Have you ever heard of a stranger who gives up your name, language, culture, comfort and life for a group of unknown people? Among the infinite stories about solo fights by women is that of Daya Bai alias Mercy Mathew, one from the birth of Malayali, but tribe through work. Daya Bai is an older woman of around 83 years, and despite her active commitments to the well -being of society and nature, she has been a stranger for many for more than five decades. She is not identified as a social activist like Medha Patkar or at least as a familiar face of people or media. Her struggle is a lonely struggle, not for advertising, but only for the well -being of the poor tribes. Compared to many other social activists in India, it becomes unique due to many reasons, but mainly because of its kind of fight.
Mercy Mathew to Daya Bai
Although he was born in a wealthy Christian family in Palakkad, Mercy Mathew Was a determined girl who wanted to serve the poor and to devote her life to her improvement. This strong willpower stimulated her to leave studies in higher secondary studies in order to join a monastery. In this type of sisterhood she thought she could make her life completely, but life had a different attitude for Mercy Mathew. At the age of 16 she traveled to Bihar (now part of the Jharkhand) to the Holy Facial Monastery. There she came into contact with her arms, illiterate and understood her daily fights in a close way. These sights served as their last vision of leaving their life in the monastery. This was due to the fact that until then she recognized the restrictions that they put on her from the position of sisterhood.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In the meantime, she graduated in Botany and MSW at the University of Mumbai. And for her field studies she chose the Gondi tribe region from Madhya Pradesh, the place that stays for the moment and forever. Her name Daya Bai is a mixture of her original name “Daya” in Malayalam and “Bai”, a name for tribal women under Gondis. She not only changed her name, but also her lifestyle, her clothes and her language, as this was the best way to help the Gondis.
Blood Socieous activities
The developments that Daya Bai promote Madhya Pradesh in Chhindwara are numerous. One of them is their battles and campaigns to bring school and basic medical institutions in the region. Your appealing speeches, Street games And campaigns secured this with the immense support of the residents.
Source: the stands
Even their encouragement for the tribal population to demand their rights takes on many forms. When the tribal women were refused their rightful wages for collecting Tendu leaves, Daya Bai indicated her to revolt against them with Ahimsa. BakerAn older woman from the village of Tinsai says: “When the truck came at night, Bai called me first. I called the women and we gathered where the Tendu leaves were kept. Galobai and other women sat on their pockets full of leaves so that the officers could not take them away. We made a circle like a chain and held our hands around our pockets and sang. Bai taught us a lot of things and stood with us to fight for our rights. “
Daya Bhai’s social activism has spread beyond the borders of Madya Pradesh. Their support activities for the civilian population in which it was obtained The Bangladesh war are a direct certificate. Nevertheless, she has admitted in many interviews that her experience in war has influenced her, and she has to see that observing bloody sights is not good for her peace of mind. Daya Bhai was also connected to the Narmada Bachao Andolan Movement (1985) and protested against the development activities over the Narmada River.
Their activism and their participation in the social movements of Kerala were remarkable and had a strong impact on the results. For example, she directed a fifteenth hunger strike in front of the state legislative assembly in Thiruvananthapuram in 2022. Daya Bhai’s participation The hunger strike for endosulfan victimsTo ensure that their basic medical institutions ended in the security of the state. Unfortunately, security remains alone in paper, but your persistent struggle to give the poor victims everything that it can define it. The story of the Endosulfan victim is a long history of negligence and a resistant struggle. Her oppressed voices are heard or addressed by a politician and yet about the government. More than 3000 people are affected by this pesticide, which is showering in the state cashew plantation and not only influences a generation, but also their posterity. In this scenario, the commitment of Daya Bai becomes like the infallible support and care of a mother.
Like the said fight the Chengara country fight (2007) In the Pathanamta district in Kerala, which lasted many years, Daya Bhai supported and participated. It was the struggle of the oppressed landless people after they were fed up with the false promises of the government. As part of the protest, this large group of people mainly entered poor farmers and plugs in the private estate of a wealthy group. They argued that they could only descend voluntarily from the country as soon as all their claims had been met with regard to the government allocation allocation. But the government forced to remove them with the police to which people reacted with suicide murder. Her months of strike to secure land rights was rejected by many popular politicians and activists, but Daya Bhai supported her and asked the government’s calluses.
As a woman who mingled with the citizens and dressed, she had to face many objections to her people. There was once an incident when A verbally abused it KSRTC bus manager Who did not act properly just because it was dressed like a tribal. In addition, she was not recognized by him, which also indicates her lack of advertising. As undeveloped as it is, her actions are no longer considered many times. It has only received very few awards, although her social activism has spread over fifty long years. These include the National Prize for Social Work by Dharma Bharati (2001), the Vanitha Woman of the Year Award (2007) and the Good Samaritan National Award (2012).
Since awards and prices are never a direct witness of the hard social workers through anyone, they only form an external form of award. She has a Hindi-Biopic Daya Bhai, who pursues her life and work, also in Kanthan-Des der Farben (2018), who secured the Kerala State Award for the best film. Daya Bhai continues to exist among us as an extraordinary example of how far a lonely fighter can go, even if the whole world or the system is against you.
In their own words, their tools contain the struggle to keep poor people closer than ever before, because this does not matter, even if it requires. “Be released and smaller”To close the gap. For the time she lives in her mud in Madhya Pradesh in her country, earns with the money she received after the death of her parents and practiced and spread organic agriculture. Daya Bhai also planned to contest constant justice in the last LS elections in Kasargod, Kerala as an independent candidate in order to secure the victims of the endosulfan.
Vidhu (you/she) is an emerging writer with Masters in English and literature, which is interested in learning the world’s politics around her. She has dreams to create a career in journalism and in writing by exposing herself. It has a great taste for films from different geographical spans and pens down poetry in magical stimuli. It is open to projects or research on humanities.
