FEMININE FORCE: Rural Champions of Change
Experiencing the power of togetherness and community, close to 5,600 women from 129 villages in the Lamta and Paraswada blocks of Balaghat district, displayed their confidence, organizing ability and enthusiasm at the annual meet of the Nari Shakti Mahila Sangh by taking decisions and making choices about their livelihoods and their families
T hey flowed like a river down the road. Women holding banners marched in line as far as the eye could see. The morning air reverberated with a slogan that had first been heard in Mumbai’s streets in the 1980s: “Hum Bharat ke nari hain. Phool nahi, chingari hain! (We are women of India. Not flowers, but flames).”
They poured into a tented venue, pitched on fallow rice fields just outside the village of Lamta in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district, which lies on the border that the state shares with Maharashtra. The bags they carried and the babies sleeping on some of their shoulders indicated that they had come a long way. “Awaaz do, hum ek hai (Raise your voices, we are one),” shouted somebody. “We are one, we are one,” the marchers responded. They entered the tents to the sounds of drum beats while women standing on a decorated stage sang songs and smiled their welcome. Tired they may have been, but the energizing effect of being part of a crowd of over 5,000 women like themselves was unmistakable.
The Nari Shakti Mahila Sangh, to which they all belong, is creating quite a stir in the forested hills of Balaghat.