New York, June 6: Day two at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS): Women 2000 is well on its way and for most of the women representing NGOs here, it has been difficult deciding which caucus (UN jargon for a meeting on a particular issue or of a particular region) to attend. There seems to be so much happening besides the official session.

The UNGASS, which opened in New York yesterday, has been convened to review how countries have implemented the decisions taken at the women's conference held in Beijing in 1995. Government delegations representing 189 UN member countries are here. So are 3000 women from 1,250 NGOs from all over the world.

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) identified 12 specific areas which need attention:

• Women and poverty
• Women and media
• Education and training of women
• Women and economy
• Women in power and decision making
• Women and environment
• Violence against women
• Women and armed conflict
• Human rights of women
• The girl-child
• Women and health
• Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women.

It is five years since the Beijing conference and 25 years since the first conference on women and yet, in terms of progress there has been very little in most of these areas. In the words of the Jamaican minister for women's affairs, "Four conferences and 25 years later, we are still discussing the same things. There is a need for urgency."

Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, minister for external affairs and leader of the Indian delegation, addressed the general assembly yesterday. He spoke of the lofty ideals his government was committed to. However, he admitted that the globalization of the Indian economy had "accentuated the marginalization of women." What action his government which has been relentlessly pursuing the same globalization was proposing to take to check this marginalization was not mentioned. Referring to the widespread violence against women in India, he said that it was a matter of shame that "violence persists and takes new forms." Citing the Hindu scriptures, the minister said the concept of Ardhanarishwara (an half male- half female god) signified the "complementarity of the sexes", so necessary for a more humane society. He concluded by comparing women to Saraswati, Lakshmi and Durga, the Hindu goddesses of knowledge, wealth and power respectively.

Deifying and glorifying women and calling them goddesses is ironic, when women in our country are still burnt for dowry and have little access to either education or employment.

Like Dr Joshi's, the speeches of most of the official delegates have been politically correct and progressive. The NGOs, however, are highly skeptical: their government's record of implementation has been so tardy, they feel all this is mere rhetoric, meant to impress the UN.

At a workshop organized by the Asian Women's Human Rights Council on 'Race, Gender and Challenges Women Face', Ruth Manorama of Women's Voice (Bangalore, India) reported on the condition of dalit women (women belonging to the lower castes) in India. She talked of a dialectic relationship between the caste hierarchy and patriarchy, which, according to her analysis, strengthens each other.

Although discrimination on the basis of caste and untouchability has been outlawed in India, she said, "Dalits still cannot draw water from the upper caste wells and worship in their temples. In tea stalls there are cups kept aside for the use of dalits only. Dalit children are made to sit at the back in school classrooms." She pointed out that dalit women face a "triple alienation", because they are poor, outcastes and women.

In spite of all this, NGO representatives are generally upbeat, though much still remains to be done. As Radha, member of an NGO in Mauritius, says, "It seems like there is a lot to do when we get back to our countries. This is too big a gathering for any effective negotiation. It's the government-NGO dialogue that takes place after the UNGASS that is important."

The Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for the UN General Assembly Session to Review the Beijing Platform for Action is composed of NGO women and women journalists from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is coordinated by Isis International-Manila and generously supported by UNIFEM-East and Southeast Asia, UNIFEM-South Asia, Canadian International Development Agency-Southeast Asia Gender Equity Programme, UNDP-Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP-Monglolia, British High Commission in Vanuatu, Foundation for Sustainable Society, Inc., National Centre for Cooperation in Development (NCOS-Pilipinas), Women Action and the World Council of Churches.