Elite, educated women ‘not welcome at green conferences’
India’s environment minister has angered the country’s feminists after warning elite, educated women they were no longer welcome at green conferences.
Posted 03 June 2011, by Dean Nelson, The Telegraph, telegraph.co.uk
Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister of environment and forests, suggested the middle-class ‘English-speaking women’ who usually attended conferences on biodiversity and other green causes were useless compared with tribal women who had waged successful campaigns.
Speaking ahead of an event to mark World Environment Day, Mr Ramesh said educated ladies were “not required anymore.”
“Sitting inside Vigyan Bhawan [New Delhi's main conference venue] and listening to well-drafted speeches yields no results. This year we have invited about 100 tribal women from all over the country,” he said.
“Tribal women have done the maximum value addition to biodiversity and we should acknowledge and appreciate them,” he said.
His comments provoked outrage by feminists and socialites who denounced them as ‘sexist.’ “I think this comment is outrageous. It seems he is picky. He has problems with the elite. Singling out English-speaking elite women is extremely unfortunate. It’s the elite and educated women who promote environmental activities in and around the home and want to see such an environment around the world,” said Bina Ramani, a high-profile socialite.
“We have been trying to educate and empower uneducated women to keep their environment clean and live with better hygiene. Imagine after 10 years these tribal women, whom Jairam is calling the real stakeholders of the environment, start speaking English, will he also ignore them at that time?” she added.
