Rural Immersion: Understanding Khedi

Personal Story What Moved Me?

A Report submitted to

Prof. Jahnvi Andharia

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course

Indian Society and Political Environment

By
Akanksha Seth (155006)

Section B
On
March 5, 2016

This was my first visit to a village and like all of my batch mates I was very enthusiastic to stay
at a village for 4 days. Being a women, I had certain good and also bad expectations on the
treatment of women at villages, the facilities which they are entitled to. But after the visit, I was
completely dumbstruck because there was nothing good I could see that is happening at the
village. Domestic violence was of utmost prevalence in the village. Leaving aside that the fact
they should at least get treated normally, they were actually treated as slaves.
Females were treated as things on which the males can pacify their anger, frustration and day to
day difficulties. There never used to obstruct such happenings because they are suppressed by the
male family by saying that she is a disgrace to the family letting out all the family issues right
out on the society. The frightened females, not knowing what to do, unbearable with the abuse of
their husbands used to complain and share their distress with their parents. The parents most of
the times ask their female children to adjust and compromise with the life saying that this is the
way a marriage succeeds, you need to understand and act accordingly to the needs of your
husband. But when the treatment gets intolerable, only with the help of their parents they used to
raise this issue in the panchayat, and then the concern gets addressed.
One of the women with whom I had an interaction with said, Beti, ye har ghar mei hota h, we
are vulnerable, we succumb to all these pressures and we are used to it there is nothing which
could be done to make our lives better except for accepting this fact and moving on. Listening to
this tears rolled down my eyes and many thoughts wandered in my mind. In the urban India,
there are cases of women harassment but we see the position of women is getting better. But, the
situation is getting worse in villages. What could be done? What actions can be taken to prevent
this?
The world has progressed, technology has progressed, urban India is progressing and the
situation of women in urban India is getting better but Indian villages are the same, the condition
and treatment of the women in rural India is still the same. What else could be done to make the
life of women better? Why the government isnt getting into action to eradicate the domestic
violence in the villages? Is it that the condition of women going to remain the same and my
children also would be writing an article sharing their personal stories like this?