Women’s Day is a reminder of the aspirations of women, the realities they are saddled with, and the urgent need to close that gap
All days must belong to women — not just one day in a calendar year. There is little in that aspiration to quarrel with. But it is not an argument against marking and celebrating International Women’s Day. True, like all remembrances, it is prone to being turned into an empty token, or made palatable, pink and powerless. But the day exists as a reminder that gender equality is a work in slow progress. And to recall that the vast majority of women in India, whose labour and skills keep institutions running, from the home that ties them down to the workplace that seldom lets them rise, experience a world run by men’s rules, one that remains hostile to their independence, education and self-realisation. The edge of that experience is made sharper by the burdens of caste and class and poverty.
The roots of International Women’s Day lie in the mobilisation of women in the early decades of the 20th century for better pay and voting rights. In India, the republic’s founders placed trust in universal adult franchise, the Constitution made the promise of equality to all citizens, irrespective of gender or caste. But the journey of Indian women since Independence has been a struggle to grasp that equality, against the formidable weight of culture, patriarchy and economic deprivation ranged against them. To mark March 8 is to reckon with the present in the light of this history. In the here and now, there are reasons for both despair and hope. All too often, Indian women remain shut out from access to economic opportunities — with a female labour participation rate that is one of the lowest in the world. That is not just a function of lack of education, or indeed the pandemic’s blows, but of the resilience of the set of patriarchal values that see women primarily as agents of the family. According to a recent survey by Pew Research Centre, for example, more than half Indians believe that men have a greater right to available jobs than women. While women continue to remain on the margins of power, their assertion in political spaces is a growing one. That is reflected in impressive voter turnouts — most recently in the just-concluded assembly elections — but also in the growing realisation among parties that women add up to a constituency responsive to welfare schemes. Their “silent” support has, arguably, propelled electoral victories, whether of Nitish Kumar in Bihar, or Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, and by all accounts, continues to shore up the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This political agency was also strikingly visible in the women-led protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in towns and cities across India; or in the year-long farmers’ mobilisation against the farm laws. But the increased presence and aspirations of women political workers struggle to find a path to representation in assemblies and the Parliament, or in decision-making within parties.
What remains to be done to put women at the centre of the public and economic life; to make it possible for women to work and play with freedom, equality, dignity, adds up to a substantial challenge, a long to-do list. Women’s Day, then, demands not tokenism but a re-commitment to that urgent task.