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p As in other developing countries, the women’s movement in Asia is developing under the impact of the world revolutionary process and the 255 viclories scored by the world socialist system. Also. the fact that those countries in Asia which had chosen a non-capitalist road of development have succeeded in putting through far-reaching socioeconomic changes, has had a great effect on the women’s movement.

p The women’s movement in Asia is not uniform. Asian countries have reached different levels of socio-economic and political development, they have different national traditions, and a different history. But what is typical for many of them is their economically subordinate position in the system of international capitalist division of labour, the exploitation to which they are subjected by the foreign monopolies, and their resultant economic and cultural backwardness, varying in extent. They have one common enemy—imperialism. And herefrom stems the closeness of the different currents of the national liberation movement. In countries where power is in the hands of democratic forces and where a considerable part of the national bourgeoisie maintain an anti-imperialist stand, the democratic public organisations, women’s societies among them, work in close contact with the ruling political parties, progressive organisations and all patriotic forces.

p In countries like India, Sri Lanka, Syria, Iraq and others, women’s organisations consider it their primary task to study the conditions for female labour in industry, the level of the working women’s general education and professional training, and the efficiency with which the programme of eliminating illiteracy among the adult population is being carried into effect.

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p A largo part of the women’s democratic organisations in Asia work incessantly for greater unity of action on a national and international scale, and stand for contacts with the Women’s International Democratic Federation, with women’s organisations in socialist countries and progressive women’s organisations in capitalist countries.

p Experience has shown that many of women’s organisations in Asia are beginning to play a more and more important role in the political and economic life of society, and together with other democratic organisations are fighting against imperialism and reactionaries at home, and bending their efforts to further the development of democracy and social progress. The activity of the women’s organisations in India is an example to the point. They have greatly contributed to the national liberation struggle of their people, and for close on fifty years now have been active in the political life of the country.

p In 1930, in response to the appeal addressed to them by the leader of the national liberation movement Maliatma Gandhi, India’s women took part in the famous March to Dandi. The campaign was stirr.-d up by the unfairness of the law established by the British colonial authorities forbidding Indian people to engage in the evaporation of salt fi om sea water. The campaign was headed by Sarojini Naidu, a veteran of the women’s movement in India.

p The consistency of the struggle waged by the women of India in those years can also be seen from their campaign for the preservation of national cultural traditions, national dress among them. In shops women saw to it that people 257 should buy fabrics and clothes of Indian make only. Thousands of women got down to weaving in an effort to provide the country with sufficient cloth made in India from Indian cotton. The aim of this movement was to revive the national textile industry, weaving and other crafts.

p Close on 20,000 women were subjected to arrest and imprisonment for participation in the March to Dandi and other mass actions of the people against British domination.

p The struggle of India’s working women is led by the National Federation of Indian Women, the largest democratic women’s organisation in the country, founded in 1952. The Federation unites about 200,000 women—industrial workers, peasants, representatives of the intelligentsia and the middle class.

p Upholding the need to strengthen its unity and cooperation with other democratic organisations, the Federation comes out for fundamental socio-economic transformations: for the development of the public sector of the economy, a radical agrarian reform, and a further democratisation of the state system. The Federation holds annual congresses, organises massive demonstrations of working women and meetings of protest, demanding higher wages, women’s fuller employment in industry, and an extensive programme of social insurance that would fully meet the interests of the working people.

p One of the basic clauses in the Federation’s programme is defence of the working women’s rights. The Federation puts forward the following concrete demands: no women to be dismissed from the factories and mines; more women to be employed in those branches of 258 industry where female labour can be used; ILO’s Convention No. 100 to be strictly observed; the Maternity Benefit Act to apply to all categories of working women, including those working on hire (in towns and villages); creches and day nurseries to be opened at enterprises for the children of their female employees, and the existing child welfare establishments to be improved; stable minimum rates to be set for women working in various branches of industry; a deiinite percentage of vacancies to be reserved for women in the textile, jute and food industries, on plantations, etc.; the National Awards Schemes for Labour (if paid at the given enterprise) to include women employees; prices on essentials to be reduced; food stores with fixed prices to be opened; a network of hostels to be set up, also a We men’s Advisory Council under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and so on.

p Cooperation with the All-India Trade Union Congress is helping to strengthen the positions of the democratic women’s movement in the general national struggle. Until recently the percentage of female members of the trade union was extremely low, and now it has gone up considerably.

p Good results have already been received from the cooperation with trade unions in their struggle for working women’s rights. For instance, the trade unions of agricultural workers in the State of Kerala have secured for the plantation workers a rise from 3 to 3.50 rupees for a day’s pay. Organisations of working women and the women’s sections of some trade unions of plantation workers in the state of Kerala and the city of Madras cooperate with the Federation in matters dealing 259 with the defence of the plantation women workers’ rights.

p India’s working women take an active part in the struggle of the working class for their rights, and against the policy of wage freeze, soaring prices, and jobbery in foodstuffs. In 1967, when difficulties arose in supply and prices on foods and essentials went up, the Federation addressed an appeal to all its local branches, to other women’s organisations, and to all the women of India to start a collection of money in aid of the starving districts. With the money collected, mobile soup kitchens and stations were organised in Bihar, Orissa and the other states where the food shortage was the acutest. The Federation called on the various public organisations in India to do everything in their power to relieve the consequences of the food crisis. From the government the Federation demanded that it should find the means to solve the food problem, and introduce strict planning of production and consumption of foodstuffs. In July 1967, in confirmation of their demands, and on the initiative of the Federation, the representatives of 22 women’s organisations and trade union sections of the jute and textile industries came out for a hunger march in the State of West Bengal. A similar march took place in this same stale later, in June 1968.

p The summer of 1967 was especially memorable to the working people of India. Miners, dockers, metal workers, employees of banks and government agencies went on strike, demanding higher wages, measures to be taken to stop jobbery in foodstuffs, state-owned foodshops with fixed prices to be opened, and so on. India’s working women took a most active part in these strikes.

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p In response lo these actions the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra states, pursuing a wage freeze policy, started a wholesale dismissal of women government employees. In October 1967, the Sixth Congress of the Federation (held in Lucknow) adopted a special resolution to mark November 25 as the Day of India’s Working Women’s Solidarity with the women of those states where these dismissals had taken place. That day massive demonstrations of protest against women’s discrimination were held throughout the country.

p In the last few years the Federation has turned its attention to the conditions of the peasant women, housewives and young girls, which has brought it many new members.

p Functionaries of the Federation hold regular talks with the women, explaining to them that the passing of laws called upon to lighten the lot of the woman in the family and establish her in society does not mean that the old barbarous customs and the lingering traditions of the past have gone into oblivion. Everyone knows that the law forbidding salt (the custom of widows to burn themselves) has been passed long ago. And yet scores of years went by before people ceased to regard the act as proof of the woman’s innocence and faithfulness to her deceased husband.

p In 1955 and 1966, laws on Hindu marriage and inheritance were passed. To some extent they made it possible to ease the lot of the woman in the family, giving her more or less equal rights with men in society. But the adoption of these laws which infringed upon the traditional rules and customs of the Hindu family met with the resistance of certain sections of society 261 and even some categories of its female members.

p The keynote of the Seventh Congress of the Federation in December 1970 was "Women in the struggle for peace and social progress”. The programme of the Federation at this new stage was set out in the reports and resolutions of the Congress. It included concrete undertakings on the promulgation of laws ensuring women equal rights with men, actions against the system of exploitation and oppression, and measures for closer cooperation with the forces of peace and progress on both the national and international scale.

p The parliamentary elections held in March 1971 testified to the growing political activity of women. The majority of those who voted for Indira Gandhi, a candidate nominated by the progressive forces, were women, united into the National Federation of Indian Women.

p At the end of December 1973, the Federation held its Eighth Congress in Calcutta. It was attended by 1,073 delegates (women workers, peasant women and housewives) from 21 Indian states, and guests from 22 countries of the world, among them the USSR and other socialist countries.

p In its resolutions the Congress emphasised that the women of India could not stand aloof from the country’s political life, that the struggle for women’s rights, for better labour conditions, for cardinal reforms in the sphere of education and vocational training, and for mother-andchild protection, was at the same time a struggle against the policy of neocolonialism, for strengthening the national economy and the country’s 262 further development along the road of progress and democracy. The delegates unanimously adopted the resolution on peace and collective security in Asia.

p In 1974, the Federation celebrated its 20th anniversary, and proceeded to carry through a number of actions dedicated to the International Women’s Year, under the slogans of active defence of women’s rights and consolidation of the international democratic women’s movement.

p An example of high awareness and activity is set by the women of Bangladesh. There are several women’s organisations in this country, and they have succeeded in drawing women in constructive work.

p The women’s department of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Women’s Front of Sri Lanka, and other organisations in Sri Lanka are carrying on an active work among women.

p The Women’s Front of Sri Lanka founded in 1966, is one of the largest organisations here, maintaining 250 branches in the towns and villages, and numbering over 5,000 members. The purposeful work done by the Front embraces women workers, peasant women and women intellectuals. The political situation in the country is explained, and the women are called to action against the forces of reaction, for the consolidation of a genuine national independence. As a result, at the parliamentary elections of May 1970, a considerable part of the women electorate, demonstrating their political maturity and understanding of the situation, voted for the candidates of the United Left Front comprising the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Freedom Socialist Party and the Communist Party of Sri 263 Lanka, who received 115 of the 151 seats in the Lower House. There were 5 women among the 115 deputies.

p The Women’s Front of Sri Lanka gives every assistance to the United Front in carrying through its programme which provides for the limitation of foreign investment and the consolidation of the national economy, and for fundamental social reforms in the interests of the broad masses of people. The Women’s Front of Sri Lanka which does its share in carrying through the progressive reforms aimed at reducing unemployment, and promulgating a new labour legislation guaranteeing the rights of working men and women, attaches great importance to establishing closer cooperation with the trade unions.

p Cultivating the spirit of internationalism in Sri Lanka women is another of the Front’s concerns. Campaigns of solidarity with the women of Vietnam, and in support of the Arab and African peoples fighting for their political and economic independence, are arranged on a broad scale.

The struggle of the women’s organisations in Asian countries against neocolonialism and for the consolidation of the national economy and the establishment of progressive regimes that would meet the interests of the people, is at the same time a struggle for their rights, for better labour conditions, for fundamental change in the field of education and vocational training, and the solution of problems connected with mother-and-child protection.