Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Women’s Development under Patriarchy 369
One outcome of this phase of the women’s movement was that the
Government of India could no longer remain aloof to the problems of
women and had to respond decisively. The Committee on the Status
of Women in India (CSWI) set up in 1974 highlighted the decline in the
sex ratio, the increasing gender gaps in life expectancy, mortality and
economic parameters. The CSWI report also showed the relation between
the growing social and economic disparities in society at large, and the
declining status of women. The Sixth Five Year Plan (1980–85) included
for the first time a chapter on Women and Development; the idea gained
ground that many government schemes and projects were adversely
affected due to the lack of involvement of women, particularly in the
fields of health, education, family welfare, social forestry, animal husbandry
and rural sanitation. The reorientation of the government took
place in the context of the United Nations’ International Decade of Women
(1975–85), which was itself an outcome of the international women’s
movement, particularly in Europe and America.
From the 1980s onwards, there were many government and foreignfunded
programmes for women’s development in which NGOs and
women activists participated. Over the years, there had also been heated
debates about the pros and cons of activists joining such government or
foreign-funded programmes. But even as these debates continued, the
character of the women’s movement underwent a change, as did the NGO
sector as a whole. While the earlier activists came into the movement
voluntarily to protest against injustice, thereby venturing into uncharted
territory, the movement later became funded and supported, and relatively
more recognised as serving a useful function in society. There emerged a
wide-ranging division of labour between organisations (specialising in
field implementation, administrative support, training, research, et cetera)
and within the same organisation itself. Overall, it can be safely said that
today’s activist is a ‘professional’ in the sense that activism is her main
source of livelihood and her remuneration comes from her organisation,
which in turn is funded by the government or by foreign donors. It is
necessary to examine the implications of this change in the character of
activism for the goal of women’s emancipation. Does the end justify the
new means, or are the new means subverting the end? The experience of
the Women’s Development Programme in Rajasthan gave us an opportunity
to examine this question.