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Workshop on Law and Social Movements
June 25-27, 2006
United Theological College, Bangalore
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Varsha Kale
National President
Womanist Party Of India
DATE / YEAR EVENTS / WORK
10 MARCH
1969 Born in an orthodox Maratha Family of Pune
District, Maharashtra.
1969 TO 1979
School education at Goregaon, Mumbai.
1979 TO
1984 School education at Dombivli, Thane
District.
She was a good athlete at a school, and N. C. C. sergeant. She had to face family wrath for her spirit of independence right from the school level.
1984 TO 1989 College education at Dombivli. During this period increased family pressure and violence from her father for not following rules meant for young Maratha girls, developed a rebellious attitude in her against the conservative Maratha tradition in particular and patriarchy in general.
She was gradually drawn towards rebellious and revolutionary ideas of the feminist and leftist political groups of India.
1987 She became an active member of Ekalavya Yuvak Sanghatana, an organisation working with the tribal communities in Thane district of Maharashtra.
1988 Defied familial prohibition and went to Bihar, with young men to take part in the movement for a separate Jharkhand state within India. She left her parental home permanently after returning from Bihar and started working with the Adivasi communities of Thane district in Maharashtra.
In this period she realised that there exists gender discrimination within the new social movements and traditional leftist organisations, operating within the overall patriarchal framework.
1989 She married a full time Eklavya activist.
1990 Formed Shramika Kendra, a Womens only organisation.
1991 Took part in the Narmada Bachao Andolan led By Medha Patkar.
1991-1992 Got connected with different NGOs and womens groups working in rural Maharashtra.
1991-1993 She left Mumbai to work in drought prone rural areas of Sangali district in western Maharashtra.
1992-1995 Organised rural women in Sangali district
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Organised all the deserted women (parityakta) in one village called Alsund and, led a successful campaign for securing residential plots for them in that village near Sangali.
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Organised rural teenage girls through a project called Kishori Vikas Prakalp, (Teenage Girls Development Programme), which she herself conceptualised, designed and implemented. Since then, this project has been replicated by different NGOs on a larger scale.
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Led Darumukti Andolan (Movement for Liberation from Alcoholism) in a village near Sangali in which women organised sit-in and uposhan (fasting) at the local Panchayat office for three days.
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Organised the first womens Vividh Karyakari Sahakari Seva Society (Multi Purpose Co-operative Society) in Maharashtra to provide credit to the women farmers and women agricultural workers of that village. The experiment aborted due to G. R. issued by the State government against the formation of such societies.
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Realised the importance of political power for addressing the problems of rural women.
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Founded REPORT, an organisation working for rural development.
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She worked as a Project Coordinator for an Ngo in a World Bank funded Rural Water and Sanitation Project.
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Developed understanding and insights about the problems and issues related to farmers, agricultural workers, rural society and different sections of rural women in particular.
1995 Returned to Mumbai
1995-2000 Worked for western Indian Panchayat Raj Forum, a project sponsored by an NGO called Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), which is involved in preparing training manuals for Training Of Trainers (TOT), for the newly elected women councillors and women sarpanchs (village heads) as well as for conducting the training itself.
Developed greater understanding about the issues of womens reservation, womens participation and womens representation in electoral politics, while conducting training of elected women.
Got disillusioned with the apolitical and urban elite character of dominant feminist thoughts and practices.
1998-2000 Completed M.A. in Marathi literature.
2000-2003 Preparatory work for the formation of the first all women political party in India.
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Realised the indispensability of attaining political power by women through electoral politics for effectively addressing womens issues and problems faced by women in general and labouring women in particular.
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She realised that reservation can increase participation but not representation of women in politics.
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Realised that only an autonomous womens political party can enable women to develop womens constituency and womens representation in politics.
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Formed an NGO for politicising women and to champion human rights.
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Wrote booklets: CHALA ITIHAS GHADVUYA (LET US MAKE HISTORY) and LET US TURN HISTORY INTO HERSTORY, on the need of forming such a political party and, started enlisting members for it.
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Toured different parts of rural Maharashtra on a motor bike to form the all women political party
31 October 2003 Declaration of the formation of the first all women political party, the Womanist Party of India (WPI) the day happened to be the death anniversary of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
21 JULY 2004 WPI got registered with the Election Commission Of India - the day on which the first woman prime minister in the world got elected several decades ago.
2004 Nine candidates of WPI contested assembly election, symbolically, without any preparation and resources
Realised the importance of organising different sections of labouring women to stop WPI from evolving into just an elite womens party
January 2005 Formed the Bhartiya Bargirls Union to secure legal, working and human rights for the women working in the dance bars of Maharashtra.
March 2005 ONWARDS
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Led one month long sit in movement for the rehabilitation of bargirls after the announcement of the ban on dance in the bars in Maharashtra
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Approached NHRC, NWC, Commission for SC & STs, Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi and numerous MPs, MLAs, NGOs to raise the issue on a national level
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Approached different state womens commission to safeguard the rights for the bargirls after the ban
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Encouraged and facilitated bargirls to speak out and write about their lives
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Initiated research programme on traditional entertaining communities
2004 TO 2005 The membership of Bhartiya Bargirls Union (BBU) crosses 12000.
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