Sister Lizy Thomas from the Uday (Dawn) Social Development Society is pictured with her co-workers as they attend a media conference organized by indigenous women in Jhabua district of India’s Madhya Pradesh State – hoping to enlist the media’s help in their crusade against alcoholism.
For Shanti Devada, the mud walls of her home in Badi Damini village of Jhabua district in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh were more like a prison than a shelter or a place of refuge.
She lived a closeted life, not daring to speak to men outside of her family or step outside her village without a chaperon. In fact, the traditions and customs of the indigenous group to which she belongs are so strict, she even had to cover her face with a sari when speaking to male relatives.
However that all changed about eight years ago when Devada, who is now 50, began to defy these conservatives, even archaic customs and became a self-style “crusader” fighting for the greater empo- werment of women.
