- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
KAMLA Bhasin, a stalwart of women’s rights movement in India, passed away in Delhi early on Saturday (25). She was 75.
She was suffering from cancer and pulmonary edema and was admitted in a hospital on Friday (24). Bhasin was also an eminent author and poet and a authoritative voice in the field of women’s rights movement in India and other South Asian nations.
Veteran actor Shabana Azmi tweeted to condole Bhasin’s death saying, “Fiesty Kamla Bhasin has fought her last battle, singing and celebrating a life well-lived. Her absence will be felt acutely, her gutsy presence, laughter and song, her wonderful strength are her legacy. We treasure her now as we did before.”
Bhasin, who was born in Mandi Bahauddin in present-day Pakistan in April 1946, had started working in 1970 focusing on gender, education, human development and media. She was known to be a part of the ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign, among various important movements.
#KamlaBhasin, the prolific writer, one of the strongest women rights activists left us at 75. Not only did she dismantled patriarchy but she also was a true feminist, upholding equity and justice. Team YAIF pays its deepest condolence and prays for solace to the departed soul. pic.twitter.com/MnIDcicZFl
— Youth Against Rape ® (@yaifoundations) September 25, 2021
She quit her job at the United Nations in 2002 and founded a non-government organisation called ‘Sangat’ which works with underprivileged women from both rural and urban communities.
Bhasin, who believed that feminism is not a war between men and women but rather one between two ideologies, penned several books on the subject and they were translated into more than 30 languages. In 2017, Bhasin was conferred the lifetime achievement award for her work in women’s development in Asia spanning for more than three decades.
Human rights activist Kavita Srivastava tweeted about Bhasin’s demise, “Kamla Bhasin, our dear friend, passed away around 3 am today, September 25. This is a big setback for the women’s movement in India and the South Asian region. She celebrated life whatever the adversity. Kamla you will always live in our hearts. In Sisterhood, which is in deep grief.”
Tributes were paid to Bhasin on social media after the news of her death broke.
Noted historian S Irfan Habib tweeted, “Very sad to hear about the tragic demise of a dear friend and an exceptional human being Kamla Bhasin. We were just discussing her health yesterday but never realised that she will leave us the next day, U will be terribly missed.”
