Women Lead Resistance

Palash Biswas

(Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata -700110, India. Phone: 91-33-25659551)
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

Both feminism and nationalism in India emerged from the social reform movement of the C19th, it is widely believed. But fact is that tribal women enjoyed equality from the beginning and it is not the feminism advocted by the Ruling Brahmins in India. Even before Renaissance, Dalit Women of Bengal had the awakening as they were directly involved with the production system!

Women of Nandigram fought and led the fight from Front as they happen to be associated with indegineus production system. We may remember the fight of Mother India, fight of Dhania in `Godan, if we like.

The social reform movement originated within the Indian intelligentsia and spread to sections of the middle classes. But the peasant women were socially much more conscious from the beginning.

Mind you, Midnapur happens to be the Home of Matangini Hazra!

During the quit india movement, the people of Medinipur planned an attack to capture the Thana, court and other government offices. Matangini, who was then 72 years old, led the procession. The police opened fire. A bullet hit her arm. Undaunted she went on appealing to the police not to shoot at their own brethren. Another bullet pierced her forehead. She fell down dead, a symbol of the anti-colonial movement, holding the flag of freedom in her hand.
What Nandigram has seen, hence, it is nothing new for Bengal!

In fact, Indian Women have come in front to lead the Great Indian Resistance against Post Modern manusmriti, Neo Libetral Globalisation in form of eviction of the masses from the roots!

It is not only coincidence that Brahminical Hindutva considers all Women SHUDRA! Islam also says that women are unsacred! Varnshram never helped women!

Because all women are shudra, the women Mahashweta devi, Medha Patkar, Arundhati Ray, Aparna Sen, Nabaneeta Dev sen, Shaonli Mitra, Anuradha Talwar, Joya Mitra and all women from Singur and Nandigram shows us well how to Resist State Power!

We have seen it often in Manipur!

These ladies deny to be show piece fair commodity meant for the open market!

As Nandigram in West Bengal became a lightning rod for criticism of economic reforms, candidates in Dadri, home to more than 200 villages, are wooing farmers with a promise that they will not allow the forcible acquisition of land to set up industries or plush residential enclaves.
Farmers to whom the lands belong complain that they have been caught unaware by the acquisition process.

Political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and former prime minister V P Singh"s Jan Morcha, have demanded that the Samajwadi Party government make the entire land acquisition process transparent so that the farmers" right to just compensation is not affected.

“The compensation awarded to farmers is nowhere near the market price of land. There is no transparent move to uphold in full the rights of those who have been displaced because of this land acquisition," BJP legislator Nawab Singh Nagar, seeking to retain his seat on the same plank, said as he walked into a dusty village of the constituency for his campaign.
Last year, V P Singh and Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan were arrested by police as they headed to Dadri for a protest against alleged inadequate compensation to villagers whose land was acquired for a mega power project of Reliance.

“There have been similar protests and demonstrations in Dadri since Noida and Greater Noida came into being. But farmers continue to suffer. Nobody is genuinely concerned about their welfare," said Congress candidate Raghuraj Singh.

Hazra, Matangini (1870-1942) a famous Gandhian leader and a humanitarian. Matangini Hazra (Matangini Hazra) was born at a village named Hogla under Tamluk Thana of Medinipur in West Bengal. Daughter of a poor peasant, she had no access to education at her father"s house. Given in marriage at an early age, Matangini became widowed at eighteen without having any children. She played an active role in the struggle for independence from colonial rule and followed Mahatma Gandhi"s creed of non-violence.

In 1932, Matangini participated in Gandhi"s civil disobedience movement (Salt Satyagraha), manufactured salt at Alinan salt centre and was arrested for violating the salt act. After her arrest she was made to walk a long distance as punishment. She also participated in the ‘Chowkidari Tax Bandha" (abolition of chowkidari tax) movement and while marching towards the court building chanting slogan to protest against the illegal constitution of a court by the governor to punish those who participated in the movement, Matangini was arrested again. She was sentenced to six months imprisonment and sent to Baharampur jail.

After her release Matangini got actively involved with the activities of the indian national congress. She took to spinning thread and Khaddar (coarse cloth) like a true follower of Gandhi. In 1933 she joined the ‘Mahakuma Congress Conference" at serampore where police resorted to baton charge on the protesters. Always engaged in humanitarian causes, she worked among affected men, women and children when small pox in epidemic form broke out in the region. People lovingly called her ‘Gandhi Buri".
The Left Front"s most recent record in ushering in capitalism in the state of West Bengal is shameful, but there isn"t even a muted response to the Pakistan judiciary reeling under the boots of a military dictator.

However, let"s stick to India alone. Even though the Left allows the UPA government to survive on its oxygen, it misses no opportunity to bare the Manmohan Singh government"s capitalists tendencies. And in its own bastions of West Bengal and Kerala, it"s not just rolling out red carpet to woo foreign investment but is shameless in suppressing popular revolt.

The contradictions are clear. Coming from the CPI(M), lofty ideas, talks of power to the people and human rights appear hollow. The emperor has no clothes. Scores of artists and intellectuals across the country have showed their resentment in no uncertain terms.

Also, West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi has hardly ever courted political controversy. He is known to be a man of scholarship, integrity and composure. When he criticises the government, it contains the credulity of honesty.

The state government thought it would get away this time, too. It thought that a nexus of party, police and a highly politicised establishment would again suppress opposition. It forgot, however, that communication technology and a vibrant media not only had gathered more strength in recent times but also spread the reach. Mamata Banerjee just fitted the bill.

The support of Jamiat-e-Ulema against the state government is again reflective of the withering away of its Muslim vote bank. So, did Nandigram happen due to CPI (M)"s overconfidence? Partly. More so, due to the bourgeois attitude that has crept into the leadership.

Nandigram, quite naturally, generated much political heat in both the Houses. The NDA and the ruling almost came to blows. It was only expected. But the sheer ruffian behaviour of the Kolkattan Left forced Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to offer his resignation for the nth time. No, the Communists did not attack any member from the Opposition benches but a Cabinet minister belonging to DMK, a fellow ally in UPA.

In accordance with written history, Faminism  appeared first in Bengal - Ram Mohan Roy founded Atmiya Sabha in Bengal in 1815. 1828 Brahmo Samaj also formed in Bengal.It was partly inspired by Hindu revivalism and partly by liberal ideas.

Talwar (1990) points out that the movement for the uplift of women initiated by men in the early C19th – e.g. Raja Ram Mohun Roy – and included education, widow remarriage, abolition of purdah, and agitation against child marriage.
The author argues that social reform movements arose out of conflict between the older feudal joint family system and material needs of the developing urban middle class.
The urban m/c family was no longer a productive unit but a place of emotional fulfilment. The reform movement of the C19th was generally limited to urban areas.

‘As an Indian bourgeois society developed under western domination, this class sought to reform itself, initiating campaigns against caste, polytheissm, idolatry, animism, purdah, child marriage, sati and more, seeing them as elements of a pre-modern or primitive identity" (Kumar 1993).
http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~le1810/hs10157.htm

A Dalit Bibliography - Elsewhere in India: Women
Desai, N. " Patel, V. Indian Women. Change and Challenge in the International Decade. … V.T. Lifestyle as resistance: the case of the courtesans …www.gla.ac.uk/sociology/units/anthrop/dalit/iwom.htm - 17k - Cached - More pages from this site
Women Warriors Throughout History, 20th Century, battles, tournaments, soldier, revolutionary, war, pirate, duel…
The Indian National Army (INA) had an all women regiment called the Rani of … Alma Allen, a Danish resistance fighter led men and women in WW2 …www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/women20.html - 21k - Cached - More pages from this site
Feminism, Imperialism and Orientalism: the challenge of the Indian woman" (PDF)
representation aroused amongst Indian women who were engaged in the … the resistance of Indian, Chinese and African women. Another way in which …warwick.ac.uk/fac/…/feminismimperialism_/femiimperialoriental.pdf - 105k - View as html - More pages from this site
Class, Caste and Gender – Women in Parliament in India (PDF)
… to an increasing need to analyze the role that women play in Indian politics. … a second factor for the resistance to implementation of gender-sensitive …www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/india/CS_India.pdf - 176k - View as html - More pages from this site
Sunita Williams speaks from space

April 03, 2007
 
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams was conferred the India Abroad Publisher"s Award for Excellence for 2006 in New York City on March 23.

Person of the Year 2006
It was tough for Suni — as she is known — to be there in person to accept her trophy from Publisher Ajit Balakrishnan considering that she is floating 250 miles above us in the International Space Station. But Suni wanted to be part of the proceedings nevertheless.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/apr/03video1.htm
Pope decries world "suffering" in Easter message
New Straits Times
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday decried “natural calamities and human tragedies" around the world, dwelling on the plight of many Africans and Iraqis, while saying that faith in Jesus carries “hope of a better future.

PM sends out strong message to judiciary
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday cautioned the judiciary against ‘overreaching" itself while also stressing the need for better understanding between it and the two other wings of the state - the legislature and the executive.

In his inaugural address to a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts here, the prime minister expressed concern over mounting backlog of court cases and endorsed the idea of having multiple shifts in courts to reduce the backlog.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1288698.php/PM_cautions_against_judicial_overreach

Cautioning judiciary against overreaching itself, Singh said, ‘The dividing line between judicial activism and judicial overreach is a thin one…A takeover of the functions of another organ may, at times, become a case of overreach."
 Pranab"s condition stable
External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was injured in a car accident late Saturday night, is now stable and out of danger. …more
 
 Naxals attack train in Bihar
In a daring strike, naxalites of the banned CPI (Maoists) attacked a passenger train in Bihar"s Jamui district on Sunday. …more
 
 Guwahati: Blast kills 1, injures 14
One person was killed and 14 others were injured on Sunday when a bomb carried by two ULFA militants exploded in the Kumarpara area in Guwahati. …more

Less than 20 km from gleaming industrial parks, fragmented protests over the years against the acquisition of farm land to stimulate development have coalesced into a key election campaign issue in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.As elections in Uttar Pradesh are often linked to casteist politics, almost all political parties in the fray have fielded candidates from the Gujjar community, which makes up a majority of Dadri"s population of more than 700,000.        

There are some 15 candidates, including several independents, in the fray. Elections to the Dadri constituency are scheduled in the second phase of polling due on April 13.
Poor power supplies and roads in Dadri are issues that contestants opposed to incumbent Nagar are using in their attempt to unseat the former state minister, who has been a legislator for two successive terms.

“Ten years have passed since he became a legislator and there is no railway bridge in Dadri. Commuters are stuck when the main railway gate is down. Roads are too poor to pass, they are deplorable," said a supporter of BSP candidate Satbir Singh.
People also complain about rising prices of food staples.

“Prices have sky-rocketed and nobody seems to be bothered," said Raj Kumar, a farmer in a Dadri village.

Some say the Central and state governments have paid no attention to this area and regard glittering Noida as no longer part of Uttar Pradesh.

“Farming has been a traditional occupation, but it is in jeopardy because of land acquisition. And jobs in Noida are meant for highly educated professionals and not farmers," said Kishan Tripathy, a Jan Morcha supporter.

  
Third World Women Bibliography/Webliography: Women in Development
A page from a much larger site by Anacaona Makandal, this page is mostly bibliography with only a few webliography entries.
 
United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women
The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) is responsible for servicing the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main UN policy-making body for women. It also services the Committeeon the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a human rights treaty for women.
 
WIDNET (Femmes " Développement-Women " Development)
Updated daily. Directories of WID resources, databases, regional information, WIDNet magazines, statistics, various documents.
 
Women in Development: IBADS
A gopher site for the Information Bank on African Development Studies that provides summaries of projects concerning women"s legal status, financial and enterprise development among the women of Africa, and a policy framework paper on gender development planning.
 
Women"s Environment " Development Organization [WEDO]
Their stated purpose: To foster women"s leadership and advocacy skills to transform women"s concerns about the environment, development, population and gender equity into actions, programs and policies in countries around the world, with women as active and equal participants in decision-making in both the governmental and non-governmental arena — from the community to the international level.
 
Women of Africa Resources
Information, bibliography, syllabi, links and other resources on African women compiled by Candice Bradley, Lawrence University.
URL: http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu
Human trafficking is a billion dollar business
 
KOLKATA: Afsana Khatun, a 15-year-old Muslim girl from Kolkata’s Kidderpore area, has never met 13-year-old Rakesh who works for 18 hours in a Punjab village like a slave after he was trafficked from his native village in Bihar.
But today, Afsana will march with thousands of others from Kolkata so that Rakesh and other boys and girls of his age who are trafficked every day are not enslaved in a stone quarry or a red light area forever.
“I will walk because of other children of my age who are forced into hard labour or prostitution. Even in my area I work to stop trafficking. I will raise my voice against this evil,” said Afsana, who works with Apne Aap Women’s Worldwide here.
“Trafficking is a $32bn business worldwide, especially of women forced into prostitution. Of this about $12 to $14bn is a turnover from child trafficking,” said Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour and founder of the BBA (Bachpan Bachao Andolan), organisers of the South Asian March Against Child Trafficking.
Organised by BBA and a host of other non-government organisations, the march will end in New Delhi March 22 after nearly a 25-day-long campaign to sensitise people about child trafficking, especially of girls who are forced into prostitution.
The march involves mostly people from India, besides Nepal and Bangladesh. It kicks off from the city.
“The march is important because as we live smug in our own world boys and girls are being trafficked. There has to be a mental and attitudinal shift in all of us about the issue of trafficking. My public domain may be acting but that is only one-third of me. We all have to chip in with our bit by either writing or talking about it or stopping in our homes,” said actor and social activist Nandita Das.
“It is an extremely connected issue. I was watching a news report on TV the other day where a small girl was being forced to marry while the media person was filming the whole thing. I was shocked. We cannot live in islands and have to think about these and do something,” Nandita said.
“I express my solidarity with this movement. Though I have to leave for Pakistan for a film shooting, I am very much with the movement,” she said.
Approximately a billion marchers, nearly half of whom are children and youth who were themselves victims of trafficking, will criss-cross cities, villages and hamlets and cover 100 km every day during the march.
At least two mass public meetings would be held everyday in schools, colleges and academic institutions while local mosques, temples, churches and gurdwaras would be encouraged to host the core marchers at every place, said Satyarthi.
The march will span 2,500 km for 20 to 25 days, he said telling people the need for a law to prevent human trafficking.
“A new law is needed to curb and prosecute the traffickers. There is a law for trafficking only for commercial sexual exploitation and not for other as serious aspects of trafficking like forced labour, etc,” Satyarthi said.
“The objective of this march is to build a mass movement against child trafficking and forced labour. There is no regional protocol to prohibit trafficking. We would march to make the government answerable and people aware,” he said.
“To start the march from Kolkata is significant and appropriate since West Bengal is both a transit point for trafficking as well as a source state,” said Indrani Sinha of Sanlaap.
Organisations like Women’s Interlink Foundation, Apne Aap, Sanlaap and UN agencies like the UN Development Fund for Women, among others, are taking part in the march. – IANS
 

‘Even when we talk here, some child or woman somewhere is being trafficked and physically abused. We cannot afford to just remain lost in our small world. We have to find ways to talk about it and prevent it," said actor and activist Nandita Das at a press conference here Friday.

‘I may be an actor but I fully express my solidarity with this issue," she added.

The march will span 2,500 km for 20 to 25 days with a billion protesters.

Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour and founder of the BBA, said a new law was needed to curb and prosecute the traffickers.

‘The objective of this march is to build a mass movement against child trafficking and forced labour. There is no regional protocol to prohibit trafficking. We would march to make the government answerable and people aware," he said.

Organisations like Women"s Interlink Foundation, Apne Aap, Sanlaap and UN agencies like the UN Development Fund for Women, among others, are taking part of the march.

Sex workers" meet ends with demand for new identity 
Updated:  03-05-2007  By andhracafe   
Kolkata, March 4 (IANS) Are sex workers ‘entertainment workers"? At the end of a seven-day all-India conference of sex workers, this is what women who refuse to accept old tags are asking.
‘For more than a decade we have been striving for our rights as entertainment workers. We work hard to entertain our clients as everyone does. We do it in our own way and at the end of the day we earn our livelihood," said Mira Malik, a Sonagachi-based sex worker here.
The All India Conference of Entertainment Workers 2007, which kicked off Feb 25, concluded March 3 - the International Sex workers" Day - with the sex workers demanding a specific identification for themselves.
‘If any other entertainment worker - like singer, dancer, magician, actor - can get social recognition, why not the sex workers? We also entertain people and we think it"s the highest form of pleasure," Mira said.
The representatives from the sex workers community of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh attended the conference to voice their demands.
There are 70 ‘red light areas" in West Bengal with 14 in Kolkata alone, and the conference provided sex workers, both male and female, with a common platform while they rubbed shoulders with actors, dancers, singers and others.
‘Thousands of participating sex workers - both organised and individuals - from across India met here to press their demands for the same labour rights, social assistance and recognition," said Smrajit Jana, chief advisor of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) (The Committee for Indomitable Women), an apex body of about 65,000 sex workers that organised the meet.
‘On behalf of DMSC we are preparing a list which will include our demands like new labour law and a self regulatory board for the sex workers," Bharati Dey, the programme director of DMSC, told IANS.
She said the list was being prepared on the basis of the discussions and problems of all sex workers who participated in the conference.
‘We have started a signature campaign for setting up a cultural academy in Kolkata. We will give this proposal to the union government and to the ministry of social welfare of the West Bengal government for the betterment of our community," Bharati said.
DMSC had started off in 1992 with only 12 sex workers and got registered in 1995. It has also expanded outside West Bengal to bring the sex workers under a single forum and help them to fight for their own rights.
It has also ventured into other welfare activities like formation of Usha Multi Purpose Co-operative Society Ltd - the largest co-operative society for the sex workers in Asia with annual transactions worth over Rs.900 million.
Festival of Pleasure, Entertainment in Development, Mehboob Ki Mehendi (Colours of Love), Sexual Rights and Relationship, Entertainment in Revolution, Rang De Basanti (Coloured with Spring) were the various sessions of the meet in which the sex workers gathered in a sprawling park beside Sonagachi in north Kolkata.

Tax from sex workers? No thanks: West BengalPublished: Saturday, 3 March, 2007

KOLKATA: West Bengal rejected a proposal by prostitutes to pay tax to the government in return for stopping police raids on brothels and checks on soliciting clients.
Officials said since prostitution was illegal, the government could not tax sex workers.
“Tomorrow, criminals will say we will pay taxes so don’t catch us,” Raj Kanojia, a top state police officer, said. On Thursday, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) - an umbrella group of 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal - announced that prostitutes would charge clients extra to help them pay tax. “Even if we collect one rupee from each client it would boost the exchequer,” Smarajit Jana, DMSC’s chief adviser, said.
 “Let the government collect taxes legally, as prostitutes in any case pay the police hefty amounts to get away.” About four million clients visit red light areas under the control of DMSC every month in West Bengal. Sex workers say they are harassed by police and picked up from brothels, hotels and night clubs and jailed.
They often have to pay bribes to officers to continue working. Under Indian law, sex workers cannot solicit customers in public. Authorities tolerate brothels in some areas although police often raid them to rescue minors or to prevent women from being forced into the profession. Notoriously poor and overpopulated, Kolkata would seem especially vulnerable to infectious diseases, but the red light district there has the lowest Aids rate of any in the country.
This is due to the efforts of people like Putul Singh, who was sold into prostitution by her husband eight years ago at the age of 20. She now works full-time for the Sonagachi Project, the model Aids prevention group in the country.
The Sonagachi Project works with men as well as women to explain the necessity of condoms. Putul attends a meeting of some of the area’s pimps and regular clients, locally called babus.
Another group meeting, of the sex workers’ union in Kolkata, is more encouraging. Even though prostitution is also illegal in Kolkata, the union is recognized by the state of West Bengal, which has been run by a communist government for 25 years.
Union president Rama Debnath explains to union members that when they’re confronted by the police, they need to stand up to them and have courage. “What’s your rank? Where’s the charge?” she tells them to ask.
It turns out that the combination of the sex workers’ union and the Sonagachi Project is making a difference.
But even in Kolkata, a monumental challenge still remains: reaching the thousands of young girls sold into the sex trade. Rama says one way to do it is to legalize prostitution, so there would be regulations. “In the same way other industries don’t employ children,” she says, “This industry wouldn’t employ children either.”
Putual asks the girls back at the Sanlaap Shelter if they’ve heard of the sex workers’ union. “Nobody came to talk to us,” one girl says.
Although haunted by their memories, the Sanlaap girls are at least now far from the red-light districts from which they were rescued.
Most of their families won’t take them back after they’ve worked as prostitutes, but Sanlaap attempts to give them hope for some sort of a future.
But these girls are the fortunate ones. Thousands of other young girls are left behind. And what happens to them in many ways will determine the future of Aids in India. – Agencies
 
Child labour in India borders on slavery
 
Karuna Mondal, left, thought she was doing good for her daughter Soma, right, by sending her to work as a housemaid.

The Telegraph
February 15, 2007

THE CASE OF BORO CHUPRIA"S TOMBOY
Chandrima S. Bhattacharya meets the girl who was
publicly stripped, beaten and photographed in a
Bengal village for being “like a boy"

Boro Chupria is a small village about 25 km from
Krishnagar. It is a pretty village, with its huts
of mud, brick and darma, and its grounds are
clean. Things look peaceful - and unspoilt. There
are no blatant signs of the world outside: only a
large haath chhap, the Congress symbol, is drawn
on the outside of a hut. Yet this prosperous
jute-producing village sends a large section of
its men to the Gulf countries.

On December 25, newspapers had reported an
incident concerning a young woman from Boro
Chupria. She was dragged to Gyanrapota, the
village across the main road, stripped, beaten,
tonsured and photographed naked because she
behaved “like a boy". The reports suggested that
the villagers thought of her as a lesbian. But
since spoken Bengali has no equivalent for the
English word - samakami not being used in
everyday speech - being “like a boy" was perhaps
the phrase being used to denote lesbianism.

Mamata Biswas (name changed) was beaten up for
allegedly “preying on" another young, but
married, girl, who lived in a nearby village.
Mamata lived in a run-down brick hut, which stood
out from the rest of the houses. As we, a team of
reporters, approached her house a week after the
incident, an assertive woman in her late 30s came
out. She was Mamata"s mother. Mamata, a small,
thin girl, dark and very hirsute, with a tonsured
head, came out too. She looked stunned by what
had happened. She was wearing just a kurta
without the salwar. Her mother said she was 16,
but she looked about 12. She looked like a boy in
girls" clothes, and stood stiffly, with her head
bowed. But her jaws were set when she looked up.
She spoke with deliberation.

She said that five days ago, on December 22,
Ramakrishna Moitra, a resident of Gyanrapota
village, descended on her house and forcibly took
her to his house in Gyanrapota. There he, his
mother-in-law Kusum and another person called
Tarak beat her, tonsured her, stripped her and
then photographed her naked, to show the world
that biologically “she was not a girl". Tarak,
the alleged photographer, did not develop the
film, presumably because he was disappointed.
Next day, Ramakrishna was arrested after Mamata"s
mother lodged a complaint against him, Tarak and
Kusum at Hanskhali police station. However,
Mamata, who had stated before the magistrate
after the incident that Tarak had photographed
her, has told the investigating officer that she
cannot identify the man who photographed her.
Ramakrishna has not been granted bail.

Mamata said that she was not “like a boy in any
way". She said the girl with whom she was
allegedly having an affair was just a friend, who
was being tortured by her in-laws and would ask
Mamata to visit her. Her mother said the same and
removed Mamata"s kurta to show her badly bruised
back. “How will I get such a scarred girl
married?" she asked angrily. At this point,
Mamata lost her self-control and broke into sobs.
“Aamar life-tai noshto kore diyechhe ora [They
have just destroyed my life]," she cried between
sobs and ran inside her house. By this time, a
crowd of villagers had collected around the
house. “Yes, she looks like a boy," an old man
said. “She had short hair and wore pants. She
also rides a bicycle and most of her friends are
boys. But we all know she is a girl." We asked
her if she had offended any one with her
behaviour previously. At this, the man made a
most startling statement: “There was no such
incident before, but she was arrested on a murder
charge," said the old man. “A boy from the
village was killed three years ago and she was
accused of the murder."

We went back to Mamata"s house. Her mother was
reluctant to speak, but said that Mamata had been
picked up by the police after a neighbour"s
ten-year-son was killed. She added that Mamata
had served two terms at the Behrampore and Liluah
correction homes for women and children, but was
later released on bail. She said she didn"t know
why her daughter was picked up for the murder,
but said Mamata was friendly with the dead boy"s
sister.

We met Mamata again. She said she was innocent of
the murder and of any liaison with the other
girl, whose father had beaten her up. But when we
asked her if the other girl also thought of her
as another girl, Mamata said her friend had
written her a letter “as a boy", to which, she
replied “as a boy". “But I want to marry now. It
is the duty of every girl to marry."

This time, too, a crowd had collected. “You can"t
leave without speaking to us," a man said. He
made us sit in the courtyard of a nearby house
and asked a couple, an old, frail man and his
middle-aged wife, to come forward. The woman was
holding a framed photograph to her breast, which
showed the couple with a good-looking boy. “See
this photograph! That girl, Murderer Mamata,
killed this boy!" screamed one man. “She is a
‘homo-sex"!" shouted another. The girl, who was
assumed to have been victimized because of her
deviant sexuality, was being charged with murder.

The parents of the dead boy began to tell their
story. The woman could barely speak: “Tanmoy was
our only son, born after four daughters," said
Santosh Dhali, the village homeopath, “Mamata
killed him because she had a physical relation
with my youngest daughter."

Dhali said he was sleeping outside his house one
night, but was woken by a noise. Mamata was
staying over, as she often did,

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