Appendix: Observations on the Women’s Front

EXCERPTS from the Political-Organisational Report adopted by the 8th Congress of the CPI(ML), December 2007, Kolkata

34.     Coming to the women’s front, the Seventh Congress had called for “laying maximum emphasis on organising working women, urban as well as rural, and challenging the feudal-patriarchal order and especially the growing fascist offensive in every sphere” while regaining and improving the initiative of the women’s organization ensuring vigorous implementation of the mass orientation and regular functioning of its offices and committees. Viewed in this context, we can say that while some progress is clearly visible in terms of advancing our work among working women, a lot remains to be done with regard to the other aspect. The growth of our trade union work in the organized sector and the development of Party work among teachers and government employees have increased our direct reach among working women in the industrial and service sector. Simultaneously, the expansion of the AIALA network and our work in panchayats has also helped us develop closer ties with women in the agricultural field and those employed in rural health sector or organized around self-help groups. Women engaged in the rural health sector get a paltry amount as honorarium and have to face all the hazards emanating from our rural society and an apathetic public administration. The demand for better working conditions and proper remuneration, rights and recognition of these women workers is an important issue before the entire women’s movement. In Bihar, a state-level organization of women health workers has been formed and it has begun to take agitational initiatives against the state government. In quite a few areas, women working as domestic helps have also been organized under AIPWA/ AICCTU banner. To realize the full potential of expanding our work among working women closer coordination is necessary between AIPWA and AICCTU/employees’ organisation on the one hand and AIPWA and AIALA on the other. This however cannot happen as long as it is seen merely as an organizational arrangement. Leading cadres among women will have to increase their involvement and initiative with regard to the issues and struggles of agricultural labourers and trade unions having significant women membership; at the same time the trade union centre and the agricultural labour organization too will have to increase their sensitivity towards the issues and problems faced by women in their respective fields.

35.     While objective developments continue to draw more and more women out of their so-called domestic domain into the vortex of the broader public or social life, the ideological and cultural climate still remains considerably hostile or at any rate prejudicial to women, not to talk about the physical insecurity, economic discrimination and social barriers that women have to encounter every now and then. This is the stark reality that women have to face behind the deceptive rhetoric of ‘feminisation of labour’ and ‘empowerment of women’. Even in panchayats and municipalities where women usually have some reservation – one-third in most states and fifty per cent in Bihar – women have to fight against heavy odds to assert their independence. In Assemblies and Parliament the issue of women’s reservation has of course been lying in cold storage for more than a decade now in spite of a rhetorical consensus on the issue among all parties and coalitions. Against all these visible and not so visible barriers women are fighting back valiantly. Like in the battle against the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur or in struggles against corporate land-grab as at Singur and Nandigram or against the ubiquitous criminal-police nexus and cases of patriarchal-feudal oppression, women can increasingly be seen in the forefront of people’s struggles. If the revolutionary women’s organization has to march at the head of this growing assertion of women, it must increase its own role and initiative many times over. Resumption of regular functioning of the central office of the women’s organization must be treated as an absolute first step in this direction. The emphasis laid at Bardhaman convention on increasing the proportion of women members has brought about a positive change. The momentum must be maintained and simultaneously efforts must now also be stepped up to develop women cadres for discharging various responsibilities. The women’s department will have an important role to play in this regard. Apart from assisting with the implementation of various tasks related to the women’s front, the department must study and sum up experiences and provide theoretical and practical inputs to guide the Party’s work on the women’s front.