Chai main peeti nahi aur paani mujhe nuksaan karta hai was the biting response flung by her at the lucrative luring of Chai Pani. Sarita Behan, as she's fondly called, doesn't usually refrain when a spade needs to be addressed as a spade. The SEWA culture has a unique practice that encourages all its members/employees to address every other member/employee by suffixing a "Behan/Bhai" to their names. This, they say, is to encourage the equality of treatment and thought and successfully so. The sisterhood among the women working here can be evidently observed in the regular banters exchanged at the centres. I met Savita Behan yesterday. I was supposed to visit one of SEWA's offices in the far eastern part of the city. I often frequent this office but my visits to its adjoining centre are few and rare. This centre is a place where students enrolled in the SEWA education and skill development program are taught and trained. Additionally, this is also the centre that operates for the mobilisation and organisation of Domestic workers of the area. It is at this centre's Information desk that Sarita Behan sits and the request to prepare a fake birth certificate in return of "Chai Pani" was what garnered the above acerbity from her. The centre is always occupied with women of diverse age groups working in synergy. The bonds thus forged seem to have the capacity to transcend the barriers of age. The myriad innocuous banters by the elders thus, meeting the unfailing witty retorts of the younger.
Back to Sarita Behan. A scrawny woman with gaunt cheeks and sharp tongue taking down notes on the desk. That's her. And occasionally, an incident follows the introduction of Sarita Behan. One which coerces you to deem that if an iota of her effrontery was imbibed by every breathing human female, lives for all us females collectively would have been a little better. Sarita Behan hails from the slums of the surrounding area. One morning, like all others, she survived an entire queue of waiting women to fill her water containers as the State hasn’t yet been proficient enough to ensure the supply of free and clean drinking water to every household. The community tap thus being a respite. On arrival of her turn as Sarita Behan bent to fill her buckets, she felt a hand feeling her back. She straightened up to turn and saw a man much younger to her standing there. To ensure that it wasn't an accident, she bent to fill her buckets again. The hands repeated their actions too. This time, she turned around and questioned "Kya Chahiye, what do you want?”. "I want to fill my buckets, what else", came the quick retort. The still calm Sarita Behan then ordered the women to make space for him to fill his buckets first "Sab hato zara, pehle ise bhar lene do paani, let him fill his buckets first." The man then drooped himself to the tap and filled his bucket. Thereafter, he started to scurry home. Sarita Behan quickly instructed a fellow woman to watch over her filled buckets while she started to follow the scumbag to his residence. All along the way, she kept swearing at him. This caused him to turn and question if she was following him to which Sarita Behan agreed with an air of cultivated nonchalance. When requested by the man to stop swearing, she replied with a curt " Jab maarungi toh chup ho jaaungi ,I'll be quiet when I hit you". Upon knowing his residence, she returned to her buckets, shoved them inside her home and sternly instructed her children to be home until she arrives. Thereafter, she walked to his house and brought him out from inside, then without any explanation, she took off her slippers and started to continuously hit him in the face with it. This continued for about fifteen minutes and by then, a swarm of people had crowded to spectate Sarita Behan's continual pounding in awe. Then quietly, Sarita Behan told him "Dekha, bola tha na, jab maarungi toh bolungi nahi".The few people from the crowd stepping forward to stop Sarita Behan were quickly warned by her, "Stay out of it, it's between me and him". Sarita Behan then dragged him to the police station and lodged an FIR against him on account of eve teasing. That's Sarita Behan. I hope you know her a little better now.
A little bit of Sarita Behan in all of us would have warded off a lot of street harassment we put up with. All it takes to put an end to it is a little courage on our part. Anyhow, I really started to look up to Sarita Behan's fiery courage and effrontery. Seriously. She, however, says that SEWA gave her the courage and opportunity to cross the confines of her doorstep and venture in the outside world. Ironical. And most women I come across at work are no different from Sarita Behan. All having their own stories that help them stand out. When contrasted against their circumstances, their act of stepping outside the houses and sitting where they are was an act of immense difficulty in itself. Yet the ease with which they've blended into SEWA and with each other is remarkable. The knowledge of the support of "Behans" is so profound that it has emerged as a source of inspiration and confidence amongst many women. Thus, no denying the collective strength of these women. Of us women. All it takes is that little effort. The effort that all these women attempt at making. Are making. The effort that we have yet to make. SEWA’s strength lies in the collective strength of its members. Come to think of it, there’s hardly an objective that collective strength can’t achieve and yet peculiar that oppressing minds are fewer than the oppressed ones. We’ve yet to identify our collective strength as a society. The dynamics of misguiding a mass are easily attainable, sadly. However, hopefully, one day we’ll get over our thrifty grievances to realize what we truly deserve. At work, with the likes of Sarita Behan around, managing many laughs daily is not so tough. It’s a tough life for most but we manage to seep in a few smiles on all our faces.
And it is here that I truly realize what Ela Bhatt meant at SEWA’s inception when she asserted “We’re poor but too many”. Indeed, we’re poor but too many. And that’s all we ever need. Each other.