Looking at life of women in India

Satellite TV, with John Harvey

I have often thought it strange that the world has been so vehement in its censure of India‘s caste system. While it may not be as transparent, other countries also tend to exhibit large discrepancies in social standing, particularly when it comes to financial gains and losses.

Like India, very often you find people being born into money, or a certain network of people who regard themselves of “higher breeding”, and as a result their futures are mapped out along a path of almost pious proportion.

One need only think of the British monarchy and the prophetic words of the Sex Pistols‘ John Lydon begin to creep hauntingly through the mind: “God save the Queen, she ain‘t no human being.”

India, however, remains the nation to shoulder most the burden of such a system, and with no surprise, that country‘s women find themselves at the butt of its consequences.

The caste system used to be underpinned by a group known as the “untouchables”, condemned to subsist on the margins of society. Today they are known as Dalits, and discrimination against them is banned by the constitution. However, in reality this ostracising continues unabated, so much so that “not only is it a curse to be a Dalit, but it as just as difficult being a woman”.

These are the words of a member of the citizens group, the Gulabi Gang, which fights for the rights of the poor, Dalit and non-Dalit alike.

The Gulabi Gang was set up by Sampat Pal Devi, an ordinary mother desperate to tackle the discrimination experienced by women around her, and her courage is testament to the power of normal people to bring about change, regardless of where they find themselves in society. A lesson that so many Western countries could draw from. Witness: Gulabi Gang screens on Al Jazeera at midday on Tuesday.

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