The Second Two-Year Plan of the World Fellowship of Buddhists Standing Committee on Women
( B.E. 2544 – 2545 / 2001 – 2002)
Plan 9: Roles of Women in the Context of Buddhism
Background
The Standing Committee on Women was formed on October 30, B.E. 2535 (1992) by 37 members at the 18th WFB General Conference in Taiwan. The main objectives of the Committee are as follows:
To uplift the status of women in the society
To promote the roles of women in Buddhism
To strengthen women's roles in WFB
To improve women's roles to assist the WFB in achieving its objectives
The Meeting of the Standing Committee on Women was held on December 8, B.E. 2543 (2000) at Tara Hotel at the 21st WFB General Conference in Bangkok (5-10 December, B.E. 2543). After discussion at length about the First Two Year Plan of the WFB on Roles of Women in Buddhism, the Meeting approved the guidelines and policies for realisation of the Second Two Year Plan on Roles of Women in the Context of Buddhism as follows:
To increase visibility by using Internet access
Dr. Panitpan reported that the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has offered to place all four newsletters and the Committee's brochure on their web site free of charge. Anita Svensson explained that publishing the newsletter on the web site is cheaper than publishing paper copy and posting. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. will also assist editing the newsletter. Articles and photos to be placed in the newsletter can be sent to either the WFB headquarters or the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. via post, fax or email.
The final draft will be approved by Dr. Panitpan who is our Publications Officer.
To increase Membership of our Committee through communication.
Approved by acclamation that the criteria for becoming a Member of the Standing Committee on Women are:
To be a member of a WFB Regional Centre;
To be a Buddhist practitioner.
To nominate the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. to publish the Committee's newsletter and brochure on their web sites.
To create networks using the internet and other forms of correspondence.
Each Regional Centre represented on the Committee will nominate a Liaison Officer who will ensure that the correspondence from their Regional Centre is maintained. The following new Liaison Officers were accepted by acclamation:
Manuela Steer - Order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala - Germany
Mrs Diki Wangchuk - Dharma Chakra Centre - Sikkim, India
Madame Lee - WFB & WFBY Korean Regional Centre - Korea
A contact list was prepared and will be distributed to each Liaison Officer. It is the Liaison Officer's duty to ensure that articles are sent for the newsletter in time for publication, report on activities at their Regional Centre, etc.
The Committee will focus on providing the Buddha's Teachings on women for all women, to help develop awareness of women to be happy and to know how to be a perfect Buddhist woman.
The Committee will research on the Buddhist texts to locate the Buddha's teachings on women. These teachings will be published in our newsletters and booklet.
6. To implement a cultural exchange programme, eg. with Sri Lanka, Nepal, Korea, Australia and so on.
2. Statement of the Problem
The status and role of women are still limited due to social, cultural and religious factors in the countries where the WFB Regional Centres are located.
3. Principle of Action
The activities and guidelines approved by the Meeting of the Standing Committee on Women on December 8, B.E. 2543 will be formulated in forms of action plans and implemented in cooperation with its members and the WFB Regional Centres.
4. Targets for B.E. 2544-2545 (2001-2002)
Status and roles of women in the context of Buddhism will be widely accepted as partnership based on the four pillars of Buddhism: Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Upasok and Upasika.
Social, cultural and religious programmes/projects will be partially operated through electronic communications in cooperation with the Network for Publicity and Cooperation in WFB Affairs hosted by the Standing Committee on Publication, Publicity, Education, Culture and Art and partially implemented by members of the Committee and the WFB Regional Centres in their respective countries.
5. Action Programme
To publish a quarterly newsletter of the Committee;
To assist Regional Centres in the formation of partnership;
To create networks between women groups of the WFB Regional Centres;
To increase membership of the Regional Centres' representatives;
To publish a booklet on 'Women's role in Buddhist Activities in the WFB Regional Centres in B.E. 2544-2545 (2001-2002)';
To conduct joint research on the social services; women and children up; updated issues;
To increase cultural exchange and awareness of the women's status in other cultures through field trips and student exchange programmes; for example, planned visits to Sri Lanka, Australia and Nepal in B.E. 2544/2001;.
To work towards ensuring educational equality for all children, regardless of gender;
To develop other activities deemed appropriate in the next two years.
Resource Indications
The resources to be used for implementation of the action plans will be as follows:
The Fund of the Standing Committee on Women;
Partial financial support from the WFB Headquarters.
Responsible Bodies
The WFB Executive Council is responsible for strategy and moral support;
The WFB Standing Committee on Women for implementation;
The WFB Secretariat for coordination.