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Page 1 of 4  The 8th March was International Women’s Day. Initially launched by the UN in 1978 , Women’s Day was meant to support and press on with the fight of the feminist movement in New York at the time to gain universal suffrage (voting rights), and is aimed to raise this awareness internationally, writes Bisnis Indonesia.
Today, however, women’s demands worldwide have widened to encompass gender equality, improved health services for mothers and children, and the fight against violence on women at work and in the home. Many of these demands have been incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), which were endorsed by all UN member countries, including Indonesia, to be achieved by 2015. While, some twenty years ago, UN members signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which has also been ratified by Indonesia.
For those of us not overly familiar with the MDG’s, here is the list as mentioned on the UN website:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme Poverty and Hunger- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day;
- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
Goal 2: Achieve universal Primary Education:- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary education.
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women:- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality - Reduce by three quarters the mortality rate among children under five.
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health:- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality rate.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS;
- Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
Goal 7: Ensure environmental Sustainability- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources;
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water;
Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.
Goal 8: Develop a global Partnership for Development- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – nationally and internationally;
- Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This include tariff and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction;
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States;
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term;
- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth;
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries;
- In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies.
As far as gender equality is concerned, we in Indonesia, have in fact, been more familiar with Kartini Day, commemorated as Women’s Day, which is annually celebrated on 21 April. On this day the country pushes the emancipation of women from the limiting bonds of tradition that have tied women exclusively to the home, and to fight for the rights of girls to receive education equal to boys. Besides Kartini, there are a number of Indonesian women pioneers in many parts of this archipelago to whose efforts this day is especially dedicated, among whom are Cut Nya’ Dhien and Cut Mutiah from Aceh, Ni Ageng Serang and Dewi Sartika from West Java, Mrs. Walandouw Maramis from North Sulawesi, and Christina Tiahohu of Ambon.
Born on 21 April 1879, Kartini, a princess from Java, spearheaded the emancipation of women in Indonesia through her letters to a friend in Holland, who later published these in a book entitled : “Letters from a Javanese Princess”. In these letters the young Kartini expressed her innate rebellion to rid herself from the shackles of tradition that forced her to remain illiterate, whilst the European girls of the time were already free to pursue formal education and could step out into the world with confidence. Following tradition, however, Kartini later obeyed her parents’ wish to marry the Regent of Rembang, thereby, foregoing a scholarship offered to her to study in Holland. She passed the scholarship in favour of a West Sumatran youth, who hailed from a completely different traditional background, who was none other than (Haji) Agus Salim, who later became one of Indonesia’s founding fathers.
As the wife of the Regent of Rembang, and with the consent of her husband, Kartini started a school for girls in the premises of her new home, the second school on Java after the one she started in her hometown of Jepara. Kartini continued to teach until her death at childbirth at the tender age of 25!
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