The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Gender issue hogs limelight at poetess meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Gender issue hogs limelight at poetess meet

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, DEC. 20. "Women do not want to walk three steps ahead or three steps behind men. They want to walk shoulder to shoulder with them.

But in a country where women's importance is confined to epics and notions like `matru devo bhava', it is still a struggle for a majority of women in all walks of life," said the Tourism Minister, J. Geeta Reddy, here on Monday.

Inaugurating the three-day fifth all-India poetess conference (AIPC) where about 600 women poets from various states are participating to mainly focus on women's issues and problems, the Minister said that expressing through writings was one of the effective ways of conveying their aspirations.

Women alone could bring about a change in society as also change the mindset through instilling right attitude in their children about gender equality, she asserted.

Right forum

The AIPC chairperson, Prabha Ganorkar, said the conference would be yet another forum for women poets of various languages and classes to voice their views against the ideology of domination in the context of gender, race, class and caste. Women's emotional struggles were rooted in the conflicts imposed by contradictory expectations and cultural values that naturally reflected in their writings as language could emerge a powerful tool of rebellion.

Sri Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Vice-Chancellor, G.V. Subrahmanyam, tracing the eminent women scholars and writers through the ages expressing their innermost feelings with sensitivity and integrity, said that in the modern age, feminist movement gave impetus to women writers to share their experiences and feelings in all languages mainly through poetry with the emergence of free verse.

Other issues

Convenor of the convention, Srilatha, said apart from `kavitha goshti', the conference would discuss women's issues, child labour, AIDS and other health issues.

The founder of AIPC, Lari Azad, said linguistic harmony and national integration would be possible through writings of women from various states.

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