The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Vasanthi Devi urges women's groups to act on Sabarimala issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Vasanthi Devi urges women's groups to act on Sabarimala issue

Staff Reporter

ERODE: Organisations championing women's rights should challenge the recent developments pertaining to the reported entry of a yesteryear actor into the sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala hill temple, said V. Vasanthi Devi, a former Chairperson of the State Commission for Women.

She was here on Wednesday at the Vellalar College for women to deliver the valedictory address at the three-day UGC National Conference on Gender Studies and Curriculum Development.

``How can God get angry if a woman enters the sanctum sanctorum? They too are his creation. What is happening is against women, and the women's rights groups should challenge this," said Dr. Devi, also a former Vice-Chancellor of the Manonmanium Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.

Terming the developments `anti-women,' she felt it was a manifestation of ``a powerfully built system of domination [of patriarchal system]."

Such issues ought to be questioned, challenged, debated and overcome, she said and added, ``women will not take it lying down." She questioned how such things happened when the Constitution guaranteed equal rights and treatment to women.

On gender studies, Dr. Devi said what was received attention and often got reflected was the middle and upper middle classes' views on the subject.

Earlier, head of the department of English, S. Kannammal presented the conference report.

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