Pre-Independence Movements 

Women’s Participation during Freedom Struggle 

• Gandhi believed that women played a crucial role in the political, economic and social liberation of India. 
• He had great faith in women's ability to lead a non-violent movement, and they played important roles in India's freedom struggle under his guidance. 
• Women organized public meetings, picketed shops selling foreign goods, sold Khadi, and actively participated in national movements. 
• Women criticized their exclusion from the salt satyagraha led by Gandhi, leading him to reconsider his stance on women's participation in 1930. 
• Several women's organizations such as Desh Sevika Sangh, Nari Satyagraha Samiti, Mahila Rashtriya Sangh, Ladies Picketing Board, Stri Swarajya Sangh and Swayam Sevika Sangh emerged during this time to organize mass boycotts of foreign cloth and liquor. 
• Despite their acceptance of individual freedom ideas, women's participation in protests was not always non-violent, and they faced resistance from society and their own families. 
• Gandhi saw women playing a critical role in eliminating the forces of communalism, the caste system, and untouchability. 

Post-Independence Movements 

• A range of initiatives have been implemented post-Independence to advance women's emancipation in society. 
• These efforts mainly center around constitutional provisions, social legislation, and planned economic development. 
• The women's movement has been shaped by the socio-economic and political developments of this period. 
• In the Himalayan region, the Chipko movement arose spontaneously as women mobilized to prevent the cutting down of forests. 
• Women continue to lead ecological protests today due to their involvement in the Chipko movement. 
• Early campaigns against gender-based violence and oppression, such as the 2003 Blank Noise Project and 2009 Pink Chaddi movement, set the stage for future feminist movements. 
• Later movements, like the 2011 Why Loiter project, 2015 Pinjra Tod movement, and 2017 Bekhauf Azadi March, resonated with a larger number of women and turned into true feminist movements. 
• Two important organizations for rural women, Kasturba Memorial Trust and Bharatiya Grameen Mahila Sangh, were established in the post-Independence period to develop leadership potential in rural women. 
• The Department of Women and Child Development was established in 1985 under the Ministry of Human Resource Development to assist women and child development to reach their full potential.