A founder leader of the National Federation of Indian Women and a pioneering legislator, Geeta Mukherjee is revered today for her immense contribution to the women’s movement through her work, both outside and inside the Parliament, writes Dr Supriya Chottani
Born Geeta Roy Chaudhuri, in 1924 in Jessore, now in Bangladesh, Geeta grew to become a pioneer communist leader and one of the most important women parliamentarians in the history of India. Inspired by her elder brother, Shankar Roy Choudhuri, who was a student leader and a member of the Communist Party, she got involved in politics at the early age of 16. She joined the Communist Party in 1942 and in the same year, married Biswanath Mukherjee, a charismatic leader of the Students’ Federation in Bengal.
Geeta pursued her Bachelor of Arts degree in Ashutosh College in Kolkata and became a student activist there, first a member of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), and then a leader of the Chhatri Sangh, the women’s wing of the AISF. The Chhatri Sangh brought together progressive and left-wing women students from different institutions and parties. It spread to Bombay, Delhi, Patna and Punjab, but had the largest membership in Bengal.
When the first All India Women’s Students’ Congress took place in Lucknow in 1940, which was inaugurated by Sarojini Naidu, Geeta Roy Chaudhuri was one of the key organisers, along with other women student leaders. These activists played a prominent role in the formation of mahila samitis, or women’s mass organisations in the 1940s, which worked to secure women’s rights in conjunction with the ongoing struggle against imperialism. Many of these samitis coalesced to form the National Federation of Indian Women after independence.
As a student activist, Geeta emerged as a leader of the women students in support of the historic postal workers strike in Kolkata in 1945. She inspired the students through her speeches and led them in picketing the offices of the All India Radio. In the following years, she devoted herself to organising the Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti (MARS) in Bengal.
When the NFIW was formed in 1954, she was elected to its Executive. In the subsequent years, Geeta shifted her base to Midnapur, where she worked to organise women peasants. She was elected as the Vice-President of NFIW and remained so till the end.
In 1967, she won the Assembly elections from Panshkura in Midnapur and was re-elected in 1969 and 1972. In 1980 she was elected to parliament from Panshkura and remained so till her death in March 2000.
During her long tenure in the parliament, she made eloquent and passionate speeches during debates on issues of dowry, marriage and divorce, in relation to the proposed amendments to the Hindu Code Bill. She also pushed for necessary amendments in the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1983 within the Rajya Sabha. The Law spelled out punishment of rape, including custodial rape. She demanded that the definition of ‘custodial rape’ should include not only rape inside police stations, prisons or women’s homes and hostels, but also rape of wives of striking industrial workers, but this was not accepted. In 1980, a Joint Parliamentary Committee was set up to examine and review the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961. As a member of the Committee, Geeta Mukherjee, debated extensively on the Bill and advocated for a number of amendments. In the 1980s, she also introduced many bills on employment, such as on provision of minimum wages, unemployment guarantee schemes, reservation of women in posts or appointments in services under the Central Government, and regulation of employment of child labour, many of which did not come up for discussion.
Geeta Mukherjee, over the years, came to believe that political empowerment of women was crucial for their overall social and economic well-being. Without their rights being recognized as fundamental rights, women would stay trapped in the quagmire of patriarchal norms and violence. She saw the ostracization of women, either as witches, or as rape survivors or widows, or any other identity given to them, as being a weapon used to suppress them. Unless the women understood and claimed their position as stakeholders in policy-making or law-making, they would be at the mercy of a male-dominated society and administrative systems that would not hesitate to discriminate against them.
Geeta is remembered most for her contribution to the political empowerment of women through the Bill for 33% reservation for women in the parliament and state assemblies. The Bill was introduced in 1996 following the recommendations of a Select Committee, with Geeta Mukherjee as its chairperson. As chairperson of the Committee, she campaigned extensively for the passage of the bill, across the country. Her efforts bore results when the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. However, its final passage was delayed in the Lok Sabha and has now come in the shape of a Nari Vandan Adhiniyam with clauses that defeat the purpose and aim of the original Bill.
Alongside her parliamentary duties, Geeta continued to work as a women’s activist in the field. During the violence unleashed by the Khalistani movement in the 1980s, she, along with other women leaders, was part of an NFIW delegation that toured the state, addressing meetings and rallies of women and men, and meeting families of those killed and injured in the aftermath. When widespread riots occurred in the build up to and after the fall of the Babri Masjid, Geeta Mukherjee gave passionate speeches for communal harmony, reminding the people of the horrors of the 1946 Calcutta riots and partition during her student days. She called for women to stand together against all communal propaganda and stood steadfast for a united women’s movement.
As a political activist, Geeta Mukherjee goes down in the annals of Indian history, as being a fierce defender of the human rights of the marginalized. She opposed and campaigned against extra-constitutional laws such as TADA and POTA. Outside the parliament, she went door to door, to campaign against bad customs, and sought public support to frame laws that would declare social evils like dowry to be illegal and punishable by law. Her contribution to women’s empowerment lies in her work to make them aware of their political, social and economic rights. To date, NFIW follows her legacy of defining women’s rights as human rights.
Geeta Mukherjee 1924 – 2000
Dr Supriya Chottani is National Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW)
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This article was first published in Liberation Journal. Read the journal here
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Illustration: Tate Paviour
