हकीकत है, वो स्याह रात की कहानी

कहानियों में था सुना,

किस्सा काली भयावक रात का

गड़गड़ाते बादल, सुनसान रास्ता, दरिंदगी राक्षस की

लेकिन ये रात तो आम रात सी थी

न सुनसान न अकेली

दिल्ली जो सोती नहीं,

मूंद ली उसने भी अपनी आंख

क्या पहना था उसने?

थी किसके साथ वो?

इतनी रात को क्यों घूमती अकेले?

कितनी बातें कितने सवाल

हैवानों से मांगी होती माफी, बनाया होता भाई

कहता झूठा सन्यासी।

क्यों कभी सवाल नहीं उठा राक्षस पर

बीत गए 12 साल,

पर क्या आया अन्याय की गुफा में सवेरा ?

घर, दफ्तर, सड़क, बस

गांव, शहर

बच्ची, किशोरी, महिला या बुजुर्ग

शिक्षित, अशिक्षित

हर रोज हर घंटे

बनती दरिंदगी का शिकार

अब भी कहते हो बेटी पढ़ाओ बेटी बचाओ

लानत हैं तुम्हारे दुस्साह पर

हर उस इंसान पर

हर उस व्यवस्था पर

उन सिस्टम पर

जो बने मूकदर्शक अन्याय के

उन सभी पर

जो दुहाई देते बदलते समाज की

लड़कियों तो लड़कों से आगे हैं

नेता भी महिला, पुलिस भी महिला

हवाई जहाज चलाती महिला

अंतरिक्ष में परचम लहराती महिला

लेकिन अनदेखा करते स्कूल जाती सहमी छात्रा को

दफ्तर से देर शाम लौटती महिला को

कार्यस्थल पर कम बोली युवती को

ट्रेन में कभी अकेले तो कभी परिवार के साथ

सफर करती लड़की को

सिस्टम में खोट निकालने वाले

न्याय व्यवस्था पर ठिकरा फोड़ने वाले

खुद के गिरेबान में झांको जरा

कब कब तुमने मूंदी आंखे

कब कब अनसुनी की उस चीख और चुप्पी को

खुद कितने बार उड़ाया माखौल

खुद कितने बार बोली अन्याय की जुंबा

हकीकत है वो स्याह रात की कहानी

उठो, जागो, खोलो आंखे

जब तक नहीं बढ़ेगे सभी के हाथ

जेंडर आधारित हिंसा के खिलाफ़

नहीं खत्म होगी ये अंधेरी रात, भयावक रात।

 

Let’s learn theatre together!

 ‘Can we create a natak on Cricket?’

‘How about Beti Padhao Beti Bachao?’

‘Oh we can perform on Ramayan?’

                  

Working on the issues of gender, sexuality and challenging violence with a right based approach is quite challenging when it comes to engaging with the adolescents in the village. That’s not because they don’t understand or violence is normalized but also because of the aftermath of various incidents that make interactions between girls and boys highly tabooed in the community as well as in the schools. This also results in shutting down curiosity, creativity and out of box thinking in ways that most of the people will find it difficult to understand.

We at Sahas are consistently trying to create safe sharing spaces for these crucial topics both in Khushipura village as well as in the nearby schools. We have been working with the students of CPS Public School, Kakrari Gaon since last year on the various topics like Mental Health, Human rights and so on; this time we took a leap and designed a workshop to explore the basics of theatre of oppressed.

35+ boys and girls from different classes participated in the session. We began with a fun energizer of ‘ladoo’ where one of the volunteer will say the name of another student along with shouting ‘Ladoo’ – that person will sit down quickly and the other two around them will yell ladoo to each other; the slower one will be evicted. They took some time to warm up however the gender divide in the group was quite visible.

We then invited the participants to pair up with a student with whom they have least interacted with in the school or who is in different class and they were to share their name, hobby, their aspirations and one embarrassing moment. After they know each other, they have to introduce themselves as their partner. Few pairs enacted each other quite well, some were shy and some awkward. This was followed by walking activity, they were meeting and greeting silently then through sound, they also walked as instructed like an old person, teacher and powerful person. What stayed with me was how girls had powerful stance while acting as person in power. Here too, we saw girls walking through many spaces while boys walked in only one part of the room clearly demarking the space based on gender.

To set the background for theatre/ rangmanch; we divided the participants in 5 groups – 3 groups were all girls, 1 group was all boys and one group challenged the gender barrier and formed mixed group. The facilitator invited each group to think about the first theatre that was conceptualized by human beings, who would have created it and what was the purpose behind it? There was silence, then some slow murmurs and then hands were raised – ‘but how would we know?’ ‘Ramayan was the first natak?’ ‘I don’t know – I haven’t read it anywhere’ ‘I haven’t seen a natak in my life’ ‘How do we do acting?’ and lot many questions came up. The facilitators went to each group, engaging and hinting them as to what could have been the first theatre, motivating them to use their creativity.

One of the group decided to become early men/cave men who will go for hunting and sharing the food with the rest of the people in their community, another group after lot of discussion decided to showcase various activities an early men would have engaged in, the boys group decided to act out a sports competition, another group struggled to decide whether they want to even act or not; last and final group decided to show a theatre on saving girl’s child.

It was wonderful to see that the first group brought various props without even our suggestions like a spear, grass and something to tie around their waist.

The second group went a little ahead and did a natak on hunting with bow and arrow, spear and sharing the food with the group. Since the boys were little reluctant and lesser in number so one by one they went out of the class. Third group tried but couldn’t clearly represent the girl child natak but their efforts were well appreciated.

The session closed with the feeling circle, wherein the students were invited to share how did they feel after engaging in the theatre, is there anything they learned during the session?

‘It was interesting; I have never done something like this. I would like to know more’

‘I enjoyed it but I don’t know how to act. I was feeling shy.’

‘I had fun.’

‘I know other boys went away, but I would definitely come in the next workshop. Thank you!’

While the participants enjoyed learning basics of TOTO, it was also a learning experience for our team. One being that we need to address the issues of gender, build understanding on issues of adolescence while creating safe sharing space for both boys and girls in this school and then go more slowly step by step for learning theatre.   

Diving in the question of ‘Who am I?’ with the students of rural school

 ‘The key lesson from the story was that he made sure that the caste based discrimination he experienced in his life; nobody has to go through it again.’

In our pursuit to build gender equitable villages, we have been engaging with the girls of Khushipura village through Sahasi Girls program, an evolving leadership and knowledge building program to empower girls to stand for their rights and build courage to question existent oppressive system. At the same time, we are also implementing gender and mental health program in various schools located near the village. With this objective, we conducted a session on ‘Who am I?’ with the students of Shri Adarsh Tikaram Singh Inter college, Khushipura village.  

The workshop started with the brief introduction of Sahas, the agenda for the next hour and setting of basic ground rules for the smooth running of the session. We then engaged with the participants through a fun energizer of ‘super power pose, haiyya and ting!’ The participants took some time to get accustomed to the game, there was lot of hesitation because it was a mixed group – girls and boys generally avoided each other however with the next two steps, slowly the barrier was broken and they started having fun in the game.

In the next part of the session, the participants were invited to create identity maps – sharing things they like or dislike along with aspects which are peculiar to them as a person. Many of the boys including one girl shared that they would like to join Army when they grow up, some of them loved playing cricket and one also mentioned that they enjoy parathas made by his mother.  One of the reasons behind the aspiration to join Army stems from the fact that many of the men in this village have built their lives, breaking the cycle of poverty and changed the family status by becoming Army personnel.

This was followed by storytelling session where we shared the story of Dr. BR Ambedkar when he was of their age, the kind of discrimination he was subjected to due to his caste and finally becoming the person who wrote the constitution of India. Some of the values and learning as shared by the participants from the story were – BR Ambedkar ensured that the social discrimination he faced due to his caste, must not happen to others. His life reflected his resilience, never losing courage and importance of education.  

Standing in the circle, the participants were invited to share ‘one good thing/quality about themselves’ – with shy smiles and curiosity, many of them talked about what they like doing, who is their favorite person and so.

‘I am Army lover, cricket lover and study lover’

‘I like playing hockey and want to join Army’

‘I like to study and talk to my friends’

The initial shame and awkwardness between the boys and girls slowly started vanishing when both of them shared their love for cricket. The facilitator hinted that we can do a cricket match with girls Vs boys – there was huge Yes to it and immediately they started talking about venue. This right here is the beauty of the safe space, where people open their heart, speak what they wish to share and gravitate towards each other as co-travelers irrespective of the identities they carry in and around themselves.

The session came to its closure with each participant sharing feedback in form of sound and action. We look forward to engaging more with this cohort of 28 students in the coming days.    

Celebrating childhood, empowering rural youth and building inclusive village

 For every one of us who had the opportunity to go to the school, children’s day remains a beautiful cherished memory. The day begins with remembering Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of Independent India popularly known as ‘Chacha Nehru’ for his love and belief that children are the future of the nation. The program also has students performing numerous cultural activities and it closes with a packet of refreshments, which used to be the key moment of the day. We have been working with girls, young children, persons with disability, and engaging young people in Khushipura village for past 4 years in pursuit of building gender inclusive village. The children’s day provided the perfect opportunity to bring all of them together under one roof to celebrate the social change that we are slowly bringing in the community.

When we hear words like social change, inclusivity, rural India – suddenly it seems all serious and grim but that’s not true! The process of social change and inclusivity can be full of joy and fun and that was exactly our intention for this community event. The program was conceptualized, discussed and was finalized by three core team members just 15 days before the decided date. The design of the program was simple but it involved lot of logistics preparations, one of the challenging aspects being arranging transport for persons with disabilities and making sure that they feel included in the activities. So, while Mona and Purvi finalized the design, communications and logistics management our third core team member Sarla Devi reached the village a day before to engage community members on program details, mobilization and arranging safe transport for PWDs. Initially both of them couldn’t believe that they are invited to the Children’s day event – both of them have been confined to their homes for years and they have only interacted with family members except for Sahas team since last year.

Sarla Devi, a woman of strong unmatched mantle went home to home visiting girls and their families including the ones who have stopped coming to the program and those who for some reason don’t want their girls to go outside their homes. When she visited the homes of PWDs, there was disbelief in their eyes, but with her conversation, they became enthusiastic about both the event and meeting Sahasi Girls. The day closed with each team member briefing about preparations at their end and joy of what is to come next day.

We began the celebrations of Children’s day by welcoming our participants with fun music. Once everyone settled down and sat in the circle (some of our young participants kept trickling in), we remembered the contribution of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and his love for children. There have been inspiring leaders who have contributed to independence of India and freedom struggle. In this world of hate, discrimination, capitalism and war, it becomes our duty to remember and share the stories and values these leaders (some of who are still celebrated and many forgotten); they are not just the stories for inspiration but they help us in questioning and building our own path towards social change.

In the next part of the program, the young children joined the art circle with their coloring books and art supplies, while the girls and persons with disability formed the music circle. Popularly known as antakshari, the girls in our village really enjoy singing but its way different that what city folks know and sing. The entire environment vibrated with the melodious songs of bhakti, Kabir vani, desh bhakti and girl power – it was unbelievable symphony of music, solidarity, fun and empowerment. It was thrilling to watch the real time competition and jugalbandi between the participants of the music circle, leaving others with unmatched joy!

At the other corner of the school, young kids were busy with the drawings and coloring books. Their happiness was skyrocketed when they realized that they can take the art book and supplies with them. After a while persons with disabilities also engaged in art. This is how we at Sahas envision our society to look like where everyone can co-exist, feel safe and respected for who they are and not what they are expected to be, there is no culture of normal vs not normal, there is creativity, liberation and solidarity. We have been actively engaging with the young boy and adolescent girl with disability for over a year now, and to bring them in this event was no less a feat in itself. Sarla Devi and Anmol (Teacher at After School program) took time in figuring out transport very early in the morning, finally finding a battery rickshaw and reached young boy’s home first. He was already ready, freshly clothed and excited for the day. However, the girl wasn’t ready simply because she couldn’t believe that anyone will take time to come to her home and take her to the program. Both of them sat in the rickshaw holding Sarla’s hand and even later while they sat in the circle, they gravitated towards her – she somehow became their safe haven amidst the community event.

We organized a Kho-Kho match for Sahasi Girls, that saw the fierce fight between the two teams and with lot of efforts one of the teams led by Renu emerged as winners. The young kids engaged in octopus race, one of kind race that was organized for the first time here in the village. This was followed by felicitation ceremony where the winners of the octopus race was awarded and celebrated. This time we felicitated Sunita, skill trainer and young woman from the village who has been teaching two girls sewing and stitching for 3 months. She is an incredible teacher because of her classes, one of the Sahasi Girls is on the path of becoming financially independent.  She was extremely shy, overwhelmed and surprised to hear her name. But moments like these remind us of the importance of appreciation that people around us deserve, it can be so inspiring and motivating to be valued and awarded for their work.

We all clapped and cheered the winners and awardees. At the very moment our after school program teacher arrived with the cakes. Children’s day celebrations are incomplete without refreshments! With all our programs and workshops, we always ensure that the participants have refreshments at the end because all of these girls work really hard at home and field, many times they come to sessions in hurry without eating much and participating in sessions and conversations about self can be exhausting. We have had variety of refreshments over the course of 4 years, be it samosa, food packets, sweets, toffees, fruits or a full lunch but never cake or pastries. Cake in the village is never heard of and many of these children have never had one. Anmol brought the cake from nearby town just in time. Our Sahasi Girls along with team cut the cake and distributed to everyone along with the chocolates. The curiosity and shine on everyone’s face indicated that we made the right choice with the cake.

The community event reached its closure with the participants enjoying their slice of cake and curiosity of what was to come in the next days. 

It was wonderful to see how one of the Sahasi Girls helped the persons with disability get on the car by lifting him effortlessly and with respect. Two young girls stayed with us to close the school, they were overjoyed to share the car ride with us. All these small moments coupled with the infectious energy of the children, girls and rural youth made the Children’s day even more memorable to us at Sahas.