Embrace to Protect!

In India, a kitchen considered to be the right place for a woman. I had a driving instructor who is having his own motor driving school in Kolkata. During my learning process I found him grumbling about the woman and giving little advice what woman should do and what not. I was clueless what made him to do so. He was earning his livelihood from the customers like us. Therefore, one day I told him

- Bhaiya, if woman stop driving then you will certainly loose half of your customer.

Not going back to the history book to remind all about Laxmi Bai or Indira Gandhi. How many men from India gone to achieve that Sunita Williams or Kalpana Chawla have done? I am here not starting a debate between man and woman. In rural India, women are still badly treated and facility wise boys preferred to the girls. Then there are discriminate against girl child and honour killing. Yet, from the ashes woman rises to the top and shown that they are better than the other half. They may be weaker in the sense of physical strength but mentally stronger to fight for another day. Today I will write for a movement that initiatives by a particular woman from Uttarakhand, they found a unique way to protect their environment. My most findings are from different website and I thank them for putting it there.  

Gaura Devi.  

One woman whom future generations in Uttarakhand are not likely to forget is Gaura Devi who has mobilised the women of this region to protect their natural heritage. Gaura Devi was not educated in the conventional sense of the term. She had not attended any school. Born in 1925 in a tribal Marchha family of Laata village in Neeti valley of Chamoli district, she was only trained in her family’s traditional wool trade. In keeping with the tradition of those days, she was married off at a young age. She went to a family which had some land and was also in the wool trade. Unfortunately at the young age of 22, Gaura Devi became a widow with a two-and-a-half year old child to bring up. She took over the family’s wool trade and brought up her son Chandra Singh alone She was actively involved in the panchayat and other community endeavours. Hence, it was not surprising that the women of Reni approached her in the wake of the Chipko Movement. 

 In Hindi the word Chipko means "to stick" or “to embrace” or “to hug” and that is what the Uttarakhandi women have done in 70’s to save the trees. Chipko Movement, started in 1970′s, was a non violent movement aimed at protection and conservation of trees and forests from being destroyed. The villagers used to hug the trees and protect them from wood cutters from cutting them. Chipko movement was based on the Gandhian philosophy of peaceful resistance to achieve the goals. It was the strong uprising against the against those people, who were destroying the natural resources of the forests and disturbing the whole ecological balance  

On March 26, 1974, when lumberers were to axe the trees, the men of the Reni village, and DGSS workers, were in Chamoli, diverted by state government and contractors to a fictional compensation payment site, while back home labourers arrived a truckload to the start logging operations. Gaura Devi led 27 women of Reni village, reached the site and confronted the loggers. When all talking failed, and instead loggers started shouting and abusing the women, threatening them with guns, the women resorted to hugging the trees to stop the them from being axed. This went on into late hours, and the women kept a whole night vigil guarding their trees from the cutters, till a few of them relented and left the village. The next day, when with the men and leaders back, the news of the movement spread to the neighbouring Laata and others villages also Henwalghati, and more people joined in. Eventually only after a four-day stand off, the contractors left.

Awed by the courage and the dedication shown by Gaura Devi. Today prefer to end with one of their slogan.

We have risen, we are awake;

No longer will thiefs rule our destiny

It is our home, our forests; No longer will the others decide for us

!!!Happy Woman’s Day.!!!