For Dr Lata Chhatre, an avid scholar and philosopher, she believes that if a woman can achieve spiritual empowerment then gender discrimination hardly matters.

Head of the Philosophy Department of Savitribai Phule Univerisity, Pune she is among the very few scholars from her generations who has received accolades for her research in the field of Buddhism.

After completing her Ph.D. in Buddhism in 1985, her thesis had also received best thesis award in the name of Gurudev Ranade. Apart from this she also received UGC fellowship and was a research associate and completed around four projects on Buddhism.

Since 1979 till date, her area of research and interest has always been Buddhism and its social and political angle.

As she is soon going to retired from her position, she feels that there is more to be done in the field of philosophy and believes that study of philosophy is needed for every human being.

She said, “Even if my research has been already done, still I feel that there is much to be done. As I Would retire from the administrial duties, I am hopeful to study feminism in Buddhism.”

As she talks about Women’s Day and empowerment elaborated, “I believe that no other philosophy gives emphasis on women empowerment than Buddhism. If we look back at the language Pali, it has small poems written by women narrating their lives.”

She added, “If women achieve spiritual empowerment, then surely other materialistic things of discrimination would not matter much.”

Whereas, Women’s Day is concern she does not believe in one particular day, but believes that women should look at every day as their day and also work towards their development and empowerment.

In her career stint of more than 30 years in philosophy, she has also been invited by international universities for regular discussions and lectures. Among many universities few include Oxford University, Cambridge University,and Bristol University.

She has been a guide for six international Ph.D. students who have completed their research successfully under her guidance.

In this fast changing world of education, where emphasis is been given to specialized courses, Dr Chhatre feels that there are very few takers for these traditional course.

She said, “Before, the number of students were more than what I could see now. As a course in philosophy cannot provide bread and butter, number of students has been reduced drastically.”

She further added, “There should be special short-term courses of philosophy with other specialized curses like communication, social justice, law among others. These applied courses of philosophy can surely prove as a boon for the field of philosophy.”