A Women’s Parliament was held at Lucknow on 29th July to highlight cases of violence on women in Uttar Pradesh. The Parliament was inaugurated by AIPWA President Srilata Swaminathan and renowned human rights activist Nandita Haxar was the Chief Guest. Speaking on the occasion Ms. Swaminathan said that there was not just one Imrana in India. Hindu women were also suffering in the same way. Women have to rise above religion and casteism and reject the capitalist forces represented by so many political parties so that they can be truly liberated. Ms. Nandita Haxar said that the media had communalized the case of Imrana. She said that the women’s movement cannot go on in isolation rather it should link up with other progressive movements. Women from Sitapur, Chandauli, Lucknow and other parts of the state recounted instances of violence. The Parliament adopted the following resolutions:
1. The Parliament resolved to support Imrana’s struggle and condemned Mulayam’s statements supporting the fatwa (dicktat) against her. It also demand an end to caste panchayats held in Western UP.
2. It demanded action against the relative of a SP leader who had raped a minor girl in Ashiyana colony and condemned the partisan role of the State Commission for Women. It demanded action on the acid throwing case of Monika and the brutal killing of Chavi Jaiswal of Chitwapur.
3. It demanded arrest of the policemen involved in the gangrape of Manju Devi of Naugarh in Chandauli.
4. It demanded special courts for trial of cases of rape and violence on women and time bound trials.
5. It demanded that rights of dalit and adivasi women panchayat presidents be protected from feudal upper cates- The Pradhan of Bhadayun village Shubhwnti of Chandauli has been denied her rights by the nephew of Rajnath Singh, Block Pramukh of Dhanapur.
6. Each woman be guaranteed employment, failing which she be entitled to unemployment allowance.
7. Women’s Reservation Bill be passed in its original form.
Ms Hamidia Habibulla of NFIW, Ex. V.C. Roop Rekha Verma, Shakila Khan, social activist and Deepika Vergi of Sahyog as well as Tahira Hasan, convener of Tehriq-e-Niswan also addressed the women.
The UPA Government is again dilly-dallying on the Women’s Bill. The Government proposal of increasing the number of seats in Parliament to around 900 and the Assembly seats to 9000 sounds ludicrous. The UPA has finally arrived at a formula which will not only help to delay the passage of the Bill and start a fresh round of debate and controversy; the Bill may never see the light of day! To top it all, the entire thrust of the Women’s Bill is diluted, with the Government trying to strike a compromise with male power, which is proving to be quite unaccommodating and headstrong. And Kudos to the CPI (M), which has no principled objection to the new formula and but seems to be just opposing it on technical grounds – that the delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies will take time. Sushmaji is most flexible this time, and has almost given a blank cheque to the Govt. (all is fine as long as Soniaji is not the PM). The only problem that the BJP may encounter is the on the stand of Uma Bharati on a quota within quota; she has already challenged Sushma Swaraj’s statement saying she was not consulted. If the OBCs within the Congress and BJP vote according to their conscience, and the Social Justice camp keeps harping on the old tune of special quota for OBCs, Shivraj Patil’s hopes for a consensus are going to be shattered. So, if after all the dilution and compromises, not to speak of extra expenditure, the Bill is going to face fresh controversies and is not going to be passed at all, isn’t it better that we stick to our principles and have a vote so that those who oppose the Bill can be exposed on the floor of the house? Isn’t it high time the UPA stops playing the NDA game?
On 5,6 August a workshop of national level activists was held at Ludhiana, Punjab. The topics were: Globalisation and the problems of working women–Aipwa’s tasks; Imperialist Culture–Sangh Pariwar’s response vs. AIPWA’s; and Trends in the Women’s Movement and AIPWA’s tactics; How to strengthen AIPWA. About 41 delegates from 9 states attended.
The 1st paper was presented by Srilata Swaminathan, who said that in the period 1982-2004 neo-colonial exploitation had increased in leaps and bounds. The developing countries were steeped in debts. The impact of globalisation had intensified in India and women workers were the most affected. Farmers’ suicides, starvation deaths, large-scale unemployment and migration had become the order of the day. Since women were the worst sufferers, working women should be organized as a vanguard force in the struggle for women’s liberation she said. Some of the suggestions that came up during discussions were that AIPWA should develop links and express solidarity with struggles of working women worldwide; it should organize rural poor women on issues like employment, health care, children’s education, development and against indiscriminate mechanization in the farm sector. It should try to organize women for social security in the unorganised sector and for pro-women labour laws. Punjab AIPWA recounted its experience of its solidarity movement on arrest of 1500 activists. Experience of organising handloom/powerloom workers and construction workers in T.N and successful struggles of glass bottle factory workers of Pondicherry were discussed. The paper on Imperialist Culture was presented by Ajanta Lohit who said that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism and it had its own culture of war and loot. It had converted women’s bodies into commodities for earning super-profits. Later, the paper discussed how imperialism had used feudalism and patriarchy in India to further its interests, and how the Sangh Pariwar had nothing to lose in advocating both market culture as well as feudal values. In the discussions that followed Bengal delegates said that in their state, during Dussera, ‘sindoor festival’ was being observed with the patronage of LF government. Liquor was freely distributed in this festival. Delegates said that the BJP, during its rule, had tried to revive outmoded customs like sati and encouraged imposition of dress codes on students and newsreaders as well as tried to bring in an insurance scheme for rape victims. In Rajasthan, sati mandirs were being advertised to attract foreign tourists. In T.N the Sangh Parivar was forming committees for temple construction. ‘Devasthan’ boards were formed in BJP ruled states. They said that Sangh Pariwar was using religion as a tool to fill the vacuum created by economic insecurity caused by globalisation. Youth were being mobilised using the icon of the ‘macho’ Ram and mothers through the image of ‘ Ram Lalla’, the child Ram for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhyaya. From T.N the case of sexual exploitation of women by, Kanchi Shankaracharya and his aides came up. Some experiences of imperialist co-option of traditional culture, e.g. the commercialization of Bihu with new songs, obscene and feudal in content as well as the declaration by Sushma Swaraj suggesting that Paat-Moga (traditional cloth of Assam) should be launched in the international market. Bihar delegates said that while multinationals were being given a free hand in Bihar, feudal culture in the form of ‘Satsangs’ as well as nude folk dance of women in traditional fairs were been institutionalised.
In the next paper, presented by Kumudini, trends in the women’s movement from the rightist Sevika Sangh to radical feminist and left-oriented women’s groups and Dalit women’s groups to NGOs were discussed. Experiences of joint struggles in different states were shared by delegates and it was decided that AIPWA would interact with diverse trends on varied issues while maintaining its independent ideological position and strength. On the question of NGOs it was felt that AIPWA should be clear that these organizations are agents of imperialism and blunt the fighting spirit of the people and finally make them dependent on the capitalist system. Yet AIPWA would engage in issue-based struggles with them on burning issues of women. The last paper on how to strengthen AIPWA, presented by Meena Tiwari, emphasized workshops and discussions for ideological consolidation of AIPWA, timely and continuous intervention on women’s issues as well as democratic issues to politicize women, developing cadres through education in Marxism and careful nurturing, building movements and taking them to their logical end, strengthening the organizational structure and developing an independent propaganda network, developing a flexible and dynamic work style, forming a legal cell. Several interesting experiences of successful struggles and developing new areas of work were discussed.
On 6th, Hiroshima Day, a rally was held on the issue of imperialist intervention and loot in India as well as on the demand of withdrawal of Indian Govt.’s defence agreement with the US.
- K Pati