In the 1980s, ‘Mulgi Jhali ho’ (A Girl is Born) by Jyoti Mhapsekar of Stree Mukti Sangathan became a groundbreaking play highlighting the secondary status of women. Varsha Deshpande, then a college student, was drawn to the theatre. She got involved in performing the play and taking it from one rural area to another.
“The drama’s foundation was feminist thought. It really makes us all contemplate why no one wants a girl child”, said Deshpande, who has since then been a proponent of feminist thought in letter, spirit and actions in her life, against all odds.
It started small. Once she graduated, Deshpande started a small library called ‘Pratishabda’, to bring together collections of literature written by women and about them. She spent her days writing to authors requesting complimentary copies.
It was a time in Deshpande’s life when friends were getting married, breaking up, and finding their calling, but they indefinitely felt hopeless about finding a man who would treat them as equals.
It was a time in Deshpande’s life when friends were getting married, breaking up, and finding their calling, but they indefinitely felt hopeless about finding a man who would treat them as equals. (Express Photo)
One day, Deshpande and her friends read an advertisement that astonished them. It was by a man looking for a bride who said he had no caste or religious criterion and would not demand dowry. “We all wrote a letter congratulating him on going against the tide,” recollected Deshpande.
As months flew by, Deshpande and that man, Sanjiv Bonde, became pen pals, which led to love, and the two decided to get married. “But he was born in another caste and my family was not supportive of my marrying anyone other than a Brahmin. My mom suggested that I elope. But I fought and stayed, emphasising that I was not doing anything wrong,” said Deshpande.
“It was the first inter-caste marriage in our family, but it broke all barriers, and after me, many have married into families that not only come from a different caste but religion and region as well,” Deshpande said proudly.
Having married Sanjiv, she found a partner who understood her thoughts and will to fight for change and readily supported it. She said, “People lose their independence after they get married, I gained mine.”
After marriage, Deshpande moved from her birthplace, Belgaum, to Satara. “It was a new place, I had to create an identity, figure out who I am. But it was also very exciting because I was relocating to a place where important leaders of social movements like Lakshman Mane, Dabholkar and others stayed,” she said.
To begin with, Deshpande started working as an English teacher in a local school and pursued law. She started talking to people and understanding issues related to women’s rights plaguing the place.
Deshpande then founded Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal (DMVM) in 1990 to address the issues of women deserted by their husbands. It conducted a survey to identify women whose families had deserted them in Satara city. After that, they met with the collector and demanded that such women be issued separate ration cards. They also provided livelihood skills.
Deshpande then founded Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal (DMVM) in 1990 to address the issues of women deserted by their husbands.(Express Photo)
The project was then expanded to the entire Satara district, and around 5,000 women who had been deserted by their husbands and families were identified and registered.
Decoy operations to stop female foeticide
The more Deshpande worked with these women, the more she realised that skewed sex ratio and property rights were the key areas where work was needed immediately.
“In 2001, the shocking sex ratio revealed by the census report made us realise the need for advocacy for the unborn child,” Deshpande said.
She and her team started conducting decoy operations to catch doctors revealing the sex of a fetus red-handed. To date, Deshpande has conducted more than 50 such decoy operations and has cases pending in various courts across Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Recollecting memories of her first decoy operation in Satara, Deshpande said, “We used a handycam. For such cases, there is a whole outer layer of the network through which one reaches a doctor; it is an organised community, like spahi or other workers. So, we found the doctor through a seven-month pregnant woman; everything was well-recorded, and it got published in the newspapers. Soon, the doctor gave it to us in writing that what he did was wrong,” said Deshpande.
The project was then expanded to the entire Satara district, and around 5,000 women who had been deserted by their husbands and families were identified and registered. (Express Photo)
However, work like this comes with numerous challenges, like lack of support from the government, lack of protection for social workers, and victims becoming hostile. In one of the cases, Deshpande says, the star witness got hostile, her husband was abducted, and then the family was offered a lump sum of money and houses, and the cases hit a dead end.
“Whenever we get leads, we ask authorities to get involved. But they don’t. There is no protection for social activists like us. Even when we get a crime on record and catch people red-handed, they are acquitted within some years. In India, everyone makes a hue and cry about arrests but not convictions”, said Deshpande.
Deshpande said the work had now become even more difficult as doctors have changed their modus operandi and now they issue a fake congenital anomaly report, after which abortion can be done easily.
Deshpande also started working on property rights under the Laksmi Mukti initiative for co-ownership of agricultural land. “A girl child being unwanted boils down to two things—dowry and property rights. Unless and until women own assets, things are not going to change; patriarchy is not going anywhere,” said Deshpande.
So far, 1,000 farmers have come forward to sign documents for co-ownership of agricultural land. “There has to be a transformation in the way assets are owned. That’s the only way democracy will find a place in our families.”
Deshpande started talking to people and understanding issues related to women’s rights plaguing the place. (Express Photo) 
It was a time in Deshpande’s life when friends were getting married, breaking up, and finding their calling, but they indefinitely felt hopeless about finding a man who would treat them as equals. (Express Photo)
Deshpande then founded Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal (DMVM) in 1990 to address the issues of women deserted by their husbands.(Express Photo)
The project was then expanded to the entire Satara district, and around 5,000 women who had been deserted by their husbands and families were identified and registered. (Express Photo)
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