sri ramanand saraswati pustkalaya

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Theatre Brings Perceptible Changes In The Life Of Women

Social change through cultural interventions and theatrical activities helped a lot in bringing a perceptible change in the situation. The beginning was not a conscious effort. National School of Drama, New Delhi organised its first training cum production workshop in May 2004 at SRSP. Initially everyone was sceptical about the response of women to the workshop but to everybody's surprise large number of girls participated in the camp. For them it was like freedom from mundane, routine chores of a male dominated family life where they had very little elbow space for joy and creativity. It was another departure from the caste guided behavioural pattern. Boys and girls of different castes used to spend the whole day together singing, dancing and rehearsing. Initially there was a mental barrier among them but slowly and unknowingly it disappeared and they started to share their midday meal as well. The first theatre camp changed many things in the life of village Jokehara. Women started visiting library in more numbers. There was a perceptible change in the confidence level and they started participating more freely in the discussions organised by the library. Since then many theatre camps with the support of National School Of Drama, New Delhi, Bhartendu Natya Academy, Lucknow and North Central Zone Cultural Centre, Allahabad have been organised and it has further cemented the process.

1993 से लेकर 2004 तक की यात्रा में जो खास कमी बडी शिद्दत से महसूस की जाती थी, वह थी लड्कियों और महिलाओं की पुस्तकालय की गतिविधियों मे बहुत कम भागीदारी ! 2004 में अचानक एक घटना ने पूरा परिदृश्य बदल दिया ! सब कुछ बिना किसी सोची समझी रणनीति के तहत हुआ ! राष्ट्रीय नाट्य विद्यालय नई दिल्ली ने मई 2004 मेँ पहली बार एक महीने का ट्रेनिंग कम प्रोडक्शन वर्कशाप पुस्तकालय परिसर में आयोजित किया ! "पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश के इस पिछडे गाँव में नाटक करने के लिये लड्कियाँ कहाँ से मिलेंगी?" प्रशिक्षिका विधु खरे ने लखनऊ से जोकहरा जाते हुये हैरानी से पूछा ! विधु की हैरानी निराधार भी नहीं थी ! शुरू के तीन दिन एक भी लडकी कार्यशाला मेँ भाग लेने नहीं आयी ! लेकिन विधु के थोडे से प्रयास के बाद जो कुछ हुआ वह अकल्पनीय था ! अलग अलग उम्र जातियों एवँ पारिवारिक पृष्ठभूमि की लडकियों ने जब आना शुरु किया तो ऐसा लगा कि कोई बाँध टूट गया हो ! सचमुच बाँध ही तो टूटा था ! तरह तरह की कुँठाओं और वर्जनाओं की मारी इन लडकियों को एक बार जब अपनी कल्पना के पँख पसारने का मौका मिला तो वे उड चलीं उस सम्मोहक और रंग बिरंगी दुनियाँ की तरफ जिसमे अभी तक उनका प्रवेश वर्जित था ! वर्कशाप मे तीस से अधिक प्रतिभगियों के भाग लेने की गुंजायश नहीँ थी किंतु मना करते करते भी विधु को 47 लडके लडकियों को इसमे दाखिल करना पडा ! नाटक की यह कार्यशाला लडकियो और आसपास के ग्रामीण जीवन के अनुभव संसार में एक भूचाल की तरह थी ! पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश देश के अन्य पिछडे ग्रामीण इलाकोँ की तरह लैँगिक और जातीय भेद भाव से ग्रस्त है ! इस वर्कशाप से पहले यह कल्पना करना भी मुश्किल था कि लडके लडकियाँ , खास तौर से दलित और सवर्ण पृष्ठभूमि के , एक साथ हाथ से हाथ मिलाकर नाचेंगे ,गायेंगे और अभिनय करेंगे ! इस वर्कशाप में विधु खरे के निर्देशन में तैयार लक्ष्मी नारायण मिश्र का नाटक सरयू की धार, राष्ट्रीय नाट्य विद्यालय, नई दिल्ली के रंगमंच पर जश्नेबचपन के तहत खेला गया !


जोकहरा से दिल्ली की यात्रा ने भी भाग लेने वाले कलाकारोँ की जिन्दगी को बदला ! कलाकारों में आधे से अधिक की ये पहली रेल यात्रा थी और दो एक को छोडकर बाकी सभी पहली बार दिल्ली जा रहे थे ! विधु खरे ने यात्रा के दौरान अलग अलग जातियों के बच्चों द्वारा लाया गया भोजन एक मे मिला दिया और बाद मे सबने उसे मिल बाँट कर खाया !महानगरों के लिये तो यह एक सामान्य सी स्थिति हो सकती है किंतु गलीज़ वर्ण व्यवस्था के पंक में बजबजाते समाज के लिये यह एक बडी परिवर्तन कारी घटना थी !
थियेटर के इस पहले वर्कशाप ने ही औरतोँ की जिँदगी मेँ निर्णायक हस्तक्षेप प्रारम्भ कर दिया ! वर्कशाप के पहले बहुत कम संख्या मेँ लडकियाँ /महिलाएँ पुस्तकालय मेँ आतीँ थीँ , जो आतीँ भी थी वे सहमी ,सकुचाई और अनामंत्रित सी लगती थीँ ! वर्कशाप समाप्त होने के बाद उनकी संख्या तो बढी ही उनके आत्मविश्वास का स्तर भी बढ गया ! बढा हुआ आत्मविश्वास उनके चलने, बोलने और अधिकार के साथ पुस्तकालय का उपयोग करने मे झलकने लगा !
मई 2004 के इस पहले वर्कशाप के बाद पुस्तकालय ने प्रति वर्ष तीन ट्रेनिंग कम प्रोडक्शन वर्कशाप लगाने का फैसला किया और इस अभियान मे उसे राष्ट्रीय नाट्य विद्यालय नई दिल्ली, उत्तर मध्य सांस्कृतिक केन्द्र इलाहाबाद , भारतेन्दु नाट्य अकादमी लखनऊ तथा इप्टा का सहयोग मिलता रहा है !
यदि आपको देखना हो कि थियेटर कैसे औरतोँ की जिन्दगी मेँ परिवर्तनकारी हस्तक्षेप करता है तो आपको श्री रामानन्द सरस्वती पुस्तकलय के अनुभवोँ का देखना चहिये !
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Women dare to ask question:

The mundane and routine life of Prabhawati had always been on the receiving end. Poverty, ill treatment of in laws and regular beating by a drunkard husband Bhagwat were all she could remember till she met Kusum and Pushpa, two activists on gender issues. SRSP, with support of OXFAM, has initiated a campaign against gender violence in fifteen surrounding villages. Prabhawati's village Sahnupur is one among these. She learnt the art of protest during interaction with Kusum and Pushpa and that was the beginning of the end of accepting cruelty without asking questions. "How dare you ask question" was the reaction of Bhagwat, with a sense of disbelief on his face, one day when he slapped her and a defiant Prabhawati asked uncomfortable questions. Since then Prabhawati never looked back. She giggles while narrating, before women participants in a discourse on gender, how she reacts to the violent behaviour of her husband and how much he fears raising his hands on her because he knows that she will pay him back in the same coins. Prabhawati is one of many women of different age groups who regularly attend various capacity building programmes and discussions organised by SRSP. These exposures have taught them to ask questions and not to accept violence against them in different forms and at various levels.

Letters from a Goa prisoner to writers: Sumant Bhattacharya in Indian Express of 18 th January 1998


NEW DELHI, January 17: From his tiny cell in Goa's Central Jail, Sudhir Sharma, Inmate No 797, has been fighting a long and lonely battle: he wants to read. The Constitution and the Supreme Court say he has the right to do so, his prison authorities say no.Sharma, a former addict, was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to a 10-year jail term under the Narcotics Act. While in prison, one day, a fellow inmate showed him a copy of Pahal, a monthly Hindi literary magazine. It was this that, Sharma says, gave him a reason to live.
He wrote to Pahal editor, noted Hindi writer Gyanranjan, who sent him his books. They reached the jail but authorities said he couldn't read them. The books were sent back and Sharma was moved to a sub-jail, in Vasco, where, he says, the conditions are worse.
Still, he keeps writing letters, to Gyanranjan, Hindi novelist and DIG of Border Security Force, Vibhuti Narain Rai; authors Nirmal Varma, S R Yatri and Asghar Wajahat. These letters aren't sent through ``official channels'', he smuggles them out, sometimes through an inmate on his way to the hospital, a friendly warden or an inmate's relative. In his latest letter to Rai on December 10, 1997, Sharma says he's perhaps paying for raising his voice.
The story of his life, as told through his letters: Once a student of Delhi University, Sharma left home for Mumbai. He began working for the underworld don Karim Lala's nephew Samad Khan, fell in love with a ``penfriend'' from Jodhpur. Things changed when Samad Khan was killed and his girlfriend ditched him. Sharma became an addict and began to peddle drugs until he landed in jail.
He clocked his days in despair until he read Pahal. ``Pahal ke ank ne meri zindagi mein pranvayu ka sanchar kiya,'' he writes in a letter to Rai. (Just one issue of Pahal gave me a fresh lease of life). He goes on to thank Gyanda (Gyanranjan) for accepting a prisoner as a reader. ``Thank you for agreeing to share your books with a criminal. I know I have done something wrong but I am conscious. Don't I have the right,'' he asks, ``to know what's going on, to be sensitive?''
Books and magazines came pouring in which jail authorities confiscated. He also wrote to Kiran Bedi. In a letter, he says he believes that his persecution by the jailer was largely due to his attempt to spill the beans in the letter to Bedi.
The IG (Prison), Goa, and the superintendent of the Central Jail in Aguada, quoted the jail manual to justify their action. In a letter to Rai dated July 8, 1996, the superintendent says:
"In view of Rule 17 of the Goa Daman and Diu Prisons (Facilities to the prisoners) Rules 1968, the parcel which was sent by you was refused by this jail."
According to this rule, prisoners' mail, both incoming and outgoing, "shall be carefully censored." And a prisoner may be asked to give "a list of persons with whom he is likely to correspond during his period of imprisonment. As far as practicable, this list shall be scrutinised."
Jail authorities claim that since these authors' names don't figure in this list, he cannot receive anything from them.
This despite a 1979 ruling by a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices V R Krishna Iyer, R S Pathak and O Chinnappa Reddy. The judges had said: "No prisoner can be personally subjected to deprivations not necessitated by the fact of incarceration and the sentence of the court. All other freedoms belong to him, to read and write... to creative comforts... to movement within the prison campus subject to the requirements of discipline and security, to the minimal joy of self-expression, to acquire skills... all other fundamental rights tailored to the limitations of imprisonment."Speaking to The Indian Express, G H Kenaudekar, additional Deputy Collector and Deputy IG (Prison), Goa north, says: "As per rules, books will not be given to prisoners but will be kept with jail authorities." When told of the Supreme Court's ruling, he says that probably the jail administration is not aware of the decision.
Ironically, the books sent to Sharma by Kiran Bedi, who was given the Magsaysay award for reforms in Tihar jail, were also returned. Says Bedi: "The Goa jail administration has overlooked the verdict and directions of the Supreme Court. It should be brought to book for this." Until that happens, Inmate No 797 will keep waiting -- and writing.