Founded in 1975, the United Nation's International Year for Women, the Mumbai-based Stree Mukti Sanghatana - an apolitical, autonomous and voluntary organisation - directs its efforts towards the upliftment of women and children. Jayashree Menon spends time with Jyoti Mhapsekar and Sharada Sathe who, with many like-minded volunteers, have made a significant difference to the lives of the downtrodden through songs and plays, exhibitions and grassroot programmes.
You
can say that it all started with a song…or many songs. For, all these
friends loved to sing - Jyoti Mhapsekar, Sharada Sathe, Chhaya Datar
- while American research student, Gail Omvedt, strummed the guitar
- songs of equality and emancipation, of empowerment and strength, written
by poets like Narayan Surve, Madhav Chavan and Daya Pawar. "Not because
we were some great singers," laughs Sathe, "but because we wanted to
communicate with the downtrodden and the uneducated…and singing was
the best medium." Their audience usually comprised workers and farmers
and their wives. 61-year-old Sathe continues, "Whether we were in sur
and taal did not matter to our listeners, what mattered was the emotional
content which straightaway touched their hearts." Mhapsekar, now 56,
continues, "We all came from middle class backgrounds where academics
and achievements are revered. Revolution and the middle class have never
gelled together, but we all had Leftist leanings and wanted to work
for those who were marginalised by the mainstream." The
turning point for this loose knit group came in 1975 when they attended
the Stree Mukti Andolan Sammelan in Pune with a poster exhibition. Here,
they met many like-minded individuals who were waging their own wars
against the suppression of women. Realising that they needed a more
organised platform than mere songs to really effect change, they established
the Stree Mukti Sanghatana (Women's Liberation Organisation) in 1975
itself, which happened to be the International Women's Year. "Women
are wary of politics, but SMS did not have any political links nor did
it ride on any particular ideology and that's why we could attract so
many volunteers. We were the first autonomous organisation in Mumbai
without any political patronage. Feminism in simple language, that's
what we were," smiles Mhapsekar. To simplify this message of empowerment
and equality for women, Mhapsekar wrote the play, Mulgi Zhali Ho (A
Girl Is Born). The first show of Mulgi Zhali Ho was performed in Delhi
on May 15, 1983. "Though the audience was largely Hindi speaking and
the play was in Marathi," says Mhapsekar, "everybody loved it, proving
that theatre has no linguistic barriers." Indeed, the kala pathak -
the cultural troupe of Stree Mukti Sanghatana - with its track record
of 30 years - has reached every nook and corner of India with the help
of powerful plays and numerous songs on women's issues.
Contact details: Stree Mukti Sanghatana, 31, Shramik Lokmanya Tilak Vasahat Road No 3, Dadar, Mumbai 4000014 Tel: (022) 24530354 Email: smsmum@vsnl.com
Website: www.streemuktisanghatana.org
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