Challenge of Chandwad Gail Omvedt THE small taluka town of Chandwad, on a drought-hammered plateau beneath the imposing Deccan cliffs, was the scene on November 9-10 of what may have been the biggest women's meeting, certainly the biggest rural women's meeting, in Indian history. With nearly 5-8,000 women for the delegates' sessions and 25,000 women and three to four times that many men for the open session, the "women's session" of the Shetkari Sanghatana marked both a new phase in the women's movement and the first organisational turn of the Sanghatana away from its One-point programme of higher crop prices.