Sita’s story is the basic premise for Shetkari Sanghata’s Lakshmi Mukti programme, probably a pioneering campaign empowering women with land rights. In Queen Sita's story, even the fire of an agnipariksha could not touch her but when she and her husband return to their kingdom from Ravana's Lanka, it just takes a slanderous remark for Rama to banish her to a forest. Rama never explains anything to his wife.
Shetkari Sanghatana founder leader Sharad Joshi used this story to explain the point behind his Lakshmi Mukti project. Overnight, he would say, Sita is left with no future simply because her husband turned against her. Then referring to a Sita temple at Raveri, Joshi would conclude by saying that the purpose of the Lakshmi Mukti programme was to see that no modern-day Sita would ever have to suffer Sita's fate because she had nothing to call her own. By transferring land to their wives, farmers were paying off "a long overdue debt" to Sita mata, he would say.
Lakshmi Mukti campaign kicked off a silent revolution in late ’80s from Vitner, a little known village in north Maharashtra. It was then an experiment, unheard of in traditionally patriarchal farming communities. In later years, there were title changes for several hundred acres of land in the agrarian hinterlands of Maharashtra, empowering women. But the leaders were unsuccessful in sustaining the campaign's momentum for various reasons.
There were arguments... The predicament of women in agricultural hinterland was worst than that of landless labourers. They did two-thirds of the work but owned no assets and enjoyed no credit worthiness. Joshi then had another argument. Family economics improves when the quality of woman's life improves.
The Sanghatana’s first women’s rally at Chandwad demanded that the cost of agricultural produce should include the worth of a woman’s domestic work too. The Chandwad Declaration took a serious view of the inequitable circumstances that daughters were left with in property disputes. Rural women then also demanded partnership rights with parents and husbands.
Interestingly, even in progressive Maharashtra despite many men finding the Sita story touching, they still found the message difficult to support. As a senior Sanghatana leader had put it, in the early days of the campaign people even suspected the Sanghatana's motives. Still Sanghatana leaders were successful in convincing many in the rural areas. To begin, with people were urged to pledge some part of their lands to their wives. It was then decided that this could be with or without the formal transfer of title, but necessarily be with a formal conferment of the gross proceeds in her favour.
Maharashtra later gave daughters their rightful dues in their fathers' properties. This somewhat resolved the issue, yet the need is to change the mindset of the people. Law alone may not be sufficient.
(First published in The Maharashtra Herald on April 4, 2005)
No comments:
Post a Comment