Film, panel discussion to address women’s rights in India

The University will host a screening of the “Gulabi Gang,” at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9, at UNC Charlotte Center City; it is the first offering in the UNC Charlotte Film for Thought series

“Gulabi Gang,” directed by Nishtha Jain and distributed by Creative Yatra, focuses on a women’s movement formed during 2006 in the Banda District of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. This region is one of the poorest districts in the country and is marked by a deeply patriarchal culture, rigid caste divisions, female illiteracy, domestic violence, child labor, child marriages and dowry demands. The women’s group is popularly known as Gulabi or “Pink” Gang, because the members wear bright pink saris and wield bamboo sticks called lathis.

Sampat Pal Devi, a young mother and government health worker, started the movement when she stood up to a man beating his wife. The news spread and soon women approached Sampat Pal to request similar interventions. Many women came forward to join her cause, and in 2006, she decided that the sisterhood needed a uniform and a name. A pink sari was chosen to signify womanhood and understated strength.

“We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term, we are a gang for justice,” said Sampat Pal.

Today, the Gulabi Gang has tens of thousands of women members, several male supporters and many successful interventions to its credit. Whether it is ensuring proper public distribution of food-grains to people below the poverty line or disbursement of pension to elderly widows who have no birth certificate to prove their age, the “Pink sisterhood” uses the simplest of methods – direct action and confrontation to bring about change.

The film screening is co-sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Division of Student Affairs and Department of Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, in partnership with the India Association of Charlotte, Queen City Sahelis and Universal Institute of Success Aging of the Carolinas (USAIC).

As part of the event, there will be a facilitated panel discussion moderated by Eddy Souffrant, associate professor of philosophy, with “Gulabi Gang” director Nishtha Jain and representatives of the India Association of Charlotte and the University.

The film and discussion are free and open to the public.