Imagine that you’re shopping in a mall and while picking up some clothes for yourself, you see a rural woman enter, what is the first thing that pops up in your mind about her? Be honest.
Most of the people will definitely think as to “what she’s doing at a mall”. Some words that cross most minds could be – “uneducated”, “uncivilized”, “unhygienic”, and some more that I’d rather not say. Very few of us will be genuinely be able to speak positive of them. And that’s what caught our attention. We decided to have an experiment with school girls and hear them out.
On the occasion of International Day of Rural Women, we marched our way down the MGD Girls’ School alleys to take their take on the predefined notions about Rural Women.
We carried the portraits of “rural women” to the MGD Girls’ School dance hall where we could hear ghungroos clinking from adjacent rooms. We hung pictures of rural women with pop ups stating negative impressions the city girls have about them.
Girls stood there staring at the walls wondering what on earth were we up to.
We had cut out letters from the Vogue Magazine and pasted them on portraits of rural women clicked by some of the most expressive photographers of Jaipur – Prachi Sharma, Damini Rathore and Kishan Meena.
We handed over slates with colourful chalks to the involved students. Mrs. Geeta Saxena, the teacher in charge, and JWB’s Anchal briefed them about the activity.
“Do you all agree with these notions?” I asked them.
Most of them nodded, the rest observed.
“Pick a word out from the ones hung up on the wall, and jumble them up to form words that actually describe a quality of rural women, or maybe a way in which you can empower them,” we chimed in with more information.
They listened attentively and began scribbling, discussing in huddles. Ah, school. Isn’t it the most amazing time of our lives?
Some of them got creative and wrote out sentences using jumbled words.
Some girls racked their brains for a longer period and came up with the most relevant words.
The JWB team assisted those who were having a hard time figuring out the perfect jumbled word.
Some of them had to run for a quick class: after they did their activity, hastily put on their shoes and disappeared into the distance.
When their words were ready, they proudly stood next to the portrait pop ups derived their “new word”. For example, “vulnerable” became “venerable”. And that’s a new word we have learned today!
We liked Aashima’s jumble up the best! She came up with “Lioness”, “Noble”, “Stable” and “Solemn” from the word “Ambition-less.”
Way to go girls! We are proud of you!
Photo credit – Pallav Bhargava