Reasons to Smile
The main auditorium in the Kumaon State Guest house (Nainital) resonated to the sound of the chief guest’s speech. Margaret Alva Governor of Uttarakhand was addressing the audience. The subject : the state of women of India with special reference to those engaged in agriculture. The occasion: The National Seminar on Gender & Development in the World of Work and Health – with Focus on Agrarian Women. Phew! Quite a mouthful one would think, but since our organisaton WWHI(Women Work & Health Initiative) was behind it, I knew that none of the words in the title could invite the delete key, without diluting some of the message of this debate.
Prof. Patel the Chair, in her address, pointed out that in an unequal world, while women form ½ its inhabitants , they earn 1/10 of its income and own merely 1/100 of its resources. These were sobering statistics and point to a world of inequities, which manifests itself in so many different ways. Dr. Kaistha's address emphasised the unequal world of women's work.
The inaugural set the tone for the discussions over two days , with over 36 papers presented and about 100 and more participants, with a great showing from the students of the University. As the program moved on , the Paper Presenters trained a relentless lens on the condition of women in the agrarian sector. So much that is couched within the verbiage of policy and data was revealed and examined through careful research. The headings touched upon an array of major concerns such as the invisibility of women ‘s work, ( in the last census women were bracketed with prostitutes and other such sections, whose work cannot be counted) unequal pay, household drudgery, the feminisaton of agriculture ( as men migrate women are left to do the agriculture work) and the feminisation of poverty. And of course work related gender biases, so that technologically related work is cornered by the men and the more thankless chores handed over to the women. The list did hardly anything to alleviate the mood.
That evening as some of us sat together and discussed the day’s proceedings. A Scandinavian colleague who works extensively on gender, lobbed the question into the ring : given all that we have heard of, what is it that makes you proud about your country? Her own world enjoys the top global rankings in the various gender related indicators, hence the question was imbued both with incomprehension and concern. It also set the cat amongst the pigeons. The choice stared us in the face. Should we take recourse to taking cover behind the time tested formulae of spouting our cultural identity , heritage etc , and thereby salvage national pride. Or? We decided that there had been enough of this ingenious dissembling. The answers had to reflect a contemporary India against the backdrop of the gender question.
And so I pondered and sifted and came up with Proud Moments, that make one’s heart fill with a warm liquid emotion, that blends pride and humbleness.
The Bihar election, yes that was No.1 on my list. Knowing what the conditions are like there , it was amazing how the women, some of the most backward and poor in the country, threw all caste rhetoric to the winds, abandoned their chulha chakis and came out in huge numbers to vote the ‘doer’s ‘ to power. They just wanted a government that performs.
Next on my list was : Women of privileged Nainital society joining hands with the more deprived, to work towards their economic empowerment. Since this will be taking place under the banner of WWHI, it was a specially proud moment.
And then there’s the story of 65 year old Mehrunissa who lives in a Delhi slum. Despite the taunts of the local community, she comes everyday to the WWHI run school BINDU, and has graduated from using only her thumb imprint to writing proper sentences.
There’s also the woman sarpanch (head of Panchayat) in Bihar, who regaled us with this story of how the Police refused to lodge the complaints of the women in her area, dismissing them as worthless zenana tales that did not merit their time. And so she had devised a strategy to tackle it – by letting out a fusillade of abuses at the police and of course threatening to go to higher authorities. , Surprisingly, it worked.
And the best of the lot- on our return from Nainital in a general, unreserved compartment, it was lovely to see the aspirations of some of the women. Even as they struggled to battle the limitations imposed by their own illiteracy, they had encouraged their daughters to study, one going so far as to make hers do a post graduate in science and another pushing hers to take a government job .
These stories were reasons to smile.
Comments