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Draft Memorandum to Law Minister from National Women's Organisations

To,

Mr. Salman Khurshid

Hon’ble Minister of Law and Justice

Shastri Bhavan,

New Delhi                                                                                             

Subject: A law to address Crimes and Killing in the Name of Honour

Dear Mr. Khurshid,

We are writing this letter to express our disappointment at the reported winding up of the GOM which was setup to recommend laws on honour killing under the chairmanship of the then Finance Minister. We feel that this is particularly unfortunate as incidents of crimes and killings in the name of ‘honour’ seem to be increasing day by day. These crimes are prevalent in several parts of the country particularly in the northern and western states. Thus, there is an urgent need to enact a comprehensive law on killings and crimes in the name of honour. We feel that apart from a provision which addresses killing in the name of honour, the law should address the range of violent and abusive acts which are being initiated by the girls family  to stop her from exercising her right to choose her partner in marriage or have a relationship outside her caste or community or religion. In all these cases the girl, the boy and his family are targeted. As you know, these crimes are also committed through caste or Khap or community based panchayats who issue diktats or fatwas and act like kangaroo courts outside the judicial system. These panchayats and the girl’s family, either acting together or alone, harass and intimidate anyone who disobeys them by various acts like extraditing the couple or the boy’s family or anyone who supports them from the village; by declaring a couple brother and sister; by leveling illegal fines; by imposing social and/or economic boycott on the boy’s family and several other acts. There are no provisions in the penal code which deal with these acts.

We feel that it is essential therefore to define these acts of harassment which seek to prevent young people, particularly girls from exercising their fundamental right of choice and to punish the perpetrators of these acts. We also feel that if any member of a panchayat participates in taking these illegal decisions and in issuing illegal diktats he should be punished. In a killing or crime of this nature the onus of proof should be on the accused. We also feel that anyone publically supporting or glorifying these crimes should be punished. Apart from this we feel that the Collector or District Magistrate should have suo moto powers to issue prohibitory orders to stop any diktats from being issued. We further feel that a young couple should be able to declare their intention to marry to any government officer and not be acted against by the police on false charges of kidnapping etc. The comprehensive law should also hold the police accountable and provide for protective homes where the girl and the boy can take shelter to escape the wrath of her relatives or those conspiring with them. We are enclosing a draft prepared by AIDWA on this issue. This draft had also been given earlier to the previous Law minister Shri Veerappa Moily on 3.8.2010. 

We urge you to take this matter seriously and enact a comprehensive legislation as it involves the democratic and fundamental rights of millions of young people in our country. 

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. T.N Seema               Ms. Jharna Das         Ms.Sudha Sundararaman    Ms Kirti Singh

(MP, Rajya Sabha)     (MP, Rajya Sabha)            (AIDWA)                            (AIDWA) 

 Ms.Annie Raja     Dr. Jyotsna Chatterjee           Dr Mohini Giri    Ms. Indrani Majumdar   

   ( NFIW )                      (JWP)                                  (GOS)                         (CWDS)             

Ms Sheela Kakde      Ms. Leila Passah       Ms.  Jagmati Sangwan    Ms. Vimal Thorat                 

 (AIWC)                          (YWCA)                        (AIDWA)                         (AIDMAM) 

        

Ms Azara Abidi               Ms. Anuradha Bose

  (MWF)                              (GOS)               

Draft Memorandum to Law Minister from National Women's Organisations

                                                                                                                          Dated   5.9.2012

 To,                                                                                                                 

Mr. Salman Khurshid

The Minister of Law and Justice,

Shastri Bhawan, A Wing,

Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,

New Delhi – 110001                                                                          

Dear Mr. Khurshid,

Sub: Comments on The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012 regarding Laws relating to  Sexual Assault

We the undersigned national women’s organizations welcome the initiative taken by the government to amend the laws relating to sexual assault. We also welcome the proposal to include Acid attacks and Attempt to commit Acid Attacks as separate sections in the IPC as well as the addition of Section 166A to the Penal code which prescribes punishment to a public servant who does not follow the law relating to investigation of a crime. We are however, deeply concerned about the latest amendments passed by the Union Cabinet to amend the laws relating to sexual assault in Sections 375, 376 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code. While amendments in the laws relating to sexual assault are urgently required in our archaic penal code and the conceptual shift in redefining rape as sexual assault is appreciable we feel that the present proposals are inadequate and counterproductive.

 

Women’s Organisations and groups have been demanding changes in the entire spectrum of laws related to sexual assault including rape, molestation, Sexual harassment (popularly known as ‘eve-teasing’) and “Unnatural offences” in the IPC for more than 20 years. Some of us prepared a draft proposal to bring about comprehensive changes in the laws relating to sexual assault as far back as 1993. Since then we have submitted several drafts of the required changes to the government in 2002, 2005 and in 2008, some of which are reflected in the proposed amendments to section 375 and 376 of the IPC. Our comments to the present 2012 Bill are as under:

1.         The changes proposed in Section 375 to broaden the definition of rape and to include within it all forms of penetrative sexual assault is a first step in the right direction. The section has however been made gender neutral which is a reversal of what the government had proposed in 2010.This seems to imply that women can commit sexual assault against men  for  which there is no empirical evidence at all. The section   will allow men to file false cases of penetrative sexual assault against women. The proposed government bill in 2010 rightly made the law gender specific as far as adults were concerned and the accused persons could only be men while the complainants/victims were women.

2.         We had also earlier proposed that Section 377 which allegedly deals with ‘unnatural offences’ but in fact targets consensual sexual intercourse should be deleted. We had also proposed that another section be added to the Indian Penal Code to address penetrative sexual assault in same sex relationships. We reiterate both these proposals.

3.         Apart from this various vital suggestions made by women’s groups in the bill redrafted by us and in the NCW bill have been ignored by the present bill.  A notable example of this is that while the law relating to molestation vis-a-vis children has been amended in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, no such amendment has been suggested as far as the definition of molestation of women is concerned. The amendment to Section 354 IPC merely increases the period of punishment that can be awarded to a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 5 years but makes no changes to the insulting, moralistic, inappropriate and archaic definition in S354 IPC which makes sexual assault punishable only when it ‘outrages the modesty of a woman’. We fail to see why the section dealing with unlawful sexual touch of an adult woman has not been amended in the government bill. We had suggested and are again suggesting that Section 354 be redefined to punish touching a woman with a sexual purpose or intent. We also feel that the categories of aggravated forms of penetrative sexual assault should also be recognized as categories of non penetrative assault. We further state that aggravated forms of molestation which cause or are accompanied by causing hurt or injury or by stripping should be specifically recognized and added as an additional category.

4.         The bill, like the old Penal code, exempts marital rape as an offense if a wife is not under 16 years of age. This exemption, totally and unreasonably, ignores the long standing demand of the women’s organizations and groups and others to recognize marital rape as rape. We also recommend deletion of Section 376 A as we see no reason why the punishment for sexual assault on a separated wife should not be the same as ordinary sexual assault.

5.         In the 2008 draft for amendment of the sexual assault sections of the IPC prepared  by AIDWA and presented by us to the government, consent had been defined as the unequivocal voluntary agreement by a person to engage in the sexual activity in question. One major reason for defining consent in this way was to distinguish consent from mere passiveness. Case law concerning rape is replete with examples in which it has been said that the victim has consented when she has merely remained passive due to a variety of reasons.

6.         In both the redrafted AIDWA proposals and the NCW proposals clause ‘Sixthly’ under Section 375 defines statutory rape as rape of a complainant under 18 years of age. However, taking note of the social reality that many instances of consensual sexual activity between young girls above 16 years of age and young boys and that it would lead to injustice if these young boys were persecuted for rape, an amendment by way of a proviso has been inserted in both these bills to exempt such consensual activity from the purview of statutory rape provided the accused person is not more than 5 years older. We strongly feel that this proviso should be included in the government bill. A copy of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill redrafted by AIDWA in 2008 is being attached along with this letter.

7.         In the sections on aggravated penetrative and non-penetrative sexual assaults we further feel that sexual assault by personnel of the armed forces and by personnel of the para military and other allied forces should be included.

8.         Similarly penetrative and non-penetrative sexual assault at the time of or together with other forms of communal violence should be categorized as an aggravated form of sexual assault.

9.         In clause (b) of Section 376(2) sexual assault at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other persons acting in an official capacity should also be added as an aggravated form of sexual assault. This clause should also be added in the new section which will deal with aggravated forms of non-penetrative sexual assault.

10.       In Section 375(a) penetration of the mouth apart from the vagina etc of a person with any part of a body or an object of another person is defined as sexual assault. However, if an object or a part of the body, for example a finger, is inserted into the mouth it would be ridiculous to equate this with sexual assault. Incidentally the Law Commission draft on which this clause seems to be based does not mention the mouth in Section 375 (b). It is only when the penis is forcibly introduced in the mouth that sexual assault occurs.

In Section 375 (b) manipulation of a part of a body of a woman etc to penetrate the body of the offender has been included in the definition of sexual assault of a woman by a man. Firstly, in the bill redrafted by AIDWA and in the NCW bill, this clause only applies to sexual assault on children since children are often forced to carry out sexual intercourse in this way. Secondly the clause seems to suggest that the offender has a vagina whereas the offender can only be a man according to the first line of Section 375.

11.       The amendment to Section 273 CrPC by way of an insertion stating that the victim should not be confronted by the accused is welcome. However, the method of cross examination needs to be specified so that the victim is not harassed and further victimized during the cross examination.  We appreciate that the amendments to section 154 and section 161of the CrPC but feel that the questioning of the victim must also be carried out by a woman and that if a female police officer is not available, a female government servant or a woman authorized by an organization working in the relevant area should carry out the questioning.

Apart from this we are disappointed that several other suggestions made by us and the NCW have not been incorporated in the law. The women’s organizations have carried out a long struggle to bring about comprehensive changes in the law relating to sexual offences so that the reality of women’s experience is reflected in the Indian Penal Code which is at present deficient in various respects. We had suggested changing the definition of sexual harassment in 509, IPC which is also obsolete and insulting to women but this has not been done. We had also suggested the insertion of stalking as a separate crime in the IPC. By not recognizing Stalking as a crime most of the perpetrators manage to escape prosecution and can only be charged under Section 509 IPC which is inadequate.  Most of these suggestions are a part of our attached draft law.

We therefore urge the government to take a holistic view of the matter and to make comprehensive amendments to all the relevant sections of the IPC apart from introducing the necessary new sections.

Thank you,

Yours sincerely, 

  

Dr. T.N Seema              Ms. Jharna Das           Ms.Sudha Sundararaman        Ms Kirti Singh

(MP, Rajya Sabha)     (MP, Rajya Sabha)                 (AIDWA)                              (AIDWA) 

 Ms.Annie Raja     Dr. Jyotsna Chatterjee           Dr Mohini Giri         Ms. Indrani Majumdar   

   ( NFIW )                      (JWP)                                  (GOS)                          (CWDS)   

           

Ms Sheela Kakde      Ms. Leila Passah        Ms.  Jagmati Sangwan    Ms. Vimal Thorat                 

 (AIWC)                          (YWCA)                           (AIDWA)                         (AIDMAM)  

      

Ms Azara Abidi               Ms. Anuradha Bose

  (MWF)                              (GOS)                                                                    

PRESS RELEASE

ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION

NO. 2253- E , SHADI KHAMPUR, NEW RANJIT NAGAR,

NEW DELHI-110008

PH: 011-25700476, 25709565

Email : aidwacec@gmail.com, aidwa@rediffmail.com

                                                                                        

                                                                                                      4^th Sept.2012                                             

PRESS RELEASE

AIDWA welcomes the long overdue passage of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010, in the Lok Sabha, on Sept 3^rd 2012.  It has taken 15 years for the formulation of a legislation to define sexual harassment at the workplace and make legal provisions for its prevention and for expediting disciplinary action against offenders, as laid down by the Supreme Court under the Vishakha guidelines (1997).

AIDWA notes that the Bill is comprehensive in its definition of sexual harassment, as well as in other areas it seeks to cover. The definition of sexual harassment  includes any unwelcome act or behaviour, demand for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, or showing pornography, etc, and any other physical, verbal, or non verbal conduct of a sexual nature. The Bill has also made it mandatory for all offices, hospitals, institutions and other workplaces to have an internal complaints redress mechanism. Non-compliance with the provisions of the law has  been made punishable with a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to do business.

However, while the demand for inclusion of domestic workers has been accepted, there are some glaring lacunae and gaps in the Bill that are still to be addressed.  The Bill leaves out women agricultural workers, who form a large segment of the unorganized labour force, including under the MGNREGA. Women working in fisheries, forests, or in construction work sites, roads, stations, trains, etc, must be brought under its purview. The women employees in the armed forces must also be covered under the Bill. In the unorganized sector, the restriction in the number of workers to less than ten should be done away with.  The Bill needs to be amended so as to rectify these weaknesses and loopholes.

Moreover, AIDWA strongly objects to the inclusion of the clause which allows for penal action against the complainant in the Bill, which will defeat its very purpose. We had repeatedly asked for the removal of the “complaint with malicious intent” clause. This not only goes against the Vishakha guidelines, which explicitly state that the complainant should not be victimized in any way, but also completely undermines the victim’s ability to file complaints of sexual harassment. The Standing Committee had also noted this aspect. Women victims of sexual harassment at the workplace are in an extremely vulnerable position and the AIDWA experience has been that in most such cases, allegations of falsehood and malicious intent are invariably leveled against them. Hence, we demand removal of this clause from the Bill.

AIDWA also demands that the enquiry must be conducted in a more time bound manner. The recommendations of the local committee should be acted upon within 30 days of submission of their report. The Bill seeks to give preferred treatment to the accused, by protecting his identity. While the identity of the complainant need not be known, there is no reason to extend such protection to the accused, otherwise these incidents would not even come to light.

AIDWA demands passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, after incorporating these important amendments, so that women victims of sexual harassment at the workplace can be assured of justice and legal protection.

     Sd/-                              Sd/-                                       Sd/-                         

Shyamali Gupta          Kirti Singh                   Sudha Sundararaman

(President)              (Legal Convenor)            (General Secretary)

Obituary: Captain Lakshmi Sahgal (1914 - 2012)

Captain Lakshmi Sahgal in the uniform of INA

A life for struggle 

“The fight will go on,” said Captain Lakshmi Sehgal one day in 2006, sitting in her crowded Kanpur clinic where, at 92, she still saw patients every morning. She was speaking on camera to Singeli Agnew, a young filmmaker from the Graduate School of Journalism, Berkeley, who was making a documentary on her life.

Each stage of the life of this extraordinary Indian represented a new stage of her political evolution – as a young medical student drawn to the freedom struggle; as the leader of the all-woman Rani of Jhansi regiment of the Indian National Army; as a doctor, immediately after Independence, who restarted her medical practice in Kanpur amongst refugees and the most marginalised sections of society; and finally, in post-Independence India, her life as a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), years that saw her in campaigns for political, economic and social justice.

“Freedom comes in three forms,” the diminutive doctor goes on to say on camera in her unadorned and direct manner. “The first is political emancipation from the conqueror, the second is economic [emancipation] and the third is social… India has only achieved the first.”

With Captain Lakshmi’s passing, India has lost an indefatigable fighter for the emancipations of which she spoke.

First rebellion

Lakshmi Sehgal was born Lakshmi Swaminadhan on October 24, 1914 in Madras to S. Swaminadhan, a talented lawyer, and A.V. Ammukutty, a social worker and freedom fighter (and who would later be a member of independent India’s Constituent Assembly).

Lakshmi would later recall her first rebellion as a child against the demeaning institution of caste in Kerala. From her grandmother’s house, she would often hear the calls and hollers from the surrounding jungles and hills, of the people who in her grandmother’s words were those “whose very shadows are polluting.” The young Lakshmi one day walked up to a young tribal girl, held her hand and led her to play. Lakshmi and her grandmother were furious with each other, but Lakshmi was the one triumphant.

After high school in Madras, she studied at the Madras Medical College, from where she took her MBBS in 1938. The intervening years saw Lakshmi and her family drawn into the ongoing freedom struggle. She saw the transformation of her mother from a Madras socialite to an ardent Congress supporter, who one day walked into her daughter’s room and took away all the child’s pretty dresses to burn in a bonfire of foreign goods. Looking back years later, Lakshmi would observe how in the South, the fight for political freedom was fought alongside the struggle for social reform. Campaigns for political independence were waged together with struggles for temple entry for Dalits and against child marriage and dowry. Her first introduction to communism was through Suhasini Nambiar, Sarojini Naidu’s sister, a radical who had spent many years in Germany. Another early influence was the first book on the communist movement she read, Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China.

Meeting Netaji

As a young doctor of 26, Lakshmi left for Singapore in 1940. Three years later she would meet Subhash Chandra Bose, a meeting that would change the course of her life. “In Singapore,” Lakshmi remembered, “there were a lot of nationalist Indians like K. P. Kesava Menon, S. C. Guha, N. Raghavan, and others, who formed a Council of Action. The Japanese, however, would not give any firm commitment to the Indian National Army, nor would they say how the movement was to be expanded, how they would go into Burma, or how the fighting would take place. People naturally got fed up.” Bose’s arrival broke this logjam.

Lakshmi, who had thus far been on the fringes of the INA, had heard that Bose was keen to draft women into the organisation. She requested a meeting with him when he arrived in Singapore, and emerged from a five-hour interview with a mandate to set up a women’s regiment, which was to be called the Rani of Jhansi regiment. There was a tremendous response from women to join the all-women brigade. Dr. Lakshmi Swaminadhan became Captain Lakshmi, a name and identity that would stay with her for life.

The march to Burma began in December 1944 and, by March 1945, the decision to retreat was taken by the INA leadership, just before the entry of their armies into Imphal. Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the British army in May 1945. She remained under house arrest in the jungles of Burma until March 1946, when she was sent to India – at a time when the INA trials in Delhi were intensifying the popular hatred of colonial rule.

Captain Lakshmi married Col. Prem Kumar Sehgal, a leading figure of the INA, in March 1947. The couple moved from Lahore to Kanpur, where she plunged into her medical practice, working among the flood of refugees who had come from Pakistan, and earning the trust and gratitude of both Hindus and Muslims.

CPI(M) activist

By the early 1970s, Lakshmi’s daughter Subhashini had joined the CPI(M). She brought to her mother’s attention an appeal from Jyoti Basu for doctors and medical supplies for Bangladeshi refugee camps. Captain Lakshmi left for Calcutta, carrying clothes and medicines, to work for the next five weeks in the border areas. After her return she applied for membership in the CPI(M). For the 57-year old doctor, joining the Communist Party was “like coming home.” “My way of thinking was already communist, and I never wanted to earn a lot of money, or acquire a lot of property or wealth,” she said.

Captain Lakshmi was one of the founding members of AIDWA, formed in 1981. She subsequently led many of its activities and campaigns. After the Bhopal gas tragedy in December 1984, she led a medical team to the city; years later she wrote a report on the long-term effects of the gas on pregnant women. During the anti-Sikh riots that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, she was out on the streets in Kanpur, confronting anti-Sikh mobs and ensuring that no Sikh or Sikh establishment in the crowded area near her clinic was attacked. She was arrested for her participation in a campaign by AIDWA against the Miss World competition held in Bangalore in 1996.

Presidential candidate

Captain Lakshmi was the presidential candidate for the Left in 2002, an election that A. P. J. Abdul Kalam would win. She ran a whirlwind campaign across the country, addressing packed public meetings. While frankly admitting that she did not stand a chance of winning, she used her platform to publicly scrutinise a political system that allowed poverty and injustice to grow, and fed new irrational and divisive ideologies.

Captain Lakshmi had the quality of awakening a sense of joy and possibility in all who met her – her co-workers, activists of her organisation, her patients, family and friends. Her life was an inextricable part of 20th and early 21st century India -- of the struggle against colonial rule, the attainment of freedom, and nation-building over 65 tumultuous years. In this great historical transition, Captain Lakshmi always positioned herself firmly on the side of the poor and unempowered. Freedom fighter, dedicated medical practitioner, and an outstanding leader of the women's movement in India, Captain Lakshmi leaves the country and its people a fine and enduring legacy.

Lakshmi Sehgal is survived by her daughters Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri; her grandchildren Shaad Ali, Neha and Nishant Puri; and by her sister Mrinalini Sarabhai. (parvathi.menon@thehindu.co.in)

Source: The Hindu 24 July 2012. p. 1,11

A freedom fighter who never lost her zest for life

The year Lakshmi Sahgal was born, the First World War had just begun and India was years away from independence. When she died on Monday in a Kanpur hospital aged 97, the world had seen yet another World War and India had been a free nation for over 64 years.

Sahgal played her part in the process that would eventually win India freedom. But unlike many nationalist heroes she hitched her wagon to the maverick Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. After qualifying as a medical doctor from Madras in 1938, Sahgal, born Lakshmi Swaminathan to a lawyer father and a social worker mother, took the unusual step of travelling to Singapore to practice.

With war spreading to south-east Asia in end-1941, Sahgal began treating wounded prisoners of war many of whom were of Indian origin. She also became actively involved in the India Independence League, which organized Indians in south-east Asia against the British. Her life changed irrevocably with the arrival of Bose in Singapore in 1943. Electrified by Netaji's message she took up the responsibility for setting up the Rani Jhansi regiment, the women's brigade of the Indian National Army. She was also inducted into the provisional cabinet of Azad Hind, the only woman in that position. In the end-game before Indian independence she was captured by the British in 1946 and brought back to India. Her private and public life intertwined when she married Colonel Prem Sahgal, also of the INA, in 1947.From then she was to be known as Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.

After independence Sahgal settled in Kanpur where she quietly kept serving people by treating thousands of poor patients for free. In the aftermath of the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, when refugees began pouring into India, she spent several months in West Bengal working with uprooted people. It was this experience that made her join the CPI(M). She was also a founder member of the All India Democratic Women's Association. In 2002, she ran unsuccessfully against APJ Abdul Kalam as the Left parties' candidate for India's presidency.

Sahgal often took up lost causes such as campaigning against beauty contests, but win or lose she never lost her zest for life. Even after she had a heart attack in July of this year she continued to meet patients. It was this quality that endeared her to millions.

Source: The Times of India 24 July 2012. p.13

‘She was a true Communist’

Avishek G Dastidar

In 2002, when the four Left parties nominated Captain Lakshmi Sehgal as their candidate against APJ Abdul Kalam in the presidential election, they knew that she would not win. But, they told Sehgal, who was then 87, that it was necessary to contest the poll for the sake of a larger political fight.

Those who spoke to her then say that she agreed only because when it came to defending what she stood for, Sehgal — the only commander of the Rani Jhansi regiment in Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army — never shied away from a fight.

“India lost a very good opportunity to have an extraordinary woman as president then. But she did not mind, because her politics was about serving people, which she was doing and continued to do all her life,” says senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, who knew Sehgal closely.

Born in an affluent Tamil-Brahmin family in Kerala in 1914, Sehgal realised early on that social service was her true calling. Two years after obtaining a medical degree from the Madras Medical College in 1938, she went to Singapore to treat migrant labourers from India. It was there that she got in touch with prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement like K P Kesava Menon, S C Guha and N Raghavan.

But her life changed forever in 1943, when Subhash Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore and took over the reins of the INA.

Bose wanted to form a women’s wing in his army, and entrusted the job to Sehgal (then Lakshmi Swaminathan). Owing to her efforts, thousands of women joined the wing and she became became Captain Lakshmi — as she came to be known for the rest of her life.

“All her life, she was a passionate follower of Bose. At a seminar in Mumbai a few years ago, she delivered a lecture on Bose, and I saw her getting extremely emotional while speaking on him,” says Debabrata Biswas, general secretary of the All Indian Forward Bloc, the Left party that Bose founded.

He recalls another incident when Sehgal, while inaugurating a national conference of the Forward Bloc in Kanpur — where she lived with her daughter and Communist leader Subhashini Ali — urged the party leaders to focus more on mass movements. “We had a formal agenda, but after listening to her speech, the party decided to focus more on countrywide mass movements. That way she was a true Communist,” says Biswas.

Having been witness to the orthodox practices in her community in her early years, Sehgal developed a deep contempt for unfair conventions and discrimination on the basis of caste and religion.

“She had a wry sense of humour. All her jokes were aimed at age-old conventions and inequalities prevailing in the Indian society,” says Karat.

But serving the people through her original profession — as a doctor — remained her life-long passion.

After marrying fellow INA leader Prem Kumar Sehgal barely five months before Independence in 1947, Sehgal devoted her time as a doctor for the poor, especially the poor women in Kanpur.

Following her nomination as a CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member in 1971, she conducted medical relief camps in West Bengal for refugees during the Bangladesh war. She also co-founded the All-Indian Democratic Women’s Association — the nationwide women’s wing of the CPI(M). In 1984, Sehgal led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy, and worked in the streets of Kanpur to restore peace after the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

“She loved to serve people. And through her life, she showed that to serve the country, one does not really need to enter electoral politics,” says Karat.

Champion of women’s rights, had no personal ambition

Brinda Karat

It was sometime in the eighties. Capt Lakshmi Sehgal, as the vice-president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, was in Jaipur to participate in a women’s rally against increasing violence. She was addressing a press conference. Looking at her twinkling eyes and the mischievous smile on her face, I knew something was up.

Without waiting for introductions, she burst out: “You men think you have a nuclear bomb, don’t you? Well, we women know how to dismantle it. A pair of sharp scissors will do the trick, that’s all we need and you can be sure we know how to do it.”

There was a stunned silence from the men, and cheers and approving laughter from the women. That was Capt Lakshmi, saying it as it is, expressing her outrage at sexual violence against women.

She died at the age of 98 in a Kanpur hospital on Monday. This was the city she adopted when she and her husband, Prem Sehgal, moved there after the tumultuous years when they fought shoulder to shoulder for India’s independence. It was there that she fulfilled her dream of setting up a clinic to serve the poor.

Her devotion to her patients was extraordinary. Everyday, for over six decades, she went to her clinic where queues of women would await her with the belief that their beloved “mummy”, as she was called, would never turn them away. In fact, she was at the clinic even the day before she had a heart attack, frail and weak, but not too ill to stay away.

She was a rebel at heart, scoffing at the convention of how young women belonging to an illustrious family like hers should behave, to become an inspiring freedom fighter and a Communist revolutionary committed to socialist ideals.

We would tease her about her escapades as a student. She would smile and reply that she did all that before she became serious. In fact, she was a brilliant student, one of the few women in her class to get top marks in the MBBS exam.

In 1940, she shifted to Singapore, where she got the opportunity to develop her organisational skills, a glimpse of which was evident when, as a young schoolgirl, she joined her mother in burning foreign goods as a symbol against British rule.

She became an active member of the India Independence League and it seemed only appropriate that when Subhash Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore, he should invite Lakshmi to put together the first batch of women soldiers in what became the legendary Rani of Jhansi brigade. Photographs of the time show Lakshmi with shoulder-length hair, her soldier’s cap set on one side, in military britches.

She displayed extraordinary courage in the ill-fated battles fought by the Azad Hind Fauj against the British. In 1946, she was captured by the British and brought back to India. She often remembered those years with pride and a sort of longing.

But she was vocal and angry at what she considered the betrayal of the dreams of the people by the leaders of independent India. It was perhaps because she never compromised on her principles and refused to join the Delhi Durbar that she was denied the official recognition of being a national heroine that she so richly deserved.

But Lakshmi had not an iota of personal ambition. She commanded respect, never demanded it. She joined the CPI(M) in the early seventies and was an extremely popular leader. She was a champion of women’s rights and also worked with trade unions in Kanpur.

The last time I saw her, I asked her how she remained young. “Never give in on something you know to be right, that’s what will keep you going,” she replied. Her grandson, Shaad, brought out his camera and said, “Nani give us a smile.” She sat up and smiled that beautiful smile and gave us a salute, a closed fist and straight shoulders. “Lal Salaam,” she said.

— The writer is a CPM Politburo member.

Source: The Indian Express 24 July 2012. p. 8

Consultation on MWCD study

Dear All,

The Forum for Creches and Child Care Services (FORCES) and the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS) have been engaged in conducting a study on " Need Assessment of Creches and Child Care Services" across six states during the period 2011-2012. This study has been sponsored by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.

The study has been completed and a national consultation has been planned on July 30th to share the results of the study with the government, organisations and individuals and concerned citizens.

On behalf of FORCES and CWDS, we would like to invite you to participate in the consultation. Your participation in a consultation on such an important policy matter would contribute to enriching the consultation. The consultation will be followed by lunch and we request you to stay for lunch.

 Programme : 

Registration:  9.00 to  9.30  a.m.

9.30  a.m. to  11.30 a.m.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks ; Dr. Kumud Sharma, Chairperson, CWDS and Project Director

Presentation of Study:  Dr. Vasanthi Raman, Project Coordinator,  Pooja Dhawan, Research Officer

11.30 - 11.45  Tea Break

11.45  -- 1 p.m. 

Panel Discussion:  Dipa Sinha, Advisor, Office of Supreme Court Commissioners on Right to Food

Ramya Subrahmanian, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF,  India Country Office,

Devika Singh, Member, Working Group for Children Under Six  and Mobile

Creches/ FORCES

We also expect senior members, officials of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Planning Commission to also be part of the panel discussion.

Date:  July 30th, 2012

Venue: India International Centre, Conference room No. 2, Annex.

Time: 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. 

Looking forward to your participation.

Best regards,

Dr Kumud Sharma,

Chairperson, Centre for Women's Development Studies

Project Director

Dr Vasanthi  Raman

Project Coordinator                       

OBITUARY: Leela Dube (1923-2012)

Distinguished Anthropologist with Feminist Sensibilities/by Maithreyi Krishnaraj

full text

Remembering Leela Dube/by Rajni Palriwala
full text

Source: Economic & Political Weekly: V. 32(xlvii) No. 26 & 27, 30 June 2012.