Women on a street in the city of Bangalore, this week in India.Andrea Rizzi
Sujara Thakore doesn’t know how old she is, so she doesn’t know exactly at what age she got married to a bad man. It was just after her first period, and she estimates she was 13 or 14 years old, as she says as she sits in an armchair in the house in Bangalore, India, where she lives. Then a hell of violence and abuse began, from which he was able to escape despite many obstacles. He never wanted to marry again. Today, four decades later, she is a serene woman who is realizing the dream of building a small house on a minimal plot of nine by twelve meters, which she bought with the savings from her work and, more recently, from her small house Business. Sale of homemade jams.
Every twelfth person is Indian. There are almost 700 million, about a sixth of the approximately 4 billion women in the world. Thakore is one of them. Without the infamous scourge of femicide, which brought India’s demographic balance to an unnatural ratio of 927 women per 1,000 men in the 1991 census, there could be more. The last census in 2011 recorded an increase to 940. still very far from natural levels (586 million out of a total of 1,210 million). More recent partial data suggests further improvement, but experts warn that a new census is needed to get a clear picture (estimates put the total number now at over 1.43 billion).
Selective abortions or the outright murder of newborns are just the first in a series of injustices that have occurred. The data shows a dramatic situation, from the very low participation rates in the labor market – they represent 23% of the working population – or in politics – 13% of Parliament – to the data on the violence that affects them. India ranked 101st out of 114 countries analyzed with complete data in the Gender Equality Index released by the United Nations this year. More than half a century after one of them, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister, the road to equality remains vast and arduous.
Some things move. India’s current economic and geopolitical rise represents an opportunity for its empowerment. This week, the Hindu nationalist-inspired government of Narendra Modi introduced a bill that would reserve a third of seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women. It was approved. Significantly, however, it cannot be applied soon, but only after a new national census is completed.
The path that lies ahead of us is difficult. Below you will find a handful of stories from women of different constitutions and ages, a mosaic of lives that outlines features of a collective struggle for equality as large as a twelfth of humanity.
SUJARA THAKORE
The violence
Sujata Thakore, in the house where she lives, in Bangalore.Andrea Rizzi
Sujara Thakore says that she was born in a very poor family. Her father died shortly afterwards and she starved as a child. He came to beg and eat fodder. Even when she was very small, she looked after animals so that she could get two meals a day. Wrapped in a beautiful sari of shades of green and blue, this woman with a special sparkle in her eyes combines this story of misery with serenity and smile.
But misery was not their only tragedy. “When the father of this child came to marry me after my period, I said I didn’t want it, that I was too young and not ready. Later, I went to my mother and she supported me, but my uncles didn’t,” he says. The wedding was consummated and the horror of beatings at the hands of an alcoholic husband who did nothing but drink and beat her began.
A few months later he decided he needed to get away from it. Again, she received no support from the men around her. The men of the village warned her that if she left her husband she would be banished from the village. Her brothers threatened her that if they took her in, they would beat the men of the family that owned the farm where she worked. When he remembers this, Thakore is touched.
At the same moment, a man sitting next to him also moved. His name is Anil and he is one of the sons of the owners of this farm. He says that one morning he found Sujara next to the well with a distorted face. He thought she wanted to jump. She says no, but when asked what she was doing there, she couldn’t answer other than “looking at the fish.”
They welcomed them and rescued them from this patriarchal and violent culture that was about to destroy them. She worked as a domestic helper for Anil’s parents until her death. Now he still lives in their apartment in Bengaluru, where they moved in the 1980s after handing over the farm. She learned to make jams in the country and now she makes them and sells them in places in the city.
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“My business is my joy,” he says, smiling again. He talks about his dream of building a small house. He remembers that when he fled, he was unable to have contact with his family for ten years. But then the bonds were renewed and now she is the matriarch. His brothers also made progress. “I am alone and alive. I have friends. Indian women should have the courage not to accept certain situations and stand on their own two feet.”
Your progress reflects some improvements. Economic progress in recent decades has managed to lift many people out of extreme poverty. However, a recent study published by the United Nations shows that 15% of the population, or about 200 million people, remain in a situation of multidimensional poverty, calculated using various socio-economic parameters. Another study estimates that a quarter of women of childbearing age are undernourished. On the other hand, violence is a perpetual scourge. According to the latest available data from 2021, around 430,000 crimes against women were recorded, the highest number since 2016.
While Sujara is talking, Anil is listening sitting next to her. He refers to her as “my sister.” So much so that his family, the Thakore, not only gave him shelter but also their surname.
RANI DESAI
Public service
Rani Desai (left) with her daughter Priya (right) and doctor Ananya Siddaraniay at the Anahat Foundation Medical Center in Bengaluru.Andrea Rizzi
It’s midday and about twenty patients are waiting for their turn in the waiting room of the small Anahat medical center in the heart of Bangalore. This is a private initiative founded through donations that aims to provide free healthcare services to those who are underserved by public healthcare. and they cannot afford to pay privately.
Rani Desai, 68, co-founder of the foundation that runs the center, and her daughter Priya, 39, say that according to data they collected on the ground, 70% of residents of poor neighborhoods do not have access to public health care, even though they are are aware of it. “There is a mix of reasons: lack of trust, skepticism because they know there is saturation, there is a lack of resources or that even if they manage to go to the doctor, they still don’t have medication. Here we offer basic care, medical advice, and we deliver medication,” he says.
The vast majority of waiting patients are women. The bright colors of their saris counteract the gray of the clouds that they feel in their minds. Rani and Priya explain that between 65 and 70 percent of the people treated at the center are women. They have no clear explanation for this imbalance. Perhaps it has an impact that there are two women running the center and that it is a woman, Ananya Siddaraniay, 27, the professional who advises. It seems more like a small compensation for the large gender imbalance in public health. A study published by the BMJ Group that tracked care appointments at a New Delhi hospital in 2016 shows that two-thirds of them were for men.
Before launching this initiative, Desai lived in Mumbai and worked for Biocon, a giant in the biotechnology sector. India is a leading global player in the pharmaceutical sector. But as the 15,000 patients treated by Siddaraniay last year show, this does not mean access to medicine is easy.
Desai says the majority of women who come to the center are not working, which is consistent with the terrible statistics about women’s participation in the labor market in India, one of the most unequal countries in the world in access to employment.
Francis Rjayanathi, 40, is one of them. She has a daughter, dropped out of college at the age of 13 and is a housewife. Her husband is a driver. She suffers from diabetes. “Almost half of the patients have metabolic diseases,” says Desai. “We have many cases of diabetes and high blood pressure. Bad habits often worsen the health of these people. For example, women are generally expected to prepare a hot dinner, but given the lifestyle of these households, where people juggle multiple informal jobs, this often means they eat very late and go straight to bed. , Explain it.
Desai points out that the monthly income of his patients’ homes is around 15,000/17,000 rupees per month (170/190 euros). Despite India’s recent boom, the country is not seeing major changes. “It seems to me that although economic growth is increasing, the social segment of these patients is not reaching much. I don’t see any major cultural change either. Many stories of domestic violence and addiction come up in our mental health consultations. Many of these people have lived in the same place for generations, there is no evidence of continuous advancement,” says Desai, who is undergoing cancer treatment and is still at the medical center at the foot of the gorge.
KAMINI SAWHNEY
consciousness
Kamini Sawhney, director of the MAP Museum in Bangalore, in a room of the “Visible/Invisible” exhibition. Andrea Rizzi
Students in a class at Basava High School in Bangalore pay close attention to the explanations of “Visible/Invisible” on a normal September morning. This exhibition recently opened at the city’s Museum of Art and Photography and addresses the position of women in Indian society through their representation in art.
Kamini Sawhney, director of the museum, talks about how the idea came about in her office. “We were planning our premiere in 2020 when the pandemic hit the world. I have seen data that women’s labor force participation in India has fallen to 20%, a lower figure than in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh; that many girls had dropped out of the education system. And I saw a study that suggests, based on several indicators, that this country is the most unsafe in the world. So we thought: why don’t we address the gender issue? “It’s not talked about enough, and I believe that museums should be spaces that inspire change.”
According to Sawhney, the title of the exhibition arises from the paradox of the extreme visibility of women in art – as representational objects of male artists – “in view of their invisibility in public space”. She believes that there are some changes in India but they are insufficient. “Women are starting to find their voice, but they still can’t find their space. There are still hierarchical structures and invisible barriers that reinforce socioeconomic inequalities,” he says.
The exhibition brings together around 130 works, many of them from the museum’s collection, others commissioned. Below is a sari with an woven inscription: “A woman’s duty is to serve her husband,” as Sawhney translates. “It was written twice, just in case once wasn’t enough,” he says.
Eliminating this old legacy is a major challenge. Nevertheless, the director is optimistic about the prospects for change. “I have to be, I have to believe in women. In addition, the dissemination of information that the digital revolution enables is a positive factor. The spread of ideas is empowerment.”
However, the path also has obstacles there. The Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders ranks India 161st out of 180 countries.
MUSLIM WOMEN
Confessional discrimination
Muslim women on a street in Bangalore.Andrea Rizzi
Among the dozens of women interviewed for this report are Muslims – it is estimated that around 170 million people in India follow this religion. Significantly, there is a fear among them of expressing their opinions openly about the Hindu nationalist political project that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carrying out with the help of his party, the BJP.
Likewise, Hindu women who do not agree with Modi’s thesis and who see themselves more closely in the project of an inclusive and secular India, as enshrined in the 1950 Constitution, are reluctant to express their opinions publicly.
It is a clear reflection of the increasingly tense climate in the country. It is interesting to note how, in the testimonies collected, the framework of sectarian tensions creates tensions even within the same community, for example tensions between the most hardline and moderate parts of the Muslim community, leading to the tearing apart of families who cut ties for political reasons.
“I think extremists monopolize the discourse and many get carried away. I still think the majority is moderate, but they don’t dare speak up,” says a Muslim woman living in Bengaluru, who says she has Hindu friends who tell her: “It’s going to be bad, but my house It will always be open to you.” .
Another, younger woman points out that there are some among her Hindu friends who would not marry a Muslim woman because they fear how it would be perceived. “Even if they don’t share certain ideas, they don’t dare to go against the dominant idea.”
Minority women face the risk of double discrimination in an India ruled by Hindu nationalism. In recent years, India has fallen behind in international indices of democratic quality.
USHA KAPUR
Class differences
Usha Kapur, in her home in Bangalore.Andrea Rizzi
Usha Kapur was born in Rawalpindi in what is now Pakistan in 1945. With the partition of the country, his family moved to what is now India. She says her father decided she would study medicine, and that’s what she did. She remembers that her faculty had about 40% female students, which was a remarkable gender ratio given the situation in many places around the world at the time.
After completing her studies, she found a job as a doctor in the Bundeswehr. “I never felt like I was discriminated against in the army because I was a woman,” she says. But he points out that he believes many men hold back in certain public areas but then behave differently at home. He also believes that there is a big difference depending on the wealth of households. “In the less affluent, they are treated very badly.” At the height of her experience, she believes that “there is some progress because there are more women who are educated and fighting for their rights.”
A few years ago, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his medical doctorate with his classmates. He says that most of them have gone abroad, especially to the USA and Great Britain, and that they are doing very well. She also emigrated: she worked in Libya for a year when she was already a mother, a gesture that seems like a declaration of independence. But then he came back. Many others, no. According to UN estimates, India has the largest diaspora in the world, around 18 million emigrants. They have a high level of success. A tendency to leave the country can also be seen among the young women with higher education surveyed for this report. The loss of talent is another challenge on the long and winding road to equality in India.
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