Red Brigade
We had heard that girls from small towns were different from city girls. They were less educated
and more under the pressure of patriarchy. However our experience with
Red Brigade was different and humbling in a way. They gave us the
lens to understand their fight; a fight they were willing to fight
against a mind set called Patriarchy.Somewhere in the hearts of India a different form of revolution was brewing up. It did not have the media attention, neither the fame of Femen. They were angry and wanted to solve their problem. And they found this help in self defence,or we must say Martial Arts.
Red Brigade
The girls walked in silence
and reverted those gaze. They were no more scared and no more felt
the insecurity. They just wanted to reclaim those lanes, their lives
and their schools. Girls were tired and Red brigade gave them hope.
That’s what Red brigade meant for them: the symbol of power, the
symbol of hope.
A bunch of girls from age
group 9 to 25 years old formed the part of the notorious “Red
Brigade”. Notorius because nobody really supported them. Police thought they were nuisance, neighbours thought they were bad influence for other girls and their own parents were against their acts. All of them attended classes in martial arts and had been associated with this effort for a long time. They assembled in
the Dragon Academy and learned methods of self-defence from Mr. Gyan.
Why Red Brigade? And they
smile and let us know that it was a gift given by the boys who used
to mock them. Whenever these girls used to go out for practises in
their red salwar and black dupatta, they used to tease them saying :
Red Brigade aa rahi hai ( Red
Brigade is coming)1.
So they just stuck with the name.
Aap ka Jagruk Rahna bahut
zaroori hai.( It is necessary to be alert in your daily lives)
Red Brigade was the brain
child of Ms. Usha who had most of her family members involved in this
campaign. She found this as the only way of protecting herself and
her loved ones. She noted that lot of girls facing similar plight
were simply locked up in their houses and their education was
stopped. The notion of eve-teasing was at rampant in Lucknow, from
where this group operated. Red Brigade was an effort to give the
girls their sense of security back.
Sehat banana zaroori hai.
Aapko har roz dood peena padega ( Your health is important, Make it a
point to drink milk everyday)
The idea
behind teaching girls self defense came from within the group itself.
These girls knew each other from before. They used to go to coaching
classes where they were involved wit each other's at some level. They were very active
in street theatres and somehow felt social issues needed to be
addressed within the community. There was no help coming from the
government, private organizations did not find any incentive to
interfere and families found it easier to lock the girls up inside
instead of tackling the issue. The girls had to take up their issue
of safety in their own hands.Red
Brigade was an effort to remove the fear away.
9 year
old Shanti joined Red Brigade only when she was 6 years old. She was
the youngest in Usha's family. She spoke eloquently , in between
giggles spoke about sister's solidarity that kept her confidence up.
She was not aware of feminism as a concept but very clearly spoke of
the gender inequality she faced with respect to her brother. She said
shyly how her brother was scared of her.
Itna stamina se kya hoga,
arre cum se cum 1 minute ki dod! ( You really need to improve your
stamina, you should be able to run fast for a minute)
Red
Brigade took the feminist movement to one stop forward. Usha clearly
shared her discontent with the feminist movement which was more
worried about other elite issues and failed to tackle the basic
issues. She said that she still needed to fight for girl education in
these places and issues of sexuality was far away from their present concern. She was tired of sitting and waiting for revolution to
happen. One fine day she just decided to take up the revolution in her own hands.
The
girls don't have a conceptual understanding of the fight they are
involved. At some level the society and their families have let them
down. They just have the sisterhood that gave them back their
identity.They know the patriarchy is against them and really wished
at least their brothers , friends and their female relatives understood them.
One of
the member shared how every day was a fight to come for this judo
classes. She still fought and continued coming for the classes. This
was the only place where she belonged and she regained her self
respect.
Usha
proudly mentioned the number of foreigners who had asked for their
uniforms. She had people coming from Portugal, United Kingdom and
other European countries coming giving them trainings. A Mexican
group just came and stayed with them and showed interest in making a
documentary on them. She just hoped she will be able to set up more
defence classes. She really found it amusing how people from far away
were aware of her efforts and people sitting in Delhi were yet to
recognize her issues.
After
all this, it was disheartening in a way to see these girls, talk
about basic issue of food. They knew their health was important. They
did not want to win championships but needed to be fit and yet had
to fight for basic right to food. It was easier for the trainer to
tell them to drink milk, but in their houses they hardly had access to
food and resources. To demand their right to milk was an issue they
still had to tackle.
While we
were leaving one of the girls told us how all this fighting and all
was fun, she would still love it if only she could dance. Somehow
it was easier for her to fight than to dance. Dancing was another
fight she needed to take up, but for now she was happy with Red
Brigade!
Contributors : Nastassia and Jasmine.
