Ilina Sen

Ilina Sen (Hindi: इलीना सेन) was a human rights, trade union and feminist activist, as well as a teacher and author associated with the women's movement in India[1]. She passed away[2] on August 9, 2020 at the age of 69[3], after battling cancer for several years[4].

Professor

Ilina Sen
Dr. Ilina Sen
Died9 August 2020
OccupationActivist, Teacher, Author
Spouse(s)Binayak Sen
Children2

Career

In 2004, Ilina started teaching at the Mahatama Gandhi Antarashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalya in Wardha, where she joined as faculty in 2007. While at Wardha, she was the organising secretary of the Indian Association of Women's Studies (IAWS) conference in 2011 and then in Guwahati in February, 2014,[5] during which she was also President of the IAWS[6].

In 2009, Ilina Sen went back to academics and taught at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra before moving to Mumbai to teach at the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences[7][8]. She was a Senior Fellow in the Nehru Memorial Library from July 2013 to July 2015.[5]

Activism in Chhattisgarh

In the early 1980s, Ilina moved to Chattisgarh with her partner Binayak Sen, to work among the peoples of an adivasi movement[9]. Initially, Sen was involved with sustainable development to ensure the preservation of seed and rice varieties[1]. She then started working in the trade union started by Shankar Guha Niyogi[1] where she spent many years and worked with trade unions, adivasis and the underprivileged[9][10].

The couple spent many years working in rural Madhya Pradesh and were associated with an independent union of workers in the iron ore mining belt of the then Madhya Pradesh, called the Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangatan (CMSS)[4]. They also worked with the Shaheed hospital of the CMSS, to provide healthcare within a working-class movement[4].

She campaigned for wrongful arrests of advasi men from central India and also battled for the release of Binayak[11], who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court of Chattisgarh on charges of sedition and assisting Maoists or Naxalites[10]. Binayak was eventually released in 2011[12]. She is also remembered for her work at the NGO, Rupantar which became a role model of alternative healthcare in remote areas[9].

Published Work

In 1990, Ilina Sen authored a book called "A space within the struggle"[13] on women's participation in people's movements. She followed that with two books on Chattisgarh, Inside Chhattisgarh – A Political Memoir[14] and The Migrant Woman of Chhattisgarh[7];

gollark: The total traffic probably sums to terabits or more and could not possibly go through some servers.
gollark: That would be... bad.
gollark: They route between them with something something BGP.
gollark: As far as I know, at a larger scale the internet is composed of a bunch of interconnecting ASes and not hierarchical.
gollark: I... don't think that's how internet routing works, but I don't really know.

References
  1. "Ilina Sen As We Knew Her: A Tribute from WSS". Countercurrents. 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  2. Aug 10, TNN /; 2020; Ist, 06:00. "Activist Ilina, wife of Binayak Sen, passes away | Kolkata News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2020-08-12.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. Staff, Scroll. "Activist and academic Ilina Sen dies at 69". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  4. "Social Activist, Academic and Author Ilina Sen Passes Away". The Wire. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  5. "Ilina Sen As We Knew Her: A Tribute from WSS". Countercurrents. 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  6. "Essay: A tribute to Ilina Sen". hindustantimes.com. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  7. "Ilina Sen Symbolised Courage, Empathy And Selflessness". https://www.outlookindia.com/. Retrieved 2020-08-12. External link in |website= (help)
  8. "Binayak Sen". The Week. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  9. "Social activist and author Ilina Sen passes away". The Indian Express. 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  10. "Activist, academic & author Ilina Sen passes away". The Bengal Story - English. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  11. "Ilina talks tough". Hindustan Times. 2011-03-25. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  12. Venkatesan, J. (2011-04-15). "Binayak Sen gets bail in Supreme Court". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  13. Sen, Ilina (1990). A Space Within the Struggle: Women's Participation in People's Movements. Kali for Women. ISBN 978-81-85107-20-2.
  14. "[Book Review] Inside Chhattisgarh: A Political Memoir". India Resists. 2015-02-08. Retrieved 2020-08-12.

External Resources
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