Dear Editor,
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) wishes to place on record it’s condemnation of the suffering being endured by the women in the sugar belt where estates have been shut and calls on the Government to immediately introduce comprehensive programmes to alleviate the hardships being endured by these workers, their families and communities.
Unemployment since 2015, due to the Government’s incompetence in managing the economy and ill-advised decisions, has reached alarming levels with almost 25,000 workers losing their jobs in both the Private and Public Sectors, a significant percentage are women and single parents.
Even the Business Minister acknowledged that the group hardest hit in the small business sector was businesses headed by female single parents. These include those involved with catering, hair and nail craft, sewing and tailoring.
The short and long-term socio-economic repercussions of women being removed from the work force, is damaging at many levels:
* their personal careers and advancement are stymied;
* their families suffer from reduced incomes and access to goods and services, this is particularly devastating for single parent headed households (29 per cent); their children’s access to health and education are also reduced;
* their purchasing power has been reduced which impacts negatively on the quality of their lives and on the economy;
* psychologically, the levels of depression and anxiety about their future options weigh heavily on them and their families;
* contributions to the NIS and Income Tax are reduced;
* their dependents, not only in their immediate families but their extended family, are also negatively affected;
* loans for their education, or, houses they built through the housing programmes, and or, cars or motorcycles they purchased, are in jeopardy, thereby impacting negatively on the banking system and the quality of their lives;
Poverty reduction, maternal and infant mortality, sexual and domestic violence, and suicide continue with little or no priority given to address these ills. The public health sector upon which over 70 per cent of the women depend on for services is in collapse mode and hardships worsen. Yet the Government blindly sings praises to itself.
On this 2018 International Women’s Day (yesterday), we condemn the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government for its betrayal of our women and all Guyanese. This overwhelming male-dominated senior citizens and urban middle class men and former military and serving military officers at the highest levels – Government has little room for women, especially for young professional women in their midst. After 30 odd months, we conclude that the APNU/AFC coalition Government holds the record for callous neglect and discrimination against women.
Here in Guyana, the silence of those who had held themselves up to be protectors of the women’s rights movement is nothing short of curious. This must change, as it remains true, that were we as a county to invest in our women and in empowering our women, Guyana would grow at a far more advanced pace. Guyana cannot develop unless the inclusion of all women, regardless of their ethnicity, class, geographic location, religion, marital status, etc, are treated as critical, urgent and essential to developing a democratic nation.
To spout compliments on IWD in central Georgetown while driving irreversible staves of destruction in the lives of so many of the country’s women makes a mockery of the lofty goals and intentions of International Women’s Day.
The “Time is Now” to expose these dangerous retrogressive trends and to renew the long held traditions of activism for women’s rights and women’s rightful place in our nation – to be silent in the face of these reversals in to stand on the wrong side of history.
In closing, we support wholeheartedly the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ’s message on 2018 International Women’s Day when he said “Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world… this is not a favour to women.
Gender equality is a human rights issue, but it is also in all our interests: men and boys, women and girls. Gender inequality and discrimination against women harms us all”.
In 2020, we are certain that the PPP/C will return to office and we shall be able to return, reinstate and advance further the position and rights of women in our nation once again.
Sincerely,
Gail Teixeira, MP;
Priya Manickchand, MP;
Gillian Burton-Persaud, MP;
Pauline Sukhai, MP
