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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'Educated middle class women are selfish' by Rema Nagarajan

'Educated middle class women are selfish' by Rema Nagarajan

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published Published on Mar 7, 2010   modified Modified on Mar 7, 2010


Vina Mazumdar refers to herself as "grandmother" of women's studies in India. She was secretary of the Committee on Status of Women in India that brought out the first report on condition of women in the country, Towards Equality. She was co-founder of Centre for Women's Development Studies, an institution that has influenced the course of women's studies in India. Quite the firebrand even today at 80, she is disarmingly frank about the path of women's movement in India in a conversation with Rema Nagarajan

What problems were identified by the report, Towards Equality, that you submitted in 1975?

What really stood out was primarily economic — the acute poverty. And the overwhelming majority was illiterate and so they never knew the constitution promised them equality. In the transition from an agrarian society to an industrialized one, it was women who lost out. They were fantastic in agriculture but you have to become qualified and have additional knowledge to participate in industry. With no one to give them that knowledge they lost out.

What was the outcome of touring the country for the report?

We met women from all classes. Listening to them, all of us ended up with a burden of guilt. We had enjoyed the best of education the country could provide, backed by our families, but we had never bothered to look at what happened to the other women in the country. This burden of guilt lay at the root of the resurgence of the women's movement in India.

What was the government's response to the report?

Mrs Gandhi was furious and some officials were transferred from the education ministry. But by then the damn thing (the report) was out and was going like hot cakes. We had submitted the report directly to education minister Syed Noorul Hassan, who, knowing the trouble it could cause, ordered printing of the report even before it was circulated to the Cabinet. So you see, the report would not have been possible without support from individual men.

What do you think of reservation for women?

The committee (in 1974) didn't agree on quota for women. Many of them were freedom fighters who felt that we had asked for equality so why should we now seek reservation. But Lotika Sarkar and I decided to put our dissent in writing. When seeking quota for SC/ST the logic was that society had kept them down. The same society had kept women down too.

Wasn't your report the first to identify the problem of declining sex ratio?

Yes. India had the richest census data stretching over 100 years. Looking at this data we saw the steadily declining sex ratio. Scientists say women are the tougher of the species. Around us also women were living longer. So there seemed no natural reason for the fall in sex ratio. That made us suspicious. That's when pre-birth killing of children and declining sex ratio were identified as a serious problem for the first time.

How much of the agenda you set in the report is left unfinished?

Hoh! (Throws up her hands) A great deal is left to be done. The child sex ratio — even though UN data might say there is marginal improvement in South Asia, without great vigilance people will keep getting rid of female fetuses.

I don't say we have solved all problems. What we have done is given some working models on how to fight problems. At least we got compulsory primary education.

What would be on top of your wishlist for women?

Why should I ask for anything? It is for young women to speak out on what they need. I refuse to be their spokesperson. I am in my mid-80s my dear. Unfortunately, I am increasingly unhappy with the middle-class educated women. They are selfish. They don't want to shoulder any collective responsibility.

(Then comes her parting shot.) The biggest issue for women is violence. The violence has to end — social violence, communal violence, economic violence. And in this I follow Gandhiji's message. All violence has to stop.


The Times of India, 8 March, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Educated-middle-class-women-are-selfish/articleshow/5656059.cms
 

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