KOZHIKODE: While women writers resented the absence of women at the poets’ conference as part of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi's (KSA) 60th anniversary celebration, KSA claimed that it had invited its award winners only as guests and two women were featured in that list. The privileged two, could not make it to the function, and the dais appeared as if fully reserved for men. It was on June 10 and 11 that the poets’ conference was held at the Sahithya Akademi auditorium, Thrissur, as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations and there were no women poets on the dais.
There were discussions on social media platforms as to why women were not invited from Malayalam literature, as if the field was fully dominated by men. However, on Tuesday, Akademi vice-president and writer Dr Khadija Mumtaz cleared the air saying that this year, they put up a criteria to invite only Akademi award winners as guests and only two women featured in the list - Sugathakumari and Vijayalakshmi.
“Sugathakumari teacher informed that she was unwell and not in a position to travel and attend the function. We contacted Vijayalakshmi too. She also said that it was not convenient for her to attend the event. Women were not deliberately kept away from the function. In future, maybe, such criteria may not be in place,” she said. The Akademi had recently announced its decision to put up portraits of late women writers on its wall as currently only Balamani Amma’s portrait has found a place there.
