022-220 88837
NEP 2020

Reaccredited by NAAC,

Awarded ‘A’ Grade

Reaccredited by NAAC, Awarded ‘A’ Grade

SNDT

Avabai Women’s Archive (AWA)

"Dr. Avabai and Dr. Bomanji Khurshedji Wadia" Archive for Women

“Dr. Avabai and Dr. Bomanji Khurshedji Wadia” Archive for Women is launched by the Research Centre for Women’s Studies with a generous bequest made under the terms of Dr. Avabai Wadia’s Will. The programme commemorates the lives of women who leave an indelible mark in history and made a difference to the lives of other women.

It aims to preserve sheaves of women’s history and will facilitate research, organize conferences / seminars and develop a vigorous publication programme. The idea is to overcome the current invisibility of women in documented history and challenge the politics of “knowledge construction” that erases the stories of those women who ask uncomfortable questions about the established social order. In essence, the Archive will strengthen and expand the specialized role of the RCWS in preserving women’s knowledge and histories.

Know More

Guidelines for AWA Fellowship

Click here
Vision

To create an archive on women that will enable the reconstruction of women’s history resonating in multiple voices towards the realization of gender equality and justice. ​​​​​​

Mission

To retrieve, create, preserve, transmit and make accessible, knowledge of women’s lives both historical and contemporary for scholars, students, activists and others, with a view to integrate their hitherto silenced voices in the evening of history, in the teaching and research of various discipline, in social action, policy making, public discourse and popular culture.

AIM

To undertake all such activities that will create an inclusive historical paradigm and recognize the achievements, courage and struggles of woman in various walks of life and from different strata of society.

 
Objectives

  • To preserve and conserve in original/digital form, as may be appropriate, through the use of relevant technology

  • To contextualize and organize (through cataloguing, classification and other devices) the above, in order to facilitate research on and documentation of women’s lives.

  • To create appropriate infrastructure to enable access and reference to primary historical documents/papers for teaching and research by the user community.

  • To retrieve information on women from published and unpublished documents and other source materials.

  • To create new resources by recording narratives and other archival materials in audio, visual and written formats.

  • To accept on request, the responsibility of archiving other collections if appropriate to the mandate of AWA and if supported by appropriate grants.

  • To network with other organizations with similar goals so as to optimize resources and their use.

Division of AWA collection

AWA collection can be broadly classified into following three categories:

  1. Founder’s archival collection: Dr. Avabai Wadia’s Collection 

    This contains a variety of materials pertaining to Dr. Avabai Wadia’s personal life. AWA has 172 books from her personal collection. Photographs, manuscripts as well as letters, personal greetings are part of archive collection. The collection also has medals and souvenirs of Dr. Avabai Wadia. We are also the repository of her Padmashri and Padma Vibhushan awards.

  2. Continuing collection: Research Fellowship Collection

    Every year, three fellowships are awarded and are contributing major part in collection development policy at AWA. These research fellowship candidates are selected after scrutinizing applications and later called for personal interviews by Working Committee members of AWA.

    Research Fellowships are granted to researchers who aim at retrieving and / or generating archival material in following subjects:

    • Lives of Twentieth century pioneering women who had contributed to Gender Justice, Health, Liberal Arts, Women’s Education, Women’s Empowerment, Women’s Entrepreneurs

    • Women’s organizations, campaigns and emancipator struggles of women

    • Women’s contribution in any other field

    AWA has awarded 22 fellowships (scroll down for complete List of Fellowships) from the year 2010 to 2022 and has extensive archival material such as oral histories, audio video interviews, historical photographs, summaries, unpublished documents, letters, songs, and documentaries which are archived in digitized format. It has diversified coverage in women’s field such as feminist voices, women activists’ experiences, biographical monograph, women and health, empowerment, women’s organizations namely MASS, FORUM, Jyotisangh, etc.
     
  3. Other Collection

    This includes collection of Aviation project (collection of first woman pilot in India), Majlis NGO legal documents, Indian Association of Women’s Studies (IAWS) archive collection, etc.

Complete list of AWA fellowship awarded from the year 2010:

YearName of fellowship awarded
2009-10
  1. Dr. Meena Gopal: 

    Subject :Archiving campaign women’s health movement
     
  2. Prof. Kamala Ganesh:

    Subject: Legacy of Excellence and Outreach: Archiving The Cancer Institute (Women’s Indian Association), Chennai.
     
  3. Dr. Rohini Sahani:

    Subject: From nobody to somebody : Journey of women in prostitution and their health concerns post -HIV.
2011-12
  1. Ara Johanne:

    Subject:     Traditional midwives in informal Urban Settlements of Mumbai city.
     
  2. Dr. Aparna Nair:

    Subject: Midwifery practices in Malabar Kerala.
     
2014-15
  1. Dr. Nandita Saldanha:

    Subject: Legacy of Empowerment and Outreach: Archiving the work of Dr. Armida Fernandez and SNEHA: the NGO Founded by her.
2017-18

  1. Dr. Sneha Gole:

    Subject: Archiving “young” feminist voices: Documenting new pathways of being and becoming feminist.

  2. Dr. Jaswandi Wamburkar

    Subject: Retrieving the past: case study of five female singers in the field of music.

  3. Dr. Anita Ghai:

    Subject: Archiving disability in women’s movement: women activist of 60s and early 70s in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.

     

2018-19
  1. Dr. Darshana Padia:

    Subject: History & Present work of organization: Jyotisangh, Ahmadabad, and Gujarat. Organization founded by Ms.Mrudula Sarabhai.
     
  2. Lavanya Shanbhogue Arvind:

    Subject: To locate, retrieve, record and generate archival material that documents the historical formation of the women’s organization MASS (Mahila Abhivruddhi Mattu Samrakshana Samsthe) that was a result of collectivization of over 3700 former Devadasis in the Belgaum district of Karnataka.
2019-20
  1. Dr. Shweta Sachdeva Jha:

    Subject: Women in/of Miranda House: Histories of College Women in Delhi.
     
  2. Prof. Aishika Chakraborty:

    Subject: Archiving Miss Shefali: Documenting the voice and journey of the first Bengali Cabaret Dancer of India.
2020-21
  1. Ms. Amrita Howledar:

    Subject:     Archival material of organization Forum Against Oppression of Women.
     
  2. Dr. Manav KR Ghosh:

    Subject: An audio-visual documentation of women activists’ experience in the organized left politics of Kolkata.
     
  3. Dr. Smita Patil:

    Subject: To understand the genealogy of Dalit Women entrepreneurs and social context of Indian entrepreneurship.
2021-22
  1. Dr. Abhijeet Banerjee:

    Subject: A Body of Her Own: Contemporary Women Gurus in the Sahajiya Cult of Bengal.
     
  2. Dr. Padma Praklash :

    Subject: Proposal for researching and writing a biographical monograph of
    Dr. Alamela Venkatraman.
     
  3. Dr. Sangeeta Thosar:

    Subject: Archiving Women’s Voice: a Feminist Study of Satyashodhak Grameen Kashtakari Mahila Sabha.

Click on following link to access collection during University office timings: 

http://14.139.113.147/Archives

  • Bibliographic information about the AWA collection has been provided.

  • We have provided teaser for audio-videos files to understand essential content in these files.

  • We request you to contact RCWS AWA Archive to have full access any audio-video files/pdf/photographs or any other types of archival materials.

Contact Details: 

email address: sndtawaarchives@gmail.com

wpChatIcon
wpChatIcon