Y.W.C.A. AND INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 22, 26 July 1945, Page 10

Y.W.C.A. AND INDIA

RECEPTION FOR MISS JEAN STEVENSON

At a reception given by the Wellington Y.W.C.A. yesterday afternoon, in honour of Miss Jean Stevenson, formerly national general secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in New Zealand, a large audience heard an enlightening talk en India and her problems. ' .

It was as the champion of the industrial girl that Miss Stevenson would' bo longest remembered, said. Mrs.-J. S. Hannah, who presided. One of her greatest . contributions to . Y.W.C.A. work had been her identification with work for industrial extension wherever she had gone. She had also been one of the first promoters of the business and professional women's clubs.

To members of the. Y.W.C.A., who were one family scattered in many places, the international, relationship was a concrete thing, said Miss Stevenson. She drew a vivid contrast, illustrated by her own experiences, between the more superficial impressions gathered and contacts made when travelling as a tourist and when living in different lands as a Y.W.C.A. worker.

WORK FOR THE ANGLO-INDIAN

The Y.W.CA. in Calcutta, which was one of the most Europeanised of the Indian associations, had been of great service to the Anglo-Indian girl, she said. A commercial school, begun by people with a sense of responsibility towards these girls, taught them to earn their own living, and the most esteemed and important employers came there for their workers. A large hostel had also been provided to house Anglo-Indian, Anglo-Burmese. and 'Burmese.

Miss Stevenson -explained some of the difficulties and differences of the caste system relating particularly it customs and food. She had learnpo. she said, that one of the most obnoxious things one could do to an Indian girl was to ask her to eat European food. In Calcutta there had besn a great need for a hostel for Indian girls who were rushing to train for telephone and telegraph work, for which they received the old. low rate of pay of (50 rupees (about £5 ITis') a month. Those cheaper jobs na:i been made available through the trained Anglo-Indian girls taking up war work for which soaring wages were paid.

COSMOPOLITAN CLUB

In Calcutta the Y.W.C.A ran a Cosmopolitan Club which was an important factor in drawing together women of "different' communities." "Among its members were the Parse'e women who were so advanced and so, ready to adapt themselves to modern 'ways that if one were not careful all the? leaders would be Parsees, said Miss Stevenson. They spoke good English and were easy to get on with. The Mohammedan women arrived at the club veiled and in their curtained ghouris. . ■

■'I don't think any modern Mohammedan lady really likes wearing her veil, although she irwiy think it a duty to do so," said Miss Stevenson. It was an unusual thing in India for so many different people" to meet together oil the same social footing. Another .interesting feature 'of the Calcutta Association was a • business: girls' club which had been operating for the past. 20 years and which, had it:i own sick and needy insurance fund for members. "In India there aro no social security or other benefits." said Miss Stevenson, ''and if you don't, look after your own family," no one else will." ,

Y.W.CA. A COMMON PLATFOBM,

The welding together of six or seven different strains in the British race had produced a people that was uniform, said Miss Stevenson in discussing the caste system, which complicated thp pattern of life in India and made work difficult. "Here the Y.W.C.A. i> able to act as a common platform," she said, "ignoring caste distinction in the real human needs of different kinds of people." In spite of these problems, a unified India was. she feJt sure, a vision of. the people. There was nothing the girls liked so much as; the formation of a tableau illustrating Mother India and the unity of her races. They were, however, ■ not yet ready to make the necessary sacrifices of cherished traditions to 'bring thif unity into practice.

THE COLOUR FEELING

Miss' Stevenson contended that it would be necessary before problems were solved, to get rid of the colour feeling which was found even in India. Far more harm, she considered, har] been done to our relations with India by the little social slights than by political blunders.