First Person

This was what inspired her to chalk out an action plan. So she tied up with colleague Ritu Menon and the duo decided to utilise their experience at publishing to make their venture a success.

8220;The idea behind Kali was clear. For us it was to be a means of compiling what we politically believed in. Those were the times when the feminist movement was at its peak. A number of issues, like rape, abduction, dowry, etc were being debated, but there was no literature available on the same. We had some foreigners who used to come to India, conduct research on these issues and put it in the form of books. We were continuing to depend on these works which came at quite a cost. We, therefore, thought of conducting our own research. That was when Kali happened in 1984,8221; she says.

The venture was, however, not devoid of skepticism. 8220;Funds were not a problem. There were other questions like whether we would have enough people to write for us, enough issues to keep us going. But once we began, things came around and we were ourselves amazed to see how strongly women felt about issues bothering them.8221; The struggle might have continued over the years, but did the feminist movement actually achieve what it had aimed to? Hasn8217;t it died out in intensity? 8220;No,8221; says the fierce feminist. 8220;It has simply graduated from the level of street protests. Now we have more of mature debate on oppression of women which still continues in the daily textures of life.8221; Education doesn8217;t seem to have made much of a difference, she says.

8220;Our syllabi might make us literate, but not aware. Another cause is poverty which breeds violence against women. Families are still required to pay dowry. That8217;s where the root of female infanticide, which continues to exist, though with changed manifestations, lies. The most outstanding problem is the apathetic attitude of our society towards the atrocities on women. Women8217;s problems are left to be sorted by women alone. Mass involvement is lacking. That8217;s why the required effect is not there. A woman is, after all, the harbinger of humanity. So why is the society not touched when something wrong happens to her? Why does the impact not go beyond organisations fighting for women8217;s liberation8221;?

Urvashi strongly feels that gender bias would be eliminated only when the society is sensitised on this issue. 8220;There8217;s so much suffering around. I8217;ve seen women cope with the worst of worlds. There was a time when I carried a pre-conceived notion that rape is the worst thing that can happen to women, but when I witnessed Bhagalpur crisis, I found that death was worse. So you see, we learn through experiences. And we can actually never know where and in which form misery might be waiting to strike8221;.

The objective we are striving to achieve would require a lot of investment. We want a gender-just society where a woman is respected for being a women, where she is appreciated in the role which she chooses to assign herself, where patriarchs don8217;t govern the pattern of her life, and were she stands equally with her man. This might sound utopian, but we know we8217;ll achieve this, says she. Urvashi8217;s recently-published book, titled, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India is already creating ripples in the market. The focus rests on those facts of the Partition which books in school and college did not reveal. 8220;I plan to continue looking into various other hidden aspects of those days,8221; says the woman who still has a lot to accomplish in her role as a feminist.