Saying "land to the tiller" is gender-insensitive. "Land to those who work on it" is not.
Review of AIDWA Booklets
At a time when academics, non-governmental agencies and international donors are preaching the virtues of small-scale mobilising efforts, local reforms and individualised initiatives, the sheer scope of the All India Democratic Women's Association's working and vision appear as daring as they are urgent. With well over five million members, AIDWA is the largest women's organisation in India, and its campaigns include struggles against dowry deaths, child sexual abuse, media objectification of women, and domestic violence. It has also sustained a campaign for enhancing women's participation in politics, for securing their economic independence and for joint-ownership by wife and husband of redistributed surplus agricultural land.
The organisation's campaigns, analyses and demands have finally been summarised in seven booklets. These publications reflect both the vibrancy of the Indian women's movement and the concerns of an influential segment within it. Moreover, since AIDWA's work has so often been either denigrated or ignored by mainstream scholarly studies, these seven booklets enable activists and scholars to independently and critically evaluate the aims and methods of the organisation, and measure the importance of the left women's movement in India.