The Hans India: Lucknow: Sunday,
September 04, 2016.
Kehkashan Beg
has emerged from being a lower middle class Muslim woman to become a strong
leader. Several others like her are empowered thanks to the efforts of an NGO,
Sanatkada.
The camera
has literally given new vision and purpose to several girls living in lower
income neighbourhoods of Lucknow, the state capital of India’s most populous
state, Uttar Pradesh. For when Kehkashan Beg, 37, first got the opportunity to
look through one she saw a whole new world in which life did not start and
end within the boundaries of one’s small home.
Till a decade
ago Beg was just another purdah clad woman who had never stepped out of her
crowded neighbourhood populated mostly with lower middle-class Muslim families.
In her twenties then it had never even occurred to her that she had the right
to envision a life, future that was different from the other women in her
family, including her own mother.
Beg had “to
teach myself to dream” and she learnt to do so when a chance encounter
connected her to Sanatkada, a local non-government organisation that empowers
Dalit and Muslim women through education and vocational training, which are
funded from the proceeds of the handicraft and handloom store it runs in the
city.
Madhavi
Kuckreja set up Sanatkada in 2006, having spent 14 years in rural Chitrakoot
and Banda districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh where she had engaged with Dalit
and Muslim women combating violence not just at home but also at the hands of
the local caste elites and state functionaries like the police.
Once back in
Lucknow she observed that there was an acute need for positive, strong female
role models for the city’s Muslim women so together with the Delhi-based
Nirantar, which works on issues of gender and education, a module on leadership
training was specially designed and implemented for them.
This was a
first attempt towards creating opportunities for Muslim women from economically
depressed homes. The training included sessions on gender and identity and
field trips to grassroots organisations working on women’s issues. From those
initial days, their learning curve has widened considerably while most girls
are proficient in using the computer several have also shown their talent as
videographers and photographers.
Saira Khan,
who along with Beg was part of the first group of 25 students at Sanatkada, may
have only studied in school till Class V but she managed to pick up the basic
concepts of computer operations in a matter of weeks. In fact, like Beg and
Khan, scores of young women have benefited from these focused workshops that
have been held annually in batches of 25 each since the last six years.
Going to
Sanatkada gave Beg her first glimpse and feel of the outside world. Indeed,
whether it was making her way to Qaiser Bagh, at the other end of the city, or
participating in the discussions when she got there, the youngster enjoyed both
experiences thoroughly. After all, never before had she had the freedom to be
on her own or indulge in a heart to heart with people from a different
religious and cultural background than her own.
Today, she
recalls sheepishly how ignorant she used to be about concepts like identity,
rights, politics, and gender norms “I remember how, without thought, I used
to giggle condescendingly at transgender people”. However, her association with
Sanatkada has changed all that. Beg lost her father early and her mother has
been her support system ever since.
Displaying
rare gumption the older woman, who has not been formally educated, ensured that
her daughter didn’t just complete schooling but went to the university as well.
And last year when she expressed a desire to travel all the way to Delhi to do
an English language training course she didn’t stop her.
It was the
four-month videography training that turned out to be just what Beg needed to
come into her own, to find her calling. She came into close contact with the
colourful world of filmmaking as she extensively learnt the nitty-gritties of
the craft. “When I first held the camera, that feeling is something I simply
can’t describe in words. Let’s me put it this way, this is what I want to do
till my dying day,” she says passionately.
During the
course of her training, as she became familiar with technicalities related to
lighting, sound and editing on Windows Movie Maker, she realised that few were
telling the stories of women and communities living at the margins of society.
Therefore, she made up her mind to make them her first subjects - portraits of
different women who animatedly talk about their life on camera are some of her
initial short films.
Together with
Khan and Aisha Khatoon, Beg, who does videography at weddings and other social
and cultural events in the city to make a modest living, runs the film unit of
Sanatkada which was started in 2012. With assistance from volunteers, who lend
a helping hand with filming, editing and sound recording, the trio has so far
made 45 shorts on a variety of social issues. While they are proud of all their
works, the three that won awards at the Nashik Film Festival in 2014 are
particularly close to their heart.
Off late, the
women are busy with the screenings of a 20-minute documentary they have done on
the Right to Information (RTI) Act and its benefits to women. Nagma Parveen,
22, a shop assistant at Sanatkada, was most flattered when the film unit asked
her to be part of the RTI film as a lead. As Nagma participated in the
filmmaking process she also became more aware of her fundamental rights. Of
course, unlike Beg and Khan who love being behind the camera, Nagma, a
graduate, has her heart set on becoming a professional counsellor, for which
she has already applied for an online Masters course in psychology.
As for Beg,
although she is preparing for future projects – they currently have an offer to
make 12 shorts on various artisans of Uttar Pradesh, besides films planned
around citizen rights and their access to social welfare schemes – she
fervently dreams of the day she would get an opportunity to capture her
favourite Hindi film hero Salman Khan on camera. “Everyone loves Salman Khan,
the super star. I am more curious to know what Salman, the human being is like.
I want to make a documentary film on my favourite actor,” she says, with a
smile.
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