The policy prescriptions from almost a century ago are relevant even today. It behoves us to reflect about the slow progress towards equity. The common thread between then and now is the opposition rooted in an archaic mindset.
More than a century ago, Indian women activists started campaigning for female social, political, and economic empowerment. Working across rural and urban areas, they saw that women couldn’t exercise their agency without the approval of male family members. One of the main reasons for this was their financial dependency on men. To address the systemic oppression women faced, they put forth progressive ideas — some of them were far ahead of their times and are yet to be achieved.
The rights of women workers in the informal sector and recognition of unpaid household work were key agenda items. Almost eight decades later, the needle of progress has not moved much. The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Index places India at 142 amongst 146 countries on economic participation and opportunity. Without economic freedom, there is no freedom for women. In our patriarchal society, they have to follow the dictates of the male breadwinners. As we celebrate this 78th Independence Day and reflect on the road ahead, let us also turn to history for answers.
Founded in 1917, the Women’s Indian Association was the first national women’s organisation that aimed to address the various challenges faced by women. Stri Dharma, its mouthpiece, carried regular articles highlighting the plight of women including factory workers. There were around 2,53,000 women factory workers in 1927. Their activism led to banning of night working hours for women, and the Bombay Maternity Benefit Act, 1929 which gave benefits of eight weeks’ wages — four weeks each before and after delivery.
The women activists further asked for time off during the advanced stages of pregnancy, six weeks’ leave after delivery, and for medical supervision of the female employees. But these were rejected citing lack of public support, the migratory nature of workers, and difficulty in supervision across industries. We still hear some of these when advocating for rights of women workers in the informal sector.
“It is in the economic sphere that women will have to fight hard to establish her position,” Hansa Mehta said in her presidential address at the annual convention of the All-India Women’s Conference (AIWC) in 1945. The members decided to study various constitutions, and prepare a rights’ agenda to address the challenges faced by women.
Mehta also broached the subjects of unpaid household work and the right to leisure — issues that remain relevant even now. In 1946, the AIWC ratified the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights and Duties. The charter had some overarching suggestions. It called for doing away with overcrowding in houses and fixing a minimum standard for homes, ensuring separate kitchens and bathrooms in every house. On the work front, it demanded no bar to employment of women and recommended that maternity benefits should be part of a comprehensive social insurance scheme.
To ensure the financial security of women, it was recommended “that the husband shall have no right to dispose of his entire property without the consent of his wife” and that a homemaker be given the right to a part of her husband’s income — to be used as she pleases.
In 1947, the sub-committee on women of the National Planning Committee, formed in 1939 by Subhas Chandra Bose, echoed these sentiments in its report. It called for equality of opportunity in employment, advocated a common civil code, and also proposed that inheritance laws be made gender-neutral.
Since then, inheritance laws have been amended to grant women some autonomy. However, social conditioning often renders laws ineffective. Women who receive equal benefits, mandated by law, end up facing slanderous attacks. The issue of unpaid domestic work is still unresolved.
Recognition of unpaid domestic work must not be limited to paeans about women’s resilience. There should be economic compensation in the form of income support for homemakers. Several state governments provide a monthly financial allowance to women — Gruha Lakshmi (Karnataka), Ladli Behna Yojana (Madhya Pradesh), Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (Tamil Nadu), and Lakshmi Bhandar (West Bengal). These need to be replicated across the country and indexed to inflation.
The policy prescriptions from almost a century ago are relevant even today. It behoves us to reflect about the slow progress towards equity. The common thread between then and now is the opposition rooted in an archaic mindset. It is high time we work to fulfil the leftover aspirations of the visionary women leaders from our history. Let us not wait for another century to mould a better future.
Aribam and Satyawali are authors of the book The Fifteen: The Lives and Times of the Women in India’s Constituent Assembly
