Checha Davies
Inaugural Excellence Award For Women Empowerment
Checha Davies who also known as Mrs. E. V Davies was a social worker in her time, and was born in 1898. As one of Singapore’s foremost women activist the name of Checha Davies rang with a gusto that it became synonymous with the birth of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).
If there was anything charismatic of Davies was of her birth to a Methodist lay preacher T D George. She accompanied her father in all of his religious teachings missions and briefly lectured in Chennai upon receipt of her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in social sciences. Even after moving to Singapore after marrying, she never lost her ecclesiastical stirrings and spirit for voluntary services.
Davies was an avid preacher, and lecturer not just in Singapore but also in the international circuits of the world that took her to Europe, the Middle East, North and South America. She was also at the World Missionary Conference in Chennai in 1938.
Her wanderlust was fully documented in a book which was coauthored for classroom use. She founded the Singapore’s first Indian Ladies’ Club, the Indian-Ceylonese Club, which later merged with its visible rival, the Ladies Union to form the Kamala Club. Davies was also the inspiration behind the Singapore Inner Wheel Club.
A very momentous occasion happened in 1951 when Davies was invited by Shirin Fozdar — who incidentally had also introduced the Baha’i faith into Singapore — and who herself, had campaigned vigorously for the emancipation of womenfolk in India. Their fortuitous meeting gave rise to the Singapore Council of Women (SCW) and Davies officiated at most of its seminal gatherings. The formal launch of the SCW in April of 1952 was markedly different from other esoteric organisations and they campaigned assiduously to raise the economic, educational and social status of the women in the colony. Along with Fozdar, she sought the Governor’s intervention to enfranchise Singaporean women with the same rights as those in Britain.
The crowning moment of their joint efforts’ came in 1961 when Singapore’s Legislative Assembly passed the Women’s Charter that met many of the council’s demands including a ban on polygamy for non-Muslims. The council nonetheless, was dissolved in 1971.
The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) was yet another organisation where Davies infused her spirit, talent and sense of mission in trying to raise the visibility of her Singaporean ilk. She reached out greatly to kindred branches in other nations during her travels and exuded immeasurable aplomb. The YWCA’s largest project was the building of a six-storey hostel in Fort Canning Road for low income women or those travelling with young children. The measure of Davies’s selflessness in the sale of her house in Johor for the YWCA were but shining examples of abstinence. Her efforts were justly noticed and the Bintang Bakti Mashrakat or Public Service Star in the National Day Honours of 1970 told the public of her undying devotion to women’s rights.
Davies died in September of 1979, but none of the memories of her humor died with her. They were such par for course that her contributions were acknowledged in 2014 and the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations inducted her into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame.