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Social Stratification

Notes movement and never led by women but the level of participation of women in the movement was
quite high. Many women provided strategic support to the Naxalite revolutionaries. The
participation of women in this movement provided them an opportunity to understand the political
process in the country and the politics of gender inequality and suppression of women’s rights.
Women’s movement took new shape after 1970. By this time women’s mass movements had
realized that women’s issues and problems could not be solved through patchwork type of social
problems could not be solved through patchwork type of social reform and social welfare and the
basic issues had to be confronted head on. This realization pushed them to the forefront of all the
major social-economic, political and environmental issues. Women’s involvement in Chipko
movement focussed on preservation of forests and related environmental issues shows their
increasing understanding of core issues. It was followed by similar movements in Karnataka and
elsewhere. Between 1970-90 women also fought against liquor and liquor lobby in Kumaon and
Garhwal (now in Uttaranchal), Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and elsewhere. They had realized that excessive consumption of liquor, especially
among the poor, not only brings economic hardship but also promotes domestic violence.
Gail Omvedt (1993) has traced the origins of the contemporary women’s movement to the early
1970s when rural and working women were first trained as leaders. “But there were few linkages
at that time to the urban, intellectual women who could articulate the oppression of rural and
working women in feminist terms” (Geraldine Forbes, 1998). The United Nation declaration of
International Women’s Year and the International Women’s Decade (1975-85) led to the appointment
of the Guha Committee and it’s subsequent report, States of Women in India, a landmark study on
women’s status in India.
‘Emergency’ was imposed in the country in 1975. A number of civil liberties and democratic rights
groups were organized. Women also played important role in these people’s movements. Around
the same period, the Progressive Women’s Organization was created in Hyderabad by some leftist
women. The years of working in people’s movement had equipped them with an ideology to fight
against discrimination and exploitation. On the whole, the period between 1970-2000 saw the
emergence of a number of autonomous women’s organizations. Though coming from different
ideological backgrounds they were unanimous in their view that the membership of such
organization should be restricted to women only and they did not require the patronage and
interference of males in these issues. To name a few such organizations - Forum Against Oppression
of Women in Mumbai, Saheli in Delhi, Asmita in Hyderabad, Vimoehana in Bangalore, Penuramma
Eyakkam in Chennai and many others point to a new found confidence and consciousness. Some
other women’s organizations with stronger networking and organizational capabilities are related
with political parties especially Congress Party and Communist Parties. They may be serving as
women’s wings of these parties especially the strongest among them - All India Democratic
Women’s Association (AIDWA) related with CPI (M). Mahila Congress is an affiliate of the Congress
Party and Durga Vahini with BJP. Unfortunately women’s organizations related with right wing
political parties like BJP take up only caste and communal issues, divide the women’s power and
serve as ‘legitimisers’ of policies and actions of their parent organizations. The role of Durgavahini
in Ayodhya Movement is a case in point. “The new visibility of women in the right wing movement
appropriating the issues of the contemporary feminist movement in their demonstrations against
Muslims, and Christians is disturbing. It has had a dampening effect on the women’s movement
that was so buoyant and optimistic in the 1980s. It demonstrates that the present day availability
of women for a variety of causes is also part of the historical legacy. There is now a complicated
mix of women playing public roles - leftist women, moderates, conservatives, right wing women
all appropriating the trappings of feminism” (Forbes, ibid).
The decade of 1980, was largely dominated by anti-dowry movement throughout the country. It
also included such issues as dowry related atrocities, domestic violence, commercialization of

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