Born Free
I am born in a family which has been active in the country’s politics and in social work for more than half a century. The foundation for this was laid by my father’s mother, my grandmother, Shardabai Pawar and my mother’s mother, Nirmala Shinde.
Shardabai Pawar was a lady of great courage who brought up the family while battling against significant odds in life. She created her unique identity in politics and social work with great courage and fortitude. She had the legacy of the Satyashodhak Samaj, a society that sought truth and rationality. Her personality was shaped and moulded in the intellectual atmosphere of Sevasadan. This intellectual legacy supported her all through her life.
Similarly, my mother’s mother, Nirmala Shinde was a very strong lady. While her four daughters were still very young, she was prematurely widowed at the age of 28 years.She with great courage brought up her 4 daughters single handedly and gave them the best education. Both my grandmothers took all the decisions in life independently. Both my grandmothers were part of large and not very wealthy families. All the girls in my got freedom and equal treatment in our house along with the males. Similarly all my sisters-in-laws who came into our family after marriage were treated equal to the males in the family. The life stories of both of my grandmothers are inspiring to me.
Since my mother was brought up in this atmosphere, she also lives in the same way. Since my father has been extremely busy in his socio-political life, I have taken all decisions with the guidance and assistance of my mother.
After birth i.e. around 48 years ago, my parents decided to only have one child since they both came from large families … my father felt family planning was a must given the large population Of our country.. they had only child child which was me – a girl and after this, my father underwent a vasectomy- which was unheard of in those days .He did not cast the burden of birth control on my mother. This was truly a revolutionary thinking in that era. Whenever I recall this now, I am amazed. After my daughter, Revati, was born and we were thinking of having another child my father said, “when you have a daughter why are you thinking of second child?”. I was brought up in a family where gender equality was a given. I was never treated differently just because I was a girl . Moreover I was brought up in the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai. After marriage we lived abroad for a few years. There too I never faced any gender discrimination. Against this background, when I returned to India and started working that’s where I for the first time encountered cases of female-male inequality while interacting in society. I was deeply disturbed by the disparity in the birth rate of women and men. Around that time I read the 2011 census report and it confirmed my doubt. The birth rate of girls had declined and it was 940 for every 1000 boys. Even the so called progressive districts had seen a sharp decline in the birth rate of girls.
This was clearly related to female foeticide which was taking place in many places in Maharashtra. In one such unfortunate incident, a woman died in the hospital in Parali in Beed district during delivery and her husband was arrested in that case, following which the family of four daughters and an old grandmother was rendered helpless and without support. I visited that family in the Bhopa village in Majalgaon taluka of Beed district and extended them support. We decide to adopt and supports three elder girls of that family to Shardanagar school in Baramati for further education. When these girls meet me with joyous and bright faces today, I feel elated. Thereafter we continued taking the responsibility of educating many such girls. Subsequently, we launched a project called ‘Jagar’, an awareness programme against female foeticide. With the tagline of ‘Jagar haa janivacha, tumchya majhya lekincha’ , this tagline continued to grab minds. We took out a padyatra in 2011 from Naigaon, the birthplace of Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule to Mahatma Phule’s house at Ganjpeth in Pune. A large number of girls, women and activists from all over Maharashtra participated in the padyatra. When girls started interacting with me during this campaign, a whole new world beyond my imagination opened up for me … I kept listening…The experiences of their world were unfamiliar to me, and besides, it was shocking. This experience changed my emotional world. I became far more sensitive to womens’ issues. My mind became continuously occupied with the unfairness surrounding women in our society. When I started attending the meetings of the Nationalist Congress Party Youth wing meetings , I noticed the absence of young womens’ representation. I began thinking of how they could be given representation and brought into the mainstream.
As a result the party decided to form the Rasthravadi Yuvati Congress in 2012 to give representation to young women in the party. This was the first experiment of this kind in the country.
When the Nationalist Yuvati Congress Party was formed, the words of honorable NCP chief, Sharad Pawar Saheb still echo in my mind during his presidential speech. Saheb had said that, ” I am not sure whether the Nationalist Yuvati Congress Party will gain politically. But I will consider the project will surely have huge social change and is firm step towards gender equality and give a platform and voice to your girls …We had 50 rallies of Rashtravadi Yuvati Congress all over the state. I got a chance to interact with young women and understood the issues they were facing. Issues such as eve-teasing and dowry came to light. Therefore we took the initiative to make colleges eve-teasing free. We started Judo and Karate training sessions to teach self-defence to young women. The issue of dowry is very serious and it has both social and economic dimensions. Hence we started the project of Samuhik vivah which got overwhelming response.
Thereafter the state of Maharashtra witnessed one of the worst droughts. While interacting with people, I met many widows of farmers who had committed suicide. I decided to take the initiative of rehabilitating at least 200 widows every year. All these women are in the age group of 25 to 40 years. Their life is full of sorrow. Though we cannot completely reduce their burden of grief, We have tried to skill them and have help set them up with small businesses to enable them to be economically independent. Besides, We have taken the full responsibility of their children’s education. We have also organised health facilities available to them and their children free of cost. The GST implementation last year painted a rosy picture of rationalization and universalization of the tax structure across goods and services all over the country and help bring the prices of essential commodities within the reach of common man.However, we are observing many structural defects due to the undue haste made during implementation.
The most disappointing part is the imposition of 12 percent GST on sanitary pads. On one hand 80 percent of women do not have access to sanitary pads which is an essential item for women and hence they fall ill for lack of hygiene. To top this, we have now increased the tax burden. Considering this fact, we have taken up a campaign – zero GST on sanitary pads. We are also working to reach out to every women in our society and provide them with sanitary pads. I am confident we will succeed by creating greater awareness and force the government to remove GST on sanitary pads in the coming days.
We are going to step up our efforts to take the gender equality campaign to more and more people on the occasion of National Girls’ Day. We all must do everything we can to usher in an era of gender equality and fairness. The path is likely to be long and paved with challenges, but we will strive tirelessly, and I am very confident that with your support, we will succeed in this noble and fair mission.
Supriya Sule, MP