For Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, newly appointed secretary in the department of partnership of women and men, the executive committee meeting in Bangalore had a special meaning. As an "Indian non-Indian" from the Caribbean, she found herself immediately on arrival filled with a sense of wonder and belonging, a sense of identity with the Indian brothers who met the participants at the airport. "I was happy to visit the land of my ancestors, a land of rich cultural heritage, great minds and warm and very friendly people." As she tells below, however, there is also a dark side to Indian life - injustices of poverty, class and gender discrimination. These factors became more evident during two symposia held in the course of the meeting, in presentations made by Rev Nirmala Vasanthakumar, Church of South India, and Dr Jyotsna Chatterjie, director of the Joint Women's Programme.

Nirmala and Jyotsna outlined some of the major problems affecting women in India and said that the majority of women in India suffer a "double oppression" - that of being poor and then being woman. Negative attitudes towards women have been influenced by growing consumerism and unrealistic aspirations, fuelled by a barrage of sexist advertisements and get-rich schemes. Violence are perpetuated by those sections of society that benefit from maintaining the status quo. Gender discrimination is largely supported by culture and religion.

In their presentations they spoke of increased poverty resulting from structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in India, with women bearing the brunt of the burden of poverty, especially women in the dalit and other marginalized sections of society. Food security remains a major problem. Due to cultural conditioning, Jyotsna told us, any shortage of food affects women most. "When the family budget shrinks, the quantity of food shrinks and women's needs are the first to be cut." Women also suffer wage discrimination at work. We saw many female labourers and construction workers in Bangalore. Women were working equally alongside men on construction sites and other infrastructure works. Although women in any type of job work as hard as men do, they are paid lower wages. Nirmala Vasanthakumar pointed out that there are "many women at the lower levels and very few women at the top where decisions are made".

Violence against women in the domestic and social spheres has increased in the last five years, and has taken on many new forms and colours. The attack on a woman's body is seen as a form of revenge and there has been an increase in humiliation, stripping and rape, especially of women in dalit communities. There has been little protest from men, who are more concerned about family and community honour. Domestic violence is the most powerful instrument for suppressing the rights of women as equal partners in the family structure. Wife-beating, desertion, foeticide and infanticide, denial of property rights, ill-treatment of a widow, dowry harassment and death are all manifestations of the deep-rooted belief that the male is superior, the head of the family, and the woman is only important in her relation to the man - as mother, wife, sister and daughter.

Jyotsna Chatterjie's vision for the future is to "let women be equal partners in the total action for the development of a just world, where there is equality, justice and peace, where the world is free from all forms of discrimination and violence hindering peace. Choose life and work for peace!"