Mandi's Observations - The Struggle

After spending nearly 8 months in India, the world of being a woman in India has opened itself up further to me as I meet more people and have more interactions with different types of women. All in all, I have come to the conclusion that being a woman in Indian society is extremely difficult. Regardless of the caste that a woman occupies, she is still subjugated in a society that values maleness above all else. As time continues to pass by here, more and more of my questions and uncertainties about this place seem to slowly find answers. When I first started volunteering at Vimochana, I was bombarded with images, stories, and first hand accounts of the egregious acts of violence and inequality women here face. My senses were overwhelmed with these atrocities; things were happening in their lives that I had no framework of even beginning to understand. Being relegated to second class citizens and often experiencing abuse because of their status as women, along with the complexity of the interconnectedness between gender, class, caste, and all the other forms of oppression started to overwhelm any ideas I could foresee for change towards equality on all fronts.

The biggest problem that I keep noticing about the movement for women in India is that there does not seem to be a cohesive one. Everything feels fragmented and separatist because even though women can share the common bond of being female, the lives of women in different castes are completely different, making it hard to find a common bond overall. All of these issues compounding started to bring questions of uncertainty to my mind of how any of this was going to be improved. India as a system is extremely complex and the workings of it are deeply embedded in the system in which it operates. I started to feel hopeless without any answers of how the society was going to change for the better.

Lately, it has become apparent to me that the movements toward equality will eventually prevail and India will come together as a whole. I know this will take time, but I believe that it will happen. At a protest for peace, I watched Vimochana women as activists hold strong and firmly to their convictions to ending violence. I saw in all of them the inner strength that pushes this movement forward. I watched as one woman's teenage son helped light the candles for the protest and realized that this is the way India will eventually change. Mother's will teach their sons to respect women as equals, and these men will together with women change the status of women in the society. Both men and women here need to be taught that it is not acceptable for women to be victims of abuse. When India can become a society that does not allow violence to be perpetrated on half of it's population, and the cycles of oppression begin to break down, harmony can ensue and the wonderful qualities of kindness, hospitality, and familial bonds can come to the forefront of this nation, thus showcasing the great ideals that already exist here. Until that day, the struggle for peace and equality will continue, and the Vimochana women will continue to dedicate their lives to ending the violence in their society.