Final Reflections

This is my very last blog post. After being in Canada for nearly a month, I am still trying to get back to normal routine as I finish up my project for school, which will be presented on Monday, January 28^th.

Reflecting back on my project, I realize how much I learned in such a limited amount of time. Women’s rights in India is an extremely big topic to tackle, and having the blog set up while I was away helped me organize my information as I traveled. If I had stayed longer in India, I would have researched my topic further and more in depth, as I was only scratching the surface of women’s rights.

The rape case that occurred on December 16^th was truly a terrible crime but sometimes terrible things need to happen so that better things can come. This crime, that was in every newspaper in India and was talked about daily, helped me to explore new topics in my blog while I was traveling and gave me lots to think about. It was also interesting to see how India responded to this crime and,  I think that, many years from now, December 2012 will be remembered as the beginning of a new era for women’s rights in India.

I want to thank all of my readers for keeping up with my blog while I was traveling around India and for taking a deeper interest into the different issues I was looking at. Posting new updates, and reading your comments was one of the highlights of the trip.  Thank you all so much.

Josiah

Last Day In India

Today we took a train from Jaipur back to New Delhi. Tomorrow, we fly to London, England, and after spending 18 hours there; we will fly back to Ottawa.

Today while reading some newspapers, I got some interesting information about women’s rights issues and some more research relating to the New Delhi gang rape incident. The six accused will be tried in the Saket District Court, in the same area where we stayed when we first arrived in India. Murder, gang rape, attempt to murder, and criminal conspiracy are only a few of the multiple charges facing the six accused. One of the six is a youth and is being tried by a Juvenile Board. There has been some debate since he is a youth whether his punishment should be as harsh as the adults, but we will find out soon, as the trial is soon to be underway.

Apart from some more news on the gang rape and other cases that are popping up, I read an interesting article on the education system. Apparently, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), is preparing to teach students and teachers to battle the oppression of women, starting at a very young age. Also, the board has decided to launch an optional topic for students in Classes 11 and 12 on Human Studies and Gender Rights. It seems to me that, indeed the New Delhi gang rape incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Although I think it will take years before women’s rights issues even reach rural areas, it is good to see that at least the nation’s capitol is addressing these issues.










The Baha'i Temple in Delhi

Clothing and Women's Status

Yesterday we arrived in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Today, we visited another fort, and a block-printing museum. I found the block-printing museum interesting, because under the descriptions of the dresses and saris that the museum had, each had a tag saying either “Worn by widows”, or “Worn by married women.” I found this interesting, as the dresses/saris with less brighter colours were the ones that said “Worn by widows”. This illustrates my research that widows are forbidden to wear bright colours once their husband dies. Although I already knew this, it was interesting to see it so explicitly displayed.

Another thing I found that was interesting was that they separated the married women’s dresses from the divorced. I think it was an example even of women coming down on other women saying, “We’re better because we still have our husbands.”


Stamping fabric in the block-printing museum, Amber.

Anger and Mourning in India

On Saturday, December 29th, the 23 year old New Delhi rape victim 'Nirbhaya' died in the Safdarjung Hospital, Singapore, after a thirteen day struggle for her life. 

Reading the newspaper today (The Times of India), it sounds as though the entire nation has erupted into turmoil as suddenly the issue of women's right's has exploded across the nation. Although the incident was atrocious, it did push people to finally send a message of "enough", and I have a feeling that, in terms of enforcing women's rights, some things might change to help protect women more. I already noticed that, aside from multiple articles about the victim 'Nirbhaya' and the increasing protests, there are more reports of rape victims coming in from across India. My guess is that this has caused a ripple effect, and by the time the New Year begins, things are going to change.

Back in Time

Today we are headed to our next location, Bundi. In the time I have been in India, I have visited about seven historical forts, all built in different time periods for Rajs in Rajasthan. One of the many things they hade in common was the use of purda windows. These were windows that were built in forts designed so that women could see out of them into the courtyard and city, but men could not see in. The designers did this by interlacing different patterns into the stonewalls of rooms.

Purda translates into modesty, and it was repeated many times, by tour guides, audio guides, or just guide books, that they were there for the protection of women from leering men. Whether it was just the wandering eye, to if there was an invasion of the fortress, these were made to ensure that women were protected by stares and kept modest. This made me question the history of women's rights in India. Were these purda windows put up because men really did care about the modesty and protection of women, or to remind them of their oppression, as if to say that they were stuck behind stonewalls, and were forbidden to be seen.


In my opinion, I think that it was a mixture of both, because although the men wanted to preserve the women's privacy and modesty, it was also oppressing to them in that maybe it was a bit too much privacy and modesty, which may have caused some insecurity. Although it was made with mostly good intentions, it was, in my opinion, oppression nonetheless towards women.

Standing by a purda window.

Merry Christmas from India

On the 22^nd of December, my mother and sister attended a cooking class in Jodhpur, to learn how to make Indian food. The woman who ran the cooking class in her home had two daughters, one 9 years old and one 10, and while the rest of my family was cooking, I spent some time playing with the two daughters. The mother told my family and I how when their daughters were born, many people felt sorry for them that they were girls. The mother and father, however, are happy and are trying to raise their daughters so that they are safe and have a good life. They also told us how they are investing in their education instead of dowries or jewelry, seeing it as a brighter future for them.

We are now in the city of Udaipur, and since it’s Christmas Day, and I haven’t been feeling too well, I have decided to take some time to reflect on the past week and a half. So far, some of the highlights of this trip have been the markets in New Delhi, walking through the streets of Jaisalmer, riding camels in the desert and jumping in the sand dunes, visiting the charity school, and talking with Govind. In terms of my project, being in India has given me an entirely different perspective on the topic of women’s rights, and has helped me to get a firsthand experience with this topic in another culture.

Interview with Founder of Sambhali Trust

I have just finished my interview with Govind Singth Rathore, the founder of the untouchable women's empowerment charity called the Sambhali Trust. He gave an entirely new perspective on my project and had lots of new information to share.

He started by describing in detail what the Sambhali Trust does. Their goal is to empower women in the Rajasthan community as much as possible. Their process is this: when women usually come to the charity, there is a good chance they have suffered from domestic violence. Domestic violence and alcohol are two of the main factors that lead towards the abuse of women. The Sambhali Trust helps these women by giving them emotional support and providing a sense of community in the charity. Once this is done, the charity tries to convince the women to attend their education programs. If they convince the women to attend, they begin to teach them basic reading and writing skills, and help them to gain confidence and integrity. Some reasons that women are convinced to get a proper education are that once that is done, they can work and get a job, and although they are from the lowest caste, the untouchables, once they start earning money of their own, they gain a new respect for themselves and from the community around them. Money in India is very important, and some people's greed for it can make them cast aside their prejudice. It's a relief that there are ways for women to get respect in their community, but it is also quite shocking how much influence greed has over such basic human rights issues.

In terms of word spreading out about the charity, workers go door to door in the slums of town and cities and tell families there about the charity, and that they should send the women in the family there. A problem that the charity often runs into is after two or three months of schooling and attending the charity, women and girls stop going. The charity went to find out, and apparently, after two or three months the women begin to get a sense self-confindence, and begin to say "no" to things they didn't want to do. The men in the family saw this as a threat, and stop them from going to the education classes.

The Indian government advises that women should be paid about 1,100 rupees (about $22 Canadian) for their work that they sell each month. The store that Sambhali Trust owns that sells items b made by women in villages pays them from 3,500 to 6,000 rupees ($70 to $120 Canadian) each month. Some negative news is that the Indian government says that if you earn more than 26 rupees (52 cents Canadian) in a village, or 32 rupees (64 cents Canadian) in a town daily, you are not considered poor and therefore get no government support. This leaves lots of families trying to make a living while being paid very little.

I was able to learn some more information about the incident I talked about earlier in New Delhi. A 23 year old medical student boarded a city bus early in the morning, and was brutally gang raped and beaten by a group of men. As a result, there have been many protests in New Delhi demanding stricter laws against rapists in India. Rapists, along with murderers, serve a seven-year sentence in prison. But the protesters are demanding that the accused men serve a harsher sentence, some even suggesting capitol punishment. The sad thing is that every 42 minutes, an Indian woman is raped, and every 62 minutes, it is a child being raped. When I asked Govind why people are protesting now, when it is so common for it to happen, he said that most people don't want to start a protest over something that happens so much already, and don't want to get in trouble with the law. Already police forces have had to fire water cannons at crowds and beat protesters that have gotten out of hand. The thing, however, that makes this case so different is that it was on a public service bus, it was in the capitol of the country, and not only was the girl raped, she was also brutally wounded and beaten.

If you would like to learn more about the Sambhali Trust, or to read Govind's story of what inspired him to start this charity, I encourage you to visit their website

http://www.sambhali-trust.org/