THE MODERN GIRL IN CHANGING INDIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 293, 10 December 1937, Page 11

THE MODERN GIRL IN CHANGING INDIA.

Women Advance in Many Activities. The modern girl constitutes a problem in India. Miss K. H. Rivett. at the reception arranged in her honour at the Young Women's Christian Association in Melbourne recently, told how a group of Bengali women, alarmed at the way their daughters were "progressing," arranged for a discussion on changing modes and manners to occupy the whole of one morning at the recent women's conference in their State, when a manne-

quin parade of Indian fashion* through the years was arranged for the delegates' bene tit. After various phases, when -the influence of the Western fashions was alternately felt and ignored, the prevailing mode amongst Bengali women to-day was a sari with a gay "scenery" border that usually flaunted different representations of different phases of village life. Thits. fashion, Miss Kivett said, could'l>o. counted indicative of the way India was turning her attention to the villages and the villagers, and" the fact that another type of sari, with a "toddy" border that pictured an Indian drinking the intoxicant made from the toddy tree, wan becoming increasingly popular, might be taken as a sign that the women were> supporting Gandhi's prohibition campaign.

The fact that buses now had special seats carefully reserved for women— and, more significant, that the men respected this reservation— was another indication ol the changed attitude toward* women in India, Misa Rivett continued, while more striking still was the inclusion of a woman in the Cabinet as Minister of Health. Three provinces had women as deputy Speakers, and two as deputy leaders in hearth and education, problems in which women were playing an important role. "Women are giving the lead in the struggle against the examination machine, which is degrading education into a wild scramble for certificates," Miss Rivett commented, and she referred, too, to the part women's organisations were playing in securing' a veto on women working underground in the mines—and in very practical manner, seeking to find othqr jobs for the displaced workers.