Women’s study? Must be about family

NEW DELHI: It’s not quite as drastic as the Nazi dictum of Kinder, Kuchen, Kirchen (children, kitchen, church), but attempts by Murli Manohar Joshi’s officials to limit the domain of women’s studies in India to the ‘‘family’’ has academics and activists here up in arms.
The trigger for the protests: A recent decision by the University Grants Commission to reorganise and rename the 20-odd women’s studies centres across India as ‘‘Women and Family Studies Centres’’.
The move, say academics, is regressive and will have serious implications for research on women’s issues as well as the autonomy of universities.
Teachers and researchers have dashed off an open letter to the UGC chairman, expressing their concern over the proposed move which limits the focus of women’s studies to the ‘‘family’’ and denies the role played by women in other spheres.
‘‘Renaming the centres is another effort to equate women with family. This is really dangerous. The purpose of setting up women’s studies centres was to look at the role and contributions made by women in fields like politics, economy, agriculture and so on,’’ says Kumud Sharma of the Centre of Women’s Development Studies.
The UGC chairman was not available for comment but vice-chairman Rajshekhar Pillai admitted that the commission had issued instructions to universities renaming these centres. ‘‘We are shocked... It will end up doing extensive damage as it ends up looking at women only in the context of the family,’’ says Kavita Punjabi, Jadavpur University.
The UGC proposals also want each centre to be headed by an advisory committee, which should include representatives from the department of women and child development and social welfare boards. Academics say these proposals have serious implications. ‘‘This is even more disturbing. There will be pressure to reorient the studies at these centres,’’ says Punjabi.
‘‘The re-designation is an attempt to make these centres more conservative. You will end up with conservatives heading the centres,’’ adds Kumkum Sangari, Indraprastha College.