May 27, 2011
“The Gulabi Gang is an extraordinary women’s movement formed in 2006 by Sampat Pal Devi in the Banda District of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. This region is one of the poorest districts in the country and is marked by a deeply patriarchal culture, rigid caste divisions, female illiteracy, domestic violence, child labour, child marriages and dowry demands. The women’s group is popularly known as Gulabi or ‘Pink’ Gang because the members wear bright pink saris and wield bamboo sticks. Sampat says, “We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term, we are a gang for justice.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9bSt4Zf8Ys&w=425&h=349]
“Sampat Pal Devi is an ordinary woman with extraordinary resolve who brought about a revolution of sorts in rural India. Empowering women by encouraging them to stand up for themselves and others, she takes on the establishment by resorting to direct action. She strongly believes that “if a woman really wishes she can put a man in his place.”
Pink can certainly represent more than Barbie Dolls. “Hot pink is after all, related to the mother color red with much of the same dynamic energy and purpose.”
–Lee
