7
2008
Think of a gang of women clad in pink and you'd probably picture the gum-chewing-party-hopping teenyboppers like the Pink Ladies in the musical, Grease. Or perhaps the anti-war activists from CodePink. But, in an obscure village, called Banda, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, there thrives a group of women whose members wear pink, but who could not be more different than the pretty ladies of Rydell High.
The Indian women, often illiterate, belonging to the lower castes and they have come together for a common purpose - to fight for their rights and against social injustice. Dressed in pink saris and carrying sticks and axes, they call themselves the Gulabi Gang - "gulabi" meaning pink - and think nothing of storming police stations or hunting down corrupt officials, brandishing their wooden arms, roughing up offenders and demanding justice. Given such tactics, it's no wonder they've been more effective than their similarly clad sisters protesting the U.S. war in Iraq.
Banda, the village where these women are from, is one of the poorest and most notorious regions of the overpopulated, drought-ridden Uttar Pradesh, with no running water, and, more often than not, no electricity. Most villagers live in mud caked huts and don't get enough to eat, many die of hunger and malnutrition. In such a situation, women take the brunt of it all. Denied education and married off in their childhood, they are condemned to a life of incessant house and fieldwork often by abusive husbands. What's worse, they are ill-treated outside their homes as well, often sexually assaulted and cheated by local, mostly upper-caste, men. Caste wars in this region are common, often ending up in gunfights. Corrupt policemen and officials, far from helping the poor, only add to the problem.
Tired of the situation, one woman, Sampat Pal Devi who was married off at nine, and who had her first child at thirteen, started the Gulabi Gang, to bring justice, mainly to the poor, lower-caste, women. She doesn't look the part in her bright pink sari, but she's unforgiving and relentless. She teaches wielding of a "lathi" - Hindi for a long, sturdy cane - for self-defense. When needed, it is used to thrash wrong doers, from abusive men, to corrupt officials. The Gulabi Gang now has hundreds of members, not all of them women, since it is not a group against men, but against all forms of injustice.
The gang has had many successes in setting things right for the deprived poor - ensuring the right distribution of food sanctioned by the government, restoring electricity in their homes or bringing abusive men to face charges, to name a few - all by showing up in great numbers and waving their lathi in front of local officials. So far, they've been able to make it work although there have been some cases of criminal charges being brought.
It is a commendable effort, especially when you consider that many of these women are India's rural poor, brought up in an extremely chauvinistic, male-dominated society, and not even been allowed basic education.
Pink, it seems, in some parts of India anyway, is the new power color.