Gauri Bazaz Malik

From Philosopedia

Malik, Gauri Bazaz (20th Century)

Malik is President of the Indian Renaissance Institute. At a 1995 conference of humanists in India, Dr. Malik spoke of women’s issues in South Asia. She thought that the world was awakening to the position of the poor and illiterate, of which women with their children are the major part. This region has been a male-dominated part of the world. “Crushing poverty,” she explained, “overlaid with longstanding patterns of discrimination create conditions for women which threaten their well-being, curtail their social, political, economic rights, and limit their opportunities.” As a result, she reported that agriculture constitutes the livelihood of eighty to ninety percent of South Asia and women undertake the greater part of this work. Because of a tradition of women’s playing a full part in the Vedic tradition and in the early part of the nationalist movement, there has been a continuing loss of women’s status. The dowry system means that mothers abort or kill girl children to avoid a large payment on marriage. Population control is necessary but should be brought about in an enlightened way. She said, “A mass campaign for literacy, land reform, health education, which would have ensured an overall development and education, would check the population in a natural way.” Quoting Gandhi, she continued, “ ‘Prejudices cannot be removed by legislation. They yield only to patient toil and education.’ The Beijing U.N. Conference for women in September 1995 identified and highlighted education as the field for NGOs who work at the grassroots level. It is only through them,” she concluded, “that integrated human development can have a future.”

{New Humanist, February 1996}