Fellows PPT1 Public Policy Qualitative Participatory Action Research Fieldwork Fellowship- Cohort 4

Hello everybody, can you see my presentation? Yes, yes, it's visible. So, I am the storyteller by passion, so I am going to tell the story today. The story is about nine Durgas and the Ravana. So through the lens of qualitative research, I could see these nine Durgas, the nine goddesses and I want to tell the story of them in short. So my topic was the body autonomy and reproductive rights. So first Durga I spoke with, she was blissfully ignorant and content in her marriage. She is a, she follows the traditions without questions and also she was a good girl, then turned in a good wife and now she is a content mother, but yeah, she wanted to become doctor, she got the good grades in her school and the college, but yeah, denied by her father that who would marry an educated girl in our community. Then I spoke with another Durga. She was aware, she knew what she is lacking and what is the woman's voice she knew, but she was hidden behind the mask of a content wife. She was laughing continuously in her interview, telling me how she loved her husband so much and she was praising her husband continuously, but yeah, she was grieving about her unfulfilled dream. She wanted to complete PhD, but because of marriage, she left it and she was laughing and telling me about how she left her PhD for the marriage and I couldn't take off her mask. Then there was a thought Durga, she was aware and she was rebellious student also, but yes, because of her poverty and low economic class, she couldn't get proper higher education, but she chose husband of her choice, who allowed her to work after the marriage, but now after undergoing two caesarean sections, she want her husband to undergo the family planning operation that is the vasectomy, but of course, her husband is not ready for it. So her question was to me, like why my husband is not going, not saying yes for vasectomy and yes, now she has decided that she will start studying again and working again. Then there was a fourth Durga, she was independent, but she was stuck in societal conditioning. She defines herself by the law, by the boundaries placed by her family and her husband and she told me that her husband is dominating and she thinks she can't break the barriers, she can never say no to the family and to the duties put by the husband and I felt that it was her own conditioning and she couldn't get out of it, but I could see that she had a potential, she can become a leader, if only she can break away the conditioning. Then there was another Durga, she was very independent and she was aware about her life choices and she took proper education and she was doing job and she chose husband by her own willpower and she told her family to permit to choose a husband and she is happily married, but now because of her freedom and her independent thinking, she is shamed by the society and she felt stuck in a small town and she couldn't talk to anybody, she was very upset that why there is so much gossip about her choices, about her lifestyle. Then there is Durga number six, she has suffered a lot when she was very young woman, she had an abusive mother and so she married very young to escape from the mother, but then her husband was very non-supportive and she faced lots of gaslighting during her pregnancy, but then she understood that she has to, she is alone in her life and she has to become strong and to know and she took education and now she is herself an educator and also leader, now she is taking stand for other women, for other girls in the society and also because of her all life traumas, she landed in severe depression, but she is taking treatment and she is talking about it, taking a stand for women in the community. Then there was another Durga, she is gynecologist like myself, but she made some wrong decisions about marriage, she wanted a joint family and so she married a person with a joint family, but then she suffered a lot, she couldn't put her voice in the joint family, her husband didn't support her and during her own pregnancy, she faced abuse, she landed in anemia and depression, but after all she found, she came out as much stronger, now she is fighting for her right, she is raising her voice and because of her own experiences during her delivery, she became more compassionate towards other women and now she is famous as a compassionate doctor, so she is providing love to herself also and her patients also. Then there is another Durga, she was very resilient and a strong woman, but she faced stigma because of infertility and even if her husband was supportive, society shamed her for being infertile and the people from her own family used to tell her that her husband will find another woman as she is not able to give him child, also herself is a nurse, but when she went for the treatment for infertility, she faced abuse from the staff and from the doctors and then she decided to stop the treatment and her husband also supported and they stopped the treatment for the infertility and they chose to live together with dignity and love instead of falling for the societal pressure. And then there was a much different Durga, which I loved to talk to her and to listen to her insight, she is a very confident, wise and passionate woman, she is very self-assured and she is wise and her upbringing was so gender equal and very mature that she could choose what she wants at different phases of her life. So, she could exercise her agency in her personal life, choosing a husband, deciding when to become pregnant and also she enjoys her job, her professional work very much, she is very passionate about her professional work. So, when I was asking her, like she faced postpartum depression also after delivery, so when I was asking her what was the thing which made you so strong and which made you happy after facing so much challenges in life, so her reply was her profession, that she is very happy when she works with passion, so she said her work always provided her energy and happiness. So, and now she wants to raise a voice for women's issues and influence policy making because she feels that our policies are very technical, they think about technical points but they fail to understand the societal conditions and the culture, so she wants to make understand the policy makers about the ground issues or issues women face in families and in the society, so she wants to raise for the women she is working with as journalist. So, meeting these Durgas, it was a very profound learning for myself, my lens was very narrow, I went with a narrow lens but listening to these Durgas and listening to their stories, it made my perspective broad and I understood there are so many factors coming towards the women's issues and I could find the 10 heads of Ravanas, which are the barriers for women facing in our society. Swaraji, you have one minute to wrap up. Yeah, I think I didn't put the slideshow, sorry, so I found the 10 heads of the Ravana and as you can see there are the gender stereotypes from conservative upbringing, limited access to education and opportunities and most important the patriarchal structures everywhere like education, healthcare, politics and law and different systems, then self-doubt and lack of confidence and also the inefficient policies and loopholes in the implementation of those policies. So, I think the first step towards approaching the problems in the society, starting to speak and to find the Ravana in our own life and I felt immensely thankful towards all these Durgas who shared their stories with me, removing their masks and telling me their authentic true self and thank you. Yes, I'm done. Thank you Aishwarya ji, over to Vibhuti ma'am for her remarks. Yes, Aishwarya ji, your slideshow, the imagination and the symbolism you have used is important but the first slide where you talk about the ignorant, you don't use such language, it's very insulting, you should, you can call her that she's not ignorant, she's educated, she knows what can happen, only thing she doesn't have guts or she doesn't have confidence to fight, okay, so she's a conformist, like my mother, she was more intelligent than me, the only thing she did not have that she did not protest and I, even as a child, I protested and she always told me that it's not that I am not intelligent, I am not ignorant, I know but generally, we don't use the word ignorant, so Britishers always called us ignorant, no, so we don't it is the conformist, she's conforming to the tradition, so that should be the right term because this is a very value-loaded term, so ignorant, you don't use. Yes, yes. Other thing is that Ravana is also a very controversial symbol because Dalit movement doesn't accept Ravana is a villain, his sister's nose was cut by Rama and that's why he kidnapped him, so that is the logic they are using but I think in many civilizations, but typhoon in Greek literature you have, no, there also they have in Greek mythology, you have a typhoon who had a heads of snakes, so many snakes, so I think that's symbolism, in our culture, it is the symbol of Ravana but it can be controversial, that's what I want to say because Dalit movement has a different interpretation of Ravana. So, the symbols you have used, yeah, that's the method but are you going to write essay also? Yes, of course. Okay, fine but all your nine case studies are very, very interesting, the way you have described them, they really bring out the whole process from conformism to change agent, so from conformist to confident, all the range that you have described of nine women, they are very important. Thank you. We see them around us also, yes. Now, ma'am, I request our chair Vibhuti ma'am to share her closing remarks kindly. Yeah, I think both the sessions, as I think you all have also responded in the chat box, they were really great because they gave you practical hands-on and practical tips, especially Dr. Mani Miklais, there was so much of useful information and insight she has given for what the predicament, what are the prospects for the researchers, what safeguards you have to take and how do you prepare yourself to diversify your skills so that when you become versatile, so that in current changing environment you can fit into the various types of challenges that researchers face and how to convert your idea and research endeavor into publication, that was also very useful. What are the opportunities and avenues for getting your research published is very important, insights that she gave and practical guidelines she gave. And Mr. Arvind Unni's session was extremely useful in terms of all the three case studies he talked about of Delhi, Mumbai, and his personal involvement in picking up the issues of people in urban city makers and the migrant workers that helped us. And he also said that any research which is only for knowledge enhancement of our degrees of no use, first it has to bring social change. So that was a very important message that he gave and he also gave us confidence that any one of us, if we do with honesty of purpose and commitment to the community and ethical conduct, then we can bring the change for better for not only us but for whole community and society. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. With this, I would like to proceed to formal vote of thanks. As we come to the end of day nine of Public Policy Qualitative Participatory Action Research Fieldwork Fellowship cohort 4.0, an online national winter school program, a five-month online immersive qualitative participatory action research fieldwork certificate training fellowship, I, Sanan Sari, researcher at IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, would like to propose the formal vote of thanks on behalf of IMPRI New Delhi. We are grateful to our chair and experts for the day nine session, Professor Vibhuti Patelji, Professor Mani Mekhaliaji and Mr. Arvind Unniji for taking out their valuable time and allowing us to learn from this online certificate program. We thank all our participants who have raised important questions. Could we get the contact information from both the experts? Yes. Yeah, definitely. In the WhatsApp group, will you ask this question so that I'll reply? I'll share both. Sure. Ma'am, also their presentations will be shared, right? That they will share. Priyanka will share. Yeah. All right. Thank you. So, we thank all our participants who have raised important questions and actively participated in today's celebration. And we eagerly look forward to welcoming you on 10th of December for day 10th of the certificate course. While this marks concluding day, the schedule is together. Instead of regular session, we will have a very decreased section by Distinguished Professor Mukul Asharji, followed by the program presentation and interactive section discussion and feedback. And our chair, closing remarks and vote of thanks, led by the team. We deeply appreciate your engagement throughout this course. And we are grateful if you're watching us later on YouTube, listen to us via podcast and read our publication. We hope you continue to join Web Policy Talk and Web Policy Learning. Wishing you a very good day and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I'm ready for early start, but strictly leave at one minute. Yes, ma'am.