The Women of India

Over the last week or so one thing that has really struck me is just how hard the women of India really work. As I currently lie by the pool in the sun recovering from a serious bout of food poisoning, thanks to a salad from one of the cleanest restaurants in Goa, a woman has been meticulously sweeping all around the premises using a bundle of twigs for hours wearing a beautifully ornate and pristine red and gold sari. Ironically 4 men are staffing the bar which as usual is empty so they stand or sit, talk and do very little. Behind the front desk another man sits in the cool aircon answering the phone which on the rare occasion has been known to ring.

When I left to get fruit juice and plain crackers for our recovery diet there she was out the front bent over sweeping the driveway. Her bundle of twigs is so short that she is literally bent in two and there is no doubt in my mind that her back will ache severely later as it has been some 4 hours and still she sweeps. This hotel isn't even that big. Why is this a woman's job?

Other women I've come across in Goa are either fortunate enough to sit out front of a beach side shack selling clothing, towels and sarongs. They really do have quite marvellous sales patter however I am one of those people that runs a mile that moment someone wishes me to enter their shop "looking is free". Looking may be free but the pressure of them following your every step, trying to engage you in a conversation that ultimately leads to the 3 children they have at home and, if I like it "why don't I want to buy it?" is a little more than I can bare. If I bought everything I liked I would have wound up in debtors prison with Pip Pirrip a long time ago. These women are there around 8am and well past sunset trying to make what money they can. I even heard the line "I'm cheaper than Primark" on the beach one day. You really can't fault them for knowing their market.

While reclining on the beach more sari clad women will move between the sun beds to sell you jewellery, sarongs, beach blankets, manicures, massages and fruit. One woman was trying to persuade my husband he was in need of a pedicure. I happen to agree with her, but saying his feet looked like those of a monkey possibly wasn't her best sales pitch of the day. We happened to hear these women along the beach speak at least 3 languages with ease; Hindi, English and I believe Polish. There is a large number of the European community here in Goa. It would appear the Costa Del Sol has been replaced by the cheap exchange rate, the glorious sunshine and the fact that for a mere 500 rupees you can easily feed 2 people well and have a cocktail. It is a little sad for some of us for whom the Costa Del Sol is our idea of hell on earth and Goa may yet lose it's rustic charm and unspoilt beauty.

From what I have seen I firmly believe that the women of India work just as hard as the men if not, in my personal opinion, harder. Women walk at least 30 minutes in blistering heat and relentless sun with baskets atop their heads laden with coconuts, pineapples, mangoes, papayas and all other sorts of fruit. Once arriving at their beach of choice they then spend the day wandering up and down the sand selling their wares for around 50 rupees a piece cut and ready to eat. It really is amazing what they can carry. Women are also employed to carry crates of cola and beer bottles both full and empty to beach side shacks that cannot be reached by road. They don't even carry just one crate at a time. They carry two.

North Indian women can also be seen in Goa on the road side in the dirt, digging, shovelling and carry heavy loads of rubble atop their heads to widen the road. The work is all done with primitive tools and very few men are seen in their midsts. There are no road work signs, barriers to keeps them safe, hi-vi's or other safety measures surrounding them. There is no shaded area to rest and escape the heat. Are these women the untouchables I have read about? Perhaps they are.

From the top of a tomb in New Delhi my husband and I saw a woman with her husband digging a ditch by the road and without doubt she was doing the majority of the work. She was clad in a black sari covering her head which was not too dissimilar to a Burka. Again their tools were quite ancient and what they were aiming to achieve I don't know.

All of these women mentioned are in stark contrast to the high powered women that I have seen in the fancy boutiques at Khan Market or even at the airport in their western clothes with designer handbags and stilettos on their feet. How did the women of India grow so far apart? Is it a man's world?