A women empowerment initiative that saw three women undertake a nine-day, 1,500 km-long journey through the country in a red rickshaw aims to bring stories of women achievers out of obscurity and into the limelight
Uttar Pradesh’s Chandra Tomar, 78, is the grandmother of 15 children and the mother of six. However, what sets her apart from other grandmothers her age is the fact that she is the world?s oldest sharpshooter and the winner of more than 25 national championships. In fact, so skilled is she that there have been instances of male competitors refusing to show up at the range fearing defeat and humiliation at her hands! Her tryst with rifles started almost 10 years ago when she accompanied her grand-daughter to a firing range in native Baghpat. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, Tomar conducts training camps for the girls of her village and has trained more than 27 international-level shooters. Her daughter and grand-daughter, too, are skilled shooters.
Head draped in a pallu and wearing a long skirt, 65-year-old Norti Bai can be mistaken for a typical Rajasthani village woman. Only, this village woman is a dab hand at computers. Though she can?t speak English, Norti Bai is part of the local panchayat project that maintains for the government a database of wells, tubewells and ponds in neighbouring villages. A school dropout, Norti Bai realised some years back the crucial role computers play in today?s world and decided to give it a shot. Soon, she was proficient enough to start computer education classes for the women of her village. The first Dalit woman sarpanch of Rajasthan?s Harmara village, Norti Bai was awarded the CII-Bharti Woman Exemplar Award in 2007 for her contribution to the development of her community.
Sixty-year-old Hirabaiben Lobi was orphaned at a young age. With limited education, her life was a daily struggle for survival. It was by chance that she overheard a radio channel talking about new methods of farming. Eager to do something different, she took a loan and started an organic compost farm. Despite facing resistance from the local Siddi community in Gujarat, the new method proved successful and she was able to set up a sustainable farming enterprise. Today, her vermicompost manufacturing group sells approximately R7,00,000 worth of compost on an annual basis.
Celebrating the stories of these extraordinary women achievers and others like them was what the Red Rickshaw Revolution set out to do. An initiative to raise money for women empowerment in the country, the Red Rickshaw Revolution saw three women?Sunita Chaudhary, the first female autorickshaw driver in Delhi and NCR; Laura Turkington, country director, Vodafone Foundation in India; and Carina Deegan, project manager, Johan Cruyff Foundation in Mumbai?undertake a nine-day, 1,500km-long journey in March in a red autorickshaw travelling through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. En route, the red rickshaw passed through cities of Alwar, Jaipur, Ajmer, Rajsamand, Shamlaji, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Daman and Mumbai. ?The Red Rickshaw Revolution was a campaign to celebrate the achievements of ordinary women who have done some extraordinary things across the country. The idea was to meet these women, listen to their extraordinary tales, and tell their stories to the world,? says Turkington, adding, ?The Red Rickshaw Revolution started from a small-scale concept of riding a rickshaw to meet some amazing Indian women who have been working selflessly for social good. The campaign was conceptualised to celebrate the achievements of these women. The idea was to discover, encounter and acknowledge ordinary women across India who have made a difference to people?s lives.?
When asked to share stories of some of the women they met during the nine-day journey, Turkington says, ?We met Mittal Patel in Ahmedabad, a former journalist who, in one of her interactions, learnt about the constant struggles of the four million nomadic and denotified tribes of Gujarat, who had no formal record of their identities in the government system and were denied access to basic necessities of life.?
To bring the tribal people into mainstream society, says Turkington, Patel set up the Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch, an NGO that runs tent schools for children, lobbying actively with the local government for land rights, and applying for voter ID cards for these tribes. Today, 60,000 people from the tribes have their own voter ID cards and 5,000 of them are employed.
?We also met Vijay Lakshmi from Phagi village in Rajasthan, who defied the age-old tradition of child marriage and decided to follow her aspirations to go to college and live a life of her own. Due to her decision, she was locked up and ridiculed by her family and community. Things changed when a neighbour?s 14-year-old married daughter tragically died during childbirth,? says Turkington.
Several girls today, says Turkington, request Lakshmi to help them crusade for the fight against child marriage. A dedicated teacher now, she visits families of young girls to dissuade them from marrying their daughters at a young age and uses her life story to demonstrate that a bright future for girls can be within reach.
The woman that most inspired Chaudhary, though, was Rajasthan?s Norti Bai. ?We met Norti Bai in Harmara village, Rajasthan, who, despite her limited education, went on to learn operating computers and is today an expert imparting computer education to other women in her village. Meeting her really inspired me,? she says.
Having the distinction of being the first female autorickshaw driver in Delhi and NCR, Chaudhary?s story herself is nothing short of an achievement. Born into an orthodox village near Bahadurpur, Uttar Pradesh, she was denied education, as girls in her village weren?t encouraged to go to school. She was married off at an early age to an abusive husband. When things went from bad to worse, she ran away to Delhi. ?I was determined to do something in life and so I came to Delhi. I ran from pillar to post to get an autorickshaw licence and was denied a loan for three years from all government quarters. When I finally got the auto and the loan, I had to work two shifts, day and night, to repay the loan,? she says, adding, ?Initially, it was difficult (driving an autorickshaw in Delhi) as I was unaccustomed to the roads. Now that I know the roads, I feel confident.?
News reports say, Delhi has already seen 393 rape cases in the first three months of 2013. Doesn?t she feel scared driving an autorickshaw in the ?rape capital? of the country? ?I have encountered many passengers who have tried to get overtly friendly or have made indecent proposals. But now after driving for so many years, I can sense such passengers and I just apply the brakes and get rid of them,? she says.
A red autorickshaw, especially one with three women onboard taking turns to drive it, is a rare sight. Asked about the experience of driving it across the country, Turkington says, ?We encountered many stares as well as shocked glances of people who were amazed to see three women onboard a red rickshaw in their city. We came across a lot of enthusiasts who wanted to get clicked with us. People would pull over, wave at us, stop their cars to meet us and would want to know what the whole revolution was all about.?
So will the Red Rickshaw Revolution see a sequel? ?The campaign has received an overwhelming response from all quarters and there is palpable enthusiasm to make the revolution even bigger. We are still deliberating on the next leg of the campaign and some exciting plans are in store to empower more women,? says Turkington.
