Seva Mandir is based in Udaipur and amongst the many projects that they do, they work with the 200 villages that are here on the outskirts of the city. They have an incredible number of projects going on dealing with various issues in these rural villages. The partnership between Nourish International and Seva Mandir was the first and we're here to create a documentary for Seva Mandir.
I had arrived to Udaipur approximately 5 days after the other team members were here. Immediately the high of being in India had set me off in high spirits and I was excited to just absorb in the sights and sounds of this place. Going to Seva Mandir was interesting because I had absolutely no idea what to expect at all. Last week we had a meeting with a panel of committee leaders from Seva Mandir and us Nourish members to discuss exactly what we'd be doing, what issue we are covering, what our work schedule would be like, etc etc. We established that within the course of 6 weeks we would complete the making of one documentary. The issue that we are focusing on deals heavily with women's empowerment and the Caste Panchiat system.
I had never before heard about the Caste Panchiat (also known as the Jati Panchiat) system before . As it as explained to us, it is a traditional system within the villages that are typcially comprised of men that gather to resolve civil issues within the village. It's a familial thing so these members are not elected members. Marital issues are obviously a big part of this. Women have always been excluded from this. When they pass by the meeting arena, even if there is nothing going on there, no meetings or none of the members, it was compulsory that they take off their shoes as they pass by to show the utmost respect. Often times the civil issues dealt with domestic violence or polygamy and many of these issues that directly impact women had rulings being dictated from men.
The village we are working with is called Maalaria ( not sure if that's how you spell it, sounds like Malaria) and during the course of the past 40 years Seva Mandir has tried to enforce certain changes in the Jati Panchiat system. Through many years of trying to convince them to include women, this system is now looking towards some progressive change.
and that's what we are trying to document. how this traditional institution of ruling has evolved and how community members percieve this change. the system has not changed entirely and there are a lot of case studies that illustrate that. our task is to talk to village women, jati panchiat members, and other members of the community to not only showcase the jati panchiat system but how women have helped themselves and have empowered themselves to combat the injustices that they have faced.
the initial trip to the village was extremely difficult for me. we traveled on a jeep type thing ( i never get cars) for about an hour and a half and squeezing in 9 people was slightly hard. we passed through roads completely covered with dusts as there was a tremendous amount of construction going on followed by a long and windy and rocky drive to the outskirts. everything i was seeing was new. camels on the sides of the road with huge loads on their backs, women in brightly colored saris carrying heavy loads of bricks on their heads. when we arrived at the village we were greeted by Noja Ram, a gentleman from the village that we had interviwed earlier in the week who had been a member of the Jati Panchiat but then had become invovled with Seva Mandir and had been working with them for about 15 years. The meeting room where we sat was a small room with children and teenagers scampering to look in from the windows. This was our initial visit at the villagt to basically gage the atmosphere, what time of the day would be best for shooting, etc etc.
What sticks out the most are definitely the kids. there were so many kids so excited and happy to see a bunch of foreigners with a whole bunch of cameras and equipment. Although I enjoyed their company so much, the constant circular thoughts of the fact that this is their living conditions for every day life and the way that they will grow up is inescable. there are a lot of conflicting thoughts. i'm no one to think that my background is so much more privileged that i should feel bad for their life. that's ridiculous. at the same time its hard to reconcile why my life should be any better. there's a lot of thoughts going on that's hard to explain, a conversation about this would be better.
Issues of identity have come up in so many different faces so far and it hasnt even been a week yet. a post about that coming soon / later because i have to leave this cafe soon.
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