No longer silent spectators

Women across Solapur, Beed and Pune are coming out of the shadows with support from their ‘better’ halves as well as other men from their communities, finds out Suchismita Pai

They came at her with knives and other weapons so that they could disrupt her meetings and prove her ineffective. When Sangeeta Banne became the first woman sarpanch of Chapalgaonwadi, a small village in Akkalkot taluka of Solapur district in Maharashtra, she knew she had her work cut out for her. The battle leading up to her election had been ugly. Not only had the incumbent been holding on for over 10 years, the concept of a female political leader was pretty novel for the villagers. “It was only because of the Samajhdaar Jodidar programme and the support of the men in my family that I was able to unfurl the tricolour on Republic Day this year,” she shares.

The Samajhdaar Jodidar initiative, a collaborative effort of the Centre for Health and Social Justice (CHSJ) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is specially designed to involve men in the quest for gender equality. “Men, who are the other half of the gender construct, have been left out of sensitisation efforts for the longest time,” points out Sadhana Dadhich of the Pune-based Nari Samata Manch, one of the five non-government organisations tasked with the implementation of this project in 20 of the 100 chosen villages in the state since 2010. The programme seeks to draw men and boys out of the age-old patriarchal mindset towards sharing a more equitable relationship with the women in their lives.

Equal partners

“It is complex, messy work where sometimes you have to take a step back to move ahead.

Resistance comes from both the men and women, as women are not ready to look at men as equal partners. Initially, the idea of using male animators to take the message to the grassroots in itself was questioned. The problems ran the gamut - from an extreme initial resistance by the prospective change agents to resentment against individual animators for what was being misconstrued as an overt interest in other women when they tried to intervene or counsel in their villages. And all this was before we could sink our teeth into the actual issues that afflict women in villages,” elaborates Shakti Jamdade of the CHSJ, who supervises the programme in Maharashtra. However, with some fine-tuning, like selecting animators from within the villages, the efforts gathered momentum.

From expecting his wife to wait on him hand-and-foot to helping conduct the first fair election to his panchayat in over 40 years, Manikchand Dhanashetty, an animator from Borgaon in Solapur, is truly a transformed man. Dismissive of the initiative initially, he experimented with small changes in his own attitude.

“I would indulge my son at the cost of my daughter’s happiness and when that changed, so did our family – for the better. Watching a play together with them, or simply going to the school together to meet their teachers has improved our lives. My friends would tease me about being a slave to my wife, but eventually they started to emulate us. Now not only do women have an active voice in our community, we have elected a female sarpanch to voice our concerns and look after our interests in public life,” he says.

Of course, many challenges still exist.

Shivanand Sonkamble, an animator states that powerful upper caste people find it hard to accept anyone else as motivators of change. Naturally, centuries of conditioning cannot be done away within a short span of time feels Sadhana, but she maintains that continued debates and conversations will definitely seep through the layers of indifference and orthodoxy. “When issues such as child marriage, dowry and sex selection are scrutinised openly, it forces everyone concerned to examine their own belief systems closely. Thus sowing the seeds for societal change,” she maintains.

The results are heartening, says Anuja Gulati, programme officer, UNFPA-Maharashtra. To see young women being encouraged to get an education, riding bicycles and playing sports clearly indicates that they are working in the right direction.

Women across the three districts of Solapur, Beed and Pune are no longer mere silent spectators. Their contribution to the family wealth is finally being recognised and they are gaining their rightful share in it legally. They have a say in their reproductive health and many are free from the hang up of bearing a male child. There is a definite shift in perspective and women are coming out of the shadows – all with the support of their ‘better’ half as well as other men in their communities.
WFS