City disappoints women artists
By Parbina RashidCHANDIGARH,
Dec 10 — The City Beautiful may be the major cultural centre of the entire northern region, but when it comes to giving recognition to the budding talent of the female artists, the society is “not so generous.”
“Society has not accepted girls as artists, when it comes to the market of matrimony, they are most frowned at”, said Mr Prem Singh, Principal of the Government College of Arts, Sector 10. To be an artist one needs to be given absolute freedom, and the society is yet to overcome the social stigmas attached to a girl, he added.
Reflecting the same sentiment, Ritu Aggarwal, a student who is learning painting at the Government College of Arts, feels her future as a professional artist is not at all secure. “After marriage it depends on the husband and the in- laws whether I will be allowed to paint in a professional capacity,” she said. “To be on the safer side I will switch on to B. Ed so that atleast I can still have a job if not a career as a professional artist,” Ritu added.
Explaining the reason why the society does not approve of the female artists, Sonia Gautam, another painting student of the College of Arts, said an artist had to interact with a lot of people irrespective to the gender and a girl getting friendly with too many men , even for the sake of profession was still a taboo in our society, she added.
Ashima Mehal, a final year painting student of the college, said her parents were dead against her joining the course mainly because of the apprehension that after marriage she would not be allowed to continue her career. Considering the pros and cons now she wants to switch on to some computer course for a brighter future, she informed. Same is the case with Sakshi Gupta, a student of sculpture, who wants to switch over to mass communication after completing her degree.
“It is true that most of the girl students once passing out of the college die an unnatural death in terms of creativity”, said Mr Prem Singh.
Though professional artists are not a hot commodity in the matrimonial market, but some one with a degree in painting or any other creative field is most sought after for marriage. “As some degree in art is supposed to imbibe some aesthetic sense in the girls, the general assumption is that girls having such degrees are good housekeepers”, said Pooja Sood, another student of the College.
“Now the situation is that most of the girls have enrolled in various art courses just to do something till they get married, said Rajni Ajmera, a first year student in painting. “Besides filling up the gap between adolescence to the marriageable age, a degree looks decorative in the bio- data”, chipped in Navdeep Kaur, another student of the same batch.
"However, the adversity has not been able to discourage them all, a few still believe that if one has confidence in herself to defy the social norm, one can still shine as an artist. It is the initial phases one has to endure the pressure from the society or parents. Once you prove yourself the whole world respects you for what you are”, said Pooja . “ It is just a matter of time”, she added with an optimistic note and a twinkle in her voice.
