Don’t beat dolls!

Usha Rai

Traditionally Sitapur district of UP has observed Nag panchami (snake worship) not just by giving milk to snakes but also by pounding girl-dolls made of cloth or gudiyas, made by village women and brought to the village square for the centuries-old gudiya peetna pratham (ritual). The pounding of these dolls using decorated chhadis or sticks was done by young men between 18 and 25 years of age. The custom, horrendous as it was, continued mindlessly with no thought being given to its ramifications on gender equations and violence against girls and women.

Even new brides entering a home were wacked with lathis because it had a symbolic religious sanctity! Called Punsvana Sanskar, this tradition was practiced on pregnant women wishing to deliver a boy child. In a state where the child sex ratio has been plummeting and stands at an abysmal 899 to a 1000 boys (census 2011), these traditions were quite clearly perpetuating the culture of violence among young boys and men.

The Central Government’s Mahila Samakhya Programme in UP was among the first to take on the challenge of breaking this tradition in the late nineties in the Mishri block of Sitapur District, the stronghold of this custom. Today, however, it is the large network of women and yuva (youth) female SHGs of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) that are breaking hierarchies and class and caste barriers that have kept women down for ages. Though the custom was observed across UP, it was dominant in Eastern UP in the districts of Rai Bareilly, Sultanpur, Hardoi and Sitapur. Some of the older markets of Lucknow still sell cloth dolls on Nag panchami and even decorated chhadis (sticks) with which these can be beaten.

On a visit to Ram Vilaspurwa village, Machreta block of Sitapur District, about 60 to 65 women, representing women and yuva SHGs, said since 2013 they had played a significant role in breaking away from the ancient custom. However, they seemed totally ignorant of why and how the practice had started. The oldest woman present, 70-year-old Khedana, said earlier it was the dominant upper caste male youths that would beat girls and young women of lower caste around Nag panchami, which falls in the monsoon months of July/August. This is also the time when, with their holes and homes flooded with rainwater, snakes are forced into the open and offered milk by snake worshippers.

However, a more plausible explanation was provided by an RGMVP representative who said the root of the practice could be traced to the days of the Mahabharat and the rule of Raja Parikshat, the son of Abhimanyu and grandson of Arjuna. King Parikshat was cursed by the son of a meditating sage for throwing a dead snake around his father’s neck when he failed to provide water to the thirsty king though he kept paying obeisance to the sage. Cursed to die of snake bite, Raja Parikshat was bitten by Naga Thakshak and died. In retaliation there was mass killing of snakes by Parikshat’s son and others in the kingdom. 

One snake, though gravely injured, is said to have escaped and hidden in a village well. A young girl, who fetched water from the well was confronted by the snake, who said he would spare her if she provided him milk every day. The girl did that but was caught feeding the snake and brought to the centre of the village and flogged by people for feeding a snake that had killed their popular ruler. That is how the tradition of beating girls and women began. 

Somewhere down the years, no one knows when exactly, instead of beating girls it was decided to beat replicas of girls in the form of cloth dolls on Nag Panchami. it was felt that the pent-up anger and frustration of the young men could be vented on the cloth dolls. 

In the last two year, 10 villages of the Machreta block, Sitapur, have stopped this tradition. The SHGs in the villages of Eastern UP, where the RGMVP wields influence, have also stopped beating dolls. Instead the gudiyas are placed on decorated swings and rocked with respect at a ceremony. However, the tradition has been booted out only in pockets, not across the whole state.

Prem of the Vikas Mahila SHG recalls that in 2013, a Manisha didi came from Amethi and formed the first samooh (group) of women for their economic empowerment. Within a year there were many such collectives of women in the villages of Sitapur. A samooh had 10 women and each one contributed every month Rs 30 to Rs 50 which became the saving of the SHG. Instead of going to the money lenders and taking loans at 10 to 12 per cent interest, the women borrowed from the samooh and returned the amount with 2 per cent interest. It was for the first time that the women were meeting regularly and exchanging notes on their lives, fears and worries. Economic empowerment gave them a new status in the village and they discussed livelihood options for themselves, education of their children as well as health, sanitation, customs and traditions that were not in the interest of women. 

It was in this new atmosphere and awareness of self-worth that the gudiya peetna pratham (doll beating custom) was raised at the meeting of the Federation of SHGs. The women agreed that the custom showed lack of respect to girls and they would not allow its practice by the men. They decided that they would not make the cloth dolls. In the discussions that followed someone suggested that the tradition could continue but in a new avatar. Instead of beating the dolls why not give back the respect to girls by putting the beautifully crafted dolls on jhoolas (swings) and asking the boys who had been beating them to push the jhoolas? Nag panchami falls in the monsoon months and coincides with Teej, the festival of swings, and so the conversion was easier.

So for the first time in 2014, instead of beating dolls, the dolls were placed on swings and swung towards the skies by boys with clapping, singing and an atmosphere of bonhomie.The practice of feeding the young men gugri, a local snack of wheat and corn, however, continues. In homes today the bride is welcomed with sweets instead of lathis.

Customising Conventions

Cycling past Brahmin homes

Till 2014, women were not allowed to cycle past the homes of the upper cast Brahmins in Khanehuna village, Aant gram panchayat, Mishrikh Block of Sitapur. They were only allowed to walk past these homes in a meek manner, considered suitable for women and those from low caste. The women found they were invariably late for SHG meetings when they had to pass through this village.  So the women’s SHGs decided to break this custom and cycle past these homes in a defiant show of their collective strength.  Twentyfive women — Ganga SHG, Pooja SHG, from Gautam SHG and 10 others on cycles and the rest on foot went past the homes of the upper caste. Objections, if any, were set aside as the women went in procession past the upper caste homes. They are no longer late for SHG meetings!

Not carrying their footwear past upper caste homes

In Barora gram panchayat, Babina block of Jhansi, Dalit women no longer take off their footwear while crossing the homes of the upper caste. On August 15, 2012, women from 24 SHGs showed their new-found independence and empowerment by carrying the national flag and crossing these homes wearing their footwear, instead of tucking it under their arms or carrying it on their heads. The SHGs formed in Barora in 2008 are truly empowered and members no longer come for meetings with bruised and bleeding feet.

Doing away with Saurya Pratham

Under the saurya pratha, after delivery the woman and the new born were considered unclean and kept in an isolated room and exposed to cow-dung smoke. At times, mother and child would fall sick and even die in their solitary confinement. For three days after its birth, the new born was fed goat’s milk and missed out on the colostrum-rich first milk of the mother. After listening to health professionals from Public Health Foundation of India, the SHGs of Parsawanand Naraini village of Amethi block booted out the saurya tradition and for three years no maternal death was reported in these villages.