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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Saluting the fiery spirit of Vinadi-Joan Mencher

Saluting the fiery spirit of Vinadi-Joan Mencher

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published Published on Jun 3, 2013   modified Modified on Jun 3, 2013
-The Times of India


Vina Mazumdar, academic, activist and one of the pioneers of women's studies in India, passed away on May 30. Renowned anthropologist Joan Mencher pays her a tribute.

Vina Mazumdar (1927-2013)-"Vinadi" to colleagues and friends-a veteran fighter for Indian women's rights and pioneer of feminist studies, passed away in Delhi on May 30, 2013. She had been ailing since March of this year. I first met her in the mid-1970s and was always transfixed by her words, both about her own life and about her work on India's report "Towards Equality" for the first United Nations Women's Conference in Mexico City in 1975. She was a remarkable person to listen to, and a magnificent fighter for what she believed in most: equality for all and the rights of all women. She can be considered the grandmother of the women's movement and women's studies in India.

Responding to the UN's call for a report from each country, Dr J P Naik, head of the ICSSR, had asked Vinadi to serve as secretary to the Committee on the Status of Women in India which was preparing the report. She was in charge of collecting data from all parts of India about the conditions of women of all castes and classes, including tribals. She talked about the nightmares she had as she read the incoming data, which affected her deeply, intellectually and emotionally. From my knowledge, the Indian Report was the most complete and detailed of any country, and led to considerable discussion outside and within India about the unequal status of women nationwide including the link between women's empowerment and poverty alleviation. It led to a demand for the removal of these inequities to achieve the goals of the Constitution.

This report led Vinadi (founding director), and others to start the Center for Women's Development Studies in New Delhi, which became her base of operations from then on. She was involved with numerous women's issues over the years, including serving on the Board of the Population Council, and writing a critique of the "western" development paradigm (after the Earth Summit in 1992) which emphasized equity and focused on peasant women's rights. Along with others from CWDS, she was instrumental in organizing a series of National Summit Conferences in South Asia supported by UNIFEM and FAO. To my knowledge, these have been the only National Conferences to promote a dialogue between peasant women's groups and rural development practitioners, policy makers, agro-scientists and activists. These fora showed the wide differences between women's priorities and approaches to environmental issues compared to those generated from the top-down, or even by men of their own households. Vinadi was a shining light in these meetings and saw to it that poor-often illiterate but knowledgeable-women were heard on numerous issues, including land rights (still an issue), deforestation, problems of water, seeds, and the integration of these and related issues.

She was always involved in making visible the work that women did, and responsive to their requests for training. Her project in a very poor part of Bankura District in the mid-80s required Vinadi and others from CWDS to visit there often, and to provide training for poor rural women using available basic raw materials. Throughout her life, Vinadi was a fighter against injustice and for equality for all women and all human beings. Even when she was ailing, she could still give a good verbal fight on behalf of poor and suffering women.


The Times of India, 3 June,2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Saluting-the-fiery-spirit-of-Vinadi/articleshow/20402477.cms


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