CASE STUDY
Shanti is an 18 year old hoping to complete her schooling in April next year from a government school in southwest Delhi. She lost her mother, Santosh, the only breadwinner in the family, last year. Santosh was a masseur, known in her gali as a “maalishwali”, a widow who brought up her two sons and daughter on her meagre earnings. Santosh was married into a family that owned some land in Haryana. With the division of the land between brothers, the income was not enough to cover expenses, so her father moved to the city in search of a livelihood. Here, the city was seen as a lifesaver. He got a job as a contract long-distance truck driver and became a heavy drinker. Shanti and her brothers were brought up in an atmosphere of domestic violence, with her mother, Santosh, as the target. There were no networks to help out this family in distress. On the contrary, family ties with the village had weakened without any compensatory support in the city. In the city, they faced challenges of housing, water, and medicines. Shifting to the margins of the city due to housing concerns also meant a higher transport bill, as well as greater vulnerability to sexual harassment.
Santosh’s husband died of alcohol abuse. She died last year of a mysterious illness at 45. It was said that a neighbour in the unrecognised slum colony where they live had performed “tantric rites” against her. Shanti does not want to believe this, having learnt health science in school, but is silenced by her two brothers, both dropouts, both older, who warn her that she will meet the same fate if she displeases “society”. As a single woman, their mother faced social disapproval for travelling to distant places in pursuit of her work, often returning late at night. Shanti, too, has become the target of gossip. In the last year, she has developed a close relationship with a boy a little older than her, which has met with strong disapproval from her brothers. She has been beaten by her eldest brother because she defied him. They punished her by preventing her from going to school for two months. They want to marry her off to a person of their choice. He lives in a village in Haryana. Shanti has rebelled. She has moved out of the half-built structure her mother left for her children, and is now living with her 80-year-old grandmother. “How can I go back to the village,” she asks. “I am a city girl now.”
Shanti’s grandmother is your house help and Shanti’s story comes to your knowledge. You want to meet Shanti and understand her case.
(a) What are the various issues which are highlighted in the case study and why are they problematic?
(b) Why would you like to help? Suggest a few steps which can be taken to make Shanti’s life better.
(c) Is it right to ask whether Shanti the “city girl” is better off today than she would be if she had stayed on in her village?
