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While controversies surrounding the Kolkata Book Fair piled up high as the garbage on the fair grounds, a significant book release reiterated the focus of the Fair.

Sage’s The Changing Status of Women in West Bengal 1970 – 2000. The credentials that went into its making, launched by Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, are impeccable. Edited by Jasodhara Bagchi, chairperson, West Bengal Commission for Women and founder director of the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, it includes women from varied academic backgrounds. Dipali Nag, Vidya Munshi, Nirmala Banerjee, Malini Bhattacharya, Jaba Guha, Mitreya Ghatak, Ishita Mukhopadhyay: the academic interests could hardly be more diverse in this state.

The work is a unique study of three decades that have witnessed by far the most apparent changes in the visibility, status and social relevance of women in the country, and this book promises to be an important reference point.

Result of several years of compilation and analysis, the study looks at several parameters that may assess status. Demography, health and nutrition, education, economic, political and cultural participation, violence against women and the safeguards in the eyes of law, and finally, the lives of tribal women. It is replete with tables and one cannot help be impressed with the compilation in spite of the old warning, "statistics can be telling. Or they can be telling tales."

Perhaps one of the most significant chapters here would be the one on policy recommendations. If readers are looking for pathbreaking pointers, some may be a trifle disappointed. At the same time, even though it can be comforting to dwell on achievements, this book takes an honest look at the scope for improvement with objective pointers through the chapters. For instance, facts like, "Dowry, which was not prevalent even a generation ago among Muslims, is now a deterrent towards educating Muslim girls."

Or take Health and Nutrition. "In West Bengal," the study found, "less than half of the children aged 12 – 23 months appear to be fully immunized. Therefore the drive for child immunization has to be vigorously sustained till full covereage is achieved..."

Study groups have been known to have their pre-dispositions, perceived or otherwise, but these pointers, throughout the book, are heartening indicators of an earnest and dispassionate effort. They are, at the same time, realities that Asim Dasgupta, who threw several other study possibilities at the team, may want his government to address. After all, this is a state, unlike any other in the country, where there has been one stable government for virtually most of the length of the study.

A rather effusive Dasgupta asked for the book to be translated into Hindi and, crucially, Nepali. On the face of it, the suggestion seems worthy of kudos, specially to make our Nepali-speaking sisters feel more a part of West Bengal. But as they have often pointed out, one found little to reflect that their peculiar problems have been studied minutely. Even the chapter on tribal women studies plains tribes. Or did one overlook mention, for instance, of the kanchhi system or the bhagauni practise?