146 SOCIAL SCIENTIST conditions as well as to resist pressures for the implementation of anti-people policies. The Pracheta union was registered in 1992 and was affiliated to the Rajasthan Karamchari Mahasangh. For the Sathins, the initiative to unionise came first from Bhilwara district. However, in January 1993, it was Ajmer district Sathins who first registered a district level union, obtaining active support from the Mahila Saxnooh, A^m^r. WUhin six months \m\ons had been formed in other districts and in July 1993 the first All Rajasthan Convention of the Sathins Union was held in Jaipur. There was strong opposition from within the WDP. The union is, at present, struggling for survival. Ill In the final analysis, it is amply clear that no form of collective strength, whether in the form of an autonomous women's group at the grass-roots, or a worker's union will be tolerated,5 by the state if the existing power equation is challenged. Using the tone and tenor of the women's movement, the state has succeeded in drawing upon the strengths of activists from the women's movement. It has succeeded in creating a progressive image for itself to gain access to the invisible woman, hidden in feudal folds of society, and bring her within the reach of the government's mechanisms. Challenging basic feudal and patriarchal structures has succeeded in bringing women out of the oppressive family structure, a necessary pre-requisite for the acceptance of population control measures. This has led to widening of the role of the woman, without however really changing it. Women's oppression is seen only in its gender politics, negating their class and caste reality. Women's economic role as workers—even in state-run development programmes like the WDP—is net recognised. With an understanding limited to gender issues, forging links with wider class and caste struggles remains largely sporadic. It is obviously in the interests of the powers-that-be to subsume class questions under gender concerns and direct energies away from major structural contradictions in society. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. Institute of Development Studies, Information Development And Resource Agency (IDARA), Exploring Possibilities: Review of the Women's Development Programme^ Rajasthan, Jaipur, December 1986. 2. Shareer-Ki-Jankari: Book /, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1989. 3. IDARA, Sathin TO Kagaz Akal Rabat, Ajmer, 1988; Sathin- ro-Kagaz (on family planning), Ajmer, 1988. 4. Institute of Development Studies and IDARA, Exploring Possibilities, op cit. 5. These words have since proven prophetic. The Rajasthan government dismissed all Sathins in March 1995.