Will The 'Pink Promise' Change Rural Women's Reality In Rajasthan?

On Saturday, the men's IPL game witnessed something new. Apart from the fours and sixes, the match upheld the idea of "Aurat Hai Toh Bharat Hai." The team players of Rajasthan Royals donned an all-pink kit to support the empowerment of rural women of Rajasthan. Now that the match is over, and the pink jerseys are back on the wall, it's time to rethink what we must do to change rural women's lives truly.

In the commentary post the toss, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who is one of the official commentators for the IPL, said, "Now back to serious business," right after the toss that included both captains from playing teams and a woman from rural Rajasthan, displaying a show of how women's empowerment must be both worked towards and celebrated loudly, and proudly. It's not surprising to see that a lot of mainstream commentators are tone-deaf to the issues that are worth talking about. This begs the question? Are we really worried about rural women's empowerment even after the commercial noise around it?

Rural women of Rajasthan: what challenges do they face?

Let us have a look at the situation in rural Rajasthan. According to a study, women's participation in the labour force in Rajasthan is 10.9 percentage points higher than the national rate of 37%. Women usually start working from the age of 15 onwards. However, most women are self-employed with only 6.6 per cent in salaried or wage jobs. 10.8 per cent of women work in casual labour. 

At face value, the labour force participation of women in Rajasthan has remained higher than the national level in the five years between 2018-19 and 2022-23.  The unemployment rate of women has also reduced. However, Rajasthan is still not a state for women. Do you know why? According to an NCRB report, Rajasthan recorded the highest number of rape cases in the country at 6,337. This was just an annual increase of 19.34 per cent in the rate of rape cases as 5,310 cases were reported in 2020. The issue of early marriage is also prevalent in the state as 24.5 per cent of women aged 18-29 years were married at the age of 18.

Challenges that rural women entrepreneurs of Rajasthan face

Even though the government has been supporting rural women entrepreneurs, they face challenges that not only affect their enterprises but also their independence. A study that interviewed rural women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan listed 20 challenges that women face.

These include multiple responsibilities, caste discrimination, gender discrimination, lack of education, problems in marketing and selling, high external competition, arranging raw materials, lack of skilled employees, labour management problems, interference of family members, arrangement of finances at all stages of business, high rate of interest, lack of awareness about government programmes, lack of knowledge about concession, lack of support system, middlemen and lack of skills. 

When huge franchises like the Rajasthan Royals decided to support empowered rural women, did they think about these challenges that women face? Would it not be better that rather than tokenism, the franchise created awareness about the challenges rural women face and hence helped in clearing the fog of patriarchy? 

Voices of Rural Women: Challenges and Expectations

We spoke to a lot of rural women across to know about the challenges they face and what are their expectations. Sanju Devi who originally hails from Hilsa village of Bihar moved to Patna to earn a living. "There is no job in the village. If we want to survive, we have to toil on the farms under the scorching sun. I couldn't do such labour and so had to move to the city," Sanju tells SheThePeople.

Sanju earns her living in Patna by washing dishes at various houses. But is she happy? "No. I don't like this work. Moreover, I get paid less but somehow I manage to feed my children," She said.

Sanju wants the government to create more job options for women like her. She doesn't want to go back to her village and wishes to get a better and respectable job in the city. Rinky Devi was married to a worker who lived in a village called Rafiganj. Her husband used to go to the city for work and send back some money for the family. However, the money was not enough to fulfil the needs of two children. Rinky thought to start working but she couldn't find any job in the village. 

So, Rinky migrated to her home town and started working as a domestic help. "It is going to be more than 5 years now since I started this work. I don't like washing other people's dishes. Moreover, the work doesn't pay enough. I am conflicted between meeting basic needs and planning a better future for my children."

Rinky wants to deposit money in the name of her daughter. She has also admitted her two kids in a private school. But the lack of money always scares her. "Should I buy roti or should I deposit money for my daughter? I have to pay for the books and school fees otherwise the school will expel my kids."

When asked what Rinky wants from the government, she said, "I wish the government could provide better job options that paid at least 8-9k. Or else, I am planning to go to the city to work. Something is better than nothing isn't it?" 

Pinky Devi too has been working as a domestic help for years now. She never thought about doing something else since her mother too used to do the same work. "It is a legacy that I am following and I am satisfied with it." However, Pinky gets abused by her husband almost every day. Her husband doesn't earn and even if he does he wastes the money in buying liquor. So, Pinky holds the responsibility of feeding the entire family.

When her daughters grew up, they also started working as domestic help to support their mother. To make extra income, Pinky sometimes works on the farms. She likes that work too. However, she left the work of a labourer as her body didn't permit. "I am growing old now. I cannot continue working. My husband doesn't earn neither does my son. I will have to get my daughters married. How then will I support myself?"  

Pinky wishes that the government would create certain jobs where she could work without harming her health. She just needs a medium of income because, with her old age, she can no longer toil to support the family.

Pallavi Kumari got married at the age of 15 or 16. Her mother, Pinky got her married early because she was afraid who would look after her daughter if something happened to her. Since Pinky's husband is abusive and doesn't earn, Pinky believes she has to rush Pallavi's marriage too. 

Pallavi always wanted to study. She loved maths. But her childhood went into cleaning other's dishes and child marriage. Pallavi, who got married to a family in Gadhwa of Bihar, even has a child now. What does she think about her early marriage? "It is done now. What can I do by thinking about it?" she said.

In her marital village, Pallavi labours on the farms. But when she was expecting a child, she came back to her mother. After childbirth, Pallavi restarted her work as a domestic help and supported her ageing mother. The dream of studying was just lost. "It doesn't matter if I like my work or not. I have to do it. I don't have any other option." However, when asked what would she ask from the government, Pallavi said with a glow in her eyes, "I would like to learn to stitch and then teach the skill to others." 

Canchan got married to a man who lived in Aara. Since she crossed the defined age of marriage, her mother rushed through the process without thinking twice about the groom. Cunchan was beaten up violently every day by her husband. He even snatched some jewellery she brought from her paternal home to gamble. Canchan's husband was so violent that once he hit her on her stomach which led to her miscarriage. 

Another very poignant reality is the situation of rural women in Maharashtra's Beed. The women work in the farms where they cut and harvest sugarcane. Since this is the primary job in the village, both men and women indulge in it. However, the contractors avoid hiring women since the work is tedious and requires a lot of strength and manpower. But the women who get to work in the fields are required to be working every minute. If they miss a day, they have to pay money to the contractor. Consequently, these women remove their uterus so that their work doesn't stop due to periods or pregnancy.  

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The stories of these women show the reality of rural India. Rural women might have work that gives them infrequent money but that doesn't empower them. They are still reeling under the patriarchal restrictions, class and caste division and lack of education and infrastructure. The definition of empowerment is not the same or is not linear. A woman who does work that she hates just to earn some money for the family is not empowered. A woman who supports her family financially after sacrificing her dreams of education and a respectable job is not empowered. Then what is empowerment? Each woman I spoke to looked at me with eyes of hope. It was as if they saw a ray of sun after living in the dark for so long. "Will you be able to get us a proper job?" they asked. I had no answer. But people in power do, hope they are listening.

Views expressed are the author's own.