Legal workshop on “Indian Women in Community and Family Development”

On 30 April 2005 ERA Consumer and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation held the fifth workshop this year on legal rights of Indian women in community and family affairs. Dato’ T. Rajagopalu and Dato’ Norhayati Bt. Omar, both State Executive Councillors of Negeri Sembilan assured 100 mostly female Indian participants of their support for the Community Centre in Rasah Jaya / Seremban.

At the beginning of the workshop, Ms Rachel Samuel, President of Women in Action Malaysia and Council Member of ERA Consumer introduced the findings of her studies on violence against women in general, and on domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment in particular. As to the main causes of domestic violence, she found out that “Malay men become violent when they are in polygamous relationships; Chinese men when they are having affairs or having financial difficulties and Indian men when they are drunk and having financial difficulties too.”

Later, the advocate Ramlah Begum explained the legal definitions and types of sexual harassment as well as the options for victims of sexual harassment to seek legal redress. She followed the same pattern when she then touched upon domestic violence and rape. Ramlah concluded that while debating whether legal punishment is severe enough, or whether the law should be taking measures to impose harsher penalties, “a woman has to use her own wits whenever she is faced with the situation”. This requires legal education which was basically at the heart of the reasons for ERA Consumer and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation to conduct these legal workshops in the various cities in Malaysia in addition to the regular training on legal rights conducted for people in the communities through our 10 Community Centres located across West Malaysia.

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