Women who inspire, women I celebrate

Its International Women's Day. Join me as I celebrate some of the most inspiring women in India

You refuse to suffer in silence any longer. You demand for your right. You speak, to be heard, and to be taken seriously. Rising Army of Indian Women Activists, I celebrate you!   

She grows food for me and my countrymen. She toils on that land that she isn't allowed to own, oftentimes. I salute you and I celebrate you,Woman Farmer of my country. And I wish you ownership of that land. Also, I wish you love, respect, recognition and gratitude.

You are the only worker in my country who works 7 days a week with no break, no holiday and a salary so paltry, it can't even buy you food for a week. And when a mishap happens, you are made the first suspect. Despite all that, you keep homes running across the nook and corner of India. I celebrate you, Woman Domestic Help

You do work that are unrewarded, risky, at places that are dangerous - protecting endangered wildlife in forests that are infested with brutal poachers. Few know about you, even fewer want to follow you. I celebrate you, Woman Forest Guard!

She cleans the filth that we create. And then we call her filthy. She is the waste picker. Always from a Dalit community, she is considered by many of my countrymen untouchable, a lesser human. The truth is, as poet Rabindranath Tagore said, "cleanliness is your shadow/its you who makes our world livable". I can't cure the sickness of my society alone, but I can certainly tell you this: You are lesser than none and I celebrate you!

You try to teach people the importance of safe sex. Yet, instead of applauds, you get brickbats. They laugh at you, some even curse you for 'polluting' minds. Truth is, in a country of millions of HIV-positive people, you are an angel at work. And I celebrate you, the Woman Sex Educator!

They don't invest in you. They dismiss your abilities to make profits. But you don't give up. You gather your coins and go about earning your living - successfully. You inspire me, and I celebrate you, Woman Grassroot Entrepreneur of India!

They allege, you are a puppet, that your husband run the office for you. They don't care to know you - who stands her ground and holds on to her authority. I have met so many of you - risking life everyday in most remotest, most dangerous villages of India, and working for the welfare of people. I celebrate you, the Independent Woman Sarpanch (village head)

Indigenous woman, I know many look down upon you. They think - and I have no idea why - you are inferior to them. In fact, some treat you no better than they treat a Dalit woman.  What a shame! You, TRIBAL WOMAN are beautiful, wonderful, closer to mother earth, bear her smell, her broadness of heart and her simplicity - qualities that I yearn to have! I celebrate you!

And then I celebrate the woman who brought me into this world, nursed me, nurtured me, made me who I am. I celebrate you, Ma! 

Do you like the post? If yes, please leave a comment. Or share with someone in your circle. Lets expand the celebration!

Homosexuality is criminal: A note of thanks to the SC!

My open letter of gratitude to the S.Court of India after it upheld that gay sex would continue to be a criminal act in India.

Dear SC of India,
 You have just reasserted that all the people who have sex with people of their own sex are criminals. And, I am just so happy and proud of you! Here, see  the big three reasons below:

courtesy: rude creativity

1. You slapped/woke me up from a day dream!:  Last Tuesday, at this time, I was in Bangkok, taking part in the Global Forum on Media and Gender. I met Michal - a woman from Tel Aviv who fights discrimination and maltreatment of  LGBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) people in her country and her region. Over coffee, I proudly told her "Homosexuality was a legally criminal offense in India, but then our court decriminalized it." She was very happy to hear that. In fact her exact words were "I think India is a good democracy!". Well, dear SC, thank you for waking me up and telling me that we still suck when it comes to treating every citizen equally regardless of his/her sexual orientation.

Ending Violence Against Women: First, Lets End Impunity

It's 25th Nov - the day for Eliminating Violence Against Women. I began my day with the news of a senior government official in Uttarakhand - a state in northern India being accused of raping a 29-year old woman.  And I thought "well, here you go - the official proof that we really do need a day to end violence"

:Original image: oil on canvas by S. Ilayaraja

In the following hours, so many other pieces of news came in, each of them about a woman or a girl who's been violated or tortured. For example, in Assam, 4 men gangraped woman, gougeed her eyes out before killing her. In Delhi, a journalist from Tehelka news magazine who was recently sexually assaulted by her boss and chief editor Tarun Tejpal, said that she was intimidated by one of Tejpal's  relatives. Also in Delhi, the court convicted --and Nupur Talwar -a  doctor couple of murdering their teenage daughter four years ago. (And, not to forget, every 40 minutes a girl also got raped).

A toast to Tarun Tejpal!

So, just when you thought you had heard enough stories of  rape and sexual assaults and all that s**t coming of India, here comes yet another headline: Tarun Tejpal, chief editor of Tehelka - an Indian  news magazine that is known for its bold and honest journalism - has sexually assaulted one of his woman colleagues.

Now, sexual assaults are no laughing matter. And yet this one has me in splits. The reason is, this man Tarun Tejpal - one of the country's 'most respected' journalists (and also often seen as a panelist/speaker/chief guest at events organized to condemn rapes/violence against women etc) has figured out the punishment for his crime all by himself :  a 6-month long holiday which he calls "atonement".

Kartik Purnima: The Moon is beautiful tonight, so is Life!

 Its Kartik Purnima - the full moon night of Kartik - the 7th month in our Indian calendar.
They say, the moon is at its brightest tonight.  And I believe them. Because, the moon is shinning so bright, I can look back and see my childhood. Mooonlight clear.

I see a courtyard - cleaned and mopped with water mixed with cowdung in the morning. Hours later, its hardened, cool and there's not  a speck of dust anywhere.

On that courtyard, someone's drawn paintings with rice powder. This is the courtyard of my Mamu (maternal uncle) Anil Singh.

After the courtyard, comes a large, stand alone, pentagonal room. This is the 'raas mandap' (raas auditorium). On either side of the room's doors, Marigold bushes are on the bloom. Inside the room, a stage has been set for a performance. Tonight, in this Raas Mandap, a little boy and a little girl - dressed as Hindu god Krishna and his lady love Radha will sit . And surrounding them will be sixteen women of the community. They will dance and sing as Gopini (consort of Krishna) all night, enacting roles from stories of  Krishna Leela (romance of Krishna and Radha).

Groundwater: being misers is better than being paupers

Imagine yourself in a situation where a hundred bomber planes flying overhead, ripping your eardrums apart with horrible noise and belching black smoke, choking your lungs. Well I just spent an agonizing 48 ours in that situation. No, I wasn't in Syria or Afghanistan. It happened right next door when yet another neighbor was trying to bore a well. 

The noise, the smoke and a pool of flouride-filled,liquid mud left behind, was the result of that bore well drilling.

It started early morning on Friday and ended last night. In these 48 hours, they drilled up to 60 meters, I was told, but finally abandoned the drilling and left because, there was still no sign of usable water!

Photo blog: Meeting the woman sarpanch of the red corridor

Years ago, when I was still in school, my aunt became a sarpanch - head of the village council which is the local unit of governance - in North east India  - a region where several insurgent groups are active and where the government has given the army special power to act. I wanted to ask my aunt - a dirt poor widow who wasn't politically inclined, how she managed the office in the politically hostile area. But before that could happen, she died. Years later, this March, the National Foundation of India offered me a media fellowship to meet and write on women sarpanches working in districts that are affected by the Maoist insurgency.  And thus  began a wonderful journey of meeting the "woman sarpanch of the red corridor'. Below are a few moments of this journey so far.

The first woman I met is Kalavati.
A mother of two she was a woman fighting many a battle at a time: the anti-development stand of the Maoist rebels, the bullish and ever-suspecting army, lack of education among her colleagues and many more. I will always remember her parting words "everyone is quick to see the failure of a woman, but not her struggle." I hope I didn't fail her there.

Maya and me in the village elementary school. It was lunch time, kids were having mid-day meal.

The next woman sarpanch I met is Maya Kavde - a woman who also inspired me a lot. Here is why: A widow with three school-going daughters, Maya is the only sarpanch I have known who is struggling to make ends meet courtesy her father-in- law who refuses to give her any share of her husband's property. Yet she dedicates all her time to develop the village. 'We tribals are living in a dark time. But girls' education and job-oriented courses for the youth can pull us out of this," she told me.

Sukhanti Bai - a sarpanch has something in common with Maya: Sukhanti has no toilets in her home and is regularly bullied by the former sarpanch - a non-tribal man belonging to a "higher" caste. He even sold her some land, but hasn't tranffered the papers in her name because he thinks a tribal woman should not own land. And Saukhanti isn't dragging him to court. Why? because, the villagers' needs are way too grater than hers. Maya told me the same.

Me with Dulmat - in white sari and Maya (in pink).

Dulmat Netam, a sarpanch I met is young and full of smiles. Dulmat loved being  a sarpanch. One day, she would also like to be a member of the legislative assembly (MLA), she said, but what she would really, really love is her husband to understand that being a sarpanch required time and energy - something he wouldn't do.

Vasan and Me.

Vasan Buiki became a sarpanch after the sudden death of one of her sons a few years ago. 'I loved him very much and after he died, I went into depression. Then I decided, instead of mourning my son forever, why don't I dedicate my time to the welfare of my community? Life is uncertain anyway,' she told me. But, like Dulmat, Vasan also doesn't have enough cooperation and under standing of her family  and longs for that.

Me with Sandhya Rani (in white sari) and her colleagues at the all-women village council

Early in August, I met Sandhya Rani - a woman sarpanch in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. She is the first sarpanch I have met outside of Chhattisgarh, and while she had no political links or no prior experience like those in Chhattisgarh, Sandhya Rani had something wonderful: strong support of an entire village that elected her  -and her all-women village council - unopposed and a social activist husband who swells with pride every time you mention his wife is a sarpanch.

There is a common belief that women in the tribal community/region have more freedom than those in non-tribal society. I used to believe this too. Meeting the women sarpanch of the red corridor has taught me, this is just a myth. Tribal women struggle just as much - if not more - to have their rights over land, property and life in general.

But what I also learned in these 5 months is that none of these women, despite all the difficulties they meet, are ready to quit trying to make things better for those who voted for them and also for themselves. With this very encouraging learning, I will now move to the second phase of my fellowship. The next destination will be Odisha. Stay with me!

Beyond the story: Rohingya refugees in India

A few weeks back, a social worker friend asked me, 'are you aware of the Rohingya refugees in Hyderabad?' I wasn't, of course. Hyderabad is about 3,400 km away from Burma. And, if anyone was indeed coming from Burma to India,  I would expect them to turn up at places like the north east India or, Andamans or Kolkata or Delhi. But not Hyderabad which is way off the trodden road

Anyway, so once morning I went to meet the refugees. And here is the story that came out as a result of that.

But, sometimes, a community has too many stories to tell and you have too many constraints to take them all in. A video with a 3.30 min cap on it is one what I had. And so, after my video was shot, I went back to meet the refugees again. And again. And here's what I learned.

In Myanmar, women are attacked attacked as mercilessly as men. They are beaten, raped and killed with swords. Most of the attacks happen in the night and often led by the militia. This woman was sleeping when a mob broke open the door of her house. Her husband and son died, while she escaped with a deep wound on the side of her stomach.

Two years later, her wound has healed, but she suffers from trauma.

Food wastage: 5 things you can do about it

Wastage of food is a serious issue.Unfortunately, that has not been talked about until now. Fortunately though, its finally out in the open.

As always, some people are talking the issue by pointing fingers at some countries and communities for wasting food and aggravating food insecurity in the poorer areas. And then there are some who are busy denying the charge. The question is, is there something you can I can do in the meantime to stop food wastage? My answer: yes course!

1. Spot it within, before you spot it outside: Most people in our country think, food wastage is happening only in the developed nations. Well, I say, they are wrong. This is a chronic callousness every country suffers from. And I have a personal story: When I was about 7, I used to leave a little rice on my plate every day. I felt, I was full and would throw up if I ate an extra morsel.  And I also thought, it was ok to leave food. Then, one day, my mom caught me and talked me out of the habit.

Today, when I visit homes of friends, relatives or colleagues, I see the familiar scene: kids - and grown ups - leaving food on their plate and not caring.  These are not rich people, but are richer than those who struggle to buy a single meal. And they waste food.

So, before you write or talk about it, take a harder look at the people sitting at meals at your home and see, are they wasting food? If yes, that's where you spot the problem first!

2. Rid the habit, connect the dots:  When my mother caught me wasting food, she didn't scold or punish. Instead, she told me, 'you see that grain of rice? its for this that your Daddy isn't living with us.'

 My dad was working for a private farm in Dubai. At school/social events, when other kids had their parents by them,  my Dad wasn't there with me or my siblings and I felt sad. Now, my mom made me see the connection between my loneliness, absence and my dad and my eating habit. And even at that age, I could understand that if I wasted food, I would fail my Dad who worked so hard, so far to get me that food. Since then, I have carried that thought with me.

Yes, emotions such as this that can help connect the dots, can be built early on. You can do the same!

3. You see, you show: In 2010, I got my fist dose of large scale food wastage when I was in Germany to attend a youth meet. Our host - a political think tank - had got us there to brainstorm on how the world could be reshaped to make it more sustainable. And everyday, at the lunch and dinner, I saw these huge trays full of food just lying there, cold and untouched. I learned that it was going to go to land fill.  I was horrified.

And I expressed my horror on the last day when the host asked us to give our feedback on the event.'You get us here and ask us about making the world sustainable. Well, this is where it begins - stop wasting food, so there will be food sustainability for all.'

If you think they hated my plainspeak, think again! The organization actually hired me during RIO+20, to write for a new portal they had launched on sustainability!

4. Lose that hoarding habit: My second big food wastage experience happened in New York last fall, when I was touring the US as a speaker on empowering women with digital technology. We - a group of 5 girls - had rented an apartment for a week in Brooklyn. There was a large refrigerator in the kitchen stashed with so much food, you would think there was going to be a war and someone had stacked up for a month!

 But, we were out all day, returning late and had no time to cook. So, we took out food from restaurants on our way back and ate that. The result? The huge pile of food in the fridge just sat there, unused. Then, the day we left, the landlady (who, incredibly, was also very interested in 'green living' and said she grew organic food) turned up, put everything in large trash bags. You can imagine the rest.

If only the lady had cared to NOT hoard so much food, it would NOT have been wasted.  But what she didn't do is what you can do: Not be a hoarder.

 

5. Care: Of course, it all begins here, by caring to know what happens when people waste food, how people in another part of the world die to have the amount of food that you throw away everyday and how over consumption(which is actually not even consumed, but wasted) of food in one part of the world causes imbalance in food distribution system, creating scarcity in another part. Many people know it, but they do nothing. Because, they don't care.

But if you know and care, you are putting effort to end food wastage, no matter how small. After all, drops do fill the ocean, don't they?

Saluting Forest Rangers - Those Unsung Heroes

Yesterday, 31st July, was the world rangers day. For me, it's a day dedicated to one of the most neglected and unsung heroes of our time: forest rangers. Since in India 'ranger' usually refers to the top post in forest security force which is a privileged one, let me therefore mention it as the world forest guards day. This post is about them.

I grew up in the north east of India - a cluster of 7 states that are often also mentioned as the seven sisters - which is of course the region with maximum (one fourth of the country's total 6,92,027 sq km) forest cover. And as a child, like everyone else, I often sang this rhyme:

Who's famous o mister?

Delhi's minister

Mumbai's film star

Bengal's barrister

and

Assam's forester