Brinda Karat

“What are we having this liberty for. We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.” We remember these wise words of Babasaheb Ambedkar when we celebrate Women’s Day this year.

On March 8 this year, hundreds of millions of women across the world will celebrate the day not having been able to do so for the last two years because of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. While all working people suffered huge losses and the super-rich benefitted, as pointed out by numerous reports, it is women workers and those belonging to the poorer sections who have suffered the worst consequences of the pandemic as reflected in the increased economic and social burdens they have had to bear.

A rapid gender assessment survey collated by the UN for 2020-2021 reveals the uneven impact of the pandemic on livelihoods by sex and age. Although job losses affected nearly a quarter of women and men, 29% of working-aged mothers living with children lost their jobs, compared to 20% of working-aged men living with children. Young women living with children were also hard-hit, with 56% seeing reduced paid work hours versus 44% of young men living with children. When it comes to care and domestic work, partnered women with children in the household were most likely to report increased domestic work (67% women versus 63% men) and childcare (70% women versus 65% men), and were more likely to report that the intensity of their work had increased (defined as time spent on three or more activities). It is this background in which women on March 8 will raise their clenched fists, pledging to bring in a world of equity, equality and social justice.

Along with the observance of May Day as Workers Rights Day, March 8 is possibly one of the most widely-observed days internationally. Because of this popularity, it is perhaps inevitable that it provides an occasion for various entities to sell their wares-from companies promoting household items to “lighten women’s work” to cosmetic products to “make you beautiful”. Then, of course, there are those official functions by various governments across the world to co-opt Women’s Day as an occasion to showcase self-proclaimed “pro-women policies” which often paper over the real deteriorating status of women under their regimes. Over the years, women’s movements across the world have striven to prevent such dilutions of the message of Women’s Day rooted in its revolutionary history. It is worth recalling that history.

On August 27, 1910, at the International Socialist Women’s Conference, revolutionary leaders Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai and others moved a resolution to observe an “International Women’s Day” . The thrust of the resolution was for political and democratic rights of women for universal suffrage at a time when the right to vote was limited to men of the propertied classes in most countries. In contrast to the struggle of the suffragettes, which focussed on the political right to vote, the resolution at the Socialist Women’s Conference linked the struggle for equal political rights with the struggle for economic justice, focusing on the horrendous plight of working women. The slogan at this historic conference was “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for Socialism.” Millions of working women in various countries in Europe and the United States, responding to the call, observed Women’s Day through street demonstrations and protests, expressing solidarity with each other and on their demands for justice including an 8-hour working day and maternity insurance. On the eve of the first World War, the observance of Women’s Day was also linked to the slogan of peace against war. But there was no one specific date on which Women’s Day was observed until after the Russian revolution. It was on March 8 that the working women of St. Petersburg, on the slogan of peace and bread, poured out in their thousands from their factories and fields, a women’s demonstration which signalled the revolutionary upsurge which led to the overthrow of the Tsarist regime. Following the Russian revolution, the Soviet Union in 1922 declared March 8 as a public holiday to mark Women’s Day. Subsequently, women in several countries starting observing Women’s Day on March 8.

In India, the first observance of the day was in 1931 in Lahore where a resolution was adopted linking the demand for women’s equality with the demand for freedom of nations, women’s liberation placed hand-in-hand with national liberation, firmly setting the framework for subsequent movements of Indian women in a wider analysis of socio-economic factors. The observance of the day moved swiftly from country to country, embracing an ever-widening section of women from those fighting colonial and imperialist rule, to those fighting for socialism, to the later feminist movements that swept the US and Europe in the 60s and 70s. Finally, the UN in 1975, officially declared March 8 “International Women’s Day”.

Thus March 8 is linked to the struggle and sacrifice of women against exploitative regimes, against inequality between nations, between classes and between men and women. It has been as much a fight against capitalism and its exploitation of cheap female labour as it has been against patriarchy. The two are interlinked. The issues raised by women’s movements on March 8 have expanded as women became more conscious and assertive of their worth as independent, autonomous citizens. Issues of sexual and domestic violence against women, the fight against the objectification of women’s bodies as sex objects, the rights of sexual minorities, the fight for equality within the domestic sphere are some examples. There are countless heroines in this struggle, unnamed, unrecognised but nevertheless the driving force behind social change. It is foolish and frivolous to reduce this historic movement built by generations of women as a fight between the sexes. It is nothing of the sort. Women’s assertions of independence face a backlash in the name of tradition, custom and family.

Here in India we are seeing the reality of this backlash in the increasing acts of sexual violence against girls and women and the defence of the accused in an increasing number of cases by those in power. We see and hear sexist comments blaming the victims of rape for the crime committed against them; we see the imposition of dress codes, of a violent response to self-choice marriages of young adults across castes and communities termed as ‘honour killings’ or ‘love jihad’; the horrific caste crimes against Dalit women; the violent processes of displacement that Adivasi women face; we face ideologies that promote the ideal woman as one who will accept and glorify her subordinate status within the family as a tradition to be preserved; we see the obscene growth of economic inequality with the greatest burden being born by women; with the introduction of the anti-worker labour codes, the slogan of the early observance of March 8 for equal wages and an 8-hour working day seem as relevant today as they were over a century ago. We have won the right to vote, but we are still denied an equal role in decision-making bodies as witnessed in the virtual burial of the Women’s Reservation Bill by those in power.

The countervailing force of women’s struggles, of women’s advance and the breaking of barriers in many fields in India is a reflection of women’s resilience, strength and courage. The path was made easier by those who went before. The history of March 8 is embedded in this struggle. As Bhavna, the young woman actor who was abducted and raped recently said of her journey, “I have moved from being a victim to a survivor” and on this March 8, women take that forward – from a victim to a survivor to a fighter – this is our history that we celebrate on March 8.