DEVcast » India

A new caste system?

Piyoo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:17:57 +0000

This video made me question a lot of things and I will try to coherently narrate them in the hope that some of you will comment on this. I believe that the experience with caste, religion are very different when you are growing up and that as an adult. The reasons are numerous but will save them for another day.

However, ever since I moved to the US, one of the questions I have most frequently been asked by my peers here is – is the 4-caste’s system still very prevalent in India? This video confirmed my unease with a yes/no answer to that question. It is impossible to give a yes/no answer. And an average attention span often is way shorter than the time taken to explain the complexity of the answer I may need to give to justify that response.

The reason I mention the age of an individual when you experience caste/religion is because for me it has been that. I did not grow up in India. So when I returned to India as a teenager and started working in the social development field, my understanding of history, caste system, social construct, rich-poor divide has been key in my decisions to work with marginalized communities. Just as it is hard for people to imagine a ‘South in the North’ it is equally hard acknowledging the fate of the ‘poor’ within the Brahmin caste, otherwise synonymous with wealth, knowledge and plain well-to-do. So is there a caste divide in India? My answer is : there is a “rich-poor” caste in India and the traditional caste system plays into it depending on which side you are from!

Scenario1: Being poor is my primary identity and – if I happen to be a Brahmin then the caste system has not helped me in anyway to remain rich today, if I happen to be a Dalit then the caste system exists. Scenario2: Being rich is my primary identity and – if I happen to be a Dalit then the caste system has been reversed for the first time making me an equal, if I happen to be a Brahmin then the caste system has continued to keep my supreme status intact.

So you tell me, what kind of caste system exists in India?

Stop looking

Piyoo — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:32:03 +0000

There are countless times in any woman’s lives that we cross a road or a street and cant help but want to scream ’stop looking’. Eve-teasing has been tackled by various people through different ways, for some of my favourite instances, see this project or the video below from Jagori’s project Safe Delhi. Eve-teasing happens even when one doesnt know its happening, it does not need to be a whistle, a touch or anything more obvious, all it takes is – that ‘look’ or even the intention of that ‘look’.

BUT all its takes to stop is that firm action, that scream, that slap!

Our Land – our right

Piyoo — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:32:57 +0000

When I came across this article, I hadnt seen the videos below. As a student of communication and power relations, such examples of subaltern media – to create a space of difference, is always fascinating. Ofcourse those who dont read Hindi, would find it hard to follow, but the gist of the matter you can read in this article as well. (btw, the vidoes are in a 3 parts so click on the arrow at the right edge of the screen)

Training the trainer

Piyoo — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:11:52 +0000

I am not sure if this is what I was thinking of finding, but its a training for trainer kind of video. Though at times it sounds almost like something that presents the best-case-scenario of how immunization is done. It is also a good guide to a public health graduate to know how it really should happen and what it should look like once they are done figuring out what’s really going wrong!

All my body needs

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:01:26 +0000

Nutrition abounds in our food, all we need to do is identify the food that is nutritious and hence good for our body. National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad uses folk music and dance to serve nutrition in a song. Aaah you get it, I dont speak telugu, so the words i picked up are: thindi, poshkahara and a couple more.

But I like the low-budget-ness of this video, though why wouldnt you shoot it outside – are the elements so hard to overcome in shooting a dance? I think it will be really apt as a radio song about nutrition too – so if you dont watch it full screen its ok

Power of collectives

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:35:15 +0000

Age old adage – united we stand, divided we fall. Meena’s friend experiences that in this episode. The power of collective has the potential to be used both for good, evil or for teaching a lesson Its not hard to use it for the evil, often all it takes is a week moment but fear not, change is easy too, just acknowledge and lose the I for the We!

Agism of the good kind

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:05:51 +0000

Any age under 18 is too young to marry for both girl and boy, not just according to law but because bodies and minds are still not ready for the additional responsibilities. However the star of the episode was clearly Mithu with matchmaking at its best

There is always something to be said for innocent love!

Give and take

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:19:54 +0000

Enough has been said about dowry and abolishing the practice. So when I watched this video I liked its simple way of communicating the message, but what struck me most was the ease with which the ‘community’ reached a consensus on it. Often that is the bigger evil! Ofcourse dowry is illegal but does that knowledge convert to practice? (Incase you are going to say, yes, let me correct you) NO.

So how do we ‘do’ a NO, even when we KNOW?

My family name

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:55:17 +0000

When I was born my grandmother didnt see me for my first three days. First child of her last son, a girl! How will the family name continue? But I was her favourite grandchild ‘ever’ very soon (oh thats a big status being one of 19 first cousins) ofcourse my baby brother crying ALL the time helped bolster my status.

Times have changed people say, but for a large majority they havent. They face it day in and day out, Meena and women from her community show they will change and then need to change for women.

Give me some tea

Piyoo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:29:14 +0000

Curing with tea, well thats true for me or is it that I am conditioned to think so, since am a girl, hmmm. I wonder. But Meena doesn’t in this episode. Equal pay, equal medical care, equal opportunities for both male and female – in all aspects of life.

I like this episode, but am thinking is humiliating those traditionally in ‘positions of power’ the best way to achieve equality? Can we achieve win-win or will there always be some-lose some-win?