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E D I T O R I A L

Oriya Women Lead Migration Race

Women of Orissa have proved to be in the forefront when it comes to migration. By migration here we mean the movement of people from one place to the other for the purpose of settlement, which includes movements across all geographical boundaries, such as inter-district, inter-state or inter-national ones. That the number of woman migrants in Orissa is much more than their male counterparts could surprise many.

The recently released Human Development Report of the UNDP highlights certain interesting revelations. It says that out of the total 37 million population of Orissa, about 11 million (i.e., almost one out of every four) are on the move. But much more peculiar is the finding that while out of the total migrants about 2.5 million are male migrants the remaining 8.6 million are female.

What makes our women take the lead in the race for resettlement? Prima facie it appears to be a function of the socio-cultural and economic realities prevailing in Orissa. It may be noticed that the migration data mentioned above also includes intra-district and inter district migrations. It has been found that seeking employment has not been one of the main reasons for women to switch locations, which of course is not the case with men. It is easy to guess that the main reason why Oriya women have to move from one place to the other is their marriage. It has much to do with the traditional Oriya custom of women having to move to their in-laws’ place or the place of their husbands' employment after marriage.

There are also women who migrate for the purpose of their own employment. But as statistical data reveals, the majority of such women belong to tribal dominated areas. These are women who seek employment elsewhere mostly in unskilled occupations. This is an indicator of the precarious state of affairs prevailing in the tribal belts of Orissa so far as employment avenues are concerned.

It is relevant to take note of what the eminent Magsaysay Award winning social activist Jockin Aruputham had to say on the occasion of release of the UNDP report: “Women play an important role in migration, both at the source and at the destination. Community mobilization and empowerment can immensely improve the quality of life of migrants. And nobody, no policy makers, no government ever think about making their lives better,” he said.

Thus the migratory trend among women can also be viewed as a positive contributor to their empowerment and well being. It also shows that women are actively participating in a process of socio-economic transformation. It could even lead to a day when the role of women in our society would get redefined.

But what's important is to ensure that the need for migrating to a new place is not a result of compulsions under helplessness. Rather it would be more welcome if such migrations take place as a function of choice. It will be a pleasure if competent women either at the home or in the professional front move out of our state to place themselves in dignified positions so showcase their excellence. It will be one way of spreading the typical Oriya values and culture in diverse locations. The trend might ultimately result in establishment of the image of the Oriyas as a community that excels in adapting itself to remote social environments while at the same time retaining the essence of its own cultural ethos.

But unluckily in Orissa migrations take place not as a matter of choice but as a measure adopted under compulsions. If this is nearer to fact, then it’s an admission of our state’s failure in the economic front indicating decline in employment avenues. It may be noted that the migration figures mentioned above also include intra-district relocations, mostly from rural to urban areas, which again goes on to show that governmental initiatives to strengthen the rural economy and infrastructure has yet to achieve its goals.

However our prime concern remains why the trend of migration among the women of Orissa is higher in comparison with other states. It is not so much an indicator of their empowerment. As one can surmise, it is an outcome of the inclination of Oriya women to follow the footsteps of their husbands upon marriage. Or are there other factors involved? The issue calls for an in-depth study, which sociological scholars should take up.

(Published on 2 November 2009)

E D I T O R I A L

Women take pala to new heights

In the arena of performing arts in Orissa a silent transformation has taken place in the rich and traditional form of folk song called ‘pala’. Any Oriya who has been blessed with the privilege of being born and brought up in the rural or semi-urban belt of the state would vividly recall the humble group of five folk singers clad in religious outfit singing out excerpts from literary Oriya verse, annotating and explaining its nuances in common language.

In the pre-television era ‘pala’ served as one of the most sought after forms of intellectual entertainment. People gathered in big numbers to watch and patronise 'pala' groups all around the villages and towns. This valuable constituent of the great Orissan heritage in performing arts was considered to be being on the verge of extinction a few decades back. Luckily this dying folk tradition has been resurrected after the entry of women performers into the field.

Earlier the very possibility of a woman participating in a 'pala' troupe was an unthought-of proposition. Now it has become a reality; so much so that today the 'pala' scene in Orissa is dominated by woman singers in large numbers. It has interestingly added to the popularity of the folk form which was on the verge being written off as a form without any future.

The credit for ushering in the women’s era in 'pala' goes to Pandit Nimbudhr Padhi of Sasanga village in Keonjhar District. Being himself a leading 'pala' gayak, the idea of imparting training in the folk song to his daughter Rebati occurred to him in the mid-1970s. The performance of Rebati on stage stunned the audiences. It opened up the prospect of including woman singers in other 'pala' groups. The trend continued to grow rapidly and now it has reached a stage when the most popular 'pala' groups are those which exclusively consist of women singers only.

This transition of 'pala' into a women oriented song-form has brought about an evolution and it can now be compared with the famous Padavani performance by Tijan Bai of Chhatisgarh. The woman pala singers have today also emerged as the saviours of the popularity of Oriya literary verse written by eminent poets, especiallly of the medieval era. It is by lending a voice to their poetic work in a raw and rustic tune that woman pala singers have been able to reach the masses successfully. In the process they have also proved to be promoters of traditional values, as the narratives from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the puranas presented by them with a touch of wit and humour have left a lasting impression in the minds of their audiences.

Among the prominent woman performers of 'pala' we would like to mention the name of Kumudini Patel of the Sambalpur district who inspite of being physically challenged with one of her legs maimed due to polio has been moving around from place to place performing 'pala' and earning applause for her extrordinary talent and hard work. Some of the other woman artistes active in the field are Anjana Behera, Kumudini Panda, Manorama Panda, Laxmi Priya Dash and Swarna Prabha Lenka. According to an estimate the number of woman ‘gayikas’ in pala troupes of Orissa is more than 200. The number would cross 400 if the women serving in the troupes as  ‘palias’ are also included.

  It is relieving that many of such 'pala' singers have been able to adopt it as a full time career. The assignments that come their way have been reasonably remunerative. It has been encouraging more and more number of woman performers to step into the field. What’s more important is that these outstanding women have been able to save 'pala' from the clutches of extinction which their male counterparts failed to do at some point of time.

The cultural department of the government of Orissa should take notice of this silent change of guard taking place in one of the oldest folk cultural forms of the state. Every possible measure should be taken to encourage and promote these angels with ‘chamar’, ‘gini’ and ‘jhanja’ in hand bringing about a silent cultural movement in Orissa. It is also the duty of the citizenry to patronise such 'pala' troupes in the spirit of protecting the endangered cultural traditions of the state.

(Published on 15 July 2009)

E D I T O R I A L

Women in Orissa Elections

That not a single woman in Orissa could get elected in the recently held Lok Sabha elections is a shocker to many who visualised a greater role for women in the politics of Orissa. What’s disappointing is that none of the nine woman candidates who contested this time could put up an inspiring show, irrespective of the political parties they belonged to.

In the 2004 Loksabha elections two women got elected from Orissa. Now that their number has got reduced to zero, the situation calls for some introspection. This has happened at a time when the performance of women in the elections at the national level has not been so dismal. Rather it has been quite spectacular considering that a record number of 59 MPs got elected to the new Lok Sabha – the highest since Independence.

In the elections to the Orissa state assembly also the performance of woman candidates has been on the decline. While the erstwhile Vidhan Sabha had 17 woman MLAs their number got diminished to just 7 in the current elections - indicating that their strength virtually nosedived by 50 percent.

While at the all India level women have carried forward their onward march to assert a dominant role in electoral politics why has it been otherwise in Orissa? Do the ground realities differ in our state? A deep analysis of the socio-cultural backdrop against which the Oriya women selectively tread into the political arena shows that they are yet to get the necessary support and inspiration from our society in general and political set-up in particular. As a result, their participation in politics turns out to be half-hearted and diffident one. Another reason could be that the political parties who field such candidate are prompted by tokenism rather than making serious efforts to project and promote their woman candidates as serious contenders for electoral success.

While studying the role of women in Orissa politics one however derives solace from the fact that in the past there have been quite many exceptions in the scenario. The foremost among them was Nandini Satpathy – the iron lady of Orissa. As a successful chief minister she went on to prove that a woman could demonstrate administrative and political acumen to a no lesser degree when compared with the male stalwarts active in politics. She set an example of sorts. None among the next generation of women have so far succeeded in reaching that stature.

Why did the voters fail to realise the potential leadership qualities of the women who contested the recent polls in Orissa? Should we blame the voters? Rather the question should be, did the woman contestants meet the voters’ expectations? It seems most of the woman leaders who entered the polls were not serious enough in what they were doing. This found reflection in their inability to mobilise the requisite resources and support base that is essential in winning elections these days.

(Published on 1 June 2009)

E D I T O R I A L

Sportswomen Shine in Orissa

PADMINI ROUT - SHINING IN CHESS

The sports scene in Orissa is marked by outstanding accomplishments by many of its sportswomen. It appears that if our state is soon going to make a mark in international sports it would solely be due to our sportswomen. Recently there has been a series of occasions when the eves in our sports arena won laurels in a wide number of events ranging from athletics to chess.

Recently when sprinter Namita Kabata won gold medal in the 800-metre event in the Asian Youth Athletic Championship in Singapore attention got focused on the state of Orissa as a land that nurtures many a bright promise in sports. That it is the women of the state who have turned out to be flag bearers in the winning spree in the field of sports has unveiled a new chapter in the sports history of Orissa.

The prestigious Ekalavya Award for excellence in sports has recently been conferred on Padmini Rout, the chess celebrity from Orissa. Padmini has a brilliant track record with her noteworthy performance in the Asian Junior Girls Chess Championship and the Commonwealth Chess Championship. We are sure the recognition and accolades received by her would inspire more number of girls in the state to take interest in chess as a career option.

Athlete Shrabani Nanda is another such talent in sports who has made her marks in various national and international meets. She has recently received cash award from the Indian Metal Public Charitable Trust for her achievement in the field of athletics.

Another prominent sportswoman Namita Kabat has demonstrated outstanding performance in international events. She aims at winning gold at the Youth Olympics to be held in 2010. What’s striking about her career is that she hails from a humble peasant family in a village in Keonjhar district. The achievement she has made thus far has been in spite of the poor infrastructure and inadequate training facility that came her way. Now that she is undergoing intensive training at the Sports Authority of India Hostel, she is in a position to hone her skills so as to realise her dream of touching new heights in sports.

Similarly Ranjita Mahanta has also charted her own success story. Being the daughter of athlete Prahlad Mahanta and sister of the long-jump athlete Renubala Mahanta, she has been blessed with the right environment and inspiration within her family herself. She participated in the 2008 Junior Athletics Chamionship in Mysore and bagged the U-16 girls individual honour. She also represented the country in the 100m sprint events at the Asian Youth Games in Singapore and the World Athletics Championship in Italy.

It may be observed that the success story so far of the sportswomen in our state have been a matter of chance rather than being the outcome of a systematic approach in grooming the identified talents. The government’s response appears to be knee-jerk in that patronage to the deserving comes only when their exceptional performance in one tourney or the other manages to catch one’s attention. Then he or she is picked up to be accommodated in a sports hostel with provisions for financial assistance and coaching within the permissible limits of the bureaucratic set up.

As we have emphasized earlier in this editorial column, a machinery to systematically identify the sports talents available especially in the rural and semi-urban areas of our state needs to be in place so that no such athlete or player in the making is nipped in the bud for want of training, guidance or financial support. The matter gets further aggravated when such a tlent belongs to the feminine gender. She faces additional hurdles due to lackadaisical attitude of her family and community who normally consider it unacceptable to visualise a woman in the career of sportswoman.

It is however heartening to note that in spite of many such obstacles a good number of girls in Orissa have been able to make their mark in sports. More often than not it has been an outcome of their individual efforts and innate skills. If such efforts and skills get supplemented with sincere support and guidance from the authorities responsible for promotion of sports, many of our promising sportswomen would certainly attain golden heights.

(Published on 1 September 2009)

E D I T O R I A L

A Player in the Making

It would rather be an understatement if we call her a player in the making. Because 9-year old Mamali has already proved her mettle as an established football player. She has already earned recognition as a footballing sensation. And now she is on her way to even greater heights.

But who knew her one year back? This child prodigy appeared to be destined to rot in a non-descript slum of Bhubaneswar where she grew up as an ill-fated child, upon being abandoned by her rag-picker parents while she was only 3-year old. She was given shelter in a home for street children in Bhubaneswar. She became the hapless victim of poverty and destitution and eventually worked as a domestic help for survival.

Seven years later, at the age of 13, a chance viewing of one TV show changed her life. She saw a football tourney on the screen. She knew that she had the stuff within her. Football was her passion. Upon realising that she was no less than the girls playing the game on the screen, she decided to run away to wherever she could, to find a scope to hone her skills as a footballer.

Help came in the shape of helping hands extended by ace footballer Shradhanjali Samantaray and coach Nanda Kishore Patnaik who were stunned by the discovery of this little wonder. They had full confidence that this girl would someday rise as a shining star in the world of football. She was systematically trained by the duo.

The result was exhilarating. She performed beyond expectations in the under-13 football championship held in Bhubanewar last year. It brought her valuable recognition as a promising football player. Later she was selected for representing India in the Asian Football Confedration under-13 football championship to be held in Vinetnam.

But she couldn’t make it. She could not go to Vietnam due to a strange reason. It was a reason that should make us - Indians, hang our face in shame for length to which red-tapism could go in our country. She was denied a passport because she had no parents. Without her parents being named, her application for a passport couldn’t be processed. Where from could she find her parents now? They had abandoned her when she was only 3 and had never cared to keep a track of their daughter thereafter.

So she failed to participate in the championship. This sorry state of affairs was widely reported in the media. The fact that a girl selected for representing the country in an international football championship was denied the right to participate in it only because her parents could not be identified shocked many.

But the episode did also have a brighter side to it. After reading in the newspapers about the plight of their long-lost daughter, her parents got to know about her whereabouts. They reached her out. But by the time they came to her to establish their parenthood, it was too late. While Mamali was delighted to regain her parents, she was at the same time shaken by the slippage of the opportunity to participate in an international event,

But all is not lost. Mamali is painstakingly preparing herself for future tourneys. She has participated in a national level training camp in Gwalior and is all set to bring laurels to her team. The Orissa State Football Association is taking care to ensure that she receives the proper encouragement, patronage, and training so as to make her as a shining footballer.

It could be said that Mamali is all set to get her rightful place to match her passion and abilities because of a chance discovery of her talents by the people who understood their responsibilities. But it is not the case with all such budding talents in our country. A system needs to be in place to identify and nurture skills of such gifted children in the far flung areas including the rural belt. As is widely acknowledged, the dismal performance of our sports teams in the international arena is not as much due to dearth of sporting talents in the country, as to our failure to identify the talents that lie hidden in unconventional terrains.

(Published on 15 April 2009)

E D I T O R I A L

Shilpa Shetty and Odissi

“Among all the songs that I’ve ever shot for, this has been the most difficult”, says cine-star Shilpa Shetty after finishing a challenging sequence of Odissi dance which she learnt the hard way. She was shooting for a film tentatively named ‘The Desire’ in a picturesque location in Kerala.

Recounting her experience, she says,”In the normal course, it is easy to rehearse and add your own style to it, making it fun. But here I had not only to do a different dance form, I had to do it perfectly, making it look authentic and emote at the same time.” Shilpa has been ushered into the wonderful world of Odissi by the eminent guru Rati Kanta Mahapatra (son of the legendary Odissi exponent Kelu Charan Mahapatra) and his wife Rajashree.

Shilpa says that Ratikanta is a hard task master. She went through a week-long Odissi dance workshop conducted by him. Then it dawned upon her that the intricacies of the dance form have simply no comparison. What enthralled her further was the exquisite finery that she was made to wear while performing the dance.

Her delicate and painstaking handling of the dance would provide a platform to showcase the grandeur of Odissi in the tinsel-world. That it can contribute in no lesser way to enrich the filmdom in the dignified company of Bollywood stars would be amply demonstrated as the film gets released and appreciated.

Shilpa herself has been awe-struck realising the high potentialities of the dance form. “This indeed was a learning curve, .... and was worth the practice, once I saw how it looked on the monitor,” she says.

Popularisation of Odissi through the powerful medium of films has been an aspect that has so far been overlooked by the patrons of the dance. Over the last 60 years it has travelled far and wide winning many a heart among dance lovers. In the process it has also undergone changes in identity, as various exponents with their diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds have sought to experiment with the immense possibilities of the dance form.

But the conservative school of Odissi has its own apprehensions. Would the dance lose its original identity and fundamentals if it is allowed to be handled by all and sundry? Many of the gurus and dance scholars are today in the quest for innovations in Odissi. There is a tendency to alter what it consisted of earlier – from choreography to costumes to audio accompaniment. So much so that one is tempted to panic whether the basic nuances of the dance are going to be preserved.

This issue has recently been vigorously debated after the eminent Malayasian dancer Ramli Ibrahim embraced Odissi and sought to modify its time-tested format to open up new vistas in the dance form. But the extent to which he has taken liberties, has raised eye brows. In one of his presentations in Bhubaneswar, Ramli made his Odissi dancers wear dhoti and blouse without the mandatory odhani (dupatta) leading to a barrage of criticism. Elsewhere at the whim of another exponent, the accompanying instrument of mardal (traditional drum) has given way to octopads.

What we intend to drive home is the point that in its journey to wider platforms at the hands of a wide range of performers Odissi should not cease to be Odissi. However the fact remains that the growing acceptance and popularity of the dance beyond the boundaries of Orissa has been due to the innovations it has readily accepted.

It is heartening that director R Sarath has relied upon the comitted Odissi guru Ratikanta Mahapatra in moulding Shilpa Shetty’s dancing talent into the rigours and demands of dance form without making any compromises with its traditional nuances. One needs to be careful while presenting a purely traditional dance with a rich heritage to the cine-audience who are used to the glamours of mainstream cinema. This is a sort of predicament. On the one hand while one has to remain faithful to the roots of the dance, on the other, one has to make it acceptable to film buffs by taking certain liberties.

We hope as ‘The Desire’ is released a new vista of Odissi would come to light bringing recognition to Shilpa Shetty as an immensely succesful Odissi dancer under the able guidance of Guru Rati Kanta Mahapatra.

(Published on 28 February 2009)