The Hindu : New Delhi News : Spotlight on women’s struggle

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Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Spotlight on women’s struggle

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The right to be heard and the right to speak are manifestations of women’s struggle against poverty, said Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy here on Wednesday.

Delivering the 13th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture on “Democracy: Women’s Struggle Against Poverty”, Ms. Roy said urban India often fails to connect with the problems and issues that face people in rural areas.

Citing her own example, she said: “In 1975 when I went to Rajasthan to tell a group of rural women whatever I knew about education and health, I was asked to go back to where I came from. The women were more concerned about their everyday lives -- bringing up children, colleting fuel for fire – and had no use for what I had to say.”

Pointing out that the “logic of rural women is infallible”, she said it was imperative that educated people “learn” from it. “When we go to rural areas we talk of having toilets, because there are no toilets and we think they are necessary.”

“However, for the rural women, toilets mean extra water to be fetched. For them drinking water is the priority,” she said.

Wisdom

“Houses built for people under Indira Awas Yojana are lying vacant today, because someone in their wisdom decided that the houses should be built far away from the villages,” she pointed out.

Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said those who are the most affected and the most concerned (with the issues that face the marginalised) are the ones who perceive the practical realities of rights and empowerment.

Justice Leila Seth paid tributes to the late Justice Sunanda Bhandare and recalled the principles that she embodied.

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