Rutas de la Compañía de Transporte Público Intracantonal “Trans Machacheñas

The next phase in the growth of the Indian women’s movement and the constructions of feminine identities was marked by three major events which lay the foundations for the different approaches found in Delhi and Mumbai because of the different ways in which women’s allegiances were formed. The first of these is the formal recognition given by the government to the strongest women’s organisation. This led to the formation of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) in 1954, under the aegis of the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Katzenstein, 1989). The key founder was Vibala Farooqui who, along with her CPI women colleagues called a national conference to address women’s issues. They called for equality and identified the need to ‘improve

women’s lives and living conditions’ (Forbes, 1996: 225). This was a powerful organisation of women as they remained allied to one amongst the most prominent political parties in India (Subramaniam, 2006). Following suit other ‘loosely associated organisations’ like the Progressive Organisation of Women (POW) and Stree Shakthi Sangatana (SSS) and other Congress-supported Allegiances were formed. These organisations had better bargaining power than organisations of women in the past due to their political clout (Katzenstein, 1989). They were institutionalised (formally recognised by the government), and had offices and working staff, post- independence. Parallel to this, the National Social Welfare Board (NSWB) appointed block development officers and health and welfare officers concerned with the welfare of women (Forbes, 1996). For the first time, women had politically- backed power for empowerment and women were now their own agents because of the rise of women leaders in the public sphere.

Parallel to the organisation of women’s groups, the notion of ‘personal laws’ or different civil law for different religious groups was being codified. The effect of this on women’s empowerment was that women belonging to different religious groups were to be treated differently by their own personal laws. The personal laws for Hindus are contained within separate Acts of 1955 and 1956. The uniform civil code was already being discussed by the ruling party and the opposition in the 1950s (Everett, 1981; Parashar, 1992; Sen, 2000). Previously, first Congress government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and his law minister B.R Ambedkar preferred the idea of having a uniform civil code for secularisation and democratisation of the country. But they concentrated on reforming the

Hindu law first and suggested a Hindu Civil Code. Debates on the need for uniform civil code have emphasised the inequality associated with personal laws in the matters of marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and property rights for women from different communities (Chawan and Kidwai, 2006; Mukhopadhyay, 1994).

The second major event that marks this phase is the rise of the power of the first woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi in 1966. The fact that Indira Gandhi was the second woman prime minister in the world has been discussed widely (Silva, 2004). Her appearance in the political scene marks a very tumultuous era in terms of Indian feminisms (Sen, 1993).This period was a time of National Emergency and led to a united uprising of the various women’s organisations in India. Indira Gandhi had been made the head of the Indian National Congress in 1959. She was appointed by party officials who thought she would be easy to control. She was stronger than they ever imagined and supported the war against Pakistan for Bangladeshi independence (Forbes, 1996). Despite the reasons for her appointment, the fact remains that she was the first woman to have actual political power. This period marked a change in gender relations as women were encouraged to work and the sporadic growth of women’s organisations resulted in an increased pressure on the government for policy change regarding women’s empowerment.

The third major event is the publication of the report on the status of women in 1975, following a request by the U.N for such a report from the Indian government in 1974 (Kumar, 1988). In 1975 the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) published a document named ‘Towards equality: report of the committee on the status of women in India’ which showed the dismal statistics regarding women’s issues post- independence (Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Department of Social Welfare, 1974). There was widespread consensus that the state had failed its women (Katzenstein, 1978; Ghosh, 1997). The indices of women’s status as reflected in sex ratio, life expectancy, literacy and violence against women were dismal. The laws were discriminatory and the representation in political bodies, paltry. With the publication of this report, it became clear to women all over that the constitutional guarantee of equality was not a realistic promise (Sen, 2000). The report on the status of women had in no uncertain terms, also addressed the issue of the need for a uniform civil code. The report led to the development of a more independent women’s movement. This is evidenced in the 1979 publication of the first journal about women and society in New Delhi, in English and Hindi. Saheli, a woman’s organisation was the first to address the issues of rape and domestic violence. In this period most of the uprisings were regarding the issues of rape and bride burning (Kumar, 1999). Women were now aware that they had agentive responsibilities in their empowerment as they became increasingly disillusioned with the ability of the law and the government to enable women’s empowerment.