NEW DELHI: Her smile is a lie that she has perfected in the last 14 years. Nobody can tell that behind Sonam Sharma’s plastered gesture, is a painful story of defeat. After serving six years in Tihar Jail, she was released six months back. The ostensible murder case that she was charged for has left a permanent scar on her respect. In a flash she lost her home, husband, children and the purpose of life. But things have begun to change in the past 10 days.
Of all the things she lost, one thing is trailing back—her dignity that her new job at the Charkha Museum complex has given her. She makes 8-10 bunches of khadi hank tags that are given to visitors along with the ticket priced `20. As part of the initiative spearheaded by Khadi and Village Industries Commission Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena, Sharma and her fellow inmates come to Ganga Ben Kutir in the museum complex at Connaught Place daily, to spin deftly from 11 am to 7 pm.
Ever since her release, this is the only thing she looks forward to. Old memories of her one-and-a-half-year old daughter being snatched away from her shaking hands, still send chills down her spine. She had alleg edly murdered a relative on her husband’s side. “I never did it,” she says as tears begin to roll down her freckled face, but she jolts back to reality quickly. “My husband manipulated facts and sent me to jail. He doesn’t realise he’s given me a better life.” Like all others, she is paid `200 per day.
Kamla Rani, 55, who was charged for her tenant’s murder, is the first one to come in everyday and the last one to leave. She will work till her body doesn’t give way, she has promised herself. She’s not just earning money; but is acquiring the confidence to make decisions in the family.
Ganga Ben Kutir, where these women work, is inspired by Ganga Ben, a women who holds historic significance. When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa, he discovered the loom but wondered how to spin the wheel. Then, Ganga Ben of Gaekwad in the princely state of Baroda, presented him with a charkha and explained the method of spinning it in 1919.
“It was she who introduced Gandhi to the charkha and years later, he made it a symbol of national importance,” says Saxena. In fact, the charkha found significance in the agenda of the Indian National Congress party. The first flag of 1921 as suggested by Gandhi, had the traditional wheel. It began to be hoisted by party members by 1923. In 1947 it was replaced with the Ashoka Chakra. Today the museum has a number of vintage charkhas, from 60 year to 102 years, besides the 25 feet long and 12 feet tall stainless steel installation charkha perched above Palika market.
On May 21, when the complex was inaugurated, 10 of the 40 women inmates trained in spinning came for the charkha demonstration to showcase their skillfulness. “When a woman is made competent, she earns and supports her family,” says Saxena. That’s exactly what Rekha Kumari, sitting across, seems to be doing. After she was accused for her husband’s murder, she felt like it was end of world for her, but after fighting 14 years, she was released. She is now married to a fellow inmate and lives in a respectable family communion.
Her close friend, a 65-year-old women inmate, hears everybody tell their stories but keeps silent. She is out on a one month-long parole. “At this age, all I want are my children,” she says quivering. The women had allegedly burnt her 90-year-old tenant to death, and is serving her 14 year sentence.
Once many of these inmates are released from the jail, they will be given a charkha each to take with them. It will be a reminder to never stop. To spin new life narratives and thread the path of self-reliance.