This book comes to you from the Centre for Education and  Documentation (CED), DOC-CENTRE to most of you.  As documentalists and as an organisation in the voluntary sector concerned with development and justice issues, we share and disseminate development information.

This is done in various ways.  You can come to CED and refer to the file that consists of clippings from newspapers and grey literature, that have been meticulously culled out for over last twenty years, or you can access the catalogue of reports, books, videos and journal articles.

For those who cannot come to CED, we have various systems of DOCPOST, whereby you select the topic and the time frame, and  get the documentation by post.  The information, therefore, is tailored to your individual needs.

We also have DOCALERT, a monthly subject-wise listing of important books, reports and clippings sent to you by email. Select what you want and we’ll sent it to you.  You can also check our catalogue, which is posted on our website www.doccentre.org.

In yet another effort to reach out to NGOs and People’s Organisations and to enable readers who would like to have ready references of books and articles on important topics that concern us, we have brought out three backgrounders. This one of the Women’s Movement, and another one on Globalisation and the third on Globalisation.  The form used in each of these books is different.  Further backgrounders, if any, will depend on the feedback we receive from you.

We outline the background to the issues in simple, but not simplistic terms. We do not  attempt to be the final word, to force an opinion or to present an exhaustive treatise on the subject; rather just to  begin the exploration.  We also point out to available readings and references on each of the sub-topics. Each of these references are available at CED. We hope that this will help you read further. To enable you to locate the references at CED we have indicated our reference code for each document or article in square brackets[ eg.{R.A71c.600].

We are grateful to SWISSAID for funding this project.
 
 
 
 

This backgrounder, ‘Changing the Stream’ presents an overview of issues relating to women and gender that  have been articulated and highlighted by over three decades of the women’s movement in India.
 
The term “Women’s Movement” does not indicate any one, unified, linear entity. The movement is constituted by the energies and activism of several movements working on a range of issues, using different approaches at various points of time. It is a term used for convenience and in recognition of the idea that we are all working, in one way or another, towards the emancipation of women.

This document attempts to indicate where-we-are-now in the movement and to capture the myriad strands present today, with a brief look at their beginnings. Women’s issues are purportedly high on the agenda of voluntary action - be it grassroots social action groups, NGOs or funding NGOs. The nature of this engagement will be taken up in the sequel to this backgrounder.

The aim of these backgrounders is to sketch the issues involved, and invite each reader to delve further into issues and themes that  interest her/him.

Putting this book together has given us many sleepless nights. We had to ask ourselves, “What do we include?” or the more problematic question- “What do we leave out?”  This was especially difficult as we believe, that there is no issue that is not a women’s issue, and that the women’s movement has impacted on all aspects of our lives. There was also a problem of connecting the various issues. There are many ways to thread these concerns together,  each equally valid – deciding on one pattern over another provoked much discussion and debate.

All in all, it has been a great experience. Reading about the countless battles waged by women, individually and collectively, filled us with a deep sense of awe. As documentalists, what was also exciting was stumbling upon various little nuggets in the most unlikely places. These are tucked away in many, many newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, and booklets. We have pointed to some of these  in the text, but we’d like to invite you to visit CED, to experience this kind of amazement for yourself.
 

Preface ix
Introduction xi

I. Contextualising the Struggle 1
  Defining Through Struggle  2   Facing Resistance and Denial 5
  Reclaiming History 6
 
II. Our Movement, Ourselves 10
  Ideological Positions Within the Movement 10
  The Left and Feminism 16
  Postmodernism and Feminism
  Differing Perceptions  18
  The Diversity Within  19
  Constituents Of the Women’s Movement 22
  Women’s Studies 25
  Beijing Conference 29

III. Tracing the Path of the Struggle 33
  The Road To Independence 34
  Post Independence  36
  Coming Into Its Own  38
  Landmarks 40
  Exploring the Issues In the Struggle  43
IV. Violence Against Women, Women Against Violence 45
  Rape 49
  Dowry 50
  Home Truths : Domestic Violence 51
  Prostitution and the Women’s Movement 52
  Missing Girls : Sex Pre-Selection 55
  What We Do To Our Girls? 56
  Sexual Harassment at Work  58
 

V. The Wrong Arm of the Law? 61
  Women and Legal Reform 61
  Women’s Rights as Human Rights
Women in Prisons
Various Laws Affecting Women
 
 

VI. The Body Politics : Women’s Health 75
  Contraceptives and Reproductive Choice 77
 

VII. Other Engagements  81
  The Anti-Arrack Movement 81
  Joint Forest Management 86
  A Roof of One’s Own : Women and Housing 87
  The Media and the Women’s Question 89

VIII. The Politics of Identity 93
  Women and Nationalism 93
  Culture and Religion 95
  Uniform Civil Code 96
  Sati 97
  Multiple Identities 100
  Mandal and Women  102
  Women and Sexuality 103

IX. Women and the State 107
  Towards a Feminist Theory of the Post Colonial State 107
  Women and the Democratic State 110
  The Political Woman
  Women and the Nuclear State 112
 X. Women, Development and the State 115
  Women and Work/Women’s Work 120
    Women and the Labour Movement 121
    Women in the Informal Sector 123
  Just Add Women and Stir? Five Year Plans and Women 124
  Income Generation and Micro-Credit Schemes 129
  Sapping Women: The Structural Adjustment Programme 134
 
X.  Women and Environment 138

XI. The Future : Looking Forward 144
  Indentifying Challenges 145
  The Challenge of Fundamentalism 146
  The Challenge of Globalisation 148
  The Challenge of Cooption 150
  Blurring of Lines 151

In Lieu of a Conclusion 152