Aditi Tandon
Tribune News ServiceChandigarh, September 4
One day we shall restore heaven out of hell, because this sky with a million eye and God in heaven above is aware of all the truth and goodness we owe....
The ugly face of night does not bother some people. For they happen to fall among the rare lot which can count its blessings even in the darkest of nights. After witnessing the prized valour of Alice Garg and Ashamma, the Neerja Bhanot award winners for last year, this year it’s time to unfold yet another saga of courage and sacrifice, written by an illiterate Yasoda of a remote Tamil Nadu village, where pain is another synonym for life.
Streaks of a fighter are writ large on the face of this year’s Neerja Bhanot awardee, Yasoda, who struggles hard with the language as one poses questions about her past. Thankfully, she is helped in the conversation by two founder members of the Centre for Rural Women’s Education for Liberation (CRWEL), the organisation which helped this small-time agricultural labourer of Beemanthope village (Tiruvallore district) to break the cocoon of silence and start raising questions that concern her own survival in society as a woman.
But the road to liberation was not less than nightmarish for the poor Yasoda, who had to sacrifice her sister and her only daughter in the fight against illicit distillers in the village. No matter how brave a face she sports, Yasoda cannot deny the fact that her memory is still stuck on the evening of December 6, 2000. A mere mention of the date, and the woman is close to a breakdown.
Annamalai, a member of CRWEL, who sat beside Yasoda in Hotel Mountview today, narrated the sequences of the fateful day. The genesis of the issue lay in the fact that after becoming a member of the Rural Women’s Front (a women’s welfare wing of CRWEL) in 1995, Yasoda had been actively involved in wiping off the menace of illicit liquor from her village. Today, she, along with other volunteers of the front, shares the credit for having cleared Beemanthope of illicit distilling trade. More important than the mention of this achievement, however, is the mention of the price which Yasoda had to pay for serving a social cause.
As Annamalai recounts the sequences of that fateful day, the heart keeps getting overwhelmed: “Two illicit distillers had found a way into Beemanthope in December last year. This obviously disturbed Yasoda who had nearly killed the practice in her village. When she heard about the practice surfacing again, she, along with her supporters, went to the traders in question and admonished them to stop all that in public interest. They promised to withdraw but to no avail.”
Finally, on December 6, Yasoda decided to question them directly. When she, with her supporters, went to the spot where they were camping, the two refused to budge. Excepting Yasoda, they detained the rest. Exhibiting tremendous courage, Yasoda went on to break the plastic can in which the illicit liquor was stored. Enraged, the two attacked Yasoda with a log of wood and left her bleeding.
Yasoda interrupted to narrate the rest of the story: “My 20-year-old daughter Indirani and my sister Rathnammal (55) rushed to my rescue and kept threatening the culprits. After some time, they attacked Indirani with a knife on the back of her head. When Rathna bent to offer support to an injured Indirani, they smashed her head with a boulder, leaving her dead. As I witnessed the deaths of dear ones, I vowed to take the culprits to task.”
What followed was heartening. Yasoda not only overcame her agony in the larger interest of her village people, she even got the murderers booked. They are still under trial in Tamil Nadu. The high point in the woman’s character is that she kept striving towards betterment of her people, despite having lost her own family in the mishap. Her commitment to the cause was even respected by the state government which compensated her with Rs 1 lakh. The sangham with which she is affiliated also honoured her spirit by instituting the “Indira-Ratna award” in the memory of her relatives. Even while CRWEL is still gathering money for the award, Yasoda has already donated Rs 1.5 lakh (this year’s Neerja Bhanot Panam Trust money) to them.
Ask her what prompts her towards such generosity, and she replies with pride: “The entire village is my family. The Indira-Ratna award will be conferred upon all those who serve a cause. We need to inspire the awakened lot and also to motivate the dormant ones to awaken and struggle for their rights. This money will get its worth only if it is diverted towards a noble cause. What will I do with a lakh of rupees? I will still eat what I always ate.”
The words fell on ears like sermons and one knew what it meant to be an awakened woman. Yasoda is now involved in helping 16 old women of her village to get their due pension. She is also negotiating with the state authorities and requesting them to open a depot (under the PDS scheme) in her village. The existing depot is far off from Beemanthope. Yasoda is also planning to fight the local body elections as a ward member.
As the Neerja Bhanot Panam Trust prepares to confer the award upon her on September 6, she maintains her cool. “The award is the token of recognition of my efforts and I am happy for it. But award or no award, I pray to God that he grants me the wisdom to carry on in life,” concludes the humble
Yasoda.
