Since the starting of human civilization, women have always been denied equal rights in comparison to men like freedom, justice, right to education, right to vote etc. They were subjected to violences of various kinds and mostly they used to suffer that without uttering a word against it. More or less the treatment of women has been same in all countries regardless of borders. However time to time in history women stood against these inequalities, injustices and violences and fought for what was right for them. Today we will learn about ten such movements which started against the oppression of women in Indian society.
1.Movement Against Mulakaram(Breast Tax)
Mulakaram also known as Breast Tax was a type of head tax imposed to women belonging to low caste section of society for covering their breast in the Travancore Kingdom. Any women who used to wear upper garments had to give tax to the state for it. Channar Lahala or Channar Revolt started against this discriminatory practice by Nadar women who belonged to low caste. They defied the law and refused to pay taxes and started covering their breasts like the upper class women. There is also a legend of a women named Nangeli who, to protest this discriminatory practice, cut off her breasts and presented them to the tax collectors on a plaintain leaf, leading to death by blood loss.
2.Sati Pratha
Sati Pratha was an inhumane practice in which a widow woman was burnt alive along with her husband on the pyre. This was a widespread practice in the hindu society. Raja Rammohan Roy, father of Bengal's Renaissance and famous social activist, started movement against this inhumane practice. Opposition to the practice of sati Ram Mohan Roy, ultimately led the British Governor-General of India Lord William Bentinck to enact the Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829, declaring the practice of burning or burying alive of Hindu widows to be punishable by the criminal courts.
3.Widow Remarriage Movement
This movement was against the prohibition of remarriage of widow women. Women after the death of their husband were supposed to renounce the material world. They were considered impure,were prohibited to eat delicious food and were forced to live outside of the village. This movement was campaigned by social reformer and educationist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. He filed petition in the Legislative Council and faced opposition too but Lord Dalhousie finalised the bill and paved a way for the remarriage of widow girls and women.
4.Me Too Movement
The Me Too movement started in India in late 2018 when Famous Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta accused that actor Nana Patekar molested her on the sets of Movie 'Horn OK please'. Nana Patekar denied the allegations as false and misleading. This interview of Tanushree brought a revolution in India with people from all fields including films,media, politics and legal field coming out with their stories. Former External Affairs Minister (MoS) MJ Akbar had to resign from his post after journalist Priya Ramani and several other women accused him of sexual misconduct. Despite Tanushree didn't got justice this movement was successful in many ways.
5.The Stop Acid Sale Movement
The Stop Acid Sale Movement was started by Laxmi Agarwal, an acid attack survivor and campaigner for rights of acid attack victims. Laxmi Agarwal, herself an acid attack survivor, started this movement with the motive to restrict the accessibility of acids easily. She filed an PIL in supreme court demanding to restrict the sale of acid. Despite several challenges and no cooperation by the government she won the case and the Supreme Court ruled that people under the age of 18 won't be able to buy acid and people above 18 will need ID to buy acid.
6.Nirbhaya Movement
Nirbhaya Movement was the series of protests and movements throughout the country aftermath the rape and murder of a young women in New Delhi, capital of India. After her death a series of protests started taking place spreading throughout the country and developing in a movement. Large number of protestors came out and gathered at Raisina Hills in front of Rashtrapati Bhawan and Parliament of India. These protests were vital in framing new laws and reformation of existing laws. Many state governments launched helplines, action plans and change in state laws to combat rape and sexual assault cases. A committee was constituted under Justice J.S Verma, former Chief Justice Of India, which submitted it reports after noting the suggestions, views and experiences from NGOs, activists and Lawyers working in the field. The President Of India at that time Pranab Mukherjee promulgated Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013, it provides for amendment of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, on laws related to sexual offences. On 22 December 2015, Rajya Sabha passed the revised Juvenile Justice Act, which proposed that the accused of heinous crimes who are above 16 years of age will be treated as an adult in the court of law.
7.Anti Liquor Movement
Domestic abuse has been one of the tragedies of Indian women since a long time. It has been found that consumption of liquor is one of the driving force for brutality against women and children along with frustration of work, financial instability and other reasons. Women and children have faced the brunt of domestic abuse plus lack of fulfillment of basic needs due to spending of money on alcohol in poor families. All this reasons took a shape of an protest known as Anti Liquor Movement in 1991 in Andhra Pradesh. This forced the Telugu Desham Party to eventually come up with prohibition law in 1994. Similarly the AIADMK government in Tamilnadu closed 500 government licensed liquor shops under CM Jayalalitha's tenure in 2016 and again 500 shops under CM Palaniswamy's tenure in 2017.
8.Lahu Ka Lagaan
Lahu Ka Lagaan was an online protest against application of tax on sanitary pads which eventually changed into a protest on roads too. Before the GST regime sanitary pads were taxed and it was expected that after the introduction of GST it will be tax free but the government determined 12% tax rates on sanitary products which led to social media uproar. The Government of India finally made sanitary products tax free acknowledging the power and relevance of the protest and it made India one of the countries where sanitary products are tax free.
9.The Gulaabi Gang
Gulaabi Gang is a vigilante group in North India which was founded by Data Satbodhsain in UP's Banda. The primary motive of forming the group was to rescue women victims of violence and take action against the abusers in absence of police intervention. It was founded in 2006 and it is estimated that it has 2,70,000 members as of 2014. This group didn't only restricted it to work only against violence against women but also against corruption, child marriage and dowry deaths.
10. I'll Go Out
After the new year celebrations in 2017 came to an end, newspapers and news channels were filled with reports of mass molestation of women during the new year eve celebrations in famous spots in Bengaluru, Karnataka. There was rage all over the country over the issue of unsafe environment for women. This spark turned into fire after Abu Azmi, a politician from Maharashtra, blamed the girls for getting molested saying they were out late at night. This irresponsible statement wasn't well received and the so called 'appropriate timing' and 'appropriate behaviour' for women decided by the society was put in question and a movement started which aimed at smashing these conditions of appropriate timing and appropriate behaviour for women demanding the right to freely go out to places without any fear of timings. Thousands of women joined the protest in 30 cities across India and the movement was successful one.
There is still much needed to be done for the equality, safety and freedom of women. This world is still not equal for women in different aspects. These movements are an example that big changes can be brought with public movements and protests. Movements like this also help in educating and forcing the society to review the deep rooted inequal structures in the society. These movements brought several positive changes which are helping women in the present time.
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