Amidst the hullabaloo of this October 2nd being the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi it has been generally forgotten that this is also the 150th birth anniversary of his wife Kasturba who too had fought valiantly for India's freedom and died in prison in 1944. Not only Kasturba but many other women fought against the British. One example is that of Preetilata Wadadar who along with Surya Sen carried out the famous Chittagong Armoury raid in 1930. Once again recently when a meme on Surya Sen became viral on Facebook there was little mention of Preetilata. This neglect of the contribution of women is a part and parcel of the patriarchal structure of society.
So on this anniversary day of Gandhi I decided to celebrate Kasturba's legacy instead by attending a meeting of a group of girls and women who were discussing the huge patriarchal obstacles to the emancipation and empowerment of women organised by the NGO Eka in the Aishbag area of Bhopal.
This meeting is one among many that are regularly held under the name "Hamara Aasmaan" Our Sky attended by adolescent girls and women who are survivors of gender based violence within and without the home. I was asked to deliver a speech as a guest. Its been a long time since I have stopped giving speeches and so I did what I generally do when asked to speak. I asked questions and cleverly brought the discussion round to patriarchy!!
Then the dam broke as women and then girls began to speak about the barriers to women's freedom and empowerment. Most of the women and girls were from the Muslim community where generally they are married off early and then have to spend their lives as home makers. Yet in this small group at least there was a huge desire to break out and do something. Eka's work is centred around providing an opportunity to these women and girls to break out of their confines and dream big. It was heartening to see so much vibrancy among the participants and especially the adolescent girls with the latter daring to dream big. A few well educated and working Muslim women gave talks on how they had broken out of the home and pursued their own careers to inspire the girls.
It has been my case for quite some time now that the biggest blunder that our policy makers and planners committed after independence was in not tackling patriarchy. Even today despite so much talk of women's liberation and empowerment, the situation of women and girls remains pathetic due to rampant patriarchal oppression. So it is great that some women and girls feel that only the sky is the limit.
So on this anniversary day of Gandhi I decided to celebrate Kasturba's legacy instead by attending a meeting of a group of girls and women who were discussing the huge patriarchal obstacles to the emancipation and empowerment of women organised by the NGO Eka in the Aishbag area of Bhopal.
Then the dam broke as women and then girls began to speak about the barriers to women's freedom and empowerment. Most of the women and girls were from the Muslim community where generally they are married off early and then have to spend their lives as home makers. Yet in this small group at least there was a huge desire to break out and do something. Eka's work is centred around providing an opportunity to these women and girls to break out of their confines and dream big. It was heartening to see so much vibrancy among the participants and especially the adolescent girls with the latter daring to dream big. A few well educated and working Muslim women gave talks on how they had broken out of the home and pursued their own careers to inspire the girls.
It has been my case for quite some time now that the biggest blunder that our policy makers and planners committed after independence was in not tackling patriarchy. Even today despite so much talk of women's liberation and empowerment, the situation of women and girls remains pathetic due to rampant patriarchal oppression. So it is great that some women and girls feel that only the sky is the limit.
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