Chitrakoot Collective held its first of many inequality discussion series yesterday. Hosted and facilitated by Meera (meeraj@cc) and Kalavati, for many of the working women who participated this was a first.

It was illuminating to hear women talk about the impact of sudden lockdowns on their freedoms, how entrenched inequalities of caste, class, income and gender became so clearly visible.

Let me share what one of the participants said about her experience - "I have been married for over 23 years, I never paid attention to gender inequality. These past eight months however have been a tough lesson. I used to work as a domestic worker but during the pandemic, I was let go. My husband, who is unemployed, started to taunt, abuse and beat me. Why wasn't I like the other women who were picking up odd jobs as construction labour? Why was I fired, I must be bad at my job. Why didn't I have any savings?
I was not allowed to step outside of home to look for any work and I was abused for not having a job. It didn't matter if I had money to buy vegetables for the house, to feed the family, but I had to give 100 rupees every day so that my husband could drink. He was so short tempered, whatever he asked had to be immediately done no matter what or else...beatings and curses...I was shown my place in the relationship..."

Will share more learnings from the session in subsequent posts. For now, please press LISTEN to hear everyone gathered singing their hearts out at the end of the session. This is a feminist anthem...jab ban hi gaya beheno ka sangathan...isko majbut karne ka vada karo...

Video and audio work- Monika