Widow power shows the way in Maharashtra's suicide belt

Screaming politicians and activists demanding solutions to the agrarian crisis that has killed thousands of hapless farmers across Maharashtra are par for the course during election time But have we ever stopped to wonder what happens to the wives and children of these farmersAfter the men have given up the fight over crop failure because of drought and changed weather conditions over the resultant debt and harassment at the hands of banks and private money lenders over the failure of successive governments in resolving the crisis their families world collapsesThe hardest hit are the widows who suffer mentally socially and physically Some perish under social and economic pressure and stop putting up a fight against the odds ndash which are sometimes their own families But there are also some shining examples Some inspiring widows have not only risen like the phoenix from the ashes of their husbands funeral pyres but have also ensured the right to live with dignity and are supporting their children through hard workThe time has come for them to take centre stage thanks to a group of sensitive journalists teachers and artistes from Vidarbha And they are all telling their own storiesThe cast with playwright Shyam Pethkar and director Harish EthapeMy struggle my storyCome December 15 Nagpurs modest Sai Sabhagriha will host a play featuring five farm widows and their children The resilient widows will themselves narrate the struggle that has led them to a renaissance in their shattered lives The play is aptly titled Terav 13th day after the deathThe brains behind the unusual idea playwright and editor of Marathi daily Tarun Bharat Shyam Pethkar and school teacherturned theatre director Harish Ethape say they started working for farm widows many years ago and spend every Diwali with them Last Diwali they popped an uncomfortable question to the widows What would you have told your husband if he had met you just before ending his life And what would you tell him if he appeared before you nowTheir responses were gutwrenching They spoke as if there was no tomorrow The widows were forced into the role of both woman and man Their stories gave us the idea said Pethkar Ethape who never stops experimenting had by then founded a group Agro Theatre based at his 12acre farm near WardhaThey then asked the widows if they would act While asking the question was awkward the response was extremely encouraging says Pethkar Ethape took over even as Pethkar worked on the script This Diwali 20 widows from Wardha Yavatmal and Amravati were called in to train in the basics of acting at Agro Theatre Of these five along with some kids made the cut The theatre group members stood in as supporting cast The rehearsals were so successful that the widows refused to go home for Akshaya Tritiya for the puja of departed family members including their late husbandsTo make them theatrefriendly a select cast along with the theatre group members presented Terav at a statelevel competition at Chandrapur last month The fairly successful staging gave producers Adhyayan Bharati an NGO from Wardha the confidence to take the play to a bigger audience in NagpurRebellion and victoryMost of the widows families opposed the idea of them especially the younger women performing on stage But the women were adamant They even took their children along For they knew the drama was all about the will to be independentThe irony was that the inlaws of these women who had eaten into the compensation and other benefits that were rightfully the widows opposed the idea of their participation despite forcing them out of the marital homes years back The protagonists of the play did not mince words while describing the tyrannical inlaws and extended familiesHailing from Kalamb in Yavatmal district Vaishali Yede 28 says she left her late husbands home much before joining Agro Theatre I was 19 when I got married into a family of 14 people We all worked on the farm but my husband killed himself over mounting debts in 2011 I had a 5yearold son and was pregnant again when we lost him I was then reduced to a domestic help I was not allowed to go out I feared his family more than outsiders she adds When Vaishali protested the family forced her out She came to Wardha where Ekal Mahila Sanghtna helped her get back on her feet I sew clothes and work as a labourer to support my kids she saysManda Alones husband killed himself in 2013 She had two kids then She too was told to leave home by her inlaws Naam Foundation helped her find work Talegaon Thakurs Madhuri Chitkule wasnt given the right to her husbands farmland after his suicide Kavita Dhoble was packed off in similar fashionOne of the participants who was stopped from performing says her inlaws were welloff but she was subjected to the life of a destitute I was forced to work as a labourer on the farm my late husband owned They were so cruel that I left their home and gave up any right to my husbands legacy she saysWhat the widows rue is the illtreatment Society objects to our public presence There are aspersions cast even when we are seen with our real brothers We are easy prey for men who cross our paths said another participant Pethkar and Ethape say the drama isnt a commercial venture It should be seen as a theatre form of activism that we have shaped together Our activism demands farm widows right to live with dignity The participation of the victims makes our effort even more sensitiveThe duo promises to stage shows in Mumbai and Delhi where they expect opinion makers and the powers that be to have firsthand experience of the war that the widows have waged against all oddsDharmendra Jore is political editor midday He tweets dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest 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