Page 213 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes Growth of Women’s Organizations
Some women’s organizations like the Banga Mahila Samaj and the Ladies Theosophical Society
functioned at local levels to promote modern ideals for women, but the pioneering work was done by
those organizations which functioned on a national basis. Of these, five important national
organizations were: Bharat Mahila Parishad (started in 1904 with the main aim to struggle for the
emancipation of women), Bharat Stri Mahamandal (founded in 1910), Women’s Indian Association
(started in 1917 by Annie Besant), National Council of Women in India (founded in 1925 by Lady
Aberden and Lady Tata), and All India Women’s Conference (established in 1927 through the efforts
of Margaret Cousins and others). Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust was started after the
death of Kasturba Gandhi. These organizations took up issues like women’s education, abolition of
social evils (such as purdah and child marriage), Hindu law reform, moral and material progress of
women, equality of rights and opportunities, and women’s suffrage. It could be said that the Indian
women’s movement worked for two goals: (i) uplift of women, that is, reforming social practices so
as to enable women to play a more important and constructive role in society, and (ii) equal rights for
men and women, that is, extension of civil rights enjoyed by men in the political, economic, and
familial spheres to women also. The former can be seen as a ‘corporate feminist’ goal while the latter
can be viewed as ‘liberal feminist’ goal. The strategies used by these bodies were: making demands
by organizing public meetings, presenting views to government officials, forming committees to
investigate conditions, and holding conferences to mobilize women.
The factors that provided the required incentive to Indian women’s movement were: effect of western
education on the concept of complementary sex roles, leadership provided by educated elite women,
interest of male social reformers in changing social practices sanctioned by religion, changing socio-
religious attitudes and philosophies and decreasing social hostility and opposition of males to women’s
associations engaged in self-help activities, and benevolent attitude of political nationalist leaders
toward the fledgling women’s movement and their enthusiastic support to certain women campaigns.
The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB), established by the Government of India in 1953, also
promotes and strengthens voluntary efforts for the welfare of women. The Ministry of Welfare,
Government of India, too gives grants to voluntary organizations for activities like construction/
expansion of hostels for working women in cities. The state governments have also schemes of
sanctioning money for running Mahila Mandals, Grih Kalyan Kendras and functional literacy centres,
organizing camps for the training of rural women with public co-operation, and running of
co-operative societies exclusively with women membership.
Enactment of Social Legislation
The enacted laws pertaining to women relate to: (a) marriage, (b) property, and (c) employment. The
marriage laws concentrate on age of marriage, remarriage, dissolution of marriage, form of marriage,
and freedom in mate selection. The important legislations enacted are: The Child Marriage Restraint
Act, 1929; the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. All these have been
discussed in this book thoroughly in Chapter 6 on “Hindu Marriage”. The property laws enacted are:
Hindu Law of Inheritance, 1929; Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1939; and the Hindu
Succession Act, 1956. The laws pertaining to employment are: the Factory Act, 1948; the Employees
State Insurance Act, 1948; and the Maternity Benefit Acts. The 1948 Factory Act focuses on working
hours, equal wages, load to be carried, sanitational facilities, creches, and so forth. The Employees
State Insurance Act provides five benefits: sickness, maternity, disability, dependent, and medical.
Though these legislative measures have improved women’s status to a large extent but (i) the legislation
is extremely meagre and touches only the fringe of the problem, (ii) it is lopsided, that is, some laws
have lower precision and accuracy than the others, (iii) the phrasing of some laws is so loose that they
cannot be properly implemented, (iv) the machinery to implement legislation is costly, inefficient and
complicated. It may, therefore, be said that legislation has not been effective to wipe out the hardships
suffered by women. Theoretically, women might have been given more freedom but in practice they
still suffer from inhuman dignities and unworthy treatment causing shame or loss of respect.
The analysis of the above factors points out the change in the conditions that kept women in situations
of inferiority, dependence, and exploitation. Nevertheless, the change was not fully planned and was
very slow.

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