Sampat Pal Devi

Sampat Pal is an Indian social activist from the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, North India.[1] She is founder of the Gulabi Gang, an Uttar Pradesh-based social organisation, works for women welfare and empowerment.[2][3] She was participant of Colors TV's reality show Bigg Boss 6.

Background

Sampat Pal founded the Gulabi Gang to further the cause of women's rights.[4] It developed into an organised women’s movement with as many as 270,000 members spread over several districts in Uttar Pradesh. The women wear Gulabi (pink) saris and arm themselves with bamboo sticks, which they use whenever they come up against violent resistance.[5][6]

Pal described her early life in an autobiography written with the collaboration of the French journalist Anne Berthod[7]. According to a BBC report, Banda district is a “highly caste-ridden, feudalistic and male dominated society. Dowry demands and domestic and sexual violence are common.Locals say it is not surprising that a women's vigilante group has sprung up in this landscape of poverty, discrimination and chauvinism“.[8]

On 2 March 2014, Pal was relieved of her role at the head of the Gulabi Gang amid allegations of financial impropriety and putting her personal interests ahead of those of the group.[4]

On 31 August 2017, a theatre company called Rangapayana performed a play on Pal's life and work called "Gulabi Gang", directed by Rajguru Hoskote.

References

  1. ↑ Krishna, Geetanjali (5 June 2010). "The power of pink". Business Standard. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  2. ↑ "Sampat Pal: All you need to know about the Gulabi Gang leader". Hindustan Times. 2014-03-07.
  3. ↑ Fontanella-Khan, Amana (19 July 2010). "Wear a Pink Sari and Carry a Big Stick: The women's gangs of India". Slate magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Sampat Pal Ousted from Gulabi Gang". The Times of India. 4 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Prasad, Raekha (15 February 2008). "Banda sisters". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  6. ↑ "Sampat Pal: All you need to know about the Gulabi Gang leader". Hindustan Times. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-22.
  7. ↑ Berthod, Anne, Sampat Pal, Warrior in a Pink Sari: The Inside Story of the Gulabi Gang as Told to Anne Berthod, Zubaan, 2012
  8. ↑ Biswas, Soutik (26 November 2007). "India's "pink" vigilante women". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2018.

Further reading

  • Cochrane, Kira (2012). "Banda Sisters". Women of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism. Guardian Books. ISBN 978-0-85265-262-6.
  • Berthod, Anne (2012). Sampat Pal, Warrior in a Pink Sari: The Inside Story of the Gulabi Gang as Told to Anne Berthod. Zubaan. ISBN 978-81-89884-71-0.
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