Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/260

 Mahatma Phule’s death and the hundredth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth. Yet no one from society which holds their inheritance in highest esteem took any note of this spectacular movement. Omvedt said, it happened because, “Entire publicity media is in the hands of some higher middle class urban workers and they do not wish to look at Shetkari Mahila Aghadi. On the contrary, whenever there was an opportunity, they tried to spread misunderstanding about Mahila Aghadi. On the whole the middle classes are against Shetkari Sanghatana.” Major participation of women in the farmers’ struggle led by Joshi imparted to his work some unique features. Men and women often became members of each other’s families and generally the inner circle of SS resembled a family more than an organization. The freedom and openness with which men and women worked together in struggle, without even a trace of gossip appearing anywhere, was quite uncommon in Indian social work. This writer remembers travelling once with Joshi and some of his colleagues to Bundelkhand. The travel inevitably involved long distance train journey. All of us were men except for one lady, Shailaja Deshapande of Arvi taluka in Wardha district. When this writer asked Shailatai whether she felt awkward travelling with other male colleagues, her prompt reply was, ‘Absolutely not. In fact I had never felt awkward in any way while participating in any of the programmes of Shetkari Sanghatana. Nor had my husband ever objected to that. To me, all men in Sanghatana are like my brothers.’ While talking to some other women, this writer heard similar response. This should be a matter of pride for the SS. Somehow other organizations working for women’s upliftment never found it easy to work with Shetkari Mahila Aghadi. The differences became obvious during the fourth Women Power - New Expression

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