7 th National Conference of Autonomous Women’s Movements in India:

Women affirm the need to fight for political power for their emancipation

MEL correspondents participated in the National Conference of Autonomous Women’s Movements, held in Kolkata between September 9-12, 2006. We are publishing below their report.

The Seventh National Conference of Autonomous Women’s Movements in India was held in Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, on September 9-12, 2006. The stated theme of the National Conference was “ affirming diversities, resisting divisiveness”. According to the Call for the conference, its effort was to provide a vision of “an alternative society based on equality, social justice and equitable development, a society that is free from violence and that believes in women’s rights, human rights, democratic processes, diversity, dignity and peace."

Over 2000 women participated in the Conference, representing more than 200 organisations from 22 states. They came from all regions of our vast country. Young and old, illiterate or highly educated and qualified, these activists were united by a passion to realise a society free from exploitation and oppression of women. The delegation from Tamil Nadu stood out - hundreds of women, mainly from the agricultural sector and other unorganised sectors, braved all odds and covered a distance of nearly 2000 kms to participate with great enthusiasm in the conference. Another feature was the large delegation of fighting women from the North East, mainly from Manipur, who participated in this Conference.

The Conference gave a unique opportunity for women from different walks of life, from different far-flung regions of the country and even from abroad to make contacts and understand the commonality of their respective struggles.

Parallel workshops were organised on a number of topics, like agricultural workers, informal sector, unpaid workers, displaced people, women in sex work/ prostitution, women living under state violence, migrant women, women with disabilities, etc. In many of the workshops the inhuman and brutal conditions faced by the majority of working people across the country were presented by indignant women, reflecting a universal mood of not accepting their conditions.

Amongst the many organizations participating in the Conference, we were impressed with the work of the delegation of the Purogami Mahila Sangathan (PMS). This delegation, consisting of women from the South, West, North and North East, we found participating in many sessions. Almost everywhere, they presented their views forcefully. Whether it was in the plenary sessions or in the workshops, their view struck a chord among the activist women. The views of PMS are elaborated in a "Draft Declaration on the Path to the Emancipation of Women", which they were distributing in several languages.

We spoke to the leader of the delegation of PMS about the path to the emancipation of women, that PMS has highlighted in the draft declaration. The leader of the PMS delegation pointed out …” women as well as men have begun to recognize the need to have political power in their hands, in order to change the social and economic conditions in which their rights get violated with impunity. This, we feel, is the key question of the day. People themselves have to get organized and consciously build up the mechanism for their political empowerment. Women need to join hands with all those classes and strata in our country that are excluded from political power today, so as to wage a common political struggle for the empowerment of the majority. We cannot become the tools of parliamentary parties, whether of the “left” or right; we cannot continue to remain under the illusion that one party or government is a “lesser evil” than another, when it pursues the same program of unbridled exploitation and oppression, with the mask of a “human face.

“What is required is a perspective for our struggle. What should be the program for our struggle? In our document we have formulated a draft program in the economic sphere, political sphere, sphere of family and social relations and international sphere. We have released it for discussion. We want people, other organisations, to discuss, to suggest amendments. The act of discussion itself will contribute to removing many barriers that exist between people. It will contribute to building unity for a common cause. As part of preparing the conditions for such a revolutionary change, we must build a broad political front of women, men and youth, of workers, peasants and other middle strata.

“And this unity should be used to build the organs of empowerment of the people at the local, national and all-India levels and to work towards ushering in a Government of Workers and Peasants.”

On the question of whether patriarchy and male domination can be ended within this system, she explained that they definitely cannot be ended within this system. “Capitalism has to ensure that within the class of oppressed and exploited people, some are more oppressed than the others. Capitalism inevitably promotes inequalities - between different genders, different nationalities within a country, different regions, languages, castes, etc. Even if we hypothetically assume that patriarchy and male domination could be ended within this system, is that what we want? Will we be satisfied with equality with men who themselves are so badly exploited and oppressed? No. We need to work for socialism, a system that ensures the well-being of all working women and men. Women have special needs by virtue of being workers as well as reproducers of human life. The society where human well-being is paramount will also ensure that these needs are taken care of.”

Out of the many interesting workshops that were organized, the workshops on displaced women, women living under conditions of state violence and women in the unorganized sector struggling for the right to livelihood evoked particularly active participation and articulation of the concerns of the women.

The workshop on displaced women came alive when an activist of PMS, who had been in the forefront of the struggle against eviction of residents of a resettlement colony in Delhi, described the fight that the women and men of Transit Camp have been waging heroically for the past many months, in defence of their right to livelihood and shelter.

Among the self-organised workshops, the one on Army Rule in the North East, initiated by PMS and spread over two days, was attended by a large number of delegates (See box below). n

Workshop to Condemn and Demand the Repeal of Army Rule

The workshop began with a film, "Letter to my daughter", in which a father movingly describes the horrors - arbitrary arrests, searches, arrests, torture, rape and even murder - that are perpetrated on a daily basis by the Indian armed forces in Manipur, and the brave resistance struggle of this indomitable people. A hush descended on the audience, which was stirred to the core, by the scene of a few elderly and dignified women staging a nude protest in front of Kangla Fort, the headquarters of Assam Rifles, with banners reading "Indian Army, Rape us!" All at once, a delegate at the conference got up and recited a moving poem on Manorama and the resistance struggle of the Manipuri women, that she had penned.

There were several screenings of the movie, on demand. In the discussions that were organised after each screening, there was unanimity among the participants that they should demand the repeal of the nefarious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and a signature campaign was immediately launched with this aim.

Many delegates from Manipur attended the screening and their presence literally electrified everyone present. A number of them spoke to the audience. One of them said that they had grown up under the AFSPA and knew no other life. They had come to accept the army terror, until the work of human rights activists such as Dr. Pardesi Singh and others like him opened their eyes. They pointed out that the avowed objective of the AFSPA - counterinsurgency - had not been met. They described the situation in a village where the women who go the market have to encounter 11 army check posts each way, and be subjected to searches and questioning as many times on their way out and back. They also said that people were prevented from buying too may provisions at one time. Otherwise they were accused of feeding the ‘ultras’ and then subjected to harassment and even torture.

Those present were most honoured to have among their midst, two of the elderly women from Manipur who had actually led and participated in the protest in front of Kangla Fort. They pointed out that for a woman, covering her body is a mark of respect. They had to resort to this drastic form of protest because no one was paying heed otherwise. With tears in their eyes they told the gathering that they only wanted the young girls, who had their lives before them, to be left alone. They did not mind what happened to themselves, because their lives were already over. One of them actually enacted how the army attacked them with tear gas shells and how she fought back by lobbing the shell right back at the army.

The workshop ended with militant slogans denouncing army rule and expressing solidarity with the fighting women and men of Manipur and other states of the North East.