There were days when thousands of women under the leadership of the likes of Mrinal Gore and Ahilya Rangnekar would descend on the streets to press for one demand or the other. However, with the demise of these leaders, Mumbai is not witnessing huge women’s rallies as in the past. On the eve of the International Women’s Day, the Free Press Journal spoke to several activists on the issue.
Jyoti Mhapsekar, who founded the Stree Mukti Sanghatana (SMS) in 1975, said the movement was very much alive and kicking. “A movement does not necessarily mean morchas and dharnas. About 50% of women’s demands have been conceded. Also, the state women’s policy has helped women in a big way,” she said, adding that hundreds of NGOs run by women are doing remarkable work in the city and the rest of Maharashtra in areas of welfare, empowerment, health and education.
Mhapsekar said a large number of counselling and day care centres are giving practical help to women. The SMS’s hugely popular street play ‘Mulgi Zali Ho’ had also played a crucial role in creating awareness.
Dr Avisha Kulkarni, an activist in the fields of women’s education and empowerment, said that “the movement is not dead”, but now it’s spread over more at the micro level in Mumbai and elsewhere. She said, “Instead of organising big-ticket morchas like what the likes of Mrinal Gore and Ahilyatai Rangnekar used to spearhead, these days women’s groups tackle issues at the micro level, which is more effective and meaningful.”
Dr Kulkarni said, “Moreover, these days protests in Mumbai can be held only in an enclosed area at Azad Maidan, which no one can see, and Section 144 of the CrPc is in operation through the metropolis almost round the year. The government also files false cases against protestors, which do not reach finality for years on end and this is a deterring factor.”
Activist-idealogue Vibhuti Patel said, “In the 1980s and 1990s, there were larger concerns like price rise, implementation of the Employment Guarantee Scheme with equal wages for women, Christian personal laws, dowry and domestic violence. There was no social media then, which ensured personal interaction among people. Now we are witnessing lot of individualisation.”
She also denied that the collapse of the political Left – only one of the components of the movement – was responsible for its weakening. Much of the strength was derived by the movement from autonomous organisations of the Dalits and adivasis.
Sheela Suryanarayanan, a specialist in gender studies, said one of the reasons for the weakening of the movement was the wrong perception among activists that the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act of 1994, which banned sex selection, has failed and that it should be scrapped.
Mumbai-based activists who wrote strongly against sex selective abortions are silent today. “They are now speaking of abortion rights,” she said, adding. “If the PCPNDT Act is scrapped, most girl foetuses will result in abortions.”
