1. The oppression of women is central to the ideology of communal fascism and attacks on women have been a key aspect of its current offensive. The Sangh Parivar has drawn upon a potent combination of feudal values and subjugation of women on the
one hand and the ruthless commodification of women and violence of the capitalist market on the other. This underlies the unthinkably barbaric attacks on Muslim women in Gujarat, whose bodies were identified as symbols of their community and its power to reproduce itself. And the absorption of these values by sections of Hindu women led to their acting as cheerleaders in these horrendous atrocities. By contrast where they tried to stop attacks on Muslim women and men, they themselves were raped, maimed and killed. It is however a crying shame that while the Election Commission, National Minorities Commission and Human Rights Commission showed the courage to question and criticise the Narendra Modi government, it was the National Women’s Commission which came up with the weakest response. In Kashmir too it is women who have to bear the brunt of both state repression and militant violence.
Day to day violence against women throughout India has also become increasingly legitimised in this climate. Even university campuses in the national capital have become patently unsafe for women. Just a week ago we had this horrific incident of a student of the Maulana Azad Medical College being raped right in the vicinity of her hostel. Incidentally the college and its hostel are just about 500 metres from the busy ITO crossing, which is located next to the police headquarters and offices of several national dailies. And as has been expemplified by the murder case of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, the police-criminal-politician nexus involved in crimes against women are hardly punished. Meanwhile, in spite of two recent cases of sati, the Rajasthan High Court has legalised glorification of sati!
2. Officially, the slogan of women’s empowerment has never been as loud as in recent times, even as in real life, conditions facing all sections of women in India have become more degrading and disempowering. While the bill for 33% reservation for women in Parliament and assemblies has been gathering dust, women’s representation in the panchayat system too remains inadequate in many states with no reservation for the main posts. And even where reservation exists it is usually the husbands who act as de facto elected representatives in place of their wives.
As India becomes increasingly integrated into global markets, global capital sees Indian women as an important source of cheap labour. Thus in terms of employment, women’s participation shows some increase but it is concentrated in jobs that are the most insecure, unhygienic and worst paid. Whether in industry or in agriculture, the reforms have weakened the women’s position in terms of both employment opportunity and working conditions. Equal wages for equal work and a workplace free from sexual harassment still remain distant dreams.
3. At the same time, with the gradual spread of women’s education and awareness, conditions are also becoming more conducive to organising women. Greater pressures from unemployment, rising costs of living etc. are forcing more and more women to exert their rights, find a collective voice and struggle for their legal and constitutional dues.
The media has also played a part in challenging women’s traditional roles. But TV, films and advertising are mostly repackaging feudal values in a form which makes them compatible with the crass consumerism and commodification of women’s bodies which suits the needs of global capital. On the whole, the average awareness regarding women’s basic rights is certainly growing and it is also creating new aspirations even if women still do not do not have the organised strength by which to actually obtain them.
4. AIPWA has sought to organise women against the Sangh Parivar’s communal fascist offensive and against anti-women policies and especially crime and violence against women. After the Gujarat genocide a countrywide campaign against saffron terror was conducted from 2 April to 2 June demanding the dismissal of Modi government and punishment of the planners and perpetrators of the genocide. A central AIPWA team visited Gujarat in June to speak to the survivors of the genocide and get a first-hand appraisal of the situation in relief camps. A national-level workshop on the increasing danger of communal fascism was held in Patna in 2000. A similar convention was also held in Kanpur. A booklet published by the UP unit of AIPWA exposing the worsening conditions of women in BJP-ruled UP was well received. Along with AISA-RYA and Jan Sanskriti Manch, AIPWA actively participated in the Faizabad Shaheed Mela held in May this year and hundreds of women had to spend a harrowing week in Mayawati’s jails for taking part in this campaign. In Bihar, several AIPWA leaders and activists were seriously injured when police and paramilitary forces resorted to a brutal lathicharge on the women’s march protesting against massacres of the rural poor and imposition of President’s Rule in the state. And this happened on the International Women’s Day, 1999!
5. During the last five years, AIPWA conducted a vigorous campaign on the issue of 33% reservation for women. Apart from a series of local and state-level action programmes, in 1998 a massive and militant demonstration was organised before Parliament on this demand. The fight for 33% reservation in parliament and state assemblies has exposed the streak of patriarchal domination that runs not only through the right-wing parties but also the parties of ‘social justice’ like the RJD and SP. A national seminar on the subject was held in Patna in September 1998 in which the reservation policy and its ramifications like quota-within-quota, positions of treasury and opposition benches of parliament, the Marxist approach on reservation etc. were discussed threadbare. Senior leaders of AIPWA also participated in seminars held in Lucknow, Delhi and Hyderabad with other women’s organisations on this topic and many state-level demonstrations were also held.
6. The issue of rape was also taken up for a sustained campaign. A convention and workshop were orgnaised in Jaipur, the city that was the centre of a major anti-rape campaign in the late 1990s, to discuss the issue not merely the context of individual oppression of women, but more importantly as an instrument of state repression and political and social subjugation and evolve a suitable strategy of resistance. The convention discussed flaws in the present legislation on rape, formulated amendment to rape laws and demanded a comprehensive act for protection of women. A vigorous campaign was conducted demanding exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the Muzaffarnagar rape case in Uttar Pradesh, the issue was also raised quite prominently after the formation of Uttarakhand state. The campaign against rape and violence against women needs to be pushed again in the context of the proposed bill on domestic violence, which in its present version is riddled with flaws and loopholes.
7. In its effort to utilize the platform of women’s commission in the fight for the rights and welfare of women, our women comrades have been taking up various cases with the National Women’s Commission and other state women’s commissions and also fighting for formation of such commissions where they do not exist. The role of the Women’s Commission is however being systematically restricted and reshaped with the NDA government truncating its autonomy and packing it with individuals who are only too eager to comply with the government’s fiats. In Assam, the state president of AIPWA was briefly a member of the state women’s commission and she fought hard within the commission to make it accountable to the women’s cause. In Bihar, AIPWA successfully led the movement for the formation of the state women’s commission.
8. On the question of forging closer ties with working women, efforts have begun in this direction. Initial contacts have been established with Anganwadi workers in UP, health workers in Delhi, women workers in unorganised sector in Chennai, and tea garden women workers in Assam. The issues of women agrarian labourers were taken up in Bihar, Andhra and Tamil Nadu. Strikes and other forms of struggle on the question of minimum and equal wages, against the labour-displacing effect of the indiscrminate use of harvester combines and for implementation of various government schemes for women have evoked good participation of labouring rural women in all these states. The thrust on working women must become an integral part of the everyday practice of the women’s organisation. Painstaking and sustained efforts are needed in this direction with special emphasis on (i) skillfully combining the work of trade union and women’s organisation, (ii) developing cadres from among working women and (iii) developing effective coordination with AICCTU and agricultural workers’organisations.
9. On the organisational front, AIPWA’s membership strength at the time of the Third Conference held in Patna in March 2001 was even less than 40,000. There has been some improvement since then but the minimum primary target of 1,00,000 membership is yet to be achieved. Any significant growth in membership strength can take place only when regular work among working women is taken up seriously.
Among the journals published by AIPWA in various states the Hindi magazine Adhee Zameen has the best track record. In December 2001, a special issue was brought out on the completion of ten years of its publication. The issue was well appreciated and a successful seminar was organised on the occasion of its release in Delhi. In 1998, a journal was also launched in English with the title Women’s Voice. Some State units are also bringing out journals in regional languages. If regularly published, all these magazines can serve as a crucial bridge between AIPWA and the working women and the intelligentsia.
10. While laying maximum emphasis on organising working women, urban as well as rural, and challenging the feudal-patriarchal order and especially the growing fascist offensive in every sphere, AIPWA must also interact on a regular basis with other women’s organisations which are doing useful and creditable work among women. Special attention should be paid to developing ties with organisations which are particularly active among women belonging to minority communities and ethnic groups. The experience of AIPWA’s ties with Tehriq-e-Niswan in Patna and the KNCA in Karbi Anglong has been quite positive and such relations need to be strengthened further.
In another two years AIPWA will complete its first decade. The promise generated by the launch of this national organisation and by the movement led by our comrades in the previous phase however remains largely unfulfilled. The organisation must regain and improve its initiative and insist on a vigorous implementation of the mass orientation while ensuring regular functioning of its offices and committees. Inward-looking debates, excessive attention to details of inner-party life and some kind of sectarianism and rigidity in the name of ideology pose a major hindrance to the growth of mass dimension of the organisation. Such an atmosphere also puts off many young women comrades who could otherwise play an active role in developing the organisation and taking it to newer and larger sections of women. Let us address the growing challenges with a new spirit and determination and impart a strong mass dimension to AIPWA as it moves forward to the completion of its first decade. q