Changing the Terms of the Discourse

Indian Women in the Eighties: The Development Imperatives

All India Women’s Conference, New Delhi, 1980

Introduction

The first half of the International Women’s Decade represented for Indian women a period of research, review, rethinking, and re-affirmation of the principle of equality-developed during the freedom struggle and the concurrent women’s movement of that period. Contrary to general expectations research revealed that the condition of women, particularly of the masses of poor and rural women has been declining over the last few decades, as indicated by trends in the sex ratio, economic participation, migration, and health and educational status. The rising wave of crimes and violence against women provoked an outburst of women’s anger ...