Women’s Empowerment through Social Theatre: A Case Study

Social Development and Social Theatre

Efforts to ‘develop’ third world countries till the 1970s were based on the premise that emulating the modernization and industrialization of the west is the true path to development. This modernization theory eventually faced a crisis of uneven development, pressures on natural environments, ethnic violence and conflict and increasing political repression (Banuri 1990). During the 1970s and thereafter, the definition of progress started changing and accommodating concepts of equitable growth, meeting basic subsistence needs, education, health care and livelihoods and protection of physical and cultural environments. These alternative development concepts considered the participation of people crucial in shaping developmental goals based on feedback of the beneficiaries, and achieving them using local skills and resources to strengthen developmental initiatives, make them self-sustained and integrate new ideas with traditional ones (Melkote & Steeves 2001; Prasad 2009; Wang & Dissanayake 1984). The more recent concept of post-development (Escobar 1992; Pieterse 1998) entirely rejects the idea of a universal development agenda as elite and externally imposed and something to be resisted, and instead posits that change can only happen through endogenous discourses that shape the realities of a people and empower them, so that change becomes a people’s movement and agenda rather than a state’s charter.

In parallel with these new concepts of development, new participatory development communication approaches emerged to facilitate ‘people’s involvement in decision-making about issues impacting their lives by addressing specific needs and priorities relevant to people and empowering communities towards development’ (Prasad 2009, p. 77). Empowerment is a crucial aspect of participatory communication. As Melkote and Steeves (2001) explain, empowerment is more than just information dissemination, and requires giving marginalized individuals and groups the capacity to organize and undertake social actions for their own development.

Participatory development communication strategies focused on using interactive, culture-based, traditional means of communication such as street theatre, folk songs and group activities (Prasad 2009). Such cultural media started playing a significant role in participatory development communication approaches because of their obvious advantages over mass media in traditional societies; they are familiar, non-threatening and achieve greater clarity in communication. They are also less hierarchical as people can acquire the skills to use and understand them more easily and in the course of their daily lives. One kind of participatory communication is social theatre, where the issue of social development is explicitly given more importance than theatrical aesthetics (Schininà 2004; Thompson & Schechner 2004). The transition from performance theatre to theatre for social change began in the 1950s, when theatre started being used for social therapy, political interventions and reiteration of societal rules. This transitional theatre found expression through the works of Julian Beck and Judith Malina, Richard Schechner’s Performance Group, Luiz Valdez’s Teatro Campesino, Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook and Eugenio Barba in Europe, Augusto Boal and Vianna Filho in Brazil, and many more groups in South America. The evolution of theatre led to the emergence of social theatre in the 1960s, which may be defined as ‘theatre with specific social agendas’. In the 1970s, new concepts developed such as ‘workshop theatre’ and theatre as a strong means of communication for mobilizing social and political participation.

The form of social theatre dealt with in this study is philosophically and structurally linked to the work of Augusto Boal and Paulo Freire in particular. Paolo Freire was a Brazilian educationist who is known for his emphasis on ‘dialogue’ in popular and informal education (Freire 1970). Boal was a Brazilian theatre director who was influenced by Freire, and developed the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ ¹ (Boal 2000) during the 1970s. They pioneered new forms of participatory and interactive community education techniques designed to bring about social change and community empowerment. The type of social theatre practiced by Jana Sanskriti is Forum Theatre, which is a form of Boal’s ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’.

West Bengal, where this research has been undertaken, is a state situated in the eastern part of India and is the country’s fourth most populous state with over 91 million inhabitants (Census 2011), mostly rural. The state is culturally and politically very active, and has a centuries-old tradition of theatre. Although it is often identified with the urban theatre popular in Calcutta under the patronage of the wealthy intelligentsia, rural theatre forms have existed in Bengal for much longer, including indigenous forms like ‘Jatra’, ‘Tamasha’, ‘Nautanki’, ‘Bhawai’, ‘Ramlila’, etc., which have contributed to popular education and social awareness through entertainment. The element of actor–spectator interaction is a common feature in these traditional forms. Thus, West Bengal is an ideal setting for the use of social theatre.

Women’s Empowerment in India

The goal of this study is to examine the role of social theatre in empowering marginalized rural women of selected areas of West Bengal, for which it is important to understand the different dimensions and aspects of women’s empowerment, as well as the current conditions of women in West Bengal. Kabeer (2001 p. 19) defines women’s empowerment succinctly as ‘the expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them’. The process itself involves three components: the ‘agency’ of the women themselves who become proactive actors in the process of change rather than passive recipient; ‘resources’ that should facilitate work of the agency and enable the process; and ‘achievements’ that are the outcomes of empowerment. Of these, agency is considered the essential component of the process because to attain the outcomes, it is imperative for the disempowered women to recognize their subordination, identify and utilize the available resources for their own benefit leading to freedom from the subordination. This is because gender inequality has been naturalized by the patriarchal structure of their society and even women themselves accept their subordination as given. This is evident in data available on the current situation of women in India. According to the 2005–2006 National Family Health Survey (Kishor & Gupta 2009), more women than men in West Bengal (42 versus 39 per cent) feel that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife if she shows disrespect for her in-laws, does not cook properly, neglects children, argues with him, etc. Not surprisingly, gender inequality is persistent in every aspect examined (e.g., son preference, lack of education, early marriage, access to resources) and women are disempowered both absolutely and relative to men.

Indicators that capture women’s access to other resources, including financial, health and media resources, and women’s access to spaces outside their homes are very important measures of women’s empowerment. Women have, on average, lower per capita resource access than men. Women have lower access to media than men in every age group. Women’s freedom of movement is severely curtailed: only one in three women in West Bengal is allowed to go alone to the market, the health centre and outside the community. A majority of women do not have any money of their own that they can use as they wish. Less than 15 per cent of women have a bank or savings account that they themselves use.

Social Theatre as Practiced by Jana Sanskriti

To understand the effect of Jana Sanskriti’s theatre on the women who engage with it, it is helpful to first become familiar with their motivations and practices.

Jana Sanskriti practices a form of social theatre called Forum Theatre (Ganguly 2010a, 2010b). The members of their Forum Theatre teams are always drawn from the target rural marginalized communities, the rationale being that they can become advocates of social change and betterment within their own communities, thus strengthening the factors of trust and acceptance, which is essential for mobilizing community participation and community-led action. Forum Theatre is performed in a non-proscenium setting, such as a village square, and presents a scene or a play that must necessarily show a situation of oppression that the Protagonist does not know how to fight against. For example, a popular play called Sonar Meye (Girl of Gold) is about an adolescent girl in a poor family who wants to study but is not supported by her family in her efforts. Instead, her father who is an alcoholic wants to get her married off, and is concerned about where he will obtain the money for dowry. The play eventually reaches a dramatic climax where the oppressed character confronts the oppressor(s); for example, when the potential in-laws of the girl try to inspect her to see if she is fit for marriage and the girl refuses to cooperate. At this point, the play is stopped without resolving the problem, and audience members are invited to replace the oppressed character and act out possible solutions, ideas and strategies. The other actors improvise the reactions of their characters facing each new intervention, so as to allow a sincere analysis of the real possibilities of using those suggestions in real life. The idea is that people from the audience can voluntarily come up and join the play to argue their point or express their thoughts. This section of the play is called the Forum. The debates are coordinated and managed by an experienced actor from the theatre group who is called the ‘joker’ following Boal’s terminology. Members from the audience who come up on stage to debate and argue their points of view and suggest solutions transform from passive spectators to engaged and active ‘spect-actors’. Different members of the audience may participate and present their own arguments and analysis of the problem, and various possible solutions may be enacted in the course of a single Forum by different spect-actors who present their own analysis, opinions, logic and counter-logic of the oppression resulting in collective knowledge about the oppressed situation in real life. In this way, a collective and dynamic understanding and perception of the problem develops. The objective of Forum Theatre is not to create negative conflict or ‘win over’ somebody, but is to generate an environment of collective learning, feeling and rationalizing the situation or problem. This process unifies people, actors and spectators to come together to think about and suggest possibilities and strategies for liberation from that oppression in real life in a collective way. The theatre show itself does not provide any solution to the social problem. It helps the participants to intellectually evolve and become social critics of their own reality. Jana Sanskriti thus adheres to a post-development philosophy in its theatre, and is careful not to impose any external agendas.

Since resolutions to long-standing and complex social issues cannot happen in a day, the same play is performed for the same audience multiple times furthering the discussions and the debates. Over time, the audience gets multiple opportunities to continue with their debates and discussions, and even when the play remains the same, the Forum becomes more interesting and engaging because the spectators who are already informed and aware to some extent generate new thoughts and discussions. Hence new thoughts emerge, and the participants, both the actors and the spectators, evolve intellectually. Through collective thinking and reflections, the spectators start exploring solutions in their off-stage lives. Over a period of time an environment is created which enables collective action outside theatre by the spect-actors. Passivity is thus overcome, the culture of silence and acceptance of the oppression is broken and the spect-actors turn into ‘spect-activists’ (a term coined by Jana Sanskriti) and take collective action against the oppression.

After the play, Jana Sanskriti coordinators record the names and contact information of those who participate in the forum or seem otherwise engaged with the issues, and invite them later to follow-up discussions and encourage them to become members of the Human Rights Protection Committee, a network of active community members facilitating and supporting local action for social change. Some of the community members watching the shows are sufficiently inspired by Jana Sanskriti’s plays to want to participate in the theatre performances themselves. Jana Sanskriti trains these aspiring actors and actresses, and eventually absorbs them in existing theatre teams or creates new teams, thus expanding their network of community theatre groups. Thus, the process comes full-circle and the movement continues. It is this second group that is of interest to us in this article.

Training community members for Forum Theatre through a residential workshop is an important aspect of Jana Sanskriti’s work. The training process is rigorous and targets the internal development of would-be performers through a method of introspection and knowledge enhancement, as well as the development of a theatre production.

The entire process of training is essentially participatory. The participants are asked to identify the social issues or oppressions which they would want to address in their area. Jana Sanskriti theatre specialists facilitate this process through discussions and interactions among the group members. The participants are oriented on the structure, purpose and principles of Forum Theatre and how it can fight inequality and exploitation experienced by the participants in their lives. These discussions are intended to make the participants conscious not only of the problems but also the role they can play in the process of their own liberation. Once the social issues or problems are identified, a theatre workshop starts which includes activities to break the shyness and inhibitions of the participants, generate confidence, build communication and presentation skills, and finally develop theatrical skills of image making and script development to develop the production. This exercise helps to develop the imagination, creativity and analytical skills of the participants. Thereafter, participants are asked to develop a story, a script and a theatre production collectively. Forum Theatre is not developed on the basis of a pre-written script but the script is developed while developing the play through impromptu dialogue. Under the guidance of Jana Sanskriti theatre specialists, the process essentially makes the participants develop their own play with self-developed images and dialogues. Jana Sanskriti describes this process as ‘scripting plays’ instead of ‘playing the script’. This process entails critical understanding of the society and the nature of the oppression as well as analysis of the oppressed and the oppressor characters from different perspectives. Thus, even before the play is taken to the field, the process of developing it makes the community actors social critics of their own reality. The complete production is continuously revised and refined through participatory discussions, even after performing the play in front of audiences.

Considering the strong presence of patriarchy in the village societies of India, it is natural that women’s oppression is a recurrent theme in the problems identified by the participants. Over the last two decades Jana Sanskriti has worked on various issues including violence against women, girl child marriage and child trafficking—issues that are deep-rooted and continue to be relevant.

Research Design and Methodology

A case study approach is ideally suited to examine women’s empowerment, which is a qualitative and subjective process best captured through women’s own narratives of their life stories and their self-analysis of changes in their lives (Malhotra & Schuler 2005; Malhotra, Schuler & Boender 2002). As part of a larger study on how social theatre is applied in West Bengal, selected rural women who engaged with social theatre were interviewed in order to understand whether social theatre has empowered rural marginalized women communities to organize and negotiate for their rights and if so, how. This article deals with only a part of this study. In our analysis, we critically examine the narratives of women engaging in Forum Theatre of Jana Sanskriti in the context of the three components of the process of women’s empowerment, namely, ‘agency’, ‘resource’ and ‘achievement’. At the same time, our analysis focuses on marginalized rural women in patriarchal societies, a context which is well studied and in which various concrete indicators of empowerment are available (Malhotra et al. 2002). These indicators have also been used to analyze empowerment in a more objective manner.

The women respondents were identified in consultation with Jana Sanskriti based on a few criteria, such as their direct engagement with social theatre, the language they spoke, their level of articulation, their availability and willingness to participate in the interviews and discussions. The areas covered in this study are the villages of Kulpi and Basar Uttarpara in the district of South 24 Parganas, where approximately 85 per cent of the population is rural.

The various research methods used were semi-structured face-to-face interviews, group discussions, and participant observation for collecting primary data, and reports, documents, audio–visuals, etc. for secondary data. An audio recorder was used during interviews upon informed consent from the participants. The interviews and group discussions focused on the collective and lived experiences of the women respondents, their attitudes regarding social theatre, and their perspectives on the processes of training, field work, community interaction and activism, and the effectiveness of social theatre in their lives.

The steps in data analysis included transcribing interviews in Bengali, translating them into English, arranging data depending on the sources of information, organizing field notes and secondary data, coding and thematic categorization of the data according to common patterns and qualitative description. The analysis dealt with the who, what and where of the social phenomenon studied.

Data were collected through a method of triangulation to ensure the validity of the research.

Profiles of the Respondents

A total of seven women engaged with Jana Sanskriti’s social theatre were interviewed. Anita (pseudonym), a resident of Shyamnagar village of Kulpi, is a young community theatre actor around 25 years of age. She is a member of the Shyamnagar Jana Sanskriti Branch performing Forum Theatre for 10 years. Six members of an all-women team, Jana Sanskriti Mahila Samity, from Basar Uttarpara village were interviewed as a group. This group is one of nine women-only groups of Jana Sanskriti. Lata (pseudonym), the leader of the group, aged 40 years, explained most of the team’s work. She is educated till class X, is extremely articulate and presented herself confidently. She was excited to speak about their work and one could sense her leadership quality even during the group discussion as she guided the discussions and encouraged her team members to share their experiences. They explained the oppressions in their lives, motivations behind joining Jana Sanskriti’s theatre team and their experience of Forum Theatre. Many of the other team members had education only till Class V and some were illiterate. Lata has been practicing Forum Theatre for more than 10 years. Some of the other team members were also long-time practitioners, whereas some others were more recent entrants. Their husbands are mostly daily labourers working under MGNREGA, and they work as maids or daily labourers. They do not have regular work all through the year and their families run on debt. The women also have household work and take care of their children. The women said that they try to utilize the little remaining time they have for themselves by engaging with their theatre group.

Motivation to Join Social Theatre

Many of the interviewees were motivated to join social theatre because they had had personal experience of exploitation in their lives, or had seen exploitation around them. In social theatre, they found a tool to fight the vices of society. Social theatre also served as a catharsis for some, who found in it an outlet for their own emotions. Others joined because they found theatre as a creative engagement, and saw in it a way to establish an independent identity and develop a sense of achievement. The development of a theatre group is a multilayered and dynamic process, with multiple motivating factors.

Anita had been interested in theatre from her childhood and was introduced to Theatre of the Oppressed when she watched the Basar team performing a theatre show ‘Sonar Meye’ in their village. The show had moved her very much, because she could identify with all the problems that were shown in that play—problems of her own life and the exploitations that her own sister had faced. She said, ‘I felt they were talking about me. In the play they were saying all that I have wanted to say and express. They were speaking for me.’ She had felt completely involved and a very strong urge to go and stand amidst the performers and say what she had in mind. She wanted to beat the exploiter in the play. She had no idea about what a forum is and had never experienced anything like it before. When the Forum started, she found that the actors were calling out to the audience for their participation. She went and joined the Forum and felt that she had found a space to talk and express her mind. She said all that she had wanted to say while role playing in the Forum. Following this experience, she got involved with Jana Sanskriti.

The women of Basar Uttarpara Mahila Samity, who now perform Theatre of the Oppressed, got introduced to social theatre through Jana Sanskriti’s Forum Theatre performances that they had watched in their village. Many of the respondents said that they had been so deeply moved when they first saw Jana Sanskriti’s theatre that they had immediately felt a strong urge to join. Women who initially got trained in Forum Theatre mobilized other village women to join and eventually a women-only team has been formed in Basar Uttarpara. The actors perceive Theatre of the Oppressed as a reflection of their lives and a way to escape their drudgery.

Training and Production Development

Lata described the Jana Sanskriti training process in detail. During the initial days of her training, she was uncomfortable with the fact that men and women who did not know each other well had to stay in one house and work together. The discomfort subsided as she realized that all of those present there were working together as a team. Initially she also felt shy and uneasy about the idea of acting in a street theatre, which is performed right in the middle of the audience. During the training, they had to tell their own story, identify the social problems that they felt was important, had to carry out image-making exercises on what they wanted to depict through the play, and develop dialogues of their own, albeit with the help of Jana Sanskriti trainers. The dialogues had to be in their own words and there was no one to tell her what to say. They also had to think and discuss a lot within their team to script their play. This seemed a difficult process because creative thinking, analyzing a problem and articulating her thoughts through meaningful images and words were not things she had done before. The process necessitated identification and analysis of her own oppressions in the context of larger social issues which helped her to think, rationalize and organize her thoughts and meaningfully present them in a creative way leading to an immense capacity development.

Overcoming Social Barriers

The village women encountered social barriers from within their neighbours and families when they decided to get involved in social theatre.

When Anita had shown interest in participating in Jana Sanskriti’s plays, and wanted to join one of their theatre groups, her parents and neighbours did not support her, and stigmatized her as a ‘bad woman’ (noshto meye) whom no one will marry. She had to tolerate a lot of bad-mouthing and insults when she went out to perform theatre shows in public. But she was adamant about pursuing this theatre, and did not care about what others were saying and remained steadfast in her decision to join Jana Sanskriti, as she found a new life in it. She said that ‘they could not hold me back’. She eventually met and married a fellow Jana Sanskriti activist. It has been 10 years since she joined Jana Sanskriti and continues to perform with them. She is more confident and independent now, and the attitude of the villagers towards her has also become more positive.

Most of the women of the Mahila Samity group had faced some hindrance from their families in the beginning. Many in their village, both men and women, stigmatized them because they went out of their houses and mixed with outsiders. Those in the group could face and overcome that hindrance, but several other women in the village had not been able to do so, and had to stay home after having gone through Jana Sanskriti’s training. In most cases, their mother-in-law and husband did not let them go out, saying that they were meant to do household jobs and restricted their access to the outside world. All the team members agreed that they are able to continue their regular involvement with Jana Sanskriti’s work because they get support and encouragement from their husbands. But for many of them, this support has not been easy to obtain, and has required continuous pressure and advocacy on their side over a considerable period of time. For example, one of the respondents, when she could not tolerate the abuse from her husband any more, had threatened him saying that she will go out and manage on her own and will take care of her own life herself. Her outspokenness made her husband angrier who attributed her courage to argue with him to her association with social theatre. She agreed that it was indeed her theatre activities that had given her the confidence and courage to speak for herself and express clearly what she feels and thinks. Eventually, she convinced her husband to come with her to watch her theatre show. After watching the show, he realized that she was not doing anything ‘bad’. He also confessed that earlier he had been instigated against her by his parents and other villagers.

From Theatre Performers to Activists

These women have organized themselves to undertake collective action and lead social activism at the grass-root level. Such community driven activities have naturally taken the shape of theatre campaigns and shows to generate awareness and activate the minds of the rural communities on various forms of oppression and social problems. In addition to such shows, the sensitized and active community groups have organized themselves to take collective action against social oppression.

The Basar Uttarpara theatre group has evolved into a women’s activist group of sorts. They regularly perform about 10–12 shows per month in their own and surrounding villages. They are an organized social group who meet to discuss social issues or problems to address, analyze the issues, develop productions and actually carry out social activism through Forum Theatre. They also fight for the legal, social and political rights of the villagers and raise their voice against oppressions. For example, alcohol addiction among men is an issue because it drains family income and aggravates domestic violence and wife beating. Being directly affected by this issue, they campaign against alcohol addiction and illegal liquor brewers and shop owners regularly and energize other women viewers through the Forum to strengthen their position to fight against the problem. The organized women’s groups have broken local liquor shops and breweries in their villages, and their actions have created fear among the local liquor shop operators. The women’s group has also created pressure on the local administration and has ‘gheraoed’ (surrounded) Panchayat offices to pressurize them to take action against illegal liquor. The group has also acted against corruption in the ration distribution systems and many other local issues.

Changing Attitudes and Audience Reactions

According to the Mahila Samity members, the mentality of the villagers who have been watching their theatre shows has changed over time, and their attitude towards women has become more positive. To explain this point, they pointed out that unlike in earlier times, when the Forum takes place during their shows now, both men and women from the audience come up to the Forum to say that women have equal rights and to argue that women are equally capable, for example, by giving examples of women holding high posts. The fact that a public discourse on the rights of women can be successfully carried out with participation of both men and women on a single platform shows a positive impact of their theatre. The respondents felt that through their continuous theatre based activism they have been able to ensure more freedom for themselves now. They enjoy much more independence and can decide about their own activities by themselves.

When they visit other villages, the local women take a lot of interest in their performances. They want to know how the Jana Sanskriti women performers manage to perform such theatre alongside their household responsibilities and how they could convince their own family members to allow them to participate in theatre performances. They watch Jana Sanskriti shows with a lot of interest, appreciate the courage and confidence of these women, and hope that they could transform their own lives in a similar way. They request them to visit and perform again in their villages.

Self-development and Skill Development

The women respondents stated that they have undergone immense transformations in their lives internally in terms of self-development and skill enhancement.

As a young girl, Anita was shy and lacked confidence and courage to stand up for her rights. She saw her own sister’s exploitation by her in-laws which she silently accepted even though she felt anger inside her. Today she feels that if she could have spoken at that time the way she can do today, she would have protested the exploitation that her sister had faced. Her engagement with social theatre gradually made her realize that she has the capacity to do something important and meaningful with her life, and to address the issues that are important to her. Now, with her experience in public speaking, social theatre, and independent thinking, she feels confident and more capable. She has better knowledge and more information about how to deal with social problems and is able to judge what is right and wrong. Through social theatre she can now voice out about the vices of society and has the courage to protest against exploitation of women.

The Basar Uttarpara Mahila Samity members said that they enjoy more freedom in their lives and have been able to overcome the hindrances they faced from their family members about performing theatre because they have gained confidence to speak out for what they want. They now have a sense of their own identity and no longer fear abuse from other people. One of the group members said that earlier she did not have any communication skill and could not communicate properly; that she is able to speak in the interview and explain her work in an articulate manner was only because of her engagement with Jana Sanskriti’s work. The other team members expressed similar sentiments. Through social theatre they have acquired the skill to speak clearly and articulately; they can now express and explain what they feel and think; they are able to interact freely even with new people they meet. In their own words

Earlier we could not talk properly. Now we can speak clearly and also stand up for what is right. We have learned how to fight back after joining Jana Sanskriti’s theatre. We also have more knowledge about Panchayat’s work, corruption, our own entitlements, village development work and are ready to take collective action for improving our own living conditions.

In spite of this increased independence and freedom, some of them continue to face exploitation in their families. What is different is that unlike earlier times, they do not silently accept their situation any more, but revolt by being more vocal about their rights. Now they are capable of countering abusive and insulting words with their own arguments. They said that ‘our minds have also matured and our understanding is clear (egiye gachhe mon). Others cannot fool us anymore’.

The women’s team also expressed why their own development and a space of their own is so important to them: it is only when they come out of their houses for a few hours to do Jana Sanskriti’s work that they forget all their pains and sufferings. They enjoy the time they spend to develop theatre productions, rehearse, discuss and actually perform the shows because that is when they are doing something of their own. It gives them an identity and intellectual stimulation that make their lives more meaningful. This is when they find peace and happiness and feel completely free from their stereotypical subservient role of a woman. This makes them feel empowered and is important for their self-development and a positive way of life.

Resource

The rural women respondents suffered gender inequality and subjugation in a patriarchal society reflected in various forms of domestic violence against women, child marriage and dowry, lack of freedom to express oneself, limited access to social spaces and lack of decision-making power in the family or society. Through years of such domination, their roles have been naturalized to the extent that they believed and accepted their subordination as inevitable, resulting in low self-esteem and a sense of incapability and unworthiness. They were completely unaware of their rights and did not have any means to fight against the oppression.

When Forum Theatre was first introduced to these women, they felt a keenness to participate because they could directly identify with the issues and problems being depicted. Another factor that motivated the women to take part was the performance itself which they thought could be a creative expression of their inner feelings. West Bengal being a culturally vibrant state with many different local theatre forms, the rural people are aware of theatre, which is in fact one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the villages. Thus, when the women were specifically targeted by Jana Sanskriti through Forum Theatre shows, they considered the idea positively. In an environment where they have never been in the focus or have never been listened to, there was an opportunity for them to create a space of their own through such performances.

Though initially the women were denied their basic human right of freedom of expression and were stopped from going out to participate in social theatre, it could successfully flare up their minds to the extent that they succeeded in their desire of availing the opportunity of joining the theatre groups. This independent decision by some of the women in the villages motivated other women suffering similar hindrances to come forward adding to their courage resulting in a collective will. Psychologically, this resulted in collective awareness of injustice and potential of mobilization at the community level.

It is also important to note that the NGO reached out to these women intending to mobilize the marginalized women to come forward and take part in the discussion forums and eventually in the performances. Although it was a voluntary process for the women to come forward and join social theatre, there was an underlying external and conscious effort on the part of Jana Sanskriti to create such an environment.

Thus, the women utilized the resource or the enabling environment created by social theatre as the first step in the process of empowerment. This access to the resource—social theatre—led to their participation in extra-familial groups, beyond the household where they had been restricted before. Thus, social theatre constituted the enabling factor or the critical input to initiate an empowerment process affecting the socio-cultural and psychological dimensions of empowerment.

Agency

Agency is an integral part of the process of empowerment where the oppressed women themselves realize their ability to utilize the resources for their own well-being and become actors or agents in the process of change.

When the women respondents chose to learn and perform social theatre, they took their first step towards becoming an agency. As explained by Kabeer (2001), agency is at the heart of the process of empowerment through which choices are made. In this case Forum Theatre triggered the collective sense of disempowerment of these women together with enabling their access to the external resource of social theatre which led to creation of the agency. However, this step was not enough for the women themselves to understand that they can become agents of change.

The actual training process of Jana Sanskriti further contributed to building the agency. The participatory training workshops on social theatre necessitated women’s recognition of their own problems and self-analyses of those problems. Additionally, their knowledge of the complexities of the social issues as well as life skills and communication skills were enhanced making them confident to perform social theatre in public. Thus, these women underwent a process of self-development. They not only became better aware of their own rights but also gained the confidence to stand up against the patriarchal discriminatory norms of society. They also realized that they have the capability to think independently, articulate and express their thoughts through social theatre and take actions. This self-development resulted in an independent identity creation beyond their stereotypical role as women. They felt ready to go out and perform in public to raise public awareness and stop social vices affecting their security, safety, well-being and happiness. Thus, a collective awareness and understanding of injustice led them to constitute the agency to bring about their own empowerment.

When the women started performing the theatre shows, they experienced a lot of appreciation from the audience, which also significantly strengthened their role as agents. While performing the shows, the women started realizing their capabilities to activate the minds of others about social issues. Through the knowledge gained from their first hand experiences their mindsets have also changed from a state of submission to patriarchy to a state of independent action against the existing discriminations. Their self-efficacy and self-worth also increased in the process and they became confident to advocate for women’s access to opportunities for their own development.

The process of being agents was also supported by Jana Sanskriti who hand-held them to conduct discussions, coordinate forums and manage debates in the play as well as take off-stage actions. The activism started by the women was initially guided by Jana Sanskriti to help them think, analyze and strategize their actions. The fact that the women were successful in their interventions added to the process of agency creation and sustenance from within wherein the women actors in social theatre became social activists in real life.

This process of development of the agency may be interpreted as conscientization because the women at this stage realized that they were not inferior to men but were capable of taking action. This stage in the process of empowerment resulted in women’s visibility in and access to social spaces and their direct participation in social networks through local campaigns and activism. Thus, the women were motivated to come together and organize themselves for ‘the recognition and analysis of problems, the identification of strategies to overcome discriminatory practices and collective action to remove these practices’ (Longwe 2002, p. 7).

Outcome

As the women’s agencies successfully acted to bring about transformations in their own lives over a period of time, the process led to several outcomes at the psychological, socio cultural and political levels.

The women who learned and performed social theatre and undertook the role of social agents gained new knowledge and information in the process which made them conscious of equal rights of both men and women and importance of education for the girl children. Their experience and knowledge enhancement resulted in changing their mindsets which was a very important outcome of the process. Now they protest against wife beating and child marriages, dowry and their subordination to men. They are more vocal within their families and fight for their dignity. They carry out political activism against corruption of local government and demand for their entitlements under various government schemes. Their current reality is that they can talk, argue, behave the way they want and make their own judgements about what is right and what is wrong within the family and in society, which have led to a sense of freedom from exploitation and confidence about their own abilities. They freely access social spaces through their performances and interact confidently with unknown people without fear of stigma or abuse. These women have travelled outside their villages even to distant areas to perform.

The lives of the women have thus changed from a situation where they were denied independence and freedom to make their own life choices to one where they have overcome this situation. Through the process of recognizing the resource of social theatre to actually performing it, they have developed a strong sense of self efficacy, self-esteem and an identity of their own. This resulted not only from their realization about their own capabilities but also from the social recognition and appreciation they received from their audiences and the villagers who benefited from their leadership as social agents. Moreover they not only successfully fulfilled their roles as social agents but also motivated other disempowered women to join similar initiatives. Thus, they became resources for further agency creation from within their own society strengthening the overall process.

Another significant outcome in the lives of these women was that they found a creative engagement and space of their own. They described it as a space of relief, peace and happiness away from the pain and sufferings of their daily lives. The common factor that motivated these women to join social theatre was that they liked theatre as a creative activity. Thus, in addition to personal and social skills, social theatre improved and strengthened their creative skills. Earlier they had a sense of shame and inferiority, but their active engagement in social theatre led to their own cultural identity creation and intellectual development.

However, the empowerment process for these women would not have been complete without positive participation of the men in these villages. Previously, when the women had expressed their choice to join social theatre, they faced a lot of hindrances from their families. The women who were of stronger will stepped out to join social theatre against all odds. Thus, initially it was a situation of conflict between the women and their family members. Under those circumstances in order to continue with the theatre shows and social activism they continued to negotiate and explain their activities to their family members and invited them to watch their plays. When their family members watched them in a bigger and an important social role, their mindsets also started changing over time. Presently, most of these women enjoy cooperation and support from their families. For those women who still continue to negotiate within their families for performing in social theatre, the journey is not as smooth as others. Therefore, successful mobilization of male family members and villagers to support women’s social theatre based activism is a very important social outcome of the empowerment process where the patriarchal norms are shifting.

However, the extent of such transformations was different as all the women interviewed were not at the same stage or level of empowerment. Some had established themselves as senior theatre practitioners and successful social agents of change; some had reached the stage of self-confidence and self-efficacy but struggled with their families to continue their shows and activism; some had just started on with their journey and were being supported and groomed by the more experienced women in the group. Thus, there was an enabling environment of mutual support, understanding, hand-holding and collective effort within the larger group of women actors towards improving women’s conditions at the household level, socio-cultural level and political level.

Dimensions of Empowerment

Empowerment can also be assessed with the help of certain standard indicators as discussed by Malhotra et al. (2002, Table 1).

These women negotiated their rights to movement beyond the boundary of their family and household and finally moved out of their limited space to pursue social theatre publicly. All these fulfil the socio-cultural indicators of participation in extra-familial groups and social networks, women’s freedom of movement and their visibility in and access to social spaces both at the household and the community level. The fact that the women could break their social immobility and challenge the social norms and attitudes of the patriarchy which they had been accepting silently for years gave them a new sense of confidence, self-worth and the consciousness that they independently were capable of doing something of their own, fulfilled the psychological indicators of self-esteem, self-efficacy and psychological well-being. Overcoming the normatively established social barriers was not easy and the more determined women mobilized and encouraged the less determined to join the group. A collective will force and motivation worked towards generating confidence and creating a collective awareness about the exploitation of their basic human right of freedom of expression and confinement to households without any exposure to media and outer world. Thus, it also fulfils the psychological indicators of collective awareness of injustice, and potential of mobilization for pursuing social theatre and collective activism, as well as knowledge of legal rights.

The women gained new knowledge and information about the various social issues related to women’s rights and entitlements, domestic violence, right to education, etc. and used this knowledge and their skills of social theatre to carry out activism against social oppressions to transform their lives. They are now changing the conventional stereotypical roles of women to more autonomous entities with the power to make their own decisions. Overall, it fulfils some of the socio-cultural, familial and psychological indicators of empowerment, such as shift in patriarchal norms, participation in domestic decision-making, freedom from domestic violence, knowledge of legal rights and support for executing those rights and community mobilization for rights. In the process, their confidence in their own capacities and potential as well as the sense of independence has improved their self-esteem, self-efficacy and psychological well-being, fulfilling these psychological indicators of empowerment.