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Calcutta Club Opens Turf to Women

By sachiv1, Section News
Posted on Sat Apr 21, 2007 at 05:45:49 AM EST

No More Male Bastion:

Women to get full voting rights
Selection of candidature to begin soon
Only women who have excelled in their profession to get membership, says club president.

Finally, women can raise a toast with their male counterparts inside the Calcutta Club as the celebrated club today opened its doors to women members in its centenary year.

Membership at the club was till date open only to men.

The decision to include women members was taken at an open house, attended by 300-odd members and the authorities, including club president Dipak Mukherjee.

Mukherjee said the club's constitution does not state that membership should be restricted only to men. "Giving membership with full voting rights was more of a tradition. But it (the tradition) was becoming a baggage. We needed to get rid of it."

The result? Women can now not only order a drink or coffee but also enjoy all the rights and privileges of being a member of the Calcutta Club.

Mukherjee said he was toying with the idea of throwing open the membership for "quite some time". He called the decision in the centenary year as a "gift to the club".

He said members of the managing committee thrashed out the issue before it was taken to the club members for an open-house discussion. According to the club president, "involvement" of women members is significant to keep alive the social and cultural activities.

"Women cannot be denied the fundamental voting right," Mukherjee said, "and (from now) they will be placed on an equal footing with their male counterparts."

But he said the Calcutta Club would be "strict in the process of selection" of additional members. "Only those women who have excelled in their profession will be given the opportunity (of becoming members)," he said.

Mukherjee also said the Calcutta Club would initiate four scholarships for economically deprived students in the field of medicine, engineering, economics and liberal arts. The scholarships would be awarded for the first time this year.

Meanwhile, the club plans to amend its procedure of election, and has earmarked more than Rs 1 crore on its renovation project.

Women at present are allowed in the club only as guests of their husbands, not in their own right; and several women in the club are, as a result, jubilant at the decision taken today.

Not willing to be named, one Calcutta Club member for the past 15 years said, "Discrimination cannot be accepted on the pretext of tradition."

(Source- Indian Express,21/04/07 )

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