Eminent feminist activist Kamla Bhasin passed away in the early hours of Saturday after battling cancer. She was 75. Born in 1946 in Shahidanwaali village in Punjab (now in Pakistan).
Bhasin, an poet and author & women’s rights activist in India and South Asia since the 1970s, was best known for her work with Sangat: A Feminist Network and her poem Kyunki main ladki hoon, mujhe padhna hai.
After working with a rural non-governmental organisation called Seva Mandir based in Udaipur for four years, Bhasin joined the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 1976 тАФ a job she retired from in 2002. In 2004, she set up Sangat, a South Asian Feminist Network supported by Delhi-based feminist resource group Jagori that Bhasin set up with other feminists.
The chant of ‘Azaadi’ which echoed across protest sites in the country is said to have been popularised by Bhasin as a feminist slogan against patriarchy.
Bhasin is survived by a son, Jeet and four siblings including former Rajasthan politician Bina Kak.
