Abhijeet Pimparkar1. Women Movement in India Before Independence
Women Movement in India was started by liberals like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. British government has also brought legislations like Widow Remarriage Act, Prevention of Sati act, Sharda Act etc.
Gandhian movements were not directly aimed at women concerns yet it brought consciousness among women and ended the stigma with respect to the participation of women in public sphere. The most prominent organisation during freedom movement was All India Women Conference setup in 1927. The achievement of the organisation was Sharda Act 1929 and Lady Hardinge College in Delhi.
2. Women Movement After Independence
After independence we can divide rule Movement in two three phases.
2.1 Phase 1: Up till 1978
Aparna Mahanta calls this years as grey years of women movement. She suggests that there was greater activism in women movement before independence. Activism was stopped after independence. It was thought that there is no need for movement against indigenous government. Government will automatically take care of women concerns.
Constitution of India is a Revolutionary document in many ways. It has given equality of status to women equal rights including the right to vote and to stand in elections.
2.2 Phase 2: 1970s and 80s
Phase of revival and activism. UN declared 70s as a decade for women. It has directed the government to prepare the report on status of women. Government of India had set up a committee to prepare a report on the status of women in India. The report was published with the title Towards Equality 1974. It was an eye opener as it brought shocking facts with respect to women like declining sex ratio, gender-based violence, discrimination and declining participation of women in political and economic sphere. It also recommended to constitute watchdog body like National Commission for Women.
It has resulted into changing the approach of government towards women. The process changed from welfare to development and there is growth of women organisations including organisation of Muslim women like Majilis, Aawaaz-e-Niswaan, organisation of Dalit women like All India Dalit Women Conference. 80s was full of activism.
The prominent issues in the 80 were:
- increasing number of dowry death
- Mathura rape case
- Sati at Deorala
- Shah Bano judgement
In this period, the approach of government also changed from development to empowerment. Since 6th five-year plan, government has introduced gender component in each plan.
2.3 Phase 3: 1990s.
By 1990s new trend emerged due to worldwide growth of feminist movements. The nomenclature of women organisation changed. They became more inspired by radical feminism. The new names adopted were: Saheli, Vimochana, Manushi, Jagoree etc.
Towards 1991 women movement started getting divided on the lines of caste and religion. Initial solidarity was lost. From 1990 onwards Indian politics is getting shaped more by caste and religion in that women issues also get mixed up.
3. Overall Assessment of Women Movement
According to Madhu Kishwan, the only achievement of women movement has been some bizarre pieces of legislations.
According to Neera Desai and Usha Thakkar women movement faces following challenges
- Challenge of identity
- Women issues are not just women issues
- Division and ideological line along with caste and religion
- So far, they have never presented any challenge any charter of demands
4. Role of Women in Panchayat
73rd AA introduced reservation for women at all levels including chairpersons. Not less than 1/3rd of the seats are reserved for women.
Initially there was reluctance towards the approach of introducing reservations. It was assumed that women will be the mouthpieces of male members of the family or just proxies.
Sudha Pai coined the phrase ‘Pati Panchayats’. She has even conducted some field studies in western UP (Merath Dist). She found that in reality, reservation of women in Panchayats was hardly representing their voice.
Rohini Pandye also conducted the field studies and found that there was a lack of clarity even over the role of women in Panchayats. It was assumed that women are present in Panchayats for women related issues.
Above studies were however showing the reality of the first phase of the introduction of reservations.
However later studies started showing a different scenario. Study conducted by ministry of Panchayati Raj show that reservation is creating favourable environment towards women. There are examples where women resisted the efforts of male members to dictate the terms. They refused to be the mouthpieces and asserted their autonomous view. Women reservation has contributed not only to ‘political empowerment’ but most importantly to the cognitive /psychological empowerment.
It has been observed that families are now more inclined to send girl child to schools. Hence on the basis of the study, there emerged a strong case to extend women reservation in parliament and state legislature. Studies conducted by UNDP show that not only women have been empowered, women have also empowered Panchayats. The panchayats headed by women representatives had performed much better in comparison to those headed by men. Women have taken the issues of basic services like drinking water, more seriously and efficiently. UNDP has awarded Fatima Bi, a women chairperson of a Panchayat in Kurnool Dist. in Andhra Pradesh. She has done remarkable work in creating self-help groups among women. Thus provided a source of livelihood to large number of extremely poor women.
Despite progress, the most important concern remains the capacity building of women representatives. Hence government should continue the programs like ‘Panchayat Mahila Evam Yuva Sashaktikaran Abhiyan’.
[Also refer 6.7] National Commission for Women]
