Kerala - Kochi   

Gouri calls for new farm reform movement

Special Correspondent

Receives P.S. John award from Speaker

KOCHI: Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithy leader and one of the architects of Kerala's agrarian reforms K.R. Gouri has called for a new agricultural reform movement that will increase food production.

Ms. Gouri said the first agrarian reform, carried out by the Communist Government, had not achieved its main goal of increasing production. Of course, it had ended bonded labour and feudal practices in the farm sector.

She was speaking after receiving the P.S. John Endowment award of the Ernakulam Press Club from Speaker K. Radhakrishnan here on Wednesday.

The 87-year-old Ms. Gouri, the 11th winner of the annual prize set up in memory of the late Malayala Manorama journalist, was chosen for her all-round contribution to the advancement of Kerala society. She said she would hand over the Rs.10,000 prize money to a home for the care of mentally challenged persons at Menamkulam in Thiruvananthapuram district.

Ms. Gauri urged the media to strive for women's empowerment. She noted that in spite of the all-round development of the State, women were still mostly confined to the kitchen. She said she had struggled hard to get the law on Women's Commission enacted, though this had been largely forgotten. She recalled that her short stint as a lawyer had helped her in her role as MLA, Minister and politician.

Speaker Radhakrishnan, praising Ms. Gouri's political career spanning six decades, pointed out that she was a rare phenomenon in the whole of the country as she had consecutively contested all the 13 Assembly elections so far in the State, and won 11 of them.

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