When I found out about Sampat Pal Devi and her Gulabi Gang, I was initially delighted. I had only read a snippet about their mission and promised to revisit their website again. After catching some of Kim Longinotto's documentary "Pink Sari", I began researching the group. I tried to steer clear of articles from white feminists and looked towards their website, Sampat Pal's Facebook, and other publications.
Working with NGO's I have read several mission statements, some bad, some good. Never have I seen a "Vision" (different than their mission). Simple and sincere, it stirred something inside me.
"Protect the powerless from abuse and fight corruption to ensure basic rights of the poor in rural areas and discourage traditions like child-marriages."
Sampat Pal is really an extraordinary women. According to the Indian Express article she is a "barely educated, impoverished grandmother [who] has emerged as a messianic figure in the region." But they don't talk about her empathy. She's a tough lady (I would never want to be on the receiving end of her fiery), but she is gentle and compassionate. She is a practitioner of tough love, but also tenderly wipes the tears from the faces of scared, oppressed women. She cries with them, she shares her home with them, she protects them.
What is more powerful than that?
She is quoted in the Gulf News article saying:
"When I’d confronted him alone, he refused to listen to me,” she says. “But when I approached him with a group of women, he admitted his mistake. It was then that I realized the power of unity."I cannot agree more with this statement. I think it is so important for women to stand together. Still, I sometimes find it hard when women who are "progressives" or "feminists" do not include, or even acknowledge, the women who are fighting for their rights as women of color. Those who choose to not see race are, in reality, erasing us and our struggles from the conversation. As if we are already not invisible enough.
Though, I can't put 100% of the blame on white America. I know my community and I know the problems we face. Those who chose to help their community should also spend time focusing their efforts in fixing the problem within it. That is something I think Sampat Pal has not only realized, but executed bravely.
It is time to stand up, together. "Only if you stay together can you fight such crimes in society".
