NewsClick

NewsClick
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Covid-19
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • International
  • Sports
  • Articles
  • Videos
search
menu

INTERACTIVE ELECTION MAPS

image/svg+xml
  • All Articles
  • Newsclick Articles
  • All Videos
  • Newsclick Videos
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • Sports
  • International
  • Africa
  • Latin America
  • Palestine
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Sri Lanka
  • US
  • West Asia
About us
Subscribe
Follow us Facebook - Newsclick Twitter - Newsclick RSS - Newsclick
close menu
×
For latest updates on nCOVID-19 around the world visit our INTERACTIVE COVID MAP
Politics
India

In My Own Voice: Menstruation & Livelihood

It is time women voted as a block for those who represent their rights and against those who block their way towards jobs and freedom.
Sagari Chhabra
18 Jan 2019
Women Wall in Kerala

Women's wall in Kerala.

As a girl I grew up in Delhi, studied on a scholarship to do my second post-graduate degree at Washington State University, and returned to what I thought would be to serve my people. It was the eighties and India was not globalised. We still had three kinds of cars on the road – the stodgy Ambassador, the slim-bodied Fiat and a still smaller, Standard Herald. One could cross the street easily and travel everywhere to do one’s work.

I travelled to Pararia in Bihar where the women had been gang-raped by the police which broke into their homes in uniform, to displace the entire village to make way for a dam. One was searching for the truth to record it and bring change. Call it naïve but that was the motivation.

Going to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh after the Babri Masjid was demolished was another momentous landmark. I could not believe that secular India was going to be destroyed in the manner it was; but then again one was simply finding facts with the belief that recording the truth as one could uncover it -- doing one’s duty – would bring justice.

Just once I did feel threatened when as part of a fact-finding team to Kandhamal in Odisha on the attack on the Christians, the entire team and I were surrounded by the villagers in a village where a pastor and his mother had been killed and the church destroyed. They blocked the car with stones and stood around with sticks and umbrellas. We escaped unhurt, when one of the team members prevailed upon them in Oriya – that we were peace seekers and were not looking for trouble.

India was a country that one could travel and engage with people peaceably – regardless of differences. Imagine, to my dismay, that when the Supreme Court majority judgement announced that women could not be stopped from entering the shrine, I saw so many women being threatened and hit. Then two women, Bindu and Kanakadurga, actually made it – a feat like climbing Mount Everest – and the shrine actually closed down for purification. This made me wince with shame!

Then the Congress member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor, with all his urbane suavity, announced that it was ‘unnecessarily provocative’, so much for all his books and literary outpourings. Then, lo and behold, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an election speech in Kolam, Kerala, said that these were “matters of tradition”, and that the state government had no respect for religion or spirituality. He goes on to ask us to ponder on the dissenting judgement by Justice Indu Verma that the court should not intervene on matters of religion. So shall we then reinstate Sati and untouchability?

Backed by the rhetoric of political leaders and the grisly outrage of Brahmin priests, the mother in-law of the brave woman, Kanakadurga, actually beats her with a wooden plank when she returns home after two weeks of going incognito. Yes, the political always becomes personal on the minds, bodies and lives of women.

Frankly, never have the rights of women ever taken such a beating in free India. The fact that menstruation itself is considered dirty or polluting but giving birth to children is not, is something we need to discuss. Women in the menstruating age will entice Lord Ayappa who is celibate; for god’s sake, do women have nothing better to do than to entice deities?

And, surely, we can deal with menstruation as women fly planes, go into space and do back-breaking work on construction sites and in the fields. But we are being pushed back into the four walls of the home to do the dirty work: cook, clean, pack tiffins as men go in search of work. In the 1.2 crore jobs lost last year, 88 million were women. Women’s pain is traumatic because several of them are forced into trafficking and demeaning prostitution to feed their kids.

Why are women not going on strike to demand work with wages? Because we have not been conscientised to think of ourselves as a unit. The participation of female labour has declined from 34.80% in 1990 to 23.70% in 2016. This is the post-liberalisation period, so while we invite the world to ‘Make in India’ and go up in our ‘ease to do business’ rank, we take away jobs from women. According to Mahesh Vyas of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, “women suffer when there is an employment problem and there are only 27% in the labour force”. So, even though female enrolment in education has gone up and normally education should lead to jobs, but not in India.

These are amazing figures. While we are denied equality and our livelihoods, we are expected to vote for patriarchy and a system that is making women indigent, helpless, poverty-stricken and dependent on their menfolk. Meanwhile, Minister Prakash Javadekar made an astounding statement, that women don’t really want jobs. Indeed, give up your salary and the perks, Mr Javadekar; just hand it over.

It is time women voted as a block for those who represent their rights in reality and wave a red menstrual soaked rag in front of those who block our way towards our jobs and our freedom.

(Sagari Chhabra is an award-winning writer & filmmaker)

Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
menstruation
Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple
Womens Right
Women Workers
Related Stories
andhra protest

Andhra: Garment Workers in Anantapur’s Indian Designs Company Protest for Minimum Wages

Andhra: Thousands of Textile Workers in Texport Industries in Hindupur on Strike Demanding Minimum Wages

Andhra: Thousands of Textile Workers in Texport Industries in Hindupur on Strike Demanding Minimum Wages

Tamil nadu COVID-19 lockdown

Tamil Nadu: Online Campaign Highlights Suffering of Women During COVID-19 Lockdown

Karnataka: Garment Workers’ Protest at Gokaldas Exports Unit Enters 24th Day

Karnataka: Garment Workers’ Protest at Gokaldas Exports Unit Enters 24th Day

neglected working women

Working Women Overburdened Under Lockdown

Mustafabad relief camp

Invisible Women and Delhi Riots: Notes from a Relief Camp

Shaheen Bagh

Shaheen Bagh has Changed the Personal and Political

Anganwadi Workers’ Protest in Jharkhand

Anganwadi Workers’ Protest in Jharkhand Continues Even After 50 Days

Women in Agriculture

Women in Agriculture : Challenges and Way Ahead

56 Women Housekeepers

56 Women Housekeepers Asked to Leave Following a Sexual Harassment Complaint Against NIFT Hyderabad Employee

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share

Related Stories

Shinzani Jain

The Alarming Drop in the Female Labour Force Participation in India

03 December 2020
As
Newsclick Report

Wages Fell in 2020 Due to Covid Crisis; Women, Low-paid Workers Hit Hardest: ILO Report

03 December 2020
Monthly wages fell or grew more slowly in the first six months of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in two-thirds of co
Newsclick Report

Women Workers in Garment Industry Among Worst Hit by COVID-19: ILO

21 November 2020
A recently released brief from the International Labour Organisation listing the impact of COVID-19 on women in the garment industry stated t

Pagination

  • Next page ››

More

  • MP Police Reports First Case of ‘Love-Jihad’ Under New Freedom of Religion Law

    MP Police Reports First Case of ‘Love-Jihad’ Under New Freedom of Religion Law

  • Mining

    After Cabinet Nod, Environmentalist Question Need to Rush Big Ticket Mining ‘Reforms’

  • Gujarat: 15 Migrant Workers Sleeping on Roadside Crushed to Death in Surat

    Gujarat: 15 Migrant Workers Sleeping on Roadside Crushed to Death in Surat

  • covid 19 vaccine J&K

    COVID-19: Amid Apprehensions, over 3,700 Vaccinated in J&K in Two Days

  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with
about