Reka Devi Yadav

“Rekha Didi is careful, she is intelligent. In the village, everyone in the society respects her. Everyone looks up to Rekha Didi, everyone says she is a very supportive woman. She protects the village, she protects the Tol (community).”
– Chinta Devi Paswanneighbour

Rekha is a member of the local Judicial Committee of Brahmapuri Rural Municipality of Sarlahi district, one of the most deprived districts in Nepal. Gender-discriminatory norms such as child marriage, son preference, dowry and veil traditions are prevalent in the district. Rekha has been working as a women human rights defender for 10 years, and received training through UN Women’s project titled Enhancing Access to Justice for Women.

As a result of the learnings from training, she has supported the establishment of shelters in her community, and provided support to women during the COVID-19 pandemic through household visits and campaigning for gender-responsive justice.

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“Rekha Didi is careful, she is intelligent. In the village, everyone in the society respects her. Everyone looks up to Rekha Didi, everyone says she is a very supportive woman. She protects the village, she protects the Tol (community).”
– Chinta Devi Paswan (Neighbour)

“My husband works. I respect him as well. Till now, the two of us haven’t fought. He doesn’t do anything untowards to me, he doesn’t beat me, he hasn’t until now, we live well together.”

“I do not have greed for anything.”

“As long as I live, I will continue, I will help a lot as long as I can breathe. What is there to help I am ready to help them.”

“The men haven’t given us women any identity of our own. If there is money, it’s theirs. The guardians of the house are the men. Regardless of how the womenfolk gather fodder for the goats, cows, buffaloes or clean them, it is the men who receive the money from the cattle.
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No matter how far ahead women move, we are seen as inferior. The men do this to us.
The perspective of the men do us ill. They think if you are the daughter, you have to take care of the home; if you are the daughter-in-law, you have to take care of the home.
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I fell down when I covered my face with the ghughat (veil)
Make work the rule, not the ghughat.
We have to end the practice of ghughat.
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Whether it is a training or a seminar, the women’s association comes forward. The women work well with schools, in NGOs. We work in every sector. If there is violence against women, we file complaints against it. Courage has become strong in the women.
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I stay ready to help in whatever way I can. I am not afraid. I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t allow any wrongdoings, nor do I do them myself.”

“I work in service of others. I am working as a female volunteer. I took trainings. I go there, not for the money. But to learn something. I do this so the villagers can learn something. So the village learns and does things, that’s why I go!”

‘’Go for it, I can be a leader in my own village now!’’

Muna Bhadel

Rekha Devi Yadav: A journey to reflect on, 2021
Media: Mixed media; photo collage with pen, paint, scratches, and text (above)
Size: Variable
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*Hover over the images in the gallery above for quotes and captions
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Pranav Narayan Manandhar

& Subima Shrestha

स्वर | Voice , 2021
Media: Multimedia video in three parts (below)
Size: Variable

The four audio files below should be played individually while watching the video above.

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Ghumto pratha

Fighting Back The Pressures

Comment at Sahaj Pariyojana

Unconditional Determination

Ghumto pratha
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“Even for us, when we first arrived in the village, we had to cover our faces (Ghumto/Ghunghat/Ghog in Madhesh). And often when working with our faces covered, we would stumble and fall. It was sad that we could not even see the objects placed around us. For those reasons, we have been advising our daughters and daughters-in-laws to do their work efficiently but that it’s okay not to cover their faces. We have been saying that we have to end this tradition of covering the faces and so we had also started a rally titled ‘End Ghunghat Pratha (System)’ regarding this cause.”
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“Some of the slogans that we had displayed at the rally were ‘Educate daughters and save the country.’ ‘Do not discriminate among daughters and sons.’ We had written them on hard paper and my husband had helped cut bamboo to hold the boards. I had also written as slogans, ‘End Ghunghat Pratha (System).’ ‘End Dauri Pratha (System).’ ‘Sons and daughters are equal.’ ‘Educate the daughters and save the country’.”

Fighting back the pressures
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“The political leaders from our village would come to our home and try to put pressure on me. They would ask me why we are investing money and say that their own affairs would shut down if we were to continue. We’ve actually reduced the interest rates quite a bit. We’ve really supported the poor folks financially. The women from the group have taken anywhere from 50,000, one up to 700,000 rupees. When the influential people would come to our house, I would ask them why we shouldn’t be doing these works. I haven’t stolen from anyone’s house.”

Rekha Devi Yadav’s comment at Sahaj Pariyojana (Community Meeting)
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“One day in our village, when we called the police, they listened, said they would come and never showed up. We had a meeting between the community members and the police. They asked us how things were. I reached there a bit late. I told them that the police don’t help me. The police were surprised and asked when they had not helped. I said I would elaborate. If when our women are getting beaten by men, the police don’t help us, why would I say that the police have helped me. I am not getting hit but our women are. They had said why is Rekha Devi saying these things when they have not caused me any trouble or harm. I am capable enough to fight at the district level. Our women aren’t as capable and they are having violence inflicted upon them.”

Unconditional determination to serve the community
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“Sir, I just want to say that I am an impartial person. I don’t care about anyone’s left or right, if anyone is happy or sad. Voting and election is one part but I am also a social person and as long as I live, I will do this. As long as I walk and breathe, I will keep helping. It does not matter if there’s any newspapers around or not, if it gets printed anywhere or not, if my name gets recognized or not, I have no interest in that. I just want that my village and my society are being served.”

Daughter by Subima Shrestha

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REKhA DEVI
YADAV