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By Laxmi Murthy On March 8, 1908, women workers in the needle trade in New York marched in the streets, demanding suffrage and an end to sweatshops and child labour. Almost 100 years on, over 100,000 workers took to the streets of New Delhi this February, to register their protest against the government's anti-worker policies and the severe impact of liberalisation on women workers
 "One seething, trembling sea of women," was how Russian feminist revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai described the historic women's rallies of March 19, 1911, in Germany, Austria and Denmark. Marches, strikes and pickets marked the celebration of an annual symbol of women's struggle for their rights. In addition to the right to vote and hold public office, the women demanded the right to work, equal wages and an end to discrimination at the workplace.
The idea of an International Women's Day has multiple roots in events that took place in different parts of the world. On March 8, 1857, garment workers in New York City marched and picketed, demanding better working conditions, a 10-hour day and equal rights for women. Half a century later, on March 8, 1908, women workers in the needle trade in New York marched again, demanding suffrage and an end to sweatshops and child labour. Almost a hundred years on, while women workers have gained the right to vote in India, as in most parts of the world, little else has changed. Over 100,000 workers took to the streets of New Delhi on February 26, 2003, to register their protest against the government's anti-worker policies. The major central trade unions, as well as independent unions and federations in the country were highlighting what they describe as "the surrender of the country's economic sovereignty" to multinational corporations and international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The process of liberalising the economy that has gone on for over a decade has had a severe impact on women workers. The shift to capital-intensive technologies, without adequate training facilities for women workers, has resulted in a large proportion of workers being made redundant. Similarly, the outsourcing of regular government jobs and the resultant casualisation of labour have had a direct impact on women -- be they maintenance staff (safai karamcharis) in various government departments or primary school teachers. The trend towards creating an environment where labour can be hired on terms that are flexible, time-bound and easily dispensable is seen most sharply in the informal sector. The report of the Second National Labour Commission, released last year, admits that there has been a considerable increase in the unprotected informal sector -- a sector where women form a substantial section of the workforce. In fact, in 2002, the percentage of women in the informal sector increased from 92% to 96%. For the majority of women, the separation between 'home' and the 'workplace' is blurred. The ILO Home Work Convention (No 177) is particularly relevant to safeguard the interests of home-based workers (most of whom are women). Legislation and a national policy in accordance with this convention are needs that have been articulated by trade unions. Rather than increase women employees' entitlements over the years, many of the hard-won gains of the labour and women's movements are increasingly being jeopardised. Despite protests by trade unions, and in contravention of ILO Convention No 126 and national labour laws prohibiting night-shifts for women, the government, through a notification, announced its intention to legitimise the night-shift for women. In the name of 'choice' for women to work on the night-shift, the government is promoting the interests of global capital in exploitative Export Promotion Zones (EPZs), in order to fulfil production targets as well as create a workforce that functions according to the time zone in the West. While some trade unions are not against night-shift for women per se, they state that it must be accompanied by security, transport and communication facilities. EPZs, which employ a sizeable percentage of the female labour force, are currently exempt from the applicability of labour laws and are infamous for the lack of occupational health and safety, minimum wages and the right to unionise. India, which prides itself on being the 'largest democracy' in the world, has still to ratify the ILO conventions on Freedom of Association, 1948 (No 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, 1949 (No 98). The move to bring about amendments in labour laws such as the Industrial Disputes Act, where the proposed changes will allow, without permission, the closure of establishments employing 300 workers or less, is pitted against the workers. Needless to add, women workers, who form a large percentage of those employed in smaller establishments, will be adversely affected. A woman's identity as 'reproducer' is deified in the social and cultural arena, but this role does not find adequate support in the sphere where she is a 'producer'. Rather than universalise maternity benefits, the Second National Labour Commission proposes to limit these rights. When employers continue to view maternity leave and maternity benefits as a 'burden', crèches, child-care facilities and breaks for breast-feeding are a far cry. Even more remote is the concept of 'paternity leave' -- now taken for granted in many industrialised countries. India has still to ratify the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention (No 156) of 1981. The lack of recognition and mechanisms to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace is symptomatic of the ambivalence at the policy level towards working women. While socially, there has been a slow but grudging realisation of this crime, which can make a working woman's life miserable, structural changes that could deal with sexual harassment in the workplace are still to be put in place. Despite the Supreme Court's guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace, in the Vishakha case in 1997, a majority of institutions -- both government and private -- have yet to set up complaints committees and other redressal mechanisms. Ironically, the Supreme Court of India itself does not have a complaints committee! In such a situation, the condition of women in the unorganised sector is even more tenuous. Exploitation by contractors, supervisors and policemen is a routine experience for women construction workers, hawkers and vendors. Growing unemployment, underemployment and pauperisation, particularly in rural areas, has a direct impact on women. `Dowry as Crime, Crime as Dowry -- The Expanding Dimensions of Dowry', a survey conducted on more than 10,000 interviewees by the All India Democratic Women's Association in 2002, highlighted some of these startling correlations. The Orissa survey, conducted in the five coastal districts, revealed that most agricultural workers are in debt because of wedding and dowry expenditure. In one area of displaced workers, the marriage of five girls in the village was fixed in 1992, on the condition that they were going to be given jobs by the mining company. But they have not yet got the jobs so the boys have refused to marry them. Meanwhile, since they are that much older it is not possible for them to get married at all. The survey in the Burdwan district of West Bengal, which concentrated on areas where there have been industrial closures, brought out the shocking reality of how working class families, affected by closures and retrenchment, are doubly hit because of the practice of dowry. In the course of the survey, the interviewers found families where the VRS money received was spent on the marriages and dowries of daughters. The inter-linkages between violence against women and economic policies cannot be over-emphasised. Undoubtedly, social and cultural factors contribute to the anti-women biases apparent in all spheres, but unless material conditions change, there cannot be a fundamental social transformation. In India, public expenditure by the government on social security measures is barely 1.8% of the GDP. Furthermore, as much as 92% of the population is outside this coverage, since they are in the unorganised sector. In such a scenario, is it any wonder that son-preference translates into sex-selection followed by the abortion of female foetuses? Despite more than a hundred years of struggle, women workers, particularly in India, have been unable to effectively articulate their specific concerns. The invisibility of women workers is apparent from the fact that it was only in 2002 that the Second National Labour Commission recommended the use of the term 'worker' instead of 'workman', as presently used in various labour laws. And, while workers demand their rights, women workers continue to demand visibility and a voice -- the key to transforming vulnerability into strength. (Laxmi Murthy is a freelance journalist specialising in gender and development. She has been active in the women's movement for the past 18 years) InfoChange News & Features, March 2003
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