Description

Working together with other filmmakers, Ritu Bhardawaj, she finds out that also in other countries women and men are not equal in the society.

Transcript

Unequal Positions of Men and Women in Asia Host: Ritu doesn’t want her film to be just about the sex trade. But these stories are hard to ignore. And the very next morning, there's another a girl rescued from a red light doorstep. Rishi Kant: She is only 10 years old. She is from Sikkim and she was brought by a woman whom this child does not know. She was listening something that she will be sold for 25 lakh rupees. She ran away though a window. Suddenly, a beat constable saw this child who was crying. This child is so lucky, because she was rescued, just outside the brothel. If anyone had taken this child upstairs, we could never have saved this child. Host: Sad stories so far. But Ritu wants to show both victims and role models. So she’s here to tell the story of Sunita. There are 40,000 auto-rickshaw drivers in Delhi. Former child bride Sunita who’d fled a violent marriage was the first female auto-rickshaw driver. Sunita Chaudhary: My whole family is uneducated. I have been driving an Auto Rickshaw for five years and some of my family does not know this. Society asks many questions. They ask me ‘Why do you wear this work dress?’, ‘Why are you in a man’s role?’ and ‘You should behave like a traditional Indian woman.’ I don’t care for what society says, I let them say what they want. I am not the old Sunita, who wouldn’t dare leave the four walls of her house. When I wear my uniform and work, I feel very powerful. Host: Reverence for women in their right place goes back a long way in India. It’s the festival of Navratri. For nine days men and women celebrate the incarnations of a female goddess. Warrior, mother of the universe, TV reporter Ritu’s back in the office. She wants to widen her film out. She’s busy finding stories of women marginalized and exploited and more surprising statistics. Ritu’s been talking to fellow film-makers in South East Asia’s most populous country, largely Muslim Indonesia. They’ve been sending her their own stories. Ritu: Like there are three ladies who are sitting in a room or talking to each other and I don’t know what they’re talking about. Host: The most high profile a message from Ayu Utami. She’s the leading Indonesian novelist who shocked the country with the frankness of her language by mixing politics and gender issues and by making this personal declaration. Ayu Utami: I choose not to get married and I declare outwardly that I will never get married unless the marriage law is revised according to gender equality. Ritu: She’s, like, a very confident and like very brave girl and really like really nice in the society she’s a role model. Host: For some Indonesian women Ayu’s novel Saman was a new way of looking at gender shocking to some, an inspiration to others. Nursyahbani Katjasungkana: I think Saman really brought discussion about sex relations, marriage, the relations between men and women, and homosexual life, lesbian, everything there and that really encouraged people who have the same idea that marriage is not the only choice in life, like promoted by the government and the marriage law. Host: Ayu’s political message? Even when women do have a stake in the economy lack of political clout means they’re easily manipulated. And subject to all kinds of discrimination. Ayu Utami: Without the political power, without even access to decision- making, the women’s strength in economic life becomes vulnerable to being manipulated by others. That explains the discrimination and objectification of women that still exists in Indonesia. Host: The filming Ritu’s been sent from Indonesia shows how women can be ‘manipulated.’ Record numbers of South East Asian women are moving to cities. Most had worked on farms, but less than one in 10 had run one. For many women it’s empowering to be in the city, a career, an independent life. But there are shantytowns even in the heart of the urban dream. Nursyahbani Katjasungkana: There is a gap between people in the city and in the rural and the gap between the rich and the poor is so wide, and we have like 10 million people living under poverty line in Indonesia, and the government fails to provide job for them, and provide basic needs for them. Host: With jobs for uneducated women limited, many are lured into the ‘leisure’ industry. Dr. Suyono: There are people who go to the villages and hire these women, only to send them to karaoke bars in cities like right here in Jakarta. Host: But they don’t always end up in Jakarta. Some four million Indonesians work abroad. Most are women with no education beyond primary school. Ario Adityo: The majority, 80% of migrant workers from Indonesia are women. They come from villages, the provinces of Indonesia, from farming communities. That’s the profile of our migrant workers.