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'Kudimagal' enters Tamil dictionary

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai April 29. In what the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, described as "historic" orders establishing women's rights, the Tamil Nadu Government has ushered in kudimagal (feminine gender for citizen) in the official Tamil dictionary and feminised the choice of initials.

Three days after she announced a movement to popularise the word kudimagal, the Chief Minister today declared in the Assembly that her Government had "created a new history", "changing a situation in which women did not even have an exclusive word to describe her (citizenship)".

In effect, women Ministers, elected representatives and officers can now take oath as kudimagal, instead of as kudimagan. And, government orders, communique, statements, officialese, and school and college books would use the word to refer to a woman `citizen'.

Making the suo motu announcement, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that generally it was asked "what's in a name". But "if we cannot even change the name what great reforms could we achieve"? The English language had a word "citizeness" to describe a woman but it went out of vogue and now the gender-neutral "citizen" was being used, she said.

In another announcement, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the School Education department yesterday issued an order allowing students to take the first letter of the mother's name as their initial.

While admitting their children to school, parents can give the first letter of the name of either the mother or the father or both their names as the initial of their ward, says the order, making it compulsory for all school admission application forms to include it. "History will describe today as the day the seeds of social renaissance were sown."

During her previous regime, she issued orders allowing students with no father to use the first letter of the name of the mother as initial.

However, the Congress fleader, S.R. Balasubramaniam, said there was never a bar on anyone choosing initials. For instance, even now some people took the first letter of the name of their native places as initial. And, the GO only gave official approval for such a practice. Immediately, the Speaker declared that the Chief Minister had indeed brought in a "social revolution" and "it is a milestone in women's development".

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