Shashi Gogate and Mick Minard’s book brings out inspiring stories of women leaders in India who have remained “invisible” from public gaze but are contributing significantly to social development. They speak to Divya Kaushik
For those born and brought up in Jodhpur, Dr Kanta Tewari is a known name. She is a famous gynecologist and probably the best friend to many women, most from the rural areas, who approach her for some treatment but open up their hearts to her. Tewari is the personal physician to the royal family of Jodhpur and she has a small space behind her garage which is open to people 24X7. Women walk long distances to meet her and get treatment free of cost, if they can’t afford to pay anything.
“Tewari is a close confidante to these women and she ensures that they do not just get physical treatment but a good counselling session, as well, when needed. What is interesting to note is that at one level she is the physician to the royal family and then she is providing her services to another section of people who need her. She is trying to bring about the change around her by selflessly serving people,” says Shashi Gogate, a medical practitioner, who has come up with the book on women leaders of India, who may be ‘invisible’ from public gaze but are the driving force behind positive social change across the country, with American photographer Mick Minard. The book is titled The Poetry of Purpose: A Portrait of Women leaders of India.
Gogate and Tewari were together in medical college but there was an interesting story that Gogate and Minard found out only while having a conversation with Tewari regarding the book. “She shared that after she finished her school, she told her father that she wanted to pursue medicine but her father refused and said that he cannot afford the expense of her education since she is a girl and he had three other children to bring up. She was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and decided to fast until her father agreed. People around her told her that she would die but she did not give up and some relative of the family came forward to finance her education. She became a successful doctor and proved her potential to the world. Her story was necessary to be told not just to let the world know about her commendable work but also to inspire young girls with her conviction,” says Minard.
like Tewari, there are over 15 such inspiring women from across the country who feature in the book, that is more like a development and educational tool to both the women who worked hard for years to bring out these incredible stories from India. To deliver the message of the book more effectively and to the wider section of people, there is also an exhibition of photographs taken by Minard, curated by Alka Pandey, at Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre. “The purpose of the book and the exhibition is to highlight the role of women leaders in our society today. This project is to inspire, educate and encourage women,” says Minard, who met Gogate in the US for some other project and after having a good conversation with her Gogate revealed that she wanted to write a book after her retirement.
Soon after her retirement, Gogate wrote a mail to Minard and that was the beginning of the campaign. “The reason I always wanted to do a book on India was because I spent my childhood here and I saw how girls face discrimination here within families. The topic always remained close to my heart and I always wanted to write something about women in India. This book is a creative endeavour designed to carry a message about the essential nature of women’s leadership in India and its nexus — the spirit of active participation in social change. Through photographic portraits of each woman, accompanied by personal reflections on her life and work, a picture emerges of what the path to leadership looks like, not just for women in India, but for people everywhere — from the earliest stages of self-discovery to an enduring desire to strive in the service of others,” says Gogate.
The authors hope this book might be used in the nation’s schools to inspire a spiritual awakening among India’s women and girls-encouraging them to develop their intellects, their physical bodies and their innermost selves, equally and simultaneously. “We live in an era in which inequality, gender violence and social injustice are on the rise — especially in India. Our aim is to demonstrate that despite such difficult realities, there is cause for optimism. We selected women leaders who conveyed an honest and inspiring portrait of human potential — where body, mind and spirit have been awakened. Rather than exhaustively reporting the details of each woman’s biography, we chose to offer a personal and reasoned account of her aspirations and empowerment to break gender barriers and achieve greater agency to establish herself as a leader. To do so, we paired storytelling and photography — both art forms known for their capacity to capture the human experience,” says Minard.
Another inspiring story in the book is of Vimal Devi, sarpanch of the village Sarai of Mewat district in Haryana. Despite being an illiterate women, Vimla sportingly took up the responsibility and roles of the sarpanch and has come a long way. She not only educates villagers about their rights but also comes up with plans for the development of her village. She has even learnt to write her name as a signature. “You will find that each of these women have some distinct quality and they are transforming lives round them,” says Minard. She also tells us that they zeroed down on 16 women but one of them, educationist Ahalya Chari from Chennai, was 92 and died before the book could come out. The book features names like Anar Patel (the co-founder of Gramshree and Manav Sadhna), Jagmati Sangwan (general secretary of AIl India Democratic Women’s Association and and former volleyball player), Madhureeta Anand (film director, Ekka Films) and Razia (social health activist) among many others.