ISSUES affecting Guyanese and other women were also discussed at a London meeting organised by the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin.
An impressive array of speakers from around the globe addressed last month’s London meet — including GOPIO V.P Ashok Ramsaran of Berbice, novelist Lakshmi Persaud, whose novel For the Love of My Name is based on Guyana and who taught at Queens College, and the well known Guyanese Chief Executive of Experience Corps Maggie Semple, who possesses an OBE and an Honorary doctorate for her lifelong work.
Persaud’s presentation on the history of female Indian migration to Guyana and the West Indies captured the attention of the audience.
The participants committed to propelling women at the centre of international development. Lady Shruti Rana convened the conference. Her Holiness Anadmurti Guruma started the meeting with an inspirational invocation. Lord Diljit Rana spoke about the role of women in the Indian Diaspora. Hon. Basdeo Panday, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, spoke about the dire issues concerning women of Indian origin and offered suggestions on how to address them. Ramsaran spoke on the many achievements of Guyanese and other women and the wide-ranging challenges they face. Lord Meghnad Desai called on governments to take steps to end abuses against women.
Baroness SandipVerma, Government Minister for International Development, Women & Equality resolved to harness the power of international women’s networks to bring about positive social and economic change for women. Other speakers included Baroness Shreela Flather, Lord Narendra Patel KT, Dr. Piyush Agarwal, Lawyer Leela Ramdeen, Lakshmi Persaud; and Kamala Lakhdhir, US Consul General to Northern Ireland.
Lakshmi Persaud gave a brief history on the migration of Indian women to Guyana and Trinidad. She explained how and why Indian women were taken to colonies to halt the rapid decline of the sugar monoculture there and their contributions to society. “They came with a complex, comprehensive culture intact: a spoken and written language, food preparation rituals, their religion with its many festivals; music and dance; birth, marriage and death ceremonies, as well as an established hierarchy of people”.
Persaud noted that with emigration Indian women got “the opportunity to cast off aspects of tradition like the caste system which was debilitating and impeded human progress giving them possibilities to be upwardly mobile”.
She also examined the role of education pointing out that one of the most pitiful and harmful aspects of Indian culture, was a neglect of the education of women and concern for their welfare. “This aspect of life was not perceived as the way forward for the family, by fathers and later by husbands and in-laws”. Persaud said that women being house bound and illiterate “had enormous long term, dire consequences. They were unaware of the pressing need to become literate in English in order to understand the expanding, changing world of progressive ideas as modernity marched through North America and Western Europe”.
But as women became more assertive, “fathers and husbands saw the pecuniary advantages that came with education, the once closed pattern became an open, ever expanding one of possibilities”. Today, women are taking full advantage of primary and secondary schools, national and regional universities. They have entered a wide field of endeavours attaining the pinnacles of their professions.
Persaud stressed that “a good education is essential to the development of women; it forms the basis for all other aspects of development we are here concerned with, be it marital, industrial, legal, cultural and health issues”. But she noted that education alone will not give women equality because they face discrimination in salary and positions.  She feels the workplace needs to be fair to women so they can become truly equal.
GOPIO plans to have its second International Women’s Conference in Durban South Africa in August. The theme will be ‘The Role of Women in Leadership and in Society”. The organisation also plans to work on a film documenting the migration of Indians to Guyana and elsewhere from the perspective of a woman’s narrative. Bollywood legend Shyam Benegal is being approached to direct the film.