Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, November 23 Sabriye Tenberken can read and write in the dark. She even teaches her students to do the same. No, Tenberken does not possess miraculous powers, nor does she belong to the world of wizardry. She is blind, but as she says, that doesn’t prevent her from being a visionary.Along with her [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, October 17 Several women organisations from across Gujarat joined hands and appealed to political parties to increase the candidature of women in the coming Assembly elections. They also requested that they promise to address issues concerning women in their manifestos. Over 150 NGOs working for women, represented by Ahmedabad Women Action Group (AWAG), [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, October 10 WITH Ahmedabad going mall-a-mall, retail mania seems to have gripped Navratri shoppers, too. More and more women are preferring to walk into well-lit, concept stores to buy chaniya cholis than jostling with the junta at Law Garden, which until now had been the most preferred place for Navratri shopping.
A major share [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
LAST year, several Muslim women’s organisations from across the country came together under an umbrella organisation, the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan. The unique initiative demands equal status for Muslim women in society, rejects everything unconstitutional and forms a democratic, secular organisation for liberal and progressive thought and action. Zakia Jowher, the woman behind the [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Rapar (Kutch), September 9 Hazraben Khamisa Bhatti, of Taga village in Kutch, knew Roshan, just a year younger to her 22-year-old son, Faiz, would make for a perfect daughter-in-law. There was a small hitch, though. Faiz’s family did not have the amount of money that Roshan’s family demanded as “royalty” in exchange of their [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, August 28: Until 2004, Kanuben Katesia, of the remote Gundala village in Rajkot district, earned Rs 50 a day as an agricultural labourer on others’ farms. On her own 2 acres of land, she grew cotton, a water-intensive crop, completely unsuited to the drought-prone arid zone in South Gujarat. The meagre savings Kanuben [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, August 3:Unlike many other children who are forced to fend for themselves or left to die, an infant found a poor, haggard woman and a community of autorickshaw drivers rallying to take care for her. For four days before the police and NGOs came to take away the baby, the poor woman [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 27: On the eve of his 89th birthday, Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and an anti-apartheid activist, announced the formation of The Elders — a club of world leaders to discuss ways to tackle problems plaguing the world.
Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), is one of [...]
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 25:UNTIL five years ago, the women of Juhapura had not ventured beyond the confines of their small neighbourhood. The riots of 2002, however, changed everything.
As the riots left most male members of the area jobless, 20 women began a savings group called Parwaaz. With children to feed and rents to pay, [...]