whole year for the struggle, she replied, ‘My children are small, otherwise I too would have come out for the Sanghatana work.’ That feeling prevailed in the hearts of many women. Joshi was aware of it. During the first Convention of SS at Satana in 1982, a special session was kept to discuss the issues of farmer women. In that session Joshi had spoken movingly about the tragic conditions in which the women from farming household had to live all their lives. They had to work very hard right from their childhood doing all the household work apart from slogging in the farm. They cooked and washed utensils, cleaned the house, fetched water and were generally the last person to eat and that too usually just the leftovers. For all that they never received any wages or even gratitude and instead generally received harsh treatment from menfolk; which at times included the mental and physical abuse. Their reality was vastly different from the one depicted in novels or films where women were charming and dutiful daughters or daughters-in-law of families, protectors of traditions and generally the apple of the eye of the farming household. With his desire to reach out to the women, Joshi used to request his workers to come with their wives for the meetings. For a SS session at Khuldabad near Aurangabad on 31 July, 1 and 2 August 1985 he made it a condition for invitees that they should come with their wives. One of the participants, Pasha Patel from Latur who worked full time with SS for twenty years and was later also an MLA, wrote, ‘Joshi had written a letter to all workers. He had clearly mentioned there that one should not attend without one’s wife. My wife always covered herself in burka. For the first time after marriage I had taken her out to such a far-off place. She put on her burka, sat in a bus and after traveling for two-four kilometers removed her burka. For our session women were present in equal number as men. Whether it was an agitation or a programme, Women Power - New Expression
Q
219
