Kamla Bhasin
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A brief biography
Sujata Madhok, Sep 26, 2021: The Times of India
Kamla, the great survivor, is gone. A woman who survived so many personal tragedies but laughed, cried and smiled through them all, retaining the sheer joy for life. She lived through a difficult divorce, a fight to retain a share of the house, the burden of caring for a son with disability and, worst of all, the death of her lovely young daughter. A lesser woman would have crumbled. Yet through it all, Kamla Bhasin carried on her extraordinary work for the women’s movement, for peace, equality and social justice.
Kamla boldly questioned patriarchy and its myriad forms within the family and society. And she did it in her inimitable style, speaking and writing colloquially. She was the woman who gave us the azadi slogan that was the cry at so many women’s rallies, “Meri behnen maange azadi, patriarchy se azadi, family se azadi...” Her songs were slogans, or should we say her slogans were songs? “Tod, tod ke bandhanon ko dekho behnen aati hain...” still resounds in my ears.
Born in a Punjabi doctor’s family, Kamla got a postgraduate degree in Rajasthan and then studied development sociology in Germany. She returned to work with an NGO in Rajasthan. This early training in grassroots work stood her in good stead. In 1979, she joined the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and her work enabled her to travel across South Asia, identifying innovative work by people’s organisations. She worked in Bangladesh for a while with the public health organisation, Gonoshasthaya Kendra. Her three decades with the FAO gave her access to the wider world and connected her to international donors and funders whom she tapped for helping NGOs and feminist organisations in India.
Only a livewire like Kamla, full of energy and spunk, could have juggled both a long career with the UN and a starring role in the women’s movement. She travelled extensively and addressed innumerable training workshops, conferences and seminars. She wrote several books, including some for children, with progressive feminist messages built into them.
Kamla was a superb networker who forged friendships with feminists across South Asia and the world. In particular, she boldly reached out to feminists in Pakistan from groups like the Women’s Action Forum and the Aurat Foundation. A firm believer in peace, she supported many initiatives by civil society organisations working for peace between the two countries. In 2005, she took up the “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize” project which honoured women from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and other countries.
She was a founder of the women’s organisation, Jagori, and much later set up Sangat, a feminist network dedicated to gender justice, equality and peace. In recent years, Kamla was a convenor of ‘One Billion Rising’ that mobilises people against violence against women. She supported anti-communalism work and peace building in communities, speaking up strongly against fascism and authoritarianism. Kamla, the bold Punjabi woman with her quips and jokes and ‘jhappis’, her “never say die” spirit. I cannot believe she is dead. May her pioneering work live on!
