The Indian woman has been scripting a change, silently or through words, sometimes holding centrestage, at other times from the sidelines.
Some such inspiring stories of women have been captured on lens and the collection goes by the name, “Women Changing India”. The initiative has come from BNP
Paribas, which commissioned Magnum Photos agency to document women who are changing India in various spheres. The agency picked up some of the best known names in the business to preserve these change makers. The six photographers selected six subjects and let their cameras do the talking. The exhibition recently travelled through five cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi and Chennai), accompanied by a book of photographs and essays, courtesy Zubaan, edited by Urvashi Butalia and Anita Roy.
Complimenting the photographs are chapters by Indian writers, underlining the vital role women are playing in their respective fields. “The subjects have been identified to highlight the cultural and geographical diversity of women’s lives. Each subject highlights the changing roles, aspirations, opportunities and challenges that these women face,” says Urvashi.
n Women panchayats: Photographs by Patrick Zachmann
Rural India geared itself up for a gradual change with the introduction of the panchayat system, reserving one-third of the panchayat seats for women. As Amita Bhaskar writes in the book, “Rural India took a deep breath and women came out of their homes. It’s a slow revolution. The mother still cooks, washes clothes and fetches water. But she also attends meetings, inspects the school and health clinic, and checks up on work going on around the village… In the process, they have changed and so has the Indian society.”
n Micro credit and women’s self-help groups: Photographs by Martine Franck
Self-reliance inevitably translates to financial independence, micro credit and
women self-help groups are the oasis that have provided women a chance to stand on their own feet. Annie Zaidi shares her view on these achievers, “Some might find it hard to imagine the impossibility of getting a bank loan if
you are a landless labourer or a migrant slumdweller… But now, poor women are getting small loans, thanks to SHGs and microfinance ventures. And with one small loan, life changes. Perhaps it is only a millimetere shift. But the shift is happening.”
n Behind the scenes, women in the Mumbai film industry: Photographs by Alessandra Sanguinetti
Namrata Joshi of Zubaan writes, “Bollywood has always been male dominated. Yet, in the last few years, women have created a space, not just on screen but off screen too and their contribution has brought freshness to Indian filmmaking. Farah Khan has often spoken about Bollywood being a great leveller, saying ‘I believe we have true democracy in the film industry.’ How I wish this applied to the rest of the country as far as women are concerned!”.
n Driving Change: Photographs by Alex Webb
These women are making their presence felt in areas conventionally considered to be dominated by men. “At 19, Hasina was set to become a drudge. But three years later, she had reinvented herself… She had a taxi service, a private transport company staffed by women drivers, which aimed at female passengers. Hasina’s journey to this unorthodox employment is both a story of individual initiative and daring,” writes Mukul Kesavan.
n The Heart of India: Photographs by Raghu Rai
Renowned journalist Tarun J. Tejpal writes on this subject, “In the growing churn, in the million mutinies electrifying contemporary India, the great change is coming from the woman and not the man. Once, referring to Indira Gandhi, I wrote, ‘No man is ever the equal of a strong woman.’ It can be said of a million other women today. It is the hope that beats the heart of India.”
n Generation now, imagines a different future: Photographs by Olivia Arthur
”Although there is a problematic gender gap between male and female enrollment in primary and secondary schools, India has had, since Independence in 1947, close to 50 per cent female enrollment in higher education. Parents, too, increasingly see the benefits of encouraging their daughters to follow their dreams. Social attitudes take a long time to evolve… but women are winning major battles against centuries of conditioning that once determined what they themselves wanted and thought they could do,” Mitali Saran points out. This year the exhibition is expected to travel to Paris, London, Brussels and Milan.