The Hindu Business Line : The street's their stage

After years of social repression, Haryana's young women have taken their troubles to the street. The play-acting that unfolds, not only exposes society's evils but also guarantees them a life of dignity free from restraint.

Rajni and Savita are taunted and humiliated almost every day by the inhabitants of Balu village, Haryana. Recently, they confronted a stronger sign of ostracism within the village — they were not invited to the wedding of a female cousin. Their crime: Acting in street theatre. And, not just for light-hearted entertainment, but to expose the various social evils that women are subjected to. Despite such ostracism, there are 90 young women like Rajni and Savita in the villages of Karnal district of Haryana. These girls regularly perform plays that inform and educate people about communal harmony, women's empowerment and the gender-prejudiced practice of foeticide.

The participants, comprising mostly school and college girls aged between 13 and 22 years, have performed over 400 times in 245 villages in Karnal district during the past two years. "These girls have brought about a revolution in the social-cultural traditions of Karnal. They perform in village squares and outside schools to spread their social messages," says Udham Singh Rathi, co-ordinator, Utthan Saksharta Samiti (USS), which is behind this initiative.

Ironically, the USS was set up by the Karnal district administration in April 2002, as part of a post-literacy project funded by the National Literacy Mission. Its objectives were to educate and strengthen the local people's knowledge and promote good social values. "The aim was to increase awareness through plays and songs, and also from reading material as the local people identify better with plays. Ten kala jathas (troupes) were formed for this," says Dr Ashok Arora, secretary of USS.

Says Arun, the ultural co-ordinator of USS, "To make our efforts more effective, we asked the girls to perform the role of women in plays rather than follow the old tradition where boys dressed up as girls play the female roles. We've observed that when boys perform girls' roles, the audience takes it only as entertainment, and ignores the theme."

For the girls, taking on the role of being critical of social evils has been tough, to say the least, given society's attitude towards women. Some time ago, a cousin of Rajni and Savita even hired local thugs to threaten them in order to dissuade them from their street theatre activities. But the sisters have remained resolute. Seema, a student of Class VIII, who also acts in social plays, was not threatened by anyone. But the family beat up her mother, an agricultural labourer. "If women do wrong things, this is bound to happen," says her disapproving grandfather, Kartar Singh.

However, the girls' participation in the drive against social ills is strengthened by another progressive organisation, the Haryana Gyan Vigyan Samiti (HGVS), which developed a strong network during its literacy drive in Haryana. And some HGVS activists have been working with the USS.

The first theatre workshop, in which 20 girls participated, was held in August 2002. "In these five days, the fathers and brothers of some of the girls came to see what the girls were up to. We asked them to get involved in the discussion and tried our best to satisfy them," recalls Rathi.

"The first two days were not interesting and I thought of dropping out, but slowly the issues became clearer; I realised that these plays told the story of our own lives. If we want to lead a life free from restraint and with dignity we have to take some initiative or end up leading the lives our mothers and sisters have led before us," says Pinky, 18, from Gandhi Nagar village.

All the people in this village were against Pinky's participation. When she staged a play on female foeticide, called A New Beginning, it did not go down well. After the performance, the village priest provoked the audience — he said the village would earn a bad name if girls enacted such themes. Who would marry these girls, he asked. "But these negative reactions don't bother me and I have performed around 40 shows in several villages," says Pinky.

Arun recalls the reaction of the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Indri, Darshan Singh Sandhu, who was present at the Sarpanch Sammelan (meeting of village council heads) where this play was performed. Sandhu said it was "vulgar" for the girls to point to their wombs while saying: "This female child who is in my womb is also a part of God. How can I agree to have her aborted?" He also accused the trainers of corrupting the girls and society, says Arun.

The scripts for plays such as A New Beginning, Meri Jaat (My Caste), and Don't Divide the Human Being, were written by different progressive groups in Haryana. While the first two plays focus on female foeticide, dowry and gender discrimination, the last focuses on communal harmony.

Significantly, the female characters in these plays are strong and unwilling to accept their traditional social status; they raise their voice to demand radical change. And clearly, the villagers are disturbed at the transformation of meek submissive girls into independent individuals with a voice of their own.

Even in instances when immediate male relatives of these girls are willing to go along, the extended families or village elders accuse them of living off the earnings of the girls, who they call "loose characters". In the prevailing hierarchy in the villages, it is difficult for most people to ignore the opinion of the male elders.

But the girls — with their newfound confidence — have not yet given in to pressure. The 90 of them who joined the kala jathas belong to both higher and lower castes. This intermingling of different castes, without any friction, also disturbs the village elders. They fear this change in social dynamics will erode their power over their families. So far, only one girl has withdrawn due to pressure; another has limited her performances to her own village.

Interestingly, in a few villages, the boldness of these girls has inspired even boys to join the kala jathas. And in Kalvedhri village there are now five girls instead of one.

Seema from Manjura village was married in 2003; she lives in Jhundla village now, but continues to act in the street plays. Although the project is slated to end soon, the street plays will continue because the girls are determined to spread their positive social messages. Activists of Karnal district hope to fund future activities by collecting donations from people.

Despite the success of these kala jathas among the participants and the women in the communities, the official Haryana State Public Relations Department has not yet drawn any inspiration from USS. This department has drama teams and bhajan mandlis (troupes that sing devotional songs) in nearly every district of the State. The troupes perform in towns and villages, educating people on development work and the policies of the State Government. While they do touch upon social evils in their songs, the troupes don't have a single woman member.

Women's Feature Service

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