Of the many things that have been offered to the world by the feminist movement and scholarship has been the rallying slogan that the ‘personal is political. It underscored the connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures. There are no personal solutions to child care, unequal wages, sexual harassment, domestic abuse, lack of self-worth. They are related to the larger political and social patriarchal structure. One of the first things feminists discovered as they gathered in groups and spoke about their problems is that these were also political problems. There were no personal solutions. There was only collective action for a collective solution.

The idea that ‘the personal is political’ disrupted the personal space, and extended connections between personal experiences and the larger political and social world. Freedom from colonialism opened spaces for economic, political and social upliftment, but the starting line was not the same for men and women. The realm for women has been inherently behind closed doors- excluded from public life. Therefore, for women to participate in political movements, required the breaking of stereotypes- modifying the idea of space.

Public spaces have traditionally been gendered, making it difficult for women to participate equally. It has been important therefore for women to form associations and initiate the process of community mobilisation. Of the most important aspects of community mobilization is the building up of collectives. This practice of forming women’s associations that enabled collective bargaining has not only dented the long-standing male-dominated public sphere but has also challenged the role of conventional male leadership. This process also led to the formation of new collective and individual identities for women. Kamalaben, a resident of New Ashok Nagar in Delhi is a fine example of leading a grassroots-based women collective.

New Ashok Nagar, situated on the border of Delhi and Noida, is mostly inhabited by migrant residents. The area is densely populated marked by a lack of resources and basic amenities. As one moves deeper into the area, the availability of water shrinks even as lanes get narrower.

It is here that Kamalaben, along with other residents of the C1 block in New Ashok Nagar moved collectively and carried out a signature campaign. They went door to door and spoke to women about how they must walk for at least a kilometre carrying 5-litre drums to get water and then carry the same on their back to their 4 storied chawls. Armed with an overwhelming response and signatures of 150 women, Kamalaben and other women from the C1 block of Ashok Nagar went to the Jal Board every day and after 2 weeks of efforts and negotiation with the authorities, were able to get a water tanker exclusively for their block.

Kamalaben has been a member of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)^[i], for the last 12 years. She was elected as the grassroots leader and representative of the women in her community to take forward their issues and concerns. SEWA has had a rich history of nurturing and honing women grassroots leadership further highlighting issues that not only affect these women as workers but also as political and social citizens of the society. Kamalaben identifies herself as an agewaan – a leader who takes up responsibilities and initiatives in the community.

For women to come together and form organizations and speak up collectively opened a new array of conversations that were unseen by men. Women are vocal and visible in critiquing public authorities and dominant ideologies. One of the most basic means of collective action for women has been through community mobilisation, and these particular collective actions take place in local neighbourhoods in urban and rural spaces alike. The larger aim, however, remains to cater to larger social and/or political structural changes. Community mobilisation highlights the struggle of local neighbourhoods amidst considerable opposition and misgivings among the privileged sections. Many within the community would not be in favour of protecting women from marginalized groups.

The lead in such small-scale community mobilisations is taken by women leaders, who generally belong to the lower middle class and are from marginal communities. These community mobilisations have broken the general gender stereotype with women leading the movements. Women-led community mobilisation has historically managed interconnectedness between personal and political and brings to the forefront the collective identity of women. This coming together of women and practising collective bargaining fastens the development processes which have been delayed by institutional processes and infrastructure.

Processes like these ensure feminist leadership are mostly democratic, participatory and help build a very strong base for women to organize and initiates the process of collective bargaining. Feminist and women-led organising not only challenge the male-dominated public and leadership but also makes a dent in the strict means of communication and prevailing gender norms on men accessing public spaces. Women as organized members of a collective start to transform the social, political and institutional relationships.

Enabling grassroots leadership also promotes the very idea of decentralised governance and along with it highlights the doubleness in the lives that women lead. With this idea of decentralised governance, power gets shifted/removed and brings it closer to home/ personal/private. The issues of the private begin to form the narrative of the community organizing, further building the discourse of the public. The hard made lines for women of public and private/ personal and political therefore are blurred. This multiplicity of experiences makes women occupy more space in discourses, in the public and the private.

Patriarchal values still find a very strong hold in these local communities. When these patriarchal values are intertwined with systemic and institutional violence and oppression, it further becomes more difficult for women to navigate and make their place through these institutions. Women leaders are not absolved of patriarchy and these patriarchal relations, neither do they through these agential roles try to reject the state in any manner. The exposure that these women have had over the years of the patriarchal norms and regulations play a very big role in the way community relations and organising takes shape.

In handling and managing the affairs of the neighbourhood on an everyday basis, these women have become competent in addressing and resolving issues at the local level. The fluency that they have achieved in using the language of settling issues at the community level ready these women with the skills required to act as agents of larger social change. As experiences of women say, it is easier for women to access local politics as local activists and use the power of collective bargaining with the local government officials.

Over the years, India has seen an increasing presence of community and member-based organisations, like SEWA, which promote women to speak and assert their agency. They learn to interact with others who are outside the family (the personal space considered widely as the only and rightful place for women). Working for larger public issues for the community creates the conditions within which women learn their organizational and leadership roles. They learn to be active members of the public sphere. 

These local grassroots leaders change the power dynamic in their personal and the larger public spheres. The presence of these grassroots leaders from members and community-based organisations led to a new wave of decentralised governance. The leaders who are popularly elected by the community members go further and demand accountability from local representatives who assume office. In evidence is a complex and complicated relationship between local women leaders and the local government. And with these women taking charge and using their agency to further collectivise and mobilise women, the power is taken a step closer to the private sphere. Women’s collective action also forge the solidarity and sisterhood of spoken and unspoken words – for the personal/private and political/public.

Bibliography:

1. Loomba, Ania, Revolutionary Desires: Women, Communism and Feminism in India, 2018, London: Routledge.
2. Kumar, Radha, History of Doing, 1993, Zubaan, New Delhi.
3. Menon, Nivedita, Seeing Like a Feminist, 2012, Penguin Random House, New Delhi. 

^[i] Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a central trade union organisation that was founded in the Ahemdabad, Gujarat in 1972. The union organises women workers in the informal economy. The union has approximately 1.9 million women workers spread across 18 states. 

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Aditi Yajnik is a part of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Bharat and is engaged with organising and mobilising women in the informal sector. She has completed her MA in Gender Studies from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi.