Ladybug's field notes

More than 500 women reached Lucknow either late evening or early in the morning. They were representing exactly 80,346 women from 36 Blocks and over 660 Gram Panchayats of Uttar Pradesh. After working for more than 4 years in their respective villages and blocks, they now had enough "rehearsal of the revolution" as Sanjoy Ganguly of Janasanskriti (www.janasanskriti.org) puts it! They now wanted the new state government to share their dreams. Their dreams of a new society where the basic rights of poor women are fulfilled.  In Kismati's words, " We are quite confident of being able to tackle the issues of non-implementation of MNREGA (100 days' work) and Public Distribution Systems (PDS) till teh district level. Four years of intense engagement has at least gave us that much confidence. But, we have also learnt that many things move from Lucknow and we are here to move those otherwise unmovable wheels". In Uttar Pradesh, the average number of days achie...

I  am often asked in the rural areas of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, "Didi, you are a married woman..why don't you wear a bichhia (toe-ring) in your feet?" As the question generally comes after they figure out that I have a child, I laugh and ask, "Now now! just because I have a child, I don't have to be married too..do I?" Some nervous giggles follow. The women start playing safe now. "What does our brother-in-law do?" ask one of them and then come back to the real question, which is, why don't I wear a "mangalsutra", a "bindi", some "sindoor" or "bicchia". Anything....almost anything will do so far it successfully announces my marital status.  When these conversations take place in the lazy evenings after a hard  day of facilitation, I joke some more but engage in  a long conversation with the women surrounding me. I ask them who or what decides whether they may or may not wear all these things that the...