The month of August, on 28th and 29th, 2011, saw a meeting of all the Directors of the different women’s Studies Centres across India, come to a common platform at the Centre for Women’s Studies in the University of Hyderabad. This was for the first time that any such event was being organized. Women’s Studies in India as a discipline have grown out of a concrete historical fact of the oppression and explorations of women and their struggle for liberation. By and large, academic scholarship had either ignored women, assumed their experiences were same as men( thereby overlooking the importance of gender as a dimension of analysis) or treated them as deviant, Hence, in the 1980’s the University Grants Commission(UGC), helped in establishing women’s studies in Indian Universities and Colleges as a critical instrument for social and academic development that will help in conscientising both men and women by helping them to understand, recognize and acknowledge the multi-dimensional roles played by women in society. Today the Women’s Studies Centers in different Universities are designed to act as catalysts for promoting and strengthening women’s empowerment through teaching, research, action, field work and extension. Based on their maturity, these Centers are divided into three different phases. Hence there are 28 Centers in Phase 1, 12 Centers in Phase 2 and 119 Centres in Phase 3. For the first time there was an attempt to bring together all these Centres on a common platform to help them play key role in strengthening the women’s studies programme in the country. The meeting focused on issues such as strengthening these Centres, mentoring, and sharing of experiences and hands holding of the newer centres.
I welcomed the gathering and spoke about the unique cultural heritage of Hyderabad. I mentioned how the old city still continues to be vibrant and during this month of Ramzan is a beehive of activity where the hyderabadi tehzeeb developed over the centuries by the Ganga-Jamuna culture finds expression. Hyderabad – also referred as The City of Nawabs, is a perfect combination of traditional and modern outlook. The meeting was inaugurated by the key note address by Professor Uma Charkravarthy, who gave a historical background of the establishment of these Centres and spoke of the challenges they faced. Prof. Ram Ramaswamy the Vice Chancellor of the University spoke about his edited book, with Rohini Godbole, Lilavati’s Daughters: The first idea was to put together a collection of biographical sketches of influential Indian women scientists of earlier generations, to underline the fact that it is possible to find role modelswithin the country; one does not have to look only towards the Curies, the Franklins and the Hodgkins (impressive scientists though they all are) to find women scientists of substance. They felt that it was important, especially for young girls with research ambitions, to know of women who functioned and achieved their goals in the Indian social and academic environment.
This was followed by a dance performance by ‘Srishti’ which comprises of alumni and students of Dance Department, SN School in the University of Hyderabad. In ‘Srishti’ they try and experiment with the physicality and technicality of Dance as well as the combination and permutations of the classical and contemporary techniques of dance. "Still I Rise" which was performed was a compilation of six dance pieces through which they attempt to discuss women centric issues. Their endeavor was to bring in the issues related to female infanticide, the kind of pain, stress and humiliation that a woman undergoes and also about the ‘muted silence’ that is maintained throughout Her life. They tried to interpret some of the poems of Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Airyn R. Lentija.
The next day discussion on mentoring and issues of clustering, took place. As the number of Phase I WSCs was very large and the intention was to create a support mechanism for the development of the Phase I centers, they were divided into zonal groups, such as southern zone, Western Zone, Eastern Zone and Northern Zone. Each of these groups was facilitated by some of the senior WSC representatives. Many research ideas were toyed with- on the girl child, gender and media, women’s development, the SHG movement, rising violence against women, etc. The meeting discussed plans for the future. It was decided for the creation of a Google group. As many Centers were offering courses on WS, it was decided to prepare a compendium of the course outlines and reading materials. All the participants were very keen to have a collaborative research project as this would also be a way of building research capability across the centers. Many issues were suggested, but finally the group decided that a zonal study on Women, development and violence would be most relevant given the fact that while on the one hand the southern states have been in the forefront of the development process in the country, troubling gender discrimination and gender based violence continues in many ways. The meeting ended with a positive note and it was hoped that this dialogue would continue in future also.
The month of August, on 28th and 29th, 2011, saw a meeting of all the Directors of the different women’s Studies Centres across India, come to a common platform at the Centre for Women’s Studies in the University of Hyderabad. This was for the first time that any such event was being organized. Women’s Studies in India as a discipline have grown out of a concrete historical fact of the oppression and explorations of women and their struggle for liberation. By and large, academic scholarship had either ignored women, assumed their experiences were same as men( thereby overlooking the importance of gender as a dimension of analysis) or treated them as deviant, Hence, in the 1980’s the University Grants Commission(UGC), helped in establishing women’s studies in Indian Universities and Colleges as a critical instrument for social and academic development that will help in conscientising both men and women by helping them to understand, recognize and acknowledge the multi-dimensional roles played by women in society. Today the Women’s Studies Centers in different Universities are designed to act as catalysts for promoting and strengthening women’s empowerment through teaching, research, action, field work and extension. Based on their maturity, these Centers are divided into three different phases. Hence there are 28 Centers in Phase 1, 12 Centers in Phase 2 and 119 Centres in Phase 3. For the first time there was an attempt to bring together all these Centres on a common platform to help them play key role in strengthening the women’s studies programme in the country. The meeting focused on issues such as strengthening these Centres, mentoring, and sharing of experiences and hands holding of the newer centres. 
I welcomed the gathering and spoke about the unique cultural heritage of Hyderabad. I mentioned how the old city still continues to be vibrant and during this month of Ramzan is a beehive of activity where the hyderabadi tehzeeb developed over the centuries by the Ganga-Jamuna culture finds expression. Hyderabad – also referred as The City of Nawabs, is a perfect combination of traditional and modern outlook. The meeting was inaugurated by the key note address by Professor Uma Charkravarthy, who gave a historical background of the establishment of these Centres and spoke of the challenges they faced. Prof. Ram Ramaswamy the Vice Chancellor of the University spoke about his edited book, with Rohini Godbole, Lilavati’s Daughters: The first idea was to put together a collection of biographical sketches of influential Indian women scientists of earlier generations, to underline the fact that it is possible to find role modelswithin the country; one does not have to look only towards the Curies, the Franklins and the Hodgkins (impressive scientists though they all are) to find women scientists of substance. They felt that it was important, especially for young girls with research ambitions, to know of women who functioned and achieved their goals in the Indian social and academic environment. 
This was followed by a dance performance by ‘Srishti’ which comprises of alumni and students of Dance Department, SN School in the University of Hyderabad. In ‘Srishti’ they try and experiment with the physicality and technicality of Dance as well as the combination and permutations of the classical and contemporary techniques of dance. "Still I Rise" which was performed was a compilation of six dance pieces through which they attempt to discuss women centric issues. Their endeavor was to bring in the issues related to female infanticide, the kind of pain, stress and humiliation that a woman undergoes and also about the ‘muted silence’ that is maintained throughout Her life. They tried to interpret some of the poems of Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Airyn R. Lentija.
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