Farm widows get a stage to share their plight

NAGPUR: Desperate to find a sympathetic ear of a political bigwig, the farm widows of Vidarbha have now got an entire stage to vent their frustrations. Journalist Shyam Pethkar and schoolteacher-turned-drama director Harish Ethape have woven their travails into a script for a play titled ‘Tervah’. The first show will be staged in the city on December 15 at Sai Sabhagruh.
Tervah (thirteenth day after a death) will have six widows from Amravati, Wardha and Yavatmal acting out their lives on stage.“We began rehearsing for this play two months back and it has changed my life,” says 28-year-old Vaishali Yede whose husband committed suicide in 2011.
Once suffering in silence, now she will be speaking out her plight for the society to hear. “A widow is treated very badly in villages. The in-laws take away the money that we get as compensation. They use us as labourers, villagers cast aspersions on our character and those who show sympathy actually try to abuse us sexually,” she told TOI.
“We have been celebrating Diwali with farm widows and single women in villages for the past seven years,” Pethkar said in an interaction with media on Monday. “We had been hearing their sorry tales of survival and struggle which left us feeling helpless,” he adds.
“The way they have fought to keep afloat, how they are managing the upbringing of their small children with no help from their in-laws are stuff for motivational tales,” says Ithape who formed Agro theatre on his farmland in Wardha seven years back. He conducts theatre workshops and holds plays to revive folk and rural traditions, theatre and music. “Experimental in genre, the play will have women playing male characters too,” Ethape informed about the project which has been in progress for two years now.
The women were excited over the idea of acting on stage. Ithape conducted workshops to train them and picked up six widows who will be supported by actors from his group. “While learning to act and playing myself, I had a feeling of immense relief as all my pent up anger flowed out,” said Manda Aloni, a single mother who does farming on her small patch of land to fend for herself and her two kids.
Thrown out by in-laws after her husband was murdered by his brother, Kavita Dhoble lives with her parents and works with Ekal Mahila Sangathan. “The acting workshop has given me a sense of empowerment. It gives me the confidence to be able to speak out for myself with people out their listening. I am sure this effort will bring some change,” she says. 21-year-old Pratiksha Guddhe whose father committed suicide in 2013 feels, “Tervah is about moving on in life and not just crying over our misfortune. The play has taught us to have more confidence and respect for ourselves.”
Tervah is being promoted by Jan Manch and money collected from donation passes will be given to the widows. “The passes priced at Rs250 are available at Jan Manch generic shops in Laxmi Nagar and Dharampeth,” informed its secretary Naresh Kshirsagar.