{"id":5989,"date":"2011-09-10T23:07:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T17:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.posterwomen.org\/?p=5989"},"modified":"2011-11-14T02:49:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-13T21:19:17","slug":"kondaveeti-satyavati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.posterwomen.org\/?p=5989","title":{"rendered":"Kondaveeti Satyavati"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in a large joint family of more than a hundred members, with illiterate parents, who were marginal farmers. Like many women in the early fifties, I faced hurdles in my life, and completed High School, majoring in Sanskrit. I used to walk about 10 km a day to go to school. I did my graduation with the subjects Politics, history and English literature and completed my post-graduation in political science.<\/p>\n

I am an atheist and atheism is a way of life for me.<\/p>\n

I migrated to the State capital in search of a job and after some petty private jobs, joined the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission in 1979, as an Office Assistant. Iwas an active member of the Andhra Pradesh NGO Association and successfully procured Government orders extending maternity leave from 90 days to 120 days. In 1995, after taking the competitive examination, I was appointed as a Tahasiladar.<\/p>\n

Since the eighties I have been participating and contributing my inputs in many National Level Women Conferences and Women Studies Conferences.<\/p>\n

I have been actively participating on various issues pertaining to women and among them was the formation of a dowry death committee in the 1980s which has been a milestone in the crusade against the loopholes in law, dowry harassments, dowry deaths, equal pay for equal work, price raise, equal job opportunities, issues concerning single women and many other such crucial issues. The A.P women raised their voices alongside fellow Indian women against gender discrimination. In the process, the women activists paved way for the emergence of many women centered NGOs which advocated the cause of women by way of counseling, training, capacity building, networking, research, documentation, women\u2019s studies etc.,<\/p>\n

Another milestone has been the active involvement and participation in various movements and agitations that have occurred in the State. The first one is about the anti-arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh, grown out of the inspiration gained by women in adult literacy classes. In 1992, women of Dubagunta village in Nellore, one of the poor drought prone districts of Southern Andhra Pradesh, organized an agitation to force the closure of the arrack (liquor) shops in that village and this movement spread to all parts of Andhra Pradesh. The experience, however, gave the women\u2019s groups in Andhra Pradesh new confidence and power to check the alcohol abuse by men in their families, and to prevent domestic violence by alcoholic husbands. I was part of this important movement and visited the villages along with the Anveshi team and wrote a report in the first issue of Bhumika.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was part of starting the first feminist bulletin \u2018LOHITHA\u2019 in 1989 in Telugu, which ran successfully for two years.<\/p>\n

In 1993, the first feminist magazine in Andhra Pradesh, Bhumika \u2018Streevada Patrika\u2019, \u00a0was started with the help of Anveshi Research Centre for Women Studies. Since then I have been its founder editor. It is a long standing journal of its kind with a circulation of 5,000 and readership of more than 20,000.<\/p>\n

The bridging of knowledge from the macro to micro level through articles on women\u2019s issues, the translation of papers\/articles from English to Telugu on feminism or feminist theory, and connecting it to lived realities of women\u2019s lives is key factor with potential for promoting gender equality.<\/p>\n

Streevada Patrika aspires:<\/p>\n