Gangaur festival

After returning from the rural round trip on Wednesday, second of April, another Vishakha's cluster-in-charge, Vikram, took me to see the Rajasthani Gangaur festival at the lake. 

This Rajasthani festival is celebrated for spring and good harvest but as I undertood, perhaps the biggest reason for the celebration of Gangaur is marriage. Women worship the mother goddess Gauri known better as Parvati for a good marriage: unmarried women worship her in order to get a good husband while the married women worhip her to have a pleasant marriage.

While the details of the celebration were left a bit uncertain to me it was clear that the festival was a big happening in Salumbar. Crowds were gathered by the lakeside, women were dressed brightly and people were cheerfully feeding the fish in the lake. At dusk people started to move towards the city most apparently to continue the festival there. 

Around Salumbar

On second of April I got introduced to the countryside around Salumbar. I got two cluster-in-charges, Surej and Himat, of Vishakha as guides for me and we rode around the rural areas to see more about the local life.

The first thing of notice was the beautiful countryside all around us. The road wound around and over hills while we passed small villages, schoolhouses, goats, cows and buffaloes, people harvesting their small fields, children playing and of course, various temples. After a good driving we came upon a hill which had a small fort built atop it. To no surprise there was also a small temple inside the fort like in nearly every high or otherwise distinctive hill in Rajasthan. 

Himat told that the fort and the temple were rather new constructions, in fact they had been built in the early 20th century by the British Raj. The area was terrorised by bandits so the Brits built a small fort to keep guard over the area. Of course, the stronghold was also a way of the Empire to show their power to the locals perhaps too keen on getting independence, not just to fight brigands. As you can see, the views were wonderful!

On the way back we visited the house of Himat, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed the beautiful scenery near the Som Kamla water reservoir.

NGO Vishakha

As told before, Vishakha is all about women empowerment. Like everyone knows, we still have a long way to a world or society where everyone is treated the same way. But Vishakha shares a vision. This vision is to facilitate a discrimination free society founded on the principles of equity and justice. The NGO strives for this vision by concentrating on the rights of women and improving their status in the society by empowering them.

Vishakha has worked since 1991 when it was formalised as a registered society and the work has continued without stopping since then. The organisation is perhaps the most well known for the so called Vishakha Guidelines that were laid down in the 1997 in the aftermath of a Supreme Court case Vishakha and others v the State of Rajasthan. These guidelines defined what can be classified as a sexual harassment and they are to be followed when dealing with complaints about sexual harassment. The guidelines' definition of sexual harassment has been used in many cases, for example in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act enacted in 2013.

While the women are the point of concentration for Vishakha's, the aims of Vishakha are not only about empowering them alone. The empowering work should cover all the marginalised sections of the society and their specific perspectives should be integrated into state-level politics.

The women empowering practically means that Vishakha is developing women's capacities so that they have the means to build their own identities instead of the society or the family completely moulding their role. This means not only work with the women and girls but also working with men and whole communities and contesting and collaborating with the state in order to improve the status of women in the society. This contesting and cooperation includes topics such as education, health community development and violence against women. Especially the latest topic, the battle against violence towards women is one of Vishakha's key programme areas.

Vishakha's Block Coordinators working at the Salumbar office

Rajasthan, Udaipur and Salumbar

Rajasthan is lies in the west of India, next to the capital city Delhi in the east and the country of Pakistan in the west. A large part of the state's land mass is desert and the climate is dry statewide. Apart from the desert, scrubland and savannah are the most typical ecosystems in the state.

So far I have spent two months, February and March, in Rajasthan mainly working in Jaipur where my old internship place was. In addition to the many sights and experiences I’ve seen and lived in the capital of Rajasthan, we also made short visits to nearby cities and places with other interns and volunteers from our guest house.

The most fond memories in Jaipur are of Holi, the spring festival held in India. Experiencing the colourful festival with locals and other foreigners first hand was something we won’t forget easily. This Hindu festival is celebrated not only for the arrival of spring but also for the triumph of good over evil. The first night of the festival is the time for the Holika bonfires when people rejoice the victory over demoness Holika. The day after the bonfires is celebrated as Holi and it is the carnival day where people let themselves loose with the colour playing.

Our experience about the colour-carnival of Holi was certainly memorable. We spend four to five hours throwing and getting different colours thrown back at us. Everyone was smiling under the thick cover of various colour powders and whenever someone got his appearance too unicolored (because of getting drenched under a bucket of water or just being dragged and rolled in a big dark puddle of water on the street) people were helpfully throwing, pouring and rubbing new colours on you.

Pink City, Jaipur

The Holi festival is held once in a year but there are more things to see for those who do not visit India during March. Jaipur and the whole Rajasthan are filled with magnificent forts, palaces and temples and when you want to see the grandest building in whole India, or even in the whole world in many people's mind, just across the border of the state waits Taj Mahal. Among seeing the sights in Jaipur and experiencing the Taj in Agra, we popped for short visits in places such as the beautiful lake city of Udaipur where I nowadays work part-time, the holy city of Pushkar famous for the camel festivals held there every year and the Keoladeo national park with its wetlands and numerous bird species. Also very famous for Rajasthan are its handcrafs. If block printing, blue pottery, leatherworks or miniature paintings are something you fancy, Rajasthan is definitely a place worth visiting for!

Sun Temple, Jaipur

Keoladeo National Park

Of course, the things I have seen so far are barely a scratch on the surface. A weekend trip to a tourist attraction is not the most genuine way of getting to know the culture of the land however fascinating it might be. That is why I’m happy to see how moving to southern Rajasthan to live half a week in the lake-city of Udaipur and the other half in Vishakha’s Salumbar office gives new sights on everyday life in Rajasthan.

Udaipur is located in the southern Rajasthan, quite close to the state border of Gujarat. This 500-year old city boasts many such as the the grand City Palace, the Lake Palace and of course, the lakes themselves. Because of the relatively small size of the central city and the pleasant atmosphere there the city is a major tourist attraction. My work there is general office work in the Vishakha's Udaipur office.

Salumbar lies in the southern Rajasthan, approximately 70 km southeast from Udaipur in the Udaipur district. It is one of the blocks of Udaipur consisting of the Salumbar city itself and the rural municipality around it. Compared to tourist-packed, hill-encircled Udaipur, the cenre of the city is very small and the environment is mostly savannah-like countryside with villages here and there. In Salumbar my duties are more on the field. I get to see the block coordinators and cluster-in-charges in the field getting to know more about Vishakha's work and reporting about it.

During the first night on my arrival to Salumbar I got introduced to the lake situated next to the city centre. Compared to the bigger cities I had lived in India, Jaipur and Udaipur, the atmosphere of Salumbar was completely different. First of all, it was very silent. Strolling around the lake watching temples built next to it and literally on it (there was an island temple on the lake from which I am sure you can read more later on) in all silence was a new experience to me in India. Living in an Indian city that has more than half the amount of people of my home country was surely hectic enough and the touristy Udaipur has its share of noise and action as well. Moving to Salumbar's more tranquil surroundings surely sounds an interesting change of scenery and I'm eagerly waiting to see more.

Introduction

This blog is about an Indian NGO Vishakha and the everyday life and culture in Rajasthan, India through the eyes of an intern from Northern Europe working there.

In the first few posts I cover the work of Vishakha, a Non Governmental Organisation concentrated on women empowerment. You learn the aims of the NGO and their means to reach these aims. Later on you can read about the Indian society and the culture Vishakha works in.

All the information and experiences gained happen during my final internship month in Rajasthan, April, but most of the time I won't be covering the experiences in real time or on a daily basis due to the lack of computers or access to internet. For example, the Gangaur festival I participated the last week will be discussed later in a future post.

In the next post I'll cover more about the work of Vishakha. We at Vishakha hope you enjoy the one-month story of our NGO and Rajasthan!