with Lord Krishna.
In her poetic longings and in her pining for union with Krishna, she treats him as a friend and lover on equal terms. She rebukes him, ridicules him and condemns his

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frolics with sarcasm and uses double meanings to reproach him. The image of Krishna is not that of an overlord.
After the discussion of the life stories and the contents of their hymns, it has to be explained as to why and how these non-conforming women were not only accepted, but venerated and included on levels of parity of status with the men saints, and their hymns were accepted into the Hindu canonical literature. Non conforming men, of other religious sects such as Tantric Lokayat and Pasupatas were either treated as heretics and proscribed forcing them to go underground oင်္ဂြိုဂိent into peaceful decay.
The first reason is direct and simple.The women were still for the major part within the bhakti idiom of a wandering and helpless social being seeking union with the god. Their personal deviance at an individual level was ignored and it disappeared in the overwhelming image that they gave of themselves as devoutly religious. Second, the role of the Tamil language the poetic excellence of the literary production at this juncture within the phenomenon of a rising nationalism could not be ignored or under-rated. During this phase anything non-Buddhisticbut Hinduistic had to be encouraged and accommodated. The third reason which is even more important is the development of a peculiar factor related to the bhakti movement, which despised maleness. The maleness and machismo of the male Saints were discarded by the male Saints who took on a feminine garb by treating themselves as females. The saints have become feminine figures of emotion compasSion, selfless devotion, and love that is needed for union with the male lord. The ideology of femininity was celebrated. Hence a tradition had been built up in which femaleness as a medium to godhood in the bhakti tradition was recognised. This has spread to the other regions in India and a number of women saints such as Mira of

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Rajasthan, Mahadeviakka of Kannada, Lal Diddi of Kashmir emerged in different periods in different parts of India.
This process has been described by Ramajujan (1989:10 thus)
'Saints have become a third gender, the lines between male and female are crossed and re-crossed in their lives.'
Ramanujan (1989:14) identifies yet another, significant reason for accepting the women's bhakti literature. Their unconventional behaviour deeds and values in general, were accommodated for the fear that they might become real alternatives. While coopting with it,the sting is taken Out of it and that is how radical elements were later routinised. This is true of the two Tamil women Saints.
Apart from the afore mentioned reasons, there is one more significant reason for accepting Andal's hymns. Her outbursts (despite the veil of bhakti) had transgressed the limits but they were contained within the frame work of a bridal need for consummation of marriage. The matrimonial legitimacy was evident in her dream in which she describes (ten hymns) her wedding to Krishna.This clearly separates Andal from the devadasi model.
However, except for these dream hymns, others are not recited publicly because of the frank sexual imagery employed in the hymns. Here we have to recall Ramanujan's reasons for accepting them, wherein he says they are contained lest they become real alternatives.
Andal and Karaikal Ammaiyar are both partly accepted and partly rejected. The process of acceptance has very subtly rejected a part of the controversial hymns by not

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using them, publicly in devotional gatherings. In a way, they are contained, accepted and rejected.
This is the reason for the lack of a continuity in the tradition of dissent and revolt by women and emergence of Saintly women of the calibre and nature of Karaikal Ammaiyar and Andal.
The bhakti expressions are also called revolts (Gohain 1987: 1970) and as counter system (Ramanujan 1989:10). However, the bhakticult did not act as a means of expressing mass discontent of the prevailing Social structures of oppression and discrimination based on a principle of Organisation and Solidarity with an aim to change/challenge the social reality. They are not revolutions or revolts in that sense. The flood of bhakti included the lower caste also associal equals on the religious plain as devotees. The women Saints' religious expressions have to be viewed as manifestations of revolt and dissent against Social conStraints and inequities Suffered on account of belonging to a particular gender. They are expressions of personal grievances but they were also not organised on internal or external principle. In this process of expressing their grievances they have courted "deviant" behaviour. Conditions laid down for them both in conventional Social behaviour patterns and religious codes of behaviour were violated.
The bhakticult viewed on a wider perspective,is a dissenting counter system to the Orthodox religious institutions. The sanctity of the Vedas, the primacy for rituals, the authority of the Brahmins,and the caste system were challenged. It also included in its fold an elevation of the feminine principle. This violated the sanctity of social conventions and the laws of Manu which denied women an inclusion in religion and kept them as socially inferior

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species confined within the domestic realm of the household. This however is a temporary phenomenon as many other counter systems had been.
Notes
1. Wonnen saints
Three women saints are included in the list of the sixty three canonised saiva Tamil saints. Mangayarkarasiyar, the queen of the Pandya king, and saint Isai Gnaniyar, the mother of Saint Sundarar, are listed along with Karakal Ammayar. Mangarayarkarasiyar played a major role in reconverting her husband from Jainism to Hinduism. This is a historic mission as far as her contribution is assessed,in the wider context, both politically and religiously. Isai Gnaniyar was the mother of Saint Sundarar and had been instrumental in the moulding of Sundarar from a lay man to a saint. Hence she too was included in the list. However there are no hymns composed by them. Neither have, they made on their own,any claims to spiritruality. Thilagawathyar was responsible for reconverting her brother Thirunavukkarasu from Jainism to Saivism,who later became such an ardent Saiva devotec and he was credited with the sweet.cst of the hymns. He was included in the list of saints but not Thilagawatyar.
2. Karaikal Ammayar
Her real name is Punithavathy. She is so called because she hailed from Karaikal, a busy sea port for several centuries with active trade and merchant community thrived here. She refers to herself as "Karaikal Pey" in the last hymns (Karaikal Ghost). It was customary in olden days that the identity of a person was known by the place name accompanying the name and lately the place name forms an initial with the surname. The word Ammaiyar refers to mother (Ammai) to which is added an suffix "Ar" which is an honourific susfix added to an hounourable person who commands respect.

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3. Vaishnavaism, Saivais m
There are many cults within Hinduism which gives primacy to one personal god. During the Pallava period both the Vaish nawa cult and Saiva cult united against Buddhism and Jainism. Saivaism gives primacy to Civa and treats him as the only superior god and others : as insignificant. It is the same with Vaishnawaism. There have been violent clashes and debates between them in history. The saiva saints are sixty three in number and are called Nayanmar. There life stories and their hymns were collected and compiled in the 10th century AD during the time of the Chola king Kulattunga II (AD 1133 - 1146 AD) by his prime Minister Sekkilar. Karaikal Ammayar was one of the sixty three Nayanmars. The Vaishnawa saints are twelve in num- : ber and Andal was the only woman saint among them. Vaishanawa Saints are called Alwars, their life stories and hymns were collected by a Vaishnawa Brahmin called Nathamuni. His date is fixed some where between the latter part of 10th century AD (Ragava Iyengar 1931).
4. Vedanta
Hinduism has many systems of philosophy. The Vedanta is the oldest and is based on the vedic literatures and has a strict dogmatic adherence and rituals. This is based on the Vedas, and the subsequent vedic literature and vedic authority was continuously maintained in this system of philosophy. The vedic literature which is in sanskrit was hegemonic and gave supremacy to the Brahmins.
S. Cankam Literature and Aham
The collection of group poetry of the earliest Tamil literature is called cankam literature, which meant literature of the assembly or association.The cankam literature so called is believed to have been produced or compiled in as assembly of learned scholars, poets,and kings.They were compiled with meticulous rules of division. The major division was that of "aham" and "puram"Translated directly they mean interior and exterior respectively. Those of subjective experience of love and its various moods were called the aham. The rest of all the objective phenomenon is called the puram which mainly consisted of war episodes.

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6 Andal, Alwar
Alwar in Tamil means, one who dives deep into the ocean of bhakti and the corresponding feminine term is Andal.
References
Chakravarti Uma (1983)"The development of Sita Myth: A Case Study of Women in Myth and Literature": in Samyashakti Vol I No. I July 1983, Delhi.
Chicherov A.I. (1971) India, Economic Development in the 16th 18th Centuries, Moscow.
Gohain, G. (1 987) The Labyrinth of Bakti, On Some Ouestions of Medieval Indian history, Economic and Political Weekly Oct. 14, 1987.
Kosambi D.D. (1962) Myth and Reality, Bombay India.
Obeyesekere G. (1981) Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Per
Sonal Symbols and religious experience. University of Chicago Press.
Ramanujan A.K. (1989) "Talking to God in the Mother Tongue. Manushi Nos. 50 - 52.

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Listening to Young American Poets
. . .
Prairie Lights
What have I brought with me? Feel like a bit of old architecture From an ancient mausoleum
Walk out of my entombment Into the despairing light Of my own revelations
But here too I see the burning Girl, her raped flesh bruised Bones sifted out of those murderous Ashes and the weeping faces of the Abused.
Is it so difficult to love others So easy to torture, rape, murder?
We do it in different ways When I sit down to feast from These new orchards and vineyards
My thoughts flow like the thick lava Of Velveeta over the steaming broccoli And Brussel Sprouts of my flesh, Feel myself growing soft, soft A fish frozen, thawed, a chicken deboned, Within its wrapping,
Insulated, safe.
Jean Arasanayagam

Dilemmas of Development
for Women
Kamala Bhasin
In 1989 forty thousand men and women gathered in Harsud in India to protest against the construction of a big dam. The gathering also unanimously protested against the very concept of development which created big dams and marginalised Small people.
It was also in 1989 that thousands of men and women from all over the world gathered in Japan for an event called PP21 or people's plan for the twenty first Century. Their contention was that development and progress have been disastrous because they are based on an obsession with materialistic acquisition. Based on experiences of ordinary people the world over PP21 formulated the Minamata Declaration where it was stated that "the slogan at the beginning of the twentieth century was progress. The cry at the end of the twentieth century is survival. The call for the next century is hope." Impelled by that hope for the future and with a keen sense of urgency, we began our concluding gathering of the People's plan for the twenty first Century in Minamata.
It is significant that we met in Minamata, a place which Symbolized development at its most murderous. As it did to the people of Bhopal and Chernobyl, a giant organization with advanced Science, technology and production techniques condemned the people of Minamata to fear, sickness and death, and their beautiful bay to irreparable

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damage. These three disasters - Minamata, Bhopal, and Chernobyl - can be taken as watersheds of our time. At Minamata, the industry of a capitalist country poisoned its own citizens. At Bhopal, a U.S. multinational corporation poisoned people of the South. At Chernobyl, a socialist government spilled radiation out over its land and people and beyond its borders to the whole world. There is no need here to repeat the long and mounting list of ecocatastrophes. These three tell the story: there is no place to hide.
But these are not the only symbols of the disaster that progress' has been. For the indigenous peoples, disaster came with confiscation and exploitation of their lands and resources, and destruction and disruption of their way of life.
For women, development has meant disempowerment of all kinds. They have been marginalized and subordinated by male religions, male science and knowledge, and male maldevelopment. The billion dollar pornography and sex industry have reduced them to mere commodities. At the same time, they continue to be subordinated within their own homes.
For the poor of the Third World, development has meant less and less control over their Own resources and lives. Their struggle to survive has become more difficult, their existence has become precarious. There has indeed been progress and development, but only for a few. The rest are paying for this development by sacrificing their lives, cultures, values.
Development has meant increasing centralization of power. The more the word 'democracy' has been used, the less it has been in practice. For indigenous peoples and for

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minorities, democracy has meant the tyranny of the majority. For the poor in the Third World, democracy has meant the rule of the powerful, a very small elite. Both development and democracy have become dirty words for the oppressed because in reality they have come to mean impoverishment and disempowerment.
The gap between rich and poor, North and South, has increased. In the last two decades, more wealth and resources have been extracted from the Third World than in the entire previous century. The future decades are likely to witness more rapid accumulation, concentration and centralization of power in the North. Debt payments, profits, royalities, capital flight, deterioration of the terms and trade are among the mechanisms of imperialist exploitation. This unjust vulgar and ugly development has also created a South in the North, with the terrible living conditions of indigenous people, racial minorities, migrant workers, and the unemployed.
The twentieth century has brought us more murderous wars than any other time in history. The technology of killing has advanced beyond the wildest imaginations of any previous era. The State, which is supposed to be our great protector, has turned out to be the greatest killer, killing not only foreigners in wars, but also killing its Own citizens in unprecedented numbers. The twentieth century has perpetuated and intensified the practices of genocide, ethnocide, ecocide and femicide. These practices have occurred in the name of what we have called progress and 'development' (From the Minamata Declaration).

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The Ugly Face of Development
The present situation of the world is compelling more people to scrutinize what goes on in the name of developIet.
Development is a much used and abused word. What does Development mean? Unfortunately, all of us have had a very narrow definition of Development. Development has meant only economic development, only material development, it has meant only higher production, higher incomes. Human development, spiritual development, development of values like love, compassion and pity have been negated. Development has meant cut throat competition, it has meant exploitation, injustice and inequality. Economics, Gross National Product and Profit have been the gods in this kind of development.
In the present model of development, a few industrialised countries like the USA and Japan control, misuse and consume the main resources of the world. In the third world, a few rich people control the resources and decision-making power. The large majority of the people remain powerless and poor. The close relationship between the affluence of a few people and the poverty of large number of people is becoming more and more ob
VIOUS
Development has not only meant competition between people, it has also resulted in aggression against nature. Man has wanted to conquer nature and exploited nature for short-term gains. Instead of living in harmony with nature, man has declared war against nature. For example, there has been large scale destruction of forests, causing famine every where. Africa has seen the worst famines in history because of this kind of development. This develop

88
ment has been obsessed with bigness, with grandiose plans. They want bigger profits. This bigness has caused havoc for small people. The small people have had the wisdom to oppose big dams, whether it is in the Philippines, in India, or in Sri Lanka; but our Big Leaders supported by their Big Brothers still lack the wisdom to see the devastation their grand designs are causing.
For more profit and power, men have been making newer weapons at a prolific rate. Billions of dollars are spent on armaments. Nuclear bombs and plants are being developed everywhere. As a consequence of this utter madness, we have Hiroshimas, Minamatas, Chernobyls, Bhopals. No one is safe now from destruction. "Development" has poisoned our food with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. A United Nations report estimates total world pesticide poisoning, at two million cases a year, including 40,000 deaths. "Development" has poisoned our air with too many cars. Our wells and rivers and seas have been poisoned by chemical wastes. Man has created this immense power, it seems, only to destroy. The same power could have been used to destroy hunger and disease and poverty - but this has not happened. The same knowledge and technology could have been used to create human scale development, to create small, self-reliant communities - but this has also not been the case.
Development has come to mean mindless consumerism and tremendous waste. Earlier, one produced to consume. Now people have to keep consuming so that production can go on. Common wisdom and common sense have been made to stand on their heads.
This kind of development has destroyed family life. Men have no time for families. Even married women live like widows. No one knows this better than Japanese women.

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People spend more time in traffic jams than with their families. Big beautiful cars which do not move. They are stuck in a jungle of cars and such jungles are being created in every country in the name of development and prosperity.
The process of urbanisation and industrialization has led to the creation of the most inhuman of slums. Twenty to twenty-five percent of families in "modern" cities like Bangkok, Manila, Calcutta, Karachi, Jakarta, live in slums created in the name of "development" in the twentieth century. This kind of development has also created brothels and the flesh trade. Pornography is another byproduct of this kind of development. Pornography and child pornography have become a billion dollar industry.
The worst impact of this so called development is that it destroys diversity, local culture and local creativity. Cococola, MacDonalds, Ajino Moto, Sony, Judo, T-Shirts, Super-man have become universal. They destroy local foods, local clothing, local entertainment, local values.
Decision making gets into the hands of fewer people. Economic decisions are made by big conglomerates, political decisions are made by people in Our national capitals. Hollywood and their Japanese and Indian versions decide what is entertainment and who Our heroes are. Governments decide what kind of education Our children will have, how many children we will have, whether we can abort or not. Our governments or military generals decide what religion we should follow.
Such development is not sustainable. It is leading us to destruction in many ways. Many of those in power have been convincing us that the biggest problem we face is the growing population of poor countries. Yes, it is an issue,

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but over-population is not the cause of poverty. The poor are not responsible for maldevelopment. The truth is that the biggest threat to our planet are the rich countries and their consumption patterns. An average American or Japanese consumes 100 to 200 times more resources than an average African or Indian does.
What has been the relationship of women to this so called "development"? Women have not been directly involved in determining the nature of this development. It has been controlled and directed by men. It has been patriarchal in nature and it has strengthened patriarchy. Women have actually been the victims of development. To draw some examples from Asia; where our societies are still largely agricultural. I will give examples from the rural areas first.
AS we know now, women were the first farmers in the world. It is they who discovered and developed agriculture thousands of years ago. Since then, women have played an important role in food production. Even today in most countries of the world, women produce more than half of the food. Yet in almost every language a farmer is referred to as "he." During the last hundred years women's role in agriculture has been gradually denied and marginalised. Their role in decision making has also been reduced. Development has clearly led to the marginalisation of the poor and of Women.
When agriculture was modernised by male planners and male implementers, most training and technical education was given to men; as were land, credit and other resources. Women were left out from innovations in agricultural and related areas. As a result, women's Status became lower. They lost whatever control they had over economic assets and activities. All they got was harder and more back breaking work. They continue to perform the most tedious

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of tasks, receiving the lowest wages and the least recognition.
In Nepal, women used to be the main farmers. But development programmes designed by foreign experts ignored them completely. They planned everything for men. This has meant that women farmers have been losing control over resources and decision making power.
In Bangladesh and India, hundreds of thousands of women made a living by pounding rice. When the rice mill was introduced, men appropriated ownership and jobs, and women became unemployed.
For profits, jungles have been cut. This has affected the entire cycle of nature. It has led to floods and famines. What does this mean for women? It means that now they have to walk for several more hours to fetch water, to collect fuelwood and fodder. It means that their men migrate to cities in search of work leaving them to cope with the responsibility of the family. Their burden of work has increased further; their struggle to survive has become more tedious, their existence has become more precarious.
In industry, the situation is similar. In the textile industry
of India many women were employed. When the textile
factories were modernised, women were made redundant.
Women are always the last to be hired and the first to be fired. They are also the lowest paid and usually in the most
Subordinate positions. Newer forms of exploitation in the
electronic and garment industries have also had a negative impact on their health.
Then there is modern media reducing women to objects of sex, unleashing insidious forms of violence depicting

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women as playthings for men. There is increasing pornography, prostitution and sex-tourism. The Media keeps churning out patriarchal ideology. Women have now understood that it is the same minds which play war games, that rape women and rape nature.
It is into this kind of development that our leaders, planners, aid agencies wanted women to get integrated into. But the question is do we want to be integrated into this System and move faster towards destruction, or do we women want to challenge this system? We must challenge it and I know that we CAN challenge it. We must challenge the very concepts on which the present model of development is based. We must ourselves be prepared to break free from the frames that we know, from the moulds in which we are trapped.
AS women we must start looking for a new vision, an alternative way of developing, and this necessarily means a new construction of knowledge; a new relationship with the poor, with the oppressed, with women, with nature. Feminism and the feminist movement is helping us do Some of this. Let me add here that feminism is not concerned only with a few women's issues; it is concerned with every issue in Society because every issue affects us. Thus, as feminists we are concerned with development, environment, War, peace, religion, Science, technology, and everything else.
In many senses this appears to be an unthinkable dream, but this dream is only unthinkable for those of us already caught in the One universal world view. For millions of women (and millions of other oppressed people), the feminist vision is no more unthinkable than their dreams of economic Security, justice and humanity, for all of these are as remote from their reality.

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What is alternative development any way? Very simply it is a people based development in that not only the questions, but also the answers come from the people. These answers also come from within their Own Space and time, from within their own reality. Which means that alternative development accepts that logic is not singular and that there is no one linear development model or path to progress. It accepts different concepts of time and space. Feminism does all this too. At the same time feminism seems to break down the barriers between disciplines; between areas of work; between the personal and political; between them and us, and between you and me.
If we come close to the oppressed people of any Third World country today, we will see that their systems of existence and Systems of life are not dissimilar to what alternative development and feminism are attempting to "recreate". The average peasant, the poor, the oppressed female or male, have yet not separated their beings into categories; or their lives into fragments. They have not yet distanced themselves from nature, from Spirituality, from emotion, or from what we might call the irrational. They have still not made creativity a different art form. It still lingers in all aspects of their lives.
This is even more applicable to women. We have often noticed that women in our countries are able to relate to alternatives; much more ready to experiment with new ways of working, organizing and struggling because they have as yet no experience with the "known" patterns. They have rarely been a part of a hierarchy; or been in positions of power; therefore, are more open to collective decision making for instance. In other words, the majority of women in the Third World countries are not yet a part of the system. They are in the fortunate position of working

94.
out "alternative" systems based on their own realities, their own perceptions and their own conceptualisations.
In this context, when we talk of women's development, we do not mean development of, by and for women. What we mean is that all development should be defined from a feminist perspective. We want to use women's experiences, knowledge, concerns, women's inner light and strength for defining and steering development. We are not saying this because we feel women are biologically different but because of the history of women's experiences and because of women's role in present Society. Women are concerned and involved with basic needs, with the creation and perpetuation of life, they are concerned and involved with keeping people alive, with preserving life. This is why women have to be central to development. It is only when women define development and decide its priorities that we will have development which will be Sustainable, which will satisfy the basic needs of people, which will be human, which will be oriented towards the preservation of life. We say this not because of sentiment or because of any theoretical formations; we say this on the basis of the Struggles women have chosen to wage the wOrld Over.
In Asia there are a large number of instances of women's empowerment of their militancy and their unity. Most of these instances are of peasant, tribal and urban working class women who have been in the front line of Struggles against deforestation, mining, usurpation of tribal lands, exploitation of landlords, corruption of bureaucrats, Sexual abuse and violence in many people's Struggles. Women have been daring, militant and fearless. Women have also been active participants in Struggles against colonialism and imperialism. It is women who are in the fore front of the peace movement around the world. In

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Japan also, it is the house-wives who are getting organized to say NO to nuclear power plants. In Pakistan, it is women who challenged religious laws imposed on them in the name of Islamization. In the Philippines, in Thailand and Sri Lanka, it is women who are Organizing themselves against Sex-tourism, flesh trade, and export of housemaids. In almost every Asian country, it is women who are exposing and challenging Sexism and violence in the media and pornography.
In the North of India, hill country women have participated in a struggle to Save trees from being wantonly felled, by literally clinging to them, daring the axeman to wield the axe on them first, rather than on the trees. Mass mobilization was carried out through folk songs which spoke of life giving properties of trees and their role in stabilising the environment, especially the water cycles necessary for hill farming. Over the years, women have been called upon to resist forest contractors again and again and in a more recent incident, hundreds of them physically prevented trucks of felled trees from leaving the forests by throwing themselves in front of them. In contrast to men, women have consistently emphasized the ecological rather than the economic aspects of Struggle, a Struggle that Originally began as a fight against alcoholism. It was this earlier fight that provided them with the organizational base for the Chipko movement.
In Bangladesh, we have organizations like NIJERA KORI - which means "we will do it OurSelves." NIJERA KORI has helped Several thousands of rural working class women to get organized, to fight for their rights, to demand what is theirs and to challenge oppressive structures. Every group decides its own priorities. They have Successfully fought to acquire common lands for collective farming, to get higher wages, to get loans, to create better

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health services, to get rapists punished and to stop pornographic additions in folk theater. These women have also been using songs and theater to mobilise and initiate discussion. Though illiterate, they are knowledgeable and articulate. In most graphic of language, they enunciate the exploitation they are subjected to and the reasons behind it. They can speak volumes on patriarchy without even using the word. Someone asked a woman activist of Nijera Kori, why during confrontations with the police or thugs of the landlords women were always in the frontline. She answered: "we women are beaten SO often. We are not afraid any more. Once we decide to fight, we fight to the bitter end." They are not afraid. They know that all they have to lose is their chains. When life itself becomes like death, then the fear of death disappears.
In South Asia there are now many women's Organizations which challenge middle men, landlords and Police. They are challenging the patriarchal structures on all fronts.
In Nepal, we have the Women's Development Programme initiated by some innovative women. Through this programme, young educated Nepali Women have gone to the most remote villages to live there; to help women form their own groups and to make plans for their development. The women decide their own priorities.
All types of innovative efforts are going on in the areas of health, education, employment, Self-employment, leadership and research. There are little lamps of courage and hope everywhere. Attempts are being made to link these efforts. We have learnt many lessons from these experi
el tS.
We now know that ordinary women and toiling men not only want to, but can participate in their own development

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if they can decide what this development should be. We know that they can be effective leaders and planners of their own development. Once their creativity is unleashed it cannot be contained. It is this faith in people's power which gives us hope.
We have learnt that development is like a tree, it must grow from below upwards. It cannot be imposed from above. People like you and me can help the people but, we cannot and should not try to direct them.
We have learnt that development essentially means empowering the powerless. As power comes through unity, development entails the poor getting Organized to fight their rights, to tilt the balance of power in their own favour.
For us development also means respecting diversity. It means the growth of self reliant communities. It means decentralisation of power. It also means democratization of families, communities, Societies and nations.
We have learnt that development has to be integrated and multi-dimensional, which involves making linkages between like-minded people involved in different spheres. It requires a close partnership between grass-root level activists, researchers, journalists, artists, planners, lawyers and doctors. Development requires different skills and talents at different levels. It requires experiments at the micro level and policy changes at the macro level. So, a book reinterpreting religion is as important a developmental activity as digging a well. We have also learnt that development requires a fusion of theory and practice. We have learnt that we need to start thinking again about values such as love, equality, honesty and democracy.

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It is about time that we abandoned our relentless pursuit for surplus and looked instead for Sustainability; that we stop being preoccupied with quantitative changes and start genuinely looking for and making qualitative ones; that we shift the focus from male development - mal development to a women-centered development. This shift is critical.
We should stop trying to integrate women into maldevelopment and make a fundamental shift in our perspective of locating women centrally in this process of reconstruction by understanding that a development programme without women at its centre is no programme at all.
Let me return to the example of the Chipko Movement. The lesson they have taught us is the lesson of conservation; of the inter-dependence of nature and human beings, of a holistic rather than fragmented development; of the value of food crops over cash crops, of the necessity to sustain life support systems, not plunder them. Women as much as Soil, water and forests are a life support system.

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Tourism and Child Prostitution
By Maureen Seneviratne
The sexual abuse of children exists in all societies in the world but child prostitution, commercially speaking, has become the appalling and devastating problem it is in Sri Lanka today as a direct result of the tourist influx in large numbers during the late 1970s and 1980s. The drop in arrivals of Charter, Special Groups, in the mid-1980s as a result of the turbulence in our society which keeps tourists away, has by no means led to a decrease in the repeated and often prolonged visits of paedophiles and homosexuals seeking younger and younger children as victims of their perverted sexual appetites. Today the tourist plant is flourishing again. Gay publications widely circulated in Europe, such as "Little John" "Andy" and "Spartacus" carry the names and telephone numbers of agents, private guest houses and the Smaller hotels where, with impunity, these deplorable practices can be indulged in, without fear of repercussions from law-enforcers, as in many instances the police and legal authorities are powerless to take action. A piece of legislation which was framed as a consequence of a study on Child Prostitution done in Sri Lanka by the Organisation, Terres des Hommes, as far back as 1979 - 1980, and even introduced into Parliament, was withdrawn by the Minister of State (and Tourism) in 1987 as being, "irrelevant to the prevailing conditions." The Act to "Provide for the Safeguarding of Young Persons From Being Exploited For immoral and Indecent Purposes and for Matters Concerned Therewith or Incidental Thereto" (a young person being one below the age of eighteen would have done a great deal to give clout to the law-enforcing authorities to charge, imprison and

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punish paedophiles and homosexuals abusing children under the "legal age". However, since the latter part of 1992, the entire system of laws for the protection of children, including child abuse, is under review by a special committee working under the direction of the Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Social Service. Laws relating to children in this respect in the Penal Code and the children's and Young Persons' Act are being amended, altered and strengthened to provide protection for the child victim of sexual abuses among other abuses. The age for Rape has been raised to 16 years in the recommendations for punishments for unnatural offences against children.
Apart from the Study done by Terres des Hommes and those of Several other Organisations, including Government directed Studies prove that Child Prostitution reared its ugly face as a result of Tourism. In the past five years, this problem has taken on even more sinister Overtones with the growing threat of AIDS afflicting several young persons in the country. "Six hundred AIDS infected persons and HIV positive cases have surfaced so far in Sri Lanka... they are carriers who can transmit the disease to others and they will in the next few years develop AIDS" (Dr. Gamini Jayakuru 1991).
According to Professor Nandasena Ratnapala, who has done several Studies on Child Prostitution over the past decade, in a recent interview with the Press, "They (beach boys) know nothing about AIDS and wouldn't care less. They live today, die -tomorrow, hedonistic philosophy prevails among those boys, Some of whom have reached Grades 11 and 12 in their Scholastic careers" and One interviewed by the Professor even had completed his Alevels (Sunday Observer 7th July 1991). This writer met Several A-level students, without jobs and/or oppor

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101.
tunities for further education among the 18 years-andover beach boys. They do not fall into the category of child prostitutes as they are consenting partners to a homosexual relationship and willing to lend themselves to Sexual abuse for money and goods and promises of jobs and a life abroad with their lovers. A few have achieved these goals and targets, one could put it down to "5 per cent of such victims" (Sunday Observer 7th July 1991).
The AIDS figures have now increased and since 1991 considerable work has been dome by the Family Planning Association, the Ceylon Tourist Board, the Anti-Aids Task Force and P.E.A.C.E. (Protecting Environment And Children Everywhere) to provide AIDS Education to high risk groups of children and young persons.
The type of person most to be pitied and dismayed about are the Small children, 'sold by agents to these foreigners. Especially children between the ages of 6 and 14 years, who are unable to 'consent to their plight or even underStand what is happening to them, as Our research has clearly revealed (Caught in Modern Slavery : 1990/91). Apart from physical and sexual abuse; these children are considerably exploited in the production of pornographic video cassettes, blue films, still-photographs which are widely marketed through Secret networks in Europe and the United States, Canada, Australia. Doctors interviewed have confirmed that they suffer mental and psychological trauma and, after having been discarded by their victimizers are unable to pick up’ on their lives again, Study, take vocational training courses or fit into Society. They may instead take to hard liquor, move into the criminal underworld and even volunteer as "killers" in terrorist groups, paying back by these means perhaps, the grudge they bear against society (Dr. A. J. Weeramunda: 1992).

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It has been found that many of these child (boy) prostitutes are from marginalized homes or from the streets. They are abandoned by their parents who do not have the means to care for them or who have left for employment abroad. But it would be incorrect to state that all those who go to the beach to look for a "white fairy-godfather" do so because of the frustration of poverty. This writer, in the course of two and a half years of research found that children from lower middle and upper middle class families, not to mention even rich family backgrounds also take to casual prostitution due to the fascination and allure for consumerables.
Parents 'sell' their children to enable them to purchase material goods or own a house or receive a plethora of electronic gadgets including television sets and video cassette players. from foreign "uncles." The open economy bringing in all manner of material goods, carries also a certain Social Status with owning and using them which has contributed to the escalation of child prostitution on Our beaches and beach resorts where tourists come by the thousands for a wholesome holiday. Here it is very easy for paedophiles and homosexuals to merge with them and carry out their own nefarious activities.
The Sri Lankan culture with its accent on hospitality to foreigners is a two-edged cutting knife anyway; as foreigners are also exploited in return in the process. This enhances the Opportunities for child prostitution in the Island.
It is not at all unusual in the environs of Hikkaduwa (the unplanned Resort) or Negombo (also unplanned but with a fine beach front) as well as in the Colombo-suburban resort area of Mount-Lavinia, in the vicinity of the Resort of Bentota (planned and sculptured for tourism in the 1970s), in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya (also planned resort

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areas) to see male tourists (single men) building or renting houses along with their Sri Lankan "collaborators" and spending several months of the year in the country. They are the funders of Sports projects in nearby schools, donors of material goods and/or money to the Community Centres, 'sponser' whole families in what seems to be on the surface Orgies of generous giving; and all the time they are sexually abusing the children of these families, passing the word on to others of their kind who also descend upon the village for this purpose. No controls can be exerted in situations such as this. Such situations can be multiplied all over the Island. Parents, it seems, wilfully turn a blind eye, hopeful of material gain and a "chance for their children to live better lives." The irony of this would be pathetic if it were not positively dangerous to our Society and its health and well being.
Statistics of the number of young children engaged in prostitution is almost unable to obtain. The writer's own count during her researches was about 2000 in the Negambo/Hikkaduwa circuit alone (1989 figure) but she has been reluctantly compelled to raise this number to at least 5000 on this wedge of the South west coast. These are the children who are organised in the trade by agents of even bigger (both foreign and local) operators who control every aspect of this most paying business, till the child after a year or two, is discarded as being too "old" to gratify the "taste" of the paedophiles. Other figures garnered give the number at 8000 to 10000. Recently, the Ministry of Social Services put the figure at one Million of children engaged in drugs, prostitution and crime. The official Government figure given in 1992 was 30,000 children under 18 in prostitution;75% approximately being boys. Children are usually brought in from other areas to the beaches and the marginalized villages in the hinterland of the Western and Central Provinces as well as the Southern Province are the

104
"feeding grounds" for the prostitution trade. On the Colombo-Mount Lavinia beaches too. "Organised child/boy prostitution" flourishes but a number of "casual" children under 18 years from normal backgrounds (home of the upper/middle Socioeconomic class) who go as and when they please and are picked up or pick up partners for gain also frequent the beach.
Several hotels of smaller, seamier kind in the vicinity of the beaches harbour both agents and boys for the purpose of prostitution. Guest houses are also listed as places where child prostitution can be safely engaged in. There have been Some instances of paedophiles charged and/or fined/deported, especially from the Negombs) region (north of Colombo). Case studies prove that even in instances where the boy is not discarded after a time but, educated by his benevolent "white uncle" he has already been so abused and degraded that he is unable to lead a normal, fulfilling and Sustaining life.

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A Woman's Lament: An Inversion of Vocabulary
When speak, I am arguing When l arguc, I am a shrew When disagree, lam disobedient When I insist, I am provoking Provoking to be beaten and battered, I am named a prostitute, loud-mouth, a disgrace to woman kind My parents, kith and kin are scandalised, They too become the other, I am an object, a thing My body bruised blue and black, My body I do not sell, I am namcd a prostitute today. Tomorrow he gets close to me A rightful practise he alone can claim, To this demand must dutifully consent Should I not demand to be paid?
Sukrivi

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Note about the Authors
Kumari Jayawardena : Researcher, active in the women's movement in Sri Lanka: author of Feminism and Nationalisam in the Third World.
Neluka Silva : Assistant lecturer in English, University of Colombo, Editor; Nived ini.
Selvy Thiruchandran: Director Women's Education and Research Centre, Editor Voice of Women, Editor Nivedini, author of booklets in Tamil and English on feminism.
Maureen Seneviratne: Journalist since the age of 17 and a short story writer for at least two decades.
Jean Arasanayagam : Poet and novelist.
Kamala Bhasin: Programme Officer, Food and Agriculture Organisation, New Delhi.
Norma Monika Ford: Senior lecturer in Law, University of the West Indies, Barbados, West Indies.

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