THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Solitude is not a luxury, but a necessity for creativity. But for creative women, often held in house arrest by domestic chores, it’s a luxury they can seldom afford.
While ‘privileged’ men can easily shift to the privacy of a lodge, hotel room or an independent house away from the madding crowd, doing so is still a risky affair for women. Rooms that creative women can claim to be their own are what the Writers’ Village to be set up at the Gender Park, Kozhikode, promises.
The work on the village with eight cottages will be finished once the first phase of the gender park—an initiative of the Social Justice Department (SJD)—coming up at five-and-a-half acres of land at Vellimadukunnu is completed. “I have visited writers like M T Vasudevan Nair at lodge rooms when they were engaged in writing. Then I wondered what if a woman wanted to have privacy to write. Thus came the idea, which is the first of its kind by a government in the country,” said M K Muneer, Minister for Social Welfare. The work on the first phase is to be completed in a year.
The Writers’ Village will also have space for creation of art works and sculptures and a convention centre, where women can rehearse and stage plays. A museum to showcase the talents of women who made their mark in various fields, including Captain Lakshmi, litterateur Madhavikutty and missile scientist Tessy Thomas, would be a major attraction. There would also be a library and a memorial for women who fought for women empowerment and causes of humanity. While the cottages will be provided free of cost, the convention centre would be made available on payment of a fee. The SJD had made it mandatory that there should be a woman architect in the team chosen for design of the gender park. A company based in Kozhikode which fulfilled the criteria has now been selected.