The National Federation of Indian Women is a women's organisation in India, the women's wing of the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

. It was established in 1954 June 4 by several leaders from Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti including

Aruna Asaf Ali Aruna Asaf Ali (''née'' Ganguly; 16 July 1909 – 29 July 1996) was an Indian educator, political activist, and publisher. An active participant in the Indian independence movement, she is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National fl ...

.Overstreet, Gene D., and Marshall Windmiller.
Communism in India
'. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959. p. 402

Annie Raja Annie Raja is an Indian politician and leader of Communist Party of India . She is the General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). She is also a member of the National Executive of Communist Party of India. She is married ...

is the current General Secretary and

Aruna Roy Aruna Roy (née Jayaram, born 6 June 1946) is an Indian social activist, professor, union organiser and former civil servant. She is the president of the National Federation of Indian Women and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. E ...

is the current president of NFIW.

History

The first Congress of the NFIW (Calcutta, June 4, 1954) was held against the backdrop of the Cold War and military pacts, lending a certain poignancy to its declaration of “unshakeable opposition to large scale armaments, weapons of mass destruction such as hydrogen bomb, atom bomb and bacteriological weapons.” Inspired by a vision of women across the globe uniting against imperialism, poverty and disease, leading figures such as Vidya Munshi, Ela Reid, Hajrah Begum, Anna Mascarene, Renu Chakravartty, Tara Reddy, Shanta Deb and Anasuya Gyanchand participated in meetings of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), World Conference of Mothers (Lausanne, 1955), Afro-Asian Women's Conference (Cairo, 1961), the anniversary of the victory of Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh city, 1977), and so on. From Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh, in 1957, NFIW President Pushpamayee Bose issued a rousing appeal: “We, the women of the Federation declare that we do not want war, neither here nor anywhere in the world… We demand from the Big Powers not only stoppage of all nuclear tests but cessation of all wars for the world good - we ask them not to waste their men, money and brains on war preparation but use it for the well-being of their countries”. Many women's organisations joined NFIW, united by the common goal of securing women's rights. At the founding conference in 1954, 39 organisations had already joined in, yielding a membership of nearly 1.3 lakh women from peasants, workers, tribals, dalits and refugees to professionals, artists and intellectuals. Constituent organisations included Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti (MARS, West Bengal), Punjab Lok Istri Sabha, Nari Mangal Samiti (Orissa), and Manipur Mahila Samiti.

Presidents

#Pushpamoyee Bose (1954-1957) #Anusuya Gyanchand (1957-1962) #Kapila Khandvala (1962-1967) #

(1967-1986) #Dr. Nirupama Rath (1986-1994) # Deena Pathak (1994-2002) #Dr. K. Saradamoni (2002-2008) #

(2008 - till date)

General Secretaries

#Anusuya Gyan Chand (1954-1957) # Hajrah Begum (1954-1962) # Renu Chakravartty (1962-1970) #Vimla Farooqui (1970-1991) #Tara Reddy (1991-1994) #G. Sarla Devi (1994-1999) #

Amarjeet Kaur Amarjeet Kaur (Born on 2 April 1952) is an Indian politician and National Secretariat member of the Communist party of India. She is General Secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress. She is the first woman in Independent India to be at th ...

(1999-2002) #Sehba Farooqui (2002-2005) #

(2005 - till date)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Federation Of Indian Women 1954 establishments in India Women's wings of political parties in India Organizations established in 1954 Women's wings of communist parties Communist Party of India mass organisations Women's rights organizations

History

Presidents

General Secretaries

See also

References