Veteran communist leader and former Lok Sabha member Roza Deshpande died of old age and prolonged chronic illness at her residence here on Saturday afternoon.
She was 91 and is survived by a son, daughter and grandchildren. She was the daughter of one of founders of the Communist Party of India Shripad Amrit Dange.
Roza, who was born a month after her father Dange was arrested in the Meerut conspiracy case and sentenced to life imprisonment, entered political movements through the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and Trade Unions. She also took part in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement (for the creation of the state of Maharashtra) and the Goa liberation struggle as an AISF member.
In 1964, she organised a massive demonstration of women from walks of life and submitted a charter of demands to the government. It was the first demonstration of its kind in the history of Bombay's labour movement, which forced the private firms to withdraw an objectionable clause of forcing women workers to resign after marriage.
Having organised the workers in drug, chemicals and pharmaceutical industry into one trade union, Roza went onto form an All India Pharmaceutical Employees’ Union and got it affiliated to the Chemical and Oil International of the World Federation of Trade Unions at Praha.
In 1974, Roza was elected to Lok Sabha from Bombay South-Central Constituency as a candidate of the Community Party of India. As an MP, she worked on the various committees associated with labour problems and women issues.
She was subsequently elected to the National Council of Communist Party of India.
During the Emergency, her father Dange and Roza stood firmly by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for which she was and her group was expelled from the CPI. Dange was also subsequently expelled from the CPI. This led to the formation of All India Communist Party of India, of which she was the general secretary. She was associated with the All India Communist Party of India from 1980 to 1987.
Ahead of the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, late Mrs Gandhi wanted her to explain her stand on certain issues to Mr Breznev, the then President of the erstwhile USSR. She specially sent Roza carrying her letter and had delivered it to Mr Breznev personally.
After she won the 1980 Lok Sabha elections with absolute majority, Mrs Gandhi offered Dange, Roza and her husband Bani Deshpande to contest the election with the support of the Congress (I) but they refused in protest, as the CPI disallowed Dange to contest the elections with Congress(I)’s support. However, Mrs Gandhi appointed Bani Deshpande on the manifesto committee of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress (I)
Later in 1990, the Maharashtra government appointed Roza as the head of the committee to study “Avenues for Women’s Employment” under the Equal Remuneration Act. After a detailed study, she submitted a report to the Maharashtra government.
Apart from trade union activities, Roza was a student of Marathi literature and history. One of her lesser known aspects of her was love for poetry.
She published a collection of poems known as “Avyakt” . In the later stage of her life, she – along with her husband – had undertaken the work of publishing all the unpublished works of her father SA Dange along with his biography.
