WOMEN'S MOVEMENT

TOWARDS WOMEN’S DAY 2009

(Women’s Day 2009 is being celebrated all over the world as the centenary year of International Women’s Day. It marks about a hundred years since the working women of several cities in the US sparked off a remarkable struggle for their wages, the 8-hour working day and other working conditions – and also for the right to vote.
In India, Women’s Day will be an occasion to reflect on the remarkable strides that the women’s movement has made – in the world and in India too. But recent events – like the assaults on women in Karnataka; women being drawn into the workforce in large numbers, but in ruthlessly casualised, contractualised, insecure and exploitative work conditions; the denial of equal rights and minimum and equal wages in the workplace (even in ‘flagship’ schemes like NREGA); and the betrayal by the ruling UPA Government of the Bill for 33% reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies –  will also remind us that those achievements of the women’s movement are under a concerted attack – by the communal fascists as well as by neoliberal economic policies  being pursued by the Government. Ed/-) 
Gendered Violence by Communal Fascists 

(Rati Rao, Vice President of AIPWA, has for several decades been a leading figure in the women’s movement in Karnataka and the country, associated with the Mysore-based Samata Vedike. Rati Rao comments on the pub attacks in Mangalore and its implications for the women’s movement.)           

Mangalore is a port city known for its cosmopolitanism, where speakers of many languages (Tulu, Kannada, Konkani, Beary etc), as well as many communities including Hindu Billavas, Mogaveeras, Bunts & Saraswats, the Muslim Bearys, Catholics, Jains and others have coexisted. Today, however, Mangalore is at the center of a communal fascist tsunami that threatens this heritage – and gendered assaults on women are a key element in this fascist offensive.

A spate of incidents:
On 24 January 2009, Sangh Parivar goons styling themselves as the Sri Rama Sene (SRS) entered a pub in Mangalore, brutally assaulted women guests, dragging them by hair, tearing their clothes, slapping and molesting them. The few onlookers (like one Pavan Shetty) who came forward to help were also not spared. On the same day in the Balmatta area of Mangalore, SRS goons attacked a house where women from non-Hindu communities were invited for a party. On 06 February 2009, Shruti a 2nd year Pre-University student of St Aloysius College, Mangalore (and daughter of C.K. Kunhambu, CPI(M) MLA from Kerala), along with a Muslim friend Shabeeb, were dragged out of a private bus at Pumpwell and forced into an auto rickshaw by Hindutva goons, who warned Shruti not to talk to non-Hindus as they are ‘inhuman’.
On 11 February 2009, 16-year-old Ashwini, daughter of Mr Jayamoolya Elinge of Mulky (near Mangalore) committed suicide following public humiliation by the Hindutva forces for walking on a street with a Muslim boy. Ashwini and her classmate Madhavi, students of a PU college at Aikala village, boarded a bus on 10 February. Rafique, the helper of the bus, said they got off at Moodibidri with Abdul Salim, the bus conductor, whose father was the owner of the bus. The three walked towards Venoor where Hindutva vigilantes accosted them. The girls were beaten up and humiliated for being friendly with someone from another religion. Later in the police station at Moodibidri, Ashwini’s father was asked to lodge a complaint against Abdul Salim by the police, but he refused. Then Ashwini’s family too was publicly humiliated by the mob at the police station – and she committed suicide the next morning. 
There is a long record of such incidents in the past several months in the same region (see The Hindu, 2 September 2009). In December 2008, a college bus on an official trip was stoned at Mangalore by Bajrang Dal activists. Classmates, both boys and girls, were beaten up – the pretext was that Hindu girls should not interact with Muslim or Christian classmates.  On 24 August 2008, a bus was intercepted at a prominent junction in Mangalore; a Hindu girl and her Muslim fiancée were dragged off the bus and assaulted. In another incident on 8 August 2008, Bajrang Dal activists stopped a bus in the city, and assaulted Syed, Zulfikar and Ameen, because these young boys helped a few girls with their bags, as the latter did not get seats in the bus. Bajrang dal leader Sudarshan Moodbidri had claimed responsibility for both the August incidents (Hindu 9.02.09), declaring that “girls reform themselves once they are thrashed and humiliated in public, but boys are tougher to control.” Clearly, months before pub attack, a Sangh Parivar leader in Karnataka was openly recommending ‘thrashing and humiliating’ women, including school girls and college going women) in public as a measure of moral policing. He and his ilk were allowed a free rein; and at least one schoolgirl – Ashwini – lost her life as a result of such ‘thrashing and humiliation.’

The pub attack was of a piece with these communal fascist attacks. The mischievous attempts to whip up a debate on ‘pub culture’ deliberately deflect attention from the fact that the real target is not pubs, but women’s freedom and communal harmony. 
Subsequently, the SRS declared they would oppose Valentine’s Day all over Karnataka and India; if they found any couple or girl and boy together, they would force them to opt for either “rakhi or mangalasutra”! 
Waves of protests: The pub attack became a national issue because the electronic media showed live footage of the incident. The unprecedented coalition of civic groups all over Karnataka and in the other parts of India to protest the attacks on women by SRS, Bajrang Dal and their other outfits has been heartening. On 30 January 2009, progressive organizations in Mysore held a sit-in dharna at Gandhi Square in the heart of the city. Women’s organizations including Samata Vedike and AIPWA, PUCL, drama groups, peasant groups, dalit organizations, and intellectuals spoke on the occasion. More than 100 people participated. On the same day at Bangalore a huge rally was organized to condemn the incident, and various women’s groups and democratic organizations took part, raising slogans, “Ban SRS,” “Home Minister should resign”, “Who gave the SRS the contract to save Hindu culture”? It was pointed out 42 cases pending against Muthalik, State President, SRS, were withdrawn. Thus the State has helped these self-proclaimed vigilantes to indulge in their criminal activities. Karnataka Komusauharda Vedike has been organizing public protests against Sangh Parivar at Davanagere, Gadag etc .
On 31 January 2009, people from all walks of life (numbering around 300) assembled at Kadri park at Mangalore. They lauded Pavan Shetty for his courage and conscience in accosting the perpetrators, and filing a case against the SRS goons even after being beaten up by them! Many prominent citizens of Mangalore condemned the pub attack.
Protests against the Valentine’s Day threats have been pouring in. Many civic groups all over Karnataka and India protested against these. At Mysore on 14 February, more than 100 people belonging to various progressive groups formed a Human Chain at K R Circle. A huge public protest was organized at Mangalore on the 20 February at the DC's office against “Goondagiri in the name of protecting culture.”

Deflecting the Debate:
The National Commission of Women Chairperson Ms Girija Vyas refused to accept the report of its member Nirmala Venkatesh who was sent on fact-finding mission to Mangalore on the pub issue. She rejected the report on the ground that it had not followed the norm that requires a three-member team inclusive of a social activist; and also because none of the attack victims were contacted and because undue emphasis was placed on the nature of license issued to the pub which was not a part of the mandate. However, Girija Vyas was silent on the worst patriarchal sentiments uttered publicly by Ms. Venkatesh: declaring that the ‘poor boys’ (perpetrators of crime) who met her in jail told her they were disturbed by women in ‘naked dress’ (a mystifying concept; after all, we know ‘naked’ and ‘dress’ – but what is ‘naked dress’ we wonder), and that ‘after all ‘women have to be responsible for their own safety.’ Later, the statement of the SRS backing this woman did not surprise us. The SRS has no objection to ‘sadhus’ going naked, nor to nakedness in temple sculpture – the only objection is to women exercising choice and control over their bodies and relationships. In any case, it was obvious in the live footage of the assault, that the women were far from naked: it was only the SRS cadre who were tearing off their clothes!     
The Ministry of Women & Child Welfare also sent a team to investigate. The Mayor of Mangalore has filed a case against Minister Renuka Chaudhry for talking of ‘Talibanisation.’ The Mayor, so proactive when it came to the charge of Talibanisation, did nothing to protect the city’s women from goons.
There have also been some protests by SHG and Stree Shakti groups obviously sponsored by saffron brigade against ‘pub culture’. These got a fillip from the pronouncements of many – including Rajasthan CM from the Congress Ashok Gehlot and Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss against ‘pub culture’. The simple question is: how come there was no debate on men going to pubs? Why were women singled out for attack in the pub? Pravin Valke, founder of the SRS’s statement reveals that it not pubs, but women’s freedom and unconventional roles that are the target. He said, “Pubs should be for men only. Women should be at home by 7 pm. Why should they go to pubs: are they learning to serve their husbands alcohol? They should learn to make chapattis instead.” 

Government Patronage:
All along the State Government, and especially the BJP government, has been soft on the Sangh Parivar. In fact the Home Minister even said he was considering appointing a media ‘ombudsman’ to screen media reports that ‘lack objectivity’ and pronounce 'judgment' on issues. No doubt he has no objection to media pronouncing judgement on innocent Muslims branded by the police as terrorists – his concern is to muzzle the media which exposes the Sangh’s own violent, communal, and anti-women face. 
The State Human Rights Commission Chairperson SR Nayak has pulled up the State for its inaction on the issue of moral policing in the wake of the suicide of 16-year-old college girl. 

Understanding the roots: The Dakshina Kannada (DK) district has been known for the highest literacy rate in the state and for a modern cosmopolitan society. The syncretism had a material basis in the coastal communities. Fishing is the occupation of Mogaveera men, wholesale purchase, that of Beari (Muslims), and retail that of Mogaveera women. The famous Mangalore lily, is grown by Christians, wholesale purchase done by Bearis and retail sale by Hindus, who also wear it. The coconut, mangoes, tamarind grown by Hindus, is purchased wholesale by Bearis.
The soil of DK has witnessed powerful social movements since the 1980s – some of the prominent ones being against the MRPL, against the deal with the US power MNC Cogentrix, against coal-fired thermal power plants, against the Nagarjuna steel plant and on environmental issues. There is a powerful local legacy of communal harmony: the Bappa temple built by Bappa Beari near Mulky in Bappanadu; the figures of Chamundi and Babbaria; the cult of Madeena Durga of Ullala and Saida Bee Durga of Mangalore (important Sufi cultural figures). The growth of the Sangh Parivar in this region has been marked by the systematic destruction of this culture, replacing it by one of communal hatred – a project nurtured in the Sangh ‘laboratory’.
Gains of the Women’s Movement Are Under Attack     
The idea that the pub attack reflected some sort of real resentment or moral outrage against a certain elite lifestyle is not looking beyond the surface. The women’s movement fought for decades for democratizing their private sphere and the public space. All along the conservatives tried to push us back to smothering spaces inside the homes and even at the workplace. The women’s movement aspires for freedom, space and decision-making power for women. But, all along we are pulled up on the issue of dress codes, behaviour, mobility and personal life choices (as to whom to choose as life partner etc). Why are women alone made to bear the burden of ‘culture’- thereby forcing them to tolerate the ‘culture’ of female foeticide, female infanticide, denial of education for women, dowry murders, and drunken husbands’ daily beatings?  This is the real question posed by the Mangalore attack – with which the women’s movement is grappling.