Women movement in india part 3 ( After 1970s )

i) Anti-dowry Movements

Dowry murders have witnessed a sustained campaign by several women’s organisations and civil rights groups. Journalists wrote extensively about the dowry problem.

 In the 1980s several women’s and other progressiveorganisations formed a joint front in Delhi called “Dahej Virodhi Chetna

Manch”.

Organisations in other major cities also campaigned through protest,

demonstrations, discussions, street theatre, posters etc. against the ghastly murders of young brides for dowry.

The Law Commission and the Parliamentary Committee also looked into the problem. After a sustained campaign, finally a Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 1984, which made certain changes in the Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act of 1961.

The Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 1984 was passed. The Act sets a limit to the amount given in dowry but does not ban dowry. “

While cruelty by thehusband and his relatives leading to suicide or death has become an offence, punishable with imprisonment, still dowry deaths continue.

ii) Anti-sati Movement

In 1829 the practice of Sati was abolished through a legislation which marked the culmination of a debate initiated by the British.

The burning of a young widow Roop Kanwar in 1988 on the funeral pyre of her husband in Deorala, Rajasthan, sparked off strong protests by women’s organisations.

The delayed response of the government came in the wake of

mounting agitation in the shape of Commission of Sati (Prevention) Bill, was hurriedly passed in the Parliament. The Act assumes that it is a practice sanctioned by the custom.

It does not seek to punish those who profit by raising money by selling photographs and raising donations in the name of so called ‘sati’. There is nothing on preventive action.

The pre-sati feeling within the community mounted a counter agitation against the so called attack on their religious custom. It is strange that the barbaric practice, against which social reformers raised their voices, still persists in a country, which reveres mother goddesses.

Anti-rape Movement

An anti-rape movement was launched in the last decade demanding review of the Supreme Court judgment in a rape case, which acquitted the culprit.

 Women activists forced the government to review Rape Laws. Several women’s organisations and legal and social activists held discussions with the LawCommission to amend the law and in 1983 Criminal Law (Amendment) Actwas passed.

Goverment response :-

In the late 1980s the government prepared a National Perspective Plan for Women (1988-2000 A.D.), which has made several recommendations relating to legal, economic, social and political status

of women.

The 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution prepared in the late 1980s was passed in 1993 and it contained an across the board reservation of 33.33 percent in panchayats, panchayat samitis, zilla parishads and local body institutions for women.

The National Commission for Women was set up in 1992 envisaging to cover all facets of issues relating to safeguarding women’s rights and promotion of their empowerment.

Besides this the government has come out with various

programmes such as

Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK),
Indira Mahila Yojana(IMY),
Balika Samriddhi Yojana (BSY),
Swasakthi Project etc.