The Women's Candidacy Initiative (WCI) demands for the protection of women's rights in Sarawak.

The recent political campaigns for the Batang Ai by-election had generated much attention to the socio-political problems faced by the communities in Sarawak.

It was reported that the state Land and Survey Department of Sarawak is currently conducting a census in Batang Ai resettlement area to resolve the long-standing issue of land titles.

This census is long overdue. The communities in Batang Ai were displaced by the construction of the Batang Ai hydro-electric dam in 1982. It is only after 27 years that the Sarawak government started to pay attention to this long-standing problem.

Why has it taken so long for political will to bring about a response to these needs?

For the last few decades, the livelihood and social status of women in Sarawak have been largely affected or even threatened by logging, oil palm plantations and hydroelectric dam constructions.

Their struggle to gain control of non-timber forest products has often been ignored in mainstream politics.

Dispute over native customary land ownership is of paramount importance. Many tribal women have lost ownership of their land because their customary rights to land were not recognised by the authorities.

Even if land titles were given to the communities in resettlement areas, often men were identified as the sole owners of the land.

With 12 newly proposed hydro-electric dams in Sarawak, the anticipated concerns of women would probably be destruction to the environment, displacement of thousands of native people and the impact on the livelihood of native women.

Again, no proper consultancy with the communities has been carried out prior to the approval of these projects.

This has rendered the whole planning and development process undemocratic and unaccountable to the affected communities especially the native women.

At the same time, native women in Sarawak are also challenged by the problems in the area of registration of births and the issuance of birth certificates, sexual assault, rape and violence.

The writer is attached to the Women's Candidacy Initiative (WCI).