The study on "LOCATING A BLOG AGAINST STREET SEXUAL HARASSMENT WITHIN THE LARGER FRAMEWORK OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA."

The study on

"LOCATING A BLOG AGAINST STREET SEXUAL HARASSMENT WITHIN THE LARGER FRAMEWORK OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA."

Origin of the “Women’s Movement” in India

The women’s movement in India can be traced back to the 1920’s. However it was in the mid 1970’s that it became a feminist movement in the sense that it was the first time women came out to concern themselves with specifically women’s issues. There were men too who were involved however when compared to the ‘social reform’ movements that preceded it that were largely dominated by men the participation of women in these movements was significantly larger than that of the men.

In the 1920’s and till independence women’s rights or ‘social reform had always been fought for by men such as Raja Ramohun Roy, Ishwara Chandra Vidya Sagar and other ‘western liberal’ thinkers. When these reformists dealt with these issues the women were hardly the subject, the empowerment of women wasn’t their objective as much as the ‘westernizing’ Indian culture and ridding it of its barbaric practices, or on the other hand protecting Indian women- a man’s “honour” from the influences of the western world or from western men. These ‘reformists’ were patronizing.

In the national movement women participated when the masses were required- under Gandhi’s leadership, however soon after independence they retreated into the domestic, exploitative sphere. The issues around which these earlier movements took place were more in the social and cultural domain than in the ‘personal’ which later women's movements took up.

These issues were treated as problems of society in general, to be overcome by both men and women, and steeped in tradition, culture and social practice rather than on sex, gender or patriarchy which the later women's movement’s were based on.

In the 1960’s for instances there was a huge increase in the number of women members of various radical left parties like the naxalite movement and the communist parties. Women working in factories and plantations joined these parties however they too took up issues only within the parties mandate and not those specifically concerning women. This co-existence with political parties was possible only as long as the women’s demands didn’t threaten traditional patriarchal political structures. This was an important development however as it signified the entry of women into the public, ‘male-dominated’ sphere. This can be compared at some level to the recent phenomenon of Amway, Avon and Tupperware entrepreneurship that is dominated by women, and is seen as a means to empower women economically within their domestic roles. The next stage included movement’s like the anti price rise movement, the nav nirman movement, the Chipko and prohibition movement’s; these movement signified the coming to fore of specifically women's issues and women’s demands. A continuation of this stage was when the women's movement, already established decided to take on and protest against issue’s of dowry harassment, sexual violence etc, as and when these cases came up. The organisations set up to deal with these issues however often found themselves expanding their mandate in response to the needs of the women involved, and example being SEWA which was initially begun as a women's trade union to demand better working conditions has now expanded to include women's training, re-habilitation, resolving domestic disputes, working with the law etc. Organisations like Jagori and Saheli too gained in prominence during the anti-rape struggle however continued their work after it and work with a diverse range of issues, right from livelihood, to sexual violence to petitioning and demanding changes in the law. This autonomous women's movement at this juncture began to be influenced by western feminism.

One of the main differences between the Blank Noise Project and women's organisation before it is in terms of the mandate. Early women's organisations adopted very broad mandates probably due to the lack of similar organisations at that point and the fact that all the issues they took up were interrelated. However compared to this the mandate of the Blank Noise Project extends only to street sexual harassment or “eve teasing”, not even the broader issue of violence against women. This may among other things be because there already exist organisations with broader mandates that deal with violence against women.

This represents the primary shift in the nature of the women’s movement which I am going to look at to explain more recent movement like the Blank Noise Project- The shift in the women's movement from being communitarian to increasingly individualistic.

Women's Movement in India

The Anti-Rape Movement