International Women’s Day and tributes to the legacy of Dr. Hansa Mehta (1897-1995)

By
Nisha Sahai Achuthan, Special to News India Times
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On March 7, the Permanent Mission of India (PMI) and the UN, paid tributes to the contributions of a trailblazing feminist

As a finale to their last meeting at Hunter College, the Sub-commission on the Status of Women hold a press conference in the delegates lounge of the gym building. Left to Right: Angela Jurdak (Lebanon), Fryderyka Kalinowski (Poland), Bodgil Begtrup (Denmark), Minerva Bernardino (Dominican Republic), and Hansa Mehta (India), delegates to the Sub-commission on the Status of Women, New York, May 1946. UN Photo

On March 7, the PMI and UN organized the third annual Dr. Hansa Mehta Memorial Lecture at the UN, the theme of which was; “Global South and Women’s Leadership- Hansa Mehta Framework for Inclusive Diplomacy.”

Ambassador P. Harish, Permanent Representative, in his welcome remarks, recalled “Dr. Mehta’s approach to inclusive diplomacy and the relevance of India’s civilizational vision of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” [the whole world is one family] in today’s divisive world.”
Business leader, philanthropist and Grammy Award winner, Chandrika Tandon—who needs no introduction—in her keynote address, “focused on the power and purpose of mind and life,” also highlighting that Dr. Mehta “continued to inspire many women across the world.”

Permanent Representatives of Qatar, Malawi and Netherlands, “projected the instrumental role of Dr. Mehta in incorporating gender-neutral language in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [UDHR]”

Dr. Mehta, who was the only other woman delegate (1947-48) to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights(UNHCR), along with  Eleanor Roosevelt—who was the Chair—credited with changing the language in Article 1 of the UDHR from “all men are born free and equal” to “all human beings are born free and equal”,  thereby  highlighting the underlying principles of  gender equality, neutrality and inclusivity. 

UN Secretary General, Guterres in his speech at the celebration of 70 years of the UDHR paid her a tribute by saying: “without her, we would literally be speaking of the Rights of Man rather than Human Rights.” In 1950 Mehta went on to become the vice chairman of the UNHCR, and later on a member of the executive board of UNESCO.
Hansa Mehta’s pioneering role in championing the rights of women in India in the preceding years and her proven skills in drafting related documents would have undoubtedly contributed to her selection as a delegate to the UNHCR.
As President of the All India Women’s Conference, in her address in 1946 at the convention held in Hyderabad, Mehta had proposed a Charter of Women’s Rights, and thereafter as one of three women who drafted the charter, she had included the provision that women have equal rights in access to education, voting, pay, and property.
In 1946, her efforts and those of others paved the way for the setting up of the U.N Commission on the Status of Women. In the same year, when the Constituent Assembly for the Indian Constitution was set up in 1946, Hansa Mehta was one of the first eleven women in the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution, as a representative of the then State of Bombay.
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She was also a member of its Advisory Committee and Sub Committee on Fundamental Rights.

Such was the role and legacy of Hansa Mehta both in India and abroad as a pioneering feminist.

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Nisha Sahai Achuthan, Ph.D, is a retired member of the Indian Administrative Service and currently a New York-based consultant, researcher and activist on women’s empowerment, sustainable development, and the performing arts.

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