INDIAN WOMEN – THE HIDDEN TREASURE
R. TAMILSELVI, VICE CHAIRMAN, AISGEF

INTRODUCTION

“You can tell the condition of a Nation by looking at the status of Women”
- Jawaharlal Nehru
The above statement of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is strongly supported by many other leaders and scholars worldwide, emphasizing the need for women liberation, upliftment and empowerment. So it goes without saying that women are oppressed. The cause of the oppression of women is not accidental or inevitable but it is historical. It is essential that one should examine carefully the cause of the oppression of the women to enable us to determine how an end can be put to that oppression. It is neither due to her biological function nor dominance of male but prevalence of a society in which both men and women are exploited due to existence of Private Property. To uphold the private property a family system is created where subjugation of women to men is mandatory and women are double exploited. This system considers that women are fit for domestic work, child bearing and child rearing. The dependence of the wife upon the husband and her children upon their parents is the origin of the enslavement of women. These unnatural relations lead to unnatural society with gender discrimination where women have no role to play in social production.

So the emancipation of women is directly related to the release of women from the slavery of the home and family into a free member of the working class. When women allowing to becoming an integral part of the working class, the integrity and the productivity of any nation increases. So long as she is kept away the social production to that extent is affected. On the other hand as the women will become the active workers they can be socially, economically and psychologically independent who could stand on their own legs looking after themselves and also their children. So the vision of the leaders and scholars who advocate women liberation is based on this exercise which if comes true women the hidden treasure of a nation will be brought to lime light and their potential can be utilised to the maximum possible for the development of the nation. It is high time to raise a question and discuss whether steps are taken for empowerments of women are in line with this perspective in India and if not to put it in the right track immediately without further delay.

Indian Scenario (Ancient and Medieval Period)

Scholars believe that in Ancient India women enjoyed equal status with men in all fields of life. However in the later period approximately 500 B.C. the status of the women began to decline with the advent of Manusmriti. Many retrogratory practices were imposed on women of all religions to keep them naturally chaste and more virtuous. Some of such practices were Sati, child marriage, ban on widow remarriage, immolation of all wives and daughters of defeated warriors to avoid capture and consequent molestation. In some parts of India Devadasis or the temple women system was maintained and such women were sexually exploited by the power holders in the name of God. Polygamy was widely practiced. Muslim customs restricted women to Janana areas. So a section of human kind viz. women were kept under restriction and confinement in the name of customs of various religions and naturally they were kept away from taking part in social production. The work done by those inside the family system and in the agricultural and other cottage work were looked upon as private domestic work and that work did not carry any social value.

Condition during British Rule

During the British rule, many reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Eswar Chandra Vidhyasagar, Jothi Populle fought for the upliftment of women. This made the British to pass certain Acts like abolition of Sati Practice in 1829, Widow Remarriage Act 1856 and so on. During this period, many women reformer such as Panditharama Bai, Savitiri Poole also lived. Many queens fought against the British to safeguard their territories. Kittur Chennama, Appakarani of Karnataka, Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, Begum Asarat Mahal of Awath of Bhopal are few notable female rulers. Likewise, women freedom fighters like Madam Gama, Dr.Annie Beasant, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and many others fought for the nation. Captain Lakshmi Shaigul was the captain of the women regiment of Indian National Army led by Subash Chandra Bose. Sarojini Naidu, a poet and freedom fighter was the first Indian woman to become the governor of a state in India. Thousands of women took part in independence struggle programmes launched by our national leaders. Thus the tendency of Indian women to fight for freedom in the pre-independence period inevitably and gradually led to the fight for women liberation
in the post independence period.

Independent India

As in other parts of the world the industrial revolution had its impact on the women of India also converting the tillers of the soil to factory or industrial workers. Women employed in various fields including service sectors like health, sanitation, medical, nurses, teaching, banking, clerks, typists etc. proved their ability to the utmost satisfaction of their employers. Thus women came out of their traditional work and adopted some new work roles. Their thirst for education also increased considerably.
Independent India planned for its speedy growth in all sectors with the help of Soviet Union. Avenue for employment for women in both Central and State Government Offices and Public Sector Units increased. Private sector also opted for women employment. A slight improvement in the economic status of employed women increased their level of self-confidence.

The Independent India through its Constitution guarantees certain rights to all Indian women viz. Equality (article 14) no discrimination by the States(article 15(1), Equal opportunity (article 16) Equal pay for equal work (article 39(d)) making of special provisions by the State in favour of women and children (article 15(3) renounces practices derogatory to the dignity of women (article 51 A(e) and also allows for provision to be made by he State for securing just and humane condition of work and maternity relief(article 42). The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. “The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at the local levels. Laws such as the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Sati Prevention Act,
Dowry Prohibition Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act protect women from the more “traditional” crimes such as rape, abduction, dowry, torture, molestation, sexual harassment and selling of girls into slavery. An Act passed to relieve women from domestic violence is a mile stone of this Century.

Real Social Status of women in India

The above illustrations give us a picture of Indian women as if they are well protected by Laws. But in reality it is not so. Mere existence of Laws, Acts and Rules cannot protect and help women to improve their social status. The following statistics will help us to understand how alarming the situation in India is. Every 26 minutes a woman is mole stated, every 34 minutes a rape takes place, every 42 minutes a sexual harassment incident occurs. Every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped and every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death over dowry issue. Apart from passing laws, the execution of laws is all the more important which is lacking in India. So the protections in words do not help to improve the social status of women as there are a lot of lacunae in them.


The question of 33% reservation

According to a survey, reservation for women stands at only 8.2 per cent in India while in Pakistan it is over 21 per cent, Nepal 30 per cent and Bangladesh is 10 per cent. Apart from the question of representation by women is the matter of power attached to legislative positions It is interesting that despite most major parties having initially voiced complete support for women's reservation, a situation so emerged that the bill has to be shelved again. Thus India stands the lowest amongst its neighbouring countries as far as reservation for women is concerned.

Real scope for women employment in India

Women work force constitutes an integral part of total workforce in India. On 31st march 2004, women constituted 19 per cent of the total workforce. The participation of women in the labor force has always been lower than that of men, in the rural as well as urban areas. The work participation rate for women has increased significantly. In 1981, work participation rate for women was only 19.67 per cent which increased up to 22.73 per cent in 1991 and 26.68 per cent in 2001. In the women workforce, women from rural areas are greater in number as compared to the urban women. Amongst rural women workers, a majority is employed in agriculture and some are employed in cottage industries. In the urban areas, women workers are primarily employed in the unorganized sectors. As on the 31st March, 2005 a total number of 50.16 Lacs women employees were engaged in the organized sector, out of which 29.21 lacs (58per cent) in the public sector and 20.95 lacs (42per cent) in the Private Sector. Employment of women in public sector increased by 1.1 percent and by 2.5 percent in the private sector during 2004-2005. The zone wise analysis showed an increase of 8 percent in North-Eastern Zone, followed by Western Zone (5.3per cent), Eastern Zone (3per cent) and Central Zone (1.3per cent) and Northern Zone (1.2per cent). Only Southern Zone registered a marginal dip of 0.8 percent.
The state wise analysis reflects that Kerala has the maximum (21.1 lacs) women job-seekers followed by West Bengal (19.3 lacs) and Tamil Nadu (15.3 lacs) while minimum number of women job-seekers are in Rajasthan (1.0 lacs).
The percentage of educated women job seekers among the total women job seekers has gone down from 73.3per cent to 70.4per cent in 2004.
The work participation rate for women was 25.68 per cent in 2001. This shows an improvement over 22.73 per cent in 1991 and 19.67 per cent in 1981.
It shows high rate of unemployment exist in the society. Under employments is another form of unemployment. This affects both men and women very seriously. These figures exclude large number of women who have given up all hope of finding employment and no longer bother to line up at the employment exchange. Even after acquiring good educational qualification either academic or technical or both women choose to be housewives thus their potential is never used by this society. Even job opportunities are not up to the satisfaction in private sectors. Now in Government Sector also part time jobs and contract, casual, contingent is offered to the new entrants. The system of legal recruitment is given up and lakhs and lakhs of vacancies are closed down in the name of rightsizing the establishment. The laws protecting the labour are not followed and the system of watching the private sector is weakened knowingly and wantonly by the Government. The Liberalisation, Privatization and Globalization policy all over the world except one or two left oriented countries try to bring all the work force under a unsecured system of employment where there will be no definite work hours, pay, allowances, leave, provident fund, bonus, retirement benefits, job security etc. This situation has its impact on both men and women employees but it has some additional and special effect on women employees. Women have to work for a longer hours leaving the family to suffer without their patronage. Life becomes hard without proper care and rest. There is a good a lot of information as to how the psychology of the women workers is affected in various fields due to the current trend of working condition. The declining job opportunities in the organised sectors namely Central and State Government offices in India and Public Sector industries directly affect and pulls down the upliftment of educated women by and large. In the name of modernisation the half’ baked Computerization has had positive and negative implications for the workforce. It has affected employment levels and workloads and brought increasing pressure for flexibility. It has changed the content of work, and reduced job security and a shift towards more non-bargain able employees.
What is the reason for poor status?

The so called rights and privileges extended to women under the capitalist society where emergence of private property is allowed directly results in the subjugation of women by men. Here the women are mere possession of their husband kept for the purpose of producing the legitimate heirs to inherit their husband’s properties. In other words the tasks which women now do as private service for her family, the childcare, cooking , cleaning etc., stands in the way of her real liberation. Without bringing the home care work into the realm of social production, women cannot be free to take part in social production nor can they regain their economic, political and social independence and equality with men. So long as women continue to be the domestic slaves crushed under petty house works, they will remain the most backward section of the working class and fatter on the development of a revolutionary working class movement. Thus there exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in the Constitution, Legislation, Policies, Plans. Programs and related mechanism on the one hand and situational reality of the status of women in India on the other hand. Gender disparity manifests itself in various forms the most obvious being the trend of continuously declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social stereo typing and violence at the domestic and society levels are some of the other manifestation. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in many parts of the country. So the real emancipation of women will begin only when a mass struggle is started against the petty domestic economy and when it is transformed into a large scale socialist economy. To achieve this it is necessary that the private ownership of the means of social protection should be replaced by the public or social ownership controlled by the working class. Here the domestic slave is freed from her slavery by providing public dinning rooms crèches kinder gardens laundries free education free sanitation free medication etc. In this way the women can be drawn back in to the main stream of economic political and social life so that they could regain their economic political and social independence and equality with men.
The real task before us

The oppression of women can be eliminated only when women are mobilized and educated that they are an integral part of working class. They should be brought to an understanding that the cause of their oppression is not men or their own biological functions and those they are not oppressed because they are women but their oppression is a class question. It is a man made system prevailing in a world where private ownership of the means of social production exists. If women are not made aware of these facts they will be confused and some reactionary forces will divert them. That is how men folk are pictured as the enemy of the women and men are the reason for all their problems. Likewise there is learning among men that women are responsible for their ill being. Both the concepts are not only wrong but also detrimental to the unity and wellbeing of both men and women. It is the Capitalism which exploits the humankind as a whole and women in particular. The capitalist system regards women merely as a convenient source of cheap labour and part of the "reserve army of labour" to be drawn on when there is a shortage of labour in certain areas of production, and discarded again when the need disappears. We saw this in both world wars, when women were drafted into the factories to replace men who had been called up into the army and then sent back to the home when the war ended. Women were again encouraged to enter the workplaces during the period of capitalist upswing of the 1950s and 1960s, when their role was analogous to that of the immigrant workers--as a reservoir of cheap labour. In the more recent period, the number of women workers has increased to fill gaps in the productive process. But, despite all the talk about a "woman's world" and "girl power", and despite all the laws that supposedly guarantee equality, women workers remain the most exploited and oppressed section of the working class. So the target is the downfall of capitalism and the advent of socialism. It is important that trade unions understand the great revolutionary potential of women and take the necessary steps to tap into it. Women are potentially far more revolutionary than men because they are fresh and untainted by years of conservative routine that so often characterises "normal" trade union existence. Anyone who has seen a strike of women can bear witness to their tremendous determination, courage and confidence. It is the duty of the trade union to support every measure to encourage women to join and participate in the unions, with equal rights and equal responsibilities.
Here AISGEF proudly records its achievement of constitution of women wing in all States with women as its convenor and many of the State units have district and taluk level women wing also. At national level there are two women Vice Chairmen Com.R.Tamilselvi from Tamilnadu, Com.K.P.Mary from Kerala. There is a national level Women Sub -committee which attend all National Executive committees as ex- officio members. Throughout the nation AISGEF is able to organise women employees on various issues and conduct struggles. As our veteran leader Com. B.T.Ranadive pointed out “any struggle of the working class without the participation of women workers is like walking with one leg and fighting with one hand.” So it is imperative that any class organisation should concentrate on organising women workers wherever possible.
With this motive our All India State Government Employees Federation calls upon its affiliates to organise women employees and unionise them. Help them in all ways and means to bring out the calibre for building a strong working class movement in India which could only bring a classless society in which human beings live a happy and meaningful life.
-------