Question

Discuss briefly the efforts made by various Women’s Movements in India, to root out the social evils of:

1. Dowry.
2. Domestic violence in the 1970s and 1980’s.

Briefly discuss the efforts made by various Women’s Movements in India to root out the social evils of dowry and domestic violence.

Answer 1

1. The Progressive Organisation of Women in Hyderabad organized new and fresh protests against dowry. In the late 1970s, Delhi became the focus of the movement against dowry and the violence inflicted on women in the marital home. Groups that took up the campaign included ‘Shree Sangharsh’ and ‘Mahila Dakshita Samiti’. Later, a joint front, the ‘Dahej Virodhi Chetna Mandal’ (organization for creating consciousness against dowry), was formed under whose umbrella a large number of organizations worked. The anti-dowry campaign sought to apply social pressure on offenders to isolate them within their communities. Experience in the campaign revealed the need for counseling, legal aid, and advice to women.
   It was in response to this that legal aid and counseling centers were set up in different parts of the country. Women’s organizations also succeeded in getting the dowry law changed,
2. The battered women’s movement, as it was called, exposed the failures of the law, medicine, and society at large in responding to the 2-4 million women who were beaten in their homes annually. A massive outpouring of feminist activism and service provision for battered women in the mid-1970s quickly caught the attention of Government officials, law enforcement, social workers, and other non- explicitly feminist professionals. By the end of the decade, many groups took on the work of the battered women’s movement.

Answer 2

Efforts made by different Women's Movements to root out the evils of dowry and domestic violence:

1. Women’s organisations such as the Progressive Organisation of Women in Hyderabad, Purugami Stree Sangathan in Pune, and Stree Sangathan in Mumbai carried out campaigns against dowry and dowry deaths.
2. Due to the efforts of groups like Stree Sangharsh and Mahila Dakshita Samiti, the issue of dowry murders became widely known across India.
3. A combined platform called Dahej Virodhi Chetna Mandal was formed, under which many other organisations worked together to remove social evils against women.
4. The Mahila Dakshita Samiti organised demonstrations to raise awareness about dowry harassment and domestic violence, especially in cases where the police often treated such deaths as suicide rather than domestic violence.
5. A delegation from the Mahila Dakshita Samiti met Prime Minister Charan Singh, who assured them that steps to prevent the ill-treatment of women for dowry would be introduced in the next session of Parliament.
6. Because of pressure from various women’s movements against violence and atrocities, the government was compelled to introduce the Prevention of Domestic Violence against Women Act. This Act was passed in 2005 and came into effect in October 2006.