A gender-equality oath as part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)‘s Nayi Chethana gender campaign, being organised by the Kudumbashree Mission in Kerala, has not been withdrawn, Minister for Local-Self Governments M.B. Rajesh clarified on Monday. The oath kicked up a row with certain Islamist organisations opposing specific portions of it that spoke for equal property rights for female members of the family too.
Claims were also made from certain quarters, including by the Bharatiya Janata Party, that the Kudumbashree has decided to remove these portions of the oath under pressure from fundamentalist forces. A press release from the Kudumbashree executive director on Sunday had said the reports of the Kudumbashree withdrawing the oath were false. The Kudumbashree, the nodal agency of the gender campaign, will be organising activities to raise gender-related issues for the next four weeks.
