90 Time March 15/March 22, 2021
SPECIAL REPORT
WOMEN and the PANDEMIC
about gender equality in these parts for
so long—but the process has been slow,”
says women’s-rights activist Sudesh
Goyat. During the first days of pro-
tests in Tikri, she says, she was the only
woman from Haryana there. But after
the court suggested women leave, they
“started to pour in. They came with their
families. They came with other women.
They came alone. It’s no less than a mir-
acle,” she says.
The protest sites present a unique
opportunity: men and women fromdifferent communities live side by side
without much privacy and under harsh
circumstances. Activists hold regular
discussions on women’s social and eco-
nomic contributions, as announcements
from the stage about treating women as
equals echo throughout the day.
Whether such sentiments will spread
beyond the protests is unclear, but for
now, female farmers are being seen,
heard and acknowledged. “We have
looked upon them as mothers, sisters,
wives,” says Sukh Deep Singh, a youngfarmer from Punjab. “But now we see
them in a different light.”
The women see themselves differ-
ently too. “I didn’t know what I was ca-
pable of beyond the expectations of me
as a woman, a wife and mother,” says
Sudesh Kandela, a 55-year-old farmer
from Haryana, who had never before
been to a protest or taken her veil off
outside her home. “But I am here now,”
she says, clenching her fists, “and I can-
not be oppressed. I cannot be intimi-
dated. I cannot be bought.” ●
Inspired by women singing, reciting protest poetry and
chanting slogans at Tikri, 18-year-old farmers Sahumati
Padha, left, and Hiraath Jhade came from the central state
of Chhattisgarh. “I wanted to bring our story to them and to
the rest of India,” Padha says. “We need to be seen.”●
Urmila Devi, 41, works in the fields with her husband
in Bahadurgarh village, near the Tikri site. “Both of us
get it done together. I don’t know about rights,” she
says. “I have never thought about it too much. There’s
a family to run and mouths to feed.”