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May 11th, 2003
PRESS RELEASE - VFF NEWS NETWORK
Interviews conducted by: Anju Kaur
The committee set up to advise the SGPC on the Sikh women's right to undertake seva at Darbar
Sahib will not be influenced by any manipulation by the Darbar Sahib management or anyone else and
the seva "problem has to be solved on the basis of Sikh principles of gender equality,''
Dr Kharak Singh, one of the members of the committee told VOICES FOR FREEDOM in a teleconference
from New York. Dr Kharak Singh said that he could not comment further because he did not have first
hand knowledge if Darbar Sahib management had manipulated or pressured persons to give views against
allowing Sikh women to do seva. He added, "people on both sides of the issue were responsible for
manipulating opinions." Ajaib Singh, Darbar Sahib manager and Raghbir Singh, personal assistant to
the President of SGPC had invited certain Sikh women groups to a meeting of the committee on 8 May 2003,
to present views, without the prior permission from the committee.
The committee is reported to have rebuked Ajaib Singh and Raghbir Singh for inviting these Sikh
women to the meeting, which was not a public meeting.
Kiranjot Kaur, a former general secretary of the SGPC, who attended the meeting to lodge her
protest about the "staged managed " meeting said that the meeting was not publicized as a public
meeting. She said that neither was the change of venue to Amritsar made public.
Kiranjot Kaur told VOICES FOR FREEDOM (VFF) that she had met these opposing women recently and
they had agreed that they would support Sikh women's right to do Seva.
"I believe that these women have subsequently been pressured by Darbar Sahib management to say at
the meeting that Sikh women should not be allowed to do certain Seva," she said.
Mejindarpal Kaur, one of the two UK based Sikh women who has been involved in the campaign to
restore Sikh women's right to undertake Seva at the Darbar Sahib, says that Ajaib Singh had
misled her when he denied to her that he knew about the meeting or that he had invited any
opposing Sikh women jathas to the meeting.
"Ajaib Singh told me that the Press Reports were 100% wrong,'' she said.
On the progress made on resolving this issue, Dr Kharak Singh said that the committee had received
input from Sikh organizations and individuals who are both for and against allowing Sikh women to
perform seva at the Darbar Sahib.
"At this stage, however, it is unclear how things will shape up in the final report by the committee
to be completed on May 15, 2003," he said.
He said the decision would be made "largely on principle, not numbers."
VOICES FOR FREEDOM has gathered views and support for their petition from approximately 300 Sikh
organizations worldwide. These organizations have been identified to the SGPC. The committee has
stated that certain individuals and organisations have opposed the issue, but they have refused
to name them or give their numbers . Dr Kharak Singh said that the issue before the committee
is one of finding ways to solve the "practical problems so as not to give the impression the
Sikhism discriminates against women." "However, these are administrative problems and they
can be overcome," says Dr Kharak Singh. The "practical problems" that Dr Kharak Singh was
referring to were:
- time - the Sukhasan seva is performed at night, which may not convenient for women;
- weight - the palki carried during the sukhasan seva is too heavy for women to handle; crowd -
there is a lot of jostling among the men who are present to do the seva and is not a good situation
for women to be in
- long standing rights - the people who currently do the seva have come to feel that it is their
right and they do not want to give it up
- ishnaan seva in the Darbar Sahib after the Guru Granth Sahib is removed for sukhasan.
The men traditionally wear remove their trousers and do the seva in their keccheras which
women will not be expected to do
- keertan seva for which a women's jatha (all women or mixed) would have to qualify under
the same requirements as men's jathas.
At a seminar in Maryland, USA organized by VOICES FOR FREEDOM recently, Mejindarpal Kaur had
dealt with these concerns in her seminar paper. Her submissions are attached herewith.
The issue of gender equality came to a head on February 13, 2003 when Mejindarpal Kaur
and Lakhbir Kaur from the United Kingdom, were refused the right to participate in the
Sukhasan procession at the Darbar Sahib. The following day they lodged a complaint with the
Akal Takht Jathedar and the SGPC seeking an immediate restoration of the right of Sikh women
to undertake all types of seva at the Darbar Sahib.
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