Vina Mazumdar

Dr. Vina Mazumdar (1927-May 30th 2013) was an Indian academic, feminist, a pioneer in Women's studies in India and a leading figure of the women’s movement in post-independence India. She was secretary of the first Committee on the Status of Women in India that brought out the first report on the condition of women in the country, Towards Equality (1974). She was the founding Director of the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), an autonomous organization established in 1980, under the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). She is presently a National Research Professor at the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Delhi.

Early life and education 

Vina Mazumdar was born in a middle-class Bengali household in Kolkata, she did her schooling from St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School, Kolkata. She studied at Women's College, Banaras Hindu University, and subsequently at Asutosh College, Calcutta University. In 1947, just after independence, she went to Oxford University, where she completed her graduation in 1951. She returned to Oxford University in 1960 and received her D.Phil. there in 1962.

Career 

She started her career as a teacher of Political Science in the Patna University and later Berhampur University. Subsequently, she joined the University Grants Commission Secretariat, New Delhi as an Education Officer and also remained a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, for the research project, 'University Education and Social Change in India' (April 1970 - Dec. 1970.

She was Member Secretary, the first Committee on the Status of Women in India (1971-74). The Committee, appointed by the Government of India in 1971, was reconstituted in 1973 with her, a later entrant, as Member Secretary. The report of the Committee, 'Towards Equality', became a turning point both for Women's Studies and the women's movement in India. Later she became Director, Programme of Women's Studies, Indian Council of Social Science Research from 1975 to 80.

She was founder-Director of the Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi from 1980 till her retirement in 1991 and founding-member of the Indian Association of Women's Studies (IAWS, founded 1982). Thereafter she was Senior Fellow at CWDS and JP Naik National Fellow, ICSSR for two years. From 1996 to 2005 she was the Chairperson, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi.

She published her memoir, Memories of a Rolling Stone in 2010. [Reviews: Subhashini Ali: The third factor, Frontline, Volume 27 - Issue 15, July 17-30, 2010 ; 

Pamela Philipose: Vina Mazumdar's Rolling Story, October 30, 2010; Vina Mazumdar, the fighter, Times of India, June 5, 2010

Bibliography 

• Education & social change: three studies on nineteenth century India. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1972.
• Role of rural women in development. University of Sussex. Institute of Development Studies. Allied Publishers, 1978.
• Symbols of power: studies on the political status of women in India. Allied, 1979.
• Women and rural transformation: two studies with Rekha Mehra, Kunjulekshmi Saradamoni. ICSSR. Centre for Women's Development Studies. Pub. Concept, 1983.
• Emergence of the Women's Question in India and the Role of Women's Studies. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 1985.
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission. Centre for Women's Development Studies. 1988.
• Peasant Women Organise for Empowerment: The Bankura Experiment. Centre for Women's Development Studies. 1989.
• Women workers in India: studies in employment and status, with Leela Kasturi, Sulabha Brahme, Renana Jhabvala. ICSSR. Chanakya Publications, 1990.ISBN 978-81-70010-73-9.
• Women and Indian nationalism, with Leela Kasturi. Vikas Pub. House, 1994. ISBN 978-81-70010-73-9.
• Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women's Movement in India, 1970s–1990s, with Indu Agnihotri. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXX No. 29, March 04, 1995
• Political Ideology of the Women's Movement's Engagement with Law. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 2000.
• Face to face with rural women: CWDS' search for new knowledge and an interventionist role. Centre for Women's Development Studies, 2002.
• The Mind and the Medium. Explorations in the Evolution of British Imperial Policy in India. Three Essays Collective. 2010. ISBN 978-81-88789-64-X
• Memories of a Rolling Stone. Zubaan Books. 2010. ISBN 978-81-89884-52-9.