Women - Worst victims of famine

The beginig of my dissilusion of the womens movement, which I began calling the so called women's movement, or women's movement in quotation marks...........

Worst victims of famine

What does famine --- due to drought and floods which are currently affecting over 200 million people in India--- means to the women of those devastated areas?

 Increased labour in the house. Describing her days Kalavati says: “ I have to get up an hour early, since I have to walk an additional two kms to get water --- two mat—kas to last the family of four for the day. Then I have to fetch firewood which means another long walk in the forest to collect twigs ….”

Hard work at the relief camps for not not enough food for survival. “Each day I do eight hours of work at the ‘food for work’ site. Earlier I use to break stones. Now we are lifting mud to make a canal .It is really hot .I don’t have any food in the morning, so I often feel faint? We have to do hard physical work. If we sit down the contractor screams at us”.

For the hard work they are hardly paid enough. “A kilo of grain they give us half of which is dirt .After spending so much energy, the food is hardly sufficient. We actually get weaker by working so hard but at least the children get something to eat”.

At home, the woman is the last to eat. First the children, and since there is only one meal – consisting of only grain with some perhaps some salt --- the food is barely sufficient. No wonder most starvation deaths are amongst women --- there are reports of women of collapsing at the sites.                             

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At work sites there are usual problems with the bureaucracy.  The women are paid less than their due:   they are kept waiting and on the slightest pretext their wages are cut. And they face the special sexual problem also.  The contractor and the government official get their pick of the woman.  If a woman refuses to submit she may not be given work.

Areas of drought and famine usually become the favorite recruiting grounds to secure prostitutes for towns and cities.  Merchants go to these areas, find families with eligible females of 12 years and above, and offer Rs. 40/- for a girl.  Sale of girls increases tremendously in these periods.

Situations like these are not “natural calamities” but created by the social structure in which we live.  There is food rotting in godowns whilst millions starve.  Why?  Where over four lakhs of people are affected, relief works for only 35,000 are started.

The government spends Rs. 141 crores on relief:  and Rs. 3,700 crores on defence!!!

Considering women are the worst victims, what are the women’s organizations doing? They could set up Vigilance ensure that workers get paid regularly and on time.  They could find ways to punish those who demand sexual favours.

They could demand more expenditure for relief:  set up socialized kitchens: ensure that relief works benefit the poor and not the landed rich.  They could ensure the survival of families so that women do not have to be sold.

There is a lot they could do – if only they left their urban homes and got down to it.