Vina Mazumdar (March 28, 1927 – May 30, 2013) – Academic, Activist, and Pioneer of Women's Right Movement in India.
India bid its last farewell to Dr. Vina Mazumdar, who was an Indian academic. After a brief illness, she passed away at the Delhi hospital on May 30, 2013. She is considered an imminent and a prominent leader of India's women right's movement. Being the secretary in the first Committee on the Status of Women in India, her committee was responsible for releasing the first report that underlined the conditions of women in India entitled Towards Equality (1974). Her credits do not end there. She was also the founding director and National Research Professor of Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS).
Mazumdar passed away at the age of eighty-six but was active in the women's right movement even a decade ago. In Vishnu Mathur's documentary, produced by Sparrow in 2003, viewers experienced, vibrant, full of life, and passionate Mazumdar who continues to champion her cause. The documentary is 1:12 hours long and thought-provoking. According to its synopsis, Mazumdar "fondly called herself the grandmother of the women's studies in India."
The Towards Equality report was an important moment for both Women's Studies and Women's movement in India. In the documentary, Mazumdar recalls a moment during the time when her committee was in the process of collecting data and information for the report in Himachal Pradesh when they noticed that there was a glaring difference between middle class and peasant women. Particularly, she informs the viewers that, "there was this kisan (farmer) woman in her village who just stood up and said go and ask the government of Himachal who runs the Himachal economy – men or we(women) – because majority of the men go off to the plains in search of jobs or they go to join the army or the police. We do the work – it is the orchid economy or agricultural – we do all the work. But because of this taboo on our taking up the plough, we have to search desperately for hired labor to engage and sometimes when it becomes difficult, we do use the plough but we lose face in the village…from the educated, urban women – clerks, typists, a few doctors, a few teachers – we couldn't get out – only giggles." She informs that these were the methods that they used to gather this comprehensive report to understand the complexities and nuances of women's situation in India during that time period. Mazumdar was born in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) to a middle-class family and did Women's Studies at Benares Hindu University and University of Calcutta. She received her D.Phil from Oxford University in 1960. Starting her career as a lecturer, she taught at Patna University and worked for the University Grants Commissions Secretariat in New Delhi as an Education Officer. She was also a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla.
Photo & Source : Cultureunplugged.com
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