Woke up early this morning... while eating breakfast I got a text from Hannah, returning home after a night out back in Newcastle... gotta love time-difference...
Anyway, I went off to run some focus groups that I'd been promised were organised and ready to go at the end of a 'function' being held in nearby Vengurla.
I'm not sure that I really like these Indian 'functions'.. at this one, there were around 400 women, sitting in rows listening to eminent speakers... they were 15 men and two women. It did seem rather strange that a group of 400 *womens self-help groups* were being lectured to by a group consisting mainly of men. Anyway, people seemed to have a good time, and who am I to complain. Just, I can't help but think that if those women were in groups of 10,20... coming up with ideas, plans for the future... being mentored... that things could work a lot better. Afterward, a leader of one of the groups was asking me about how to market her mango products - me!
Ah yes, the bit I haven't mentioned... the 'how did this happen...again'...
About half way through the 'function' I heard my name mentioned about 3 times in a couple of minutes. Quite alarmed at this, I asked the girl sitting next to me to translate a little faster! She calmed me down, and said they were just using me as an example of outside-people coming to work with the people of Sindhudurg. It turned out she was wrong...
"Sunil Bhopal, please come to the stage" cackled the microphone. I was up, and off... what else could I do?
Arriving on the stage, I was pushed towards a microphone and told to speak, in English, about how women should "make better lives for themselves"... bloody hell.
I thought about concentrating on my research, about sticking to something I knew something roughly about... in those few seconds of decision making, it seemed like the safe thing to do. But then I looked around, spotting those who had spoken before me, and the topics they had spoken on. I disagreed with lots of it, and many who had spoken didn't actually have much backing to what they were saying... so...
I did what I do best. Opened my big fat gob, and gave my take on women, men, gender and power relations in places I'd been to in Sindhudurg. I was uber-respectful, and didn't crticise at all... just giving a few examples of things I'd seen, heard and documented.
Right decision? Well, it doesn't make any different to me - really. Has it harmed anyone? Well - perhaps... I suppose someone could repeat some opinion somewhere it's not welcome - but the probability is rare, and anyway change is happening all around. Have I helped anyone? Probably not.. but I'm pretty resigned to that at this stage...
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