‘Women’s movement in India has not addressed the issues of women of lower social strata.’ Substantiate your view. (UPSC IAS Mains 2018 General Studies Paper – 1)
Though efforts were made to uplift the status of women prior to independence, the women’s movement in India gained prominence in 1970s and 80s. These movements have tried to bring the women specific issues in the public domain.
However, it is found that these have not been able to address the issues of the women of lower social strata, belonging to SC, ST, minorities, and BPL families.
- It is being seen that activists within the movements are urban, western, and middle class. Therefore, the movement is being considered a Western product. It has little to do with the lives of thousands of poor, rural, underprivileged women all over India.
- Women continue to have unequal access to land and other resources. Compensation policies in case of displacement are inevitably discriminatory towards women of lower strata due to multiple reasons such as lack of awareness, education etc. Women from these sections also find it more difficult to get loans.
- Recently, several movements have raised the gender issues through temple entry movement, triple talaq, etc. But temple entry movements are restricted to the specified places only, and triple talaq especially in hinterland or rural areas, go unnoticed.
- Sexual and domestic violence is mainly perpetrated against the women from lower caste and poor women but this issue has not acquired centre-stage in the discourse of women movements.
Issues of women agricultural labourers (e.g. fair wages etc.), women domestic workers and women manual scavengers has not been raised by the women movement prominently.
However, there is also a counter view that the urban, middle-class women are one of the participants in the movement. It is rather the poor women which are the backbone of the movements, exemplified the presence of poor women in the anti-alcohol agitation in Andhra Pradesh, and other parts of India. Similarly, the movement to protect the environment was started by poor women in Reni village of Uttarakhand and thereafter, it spread to other parts of the country.
But there are substantial evidences to prove that women movements have neglected the lower strata women. The National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW), formed in 1995, has forced women’s movements in India to address the caste question seriously. Thus there is an urgent need of women movements to be more inclusive and just, embracing the cause of poor and vulnerable women.
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