Art Event I- Something Like a War

I recently viewed the documentary Something Like a War directed by Deepa Dhanraj. It was indirectly about the population problem in India but focuses primarily on the story of Indian woman. India is trying to decrease the population by offering a number of contraceptives and other methods of birth control including abortion and sterilization. The problem is getting the women to give consent to partake. To an Indian woman children are extremely important. The children take care of them when they’re old and lighten to burden in the fields. Also if a woman is unable to bear a child then the husband can discard her. So the incentive to become sterile is not high.

Indian women are thought as a second class. Women don't want to bear a girl sometimes because it would make their husbans unhappy and would cost the family more money, due to her dowery. It is sad how the Indain society treats it's women. One of the women in the documentary said that there was a servay stating that 30% of the households in India were run by women. She thought that it should be changed to 70%. The men sit playing cards and maybe doing a little bit of work, but for the most part the work around the house and the childcare is done by the woman of the house.

Woman are strong creatures and it is shown universally. The Indian women have to bare most of the work around the house. They also have to endore the pain of childbirth, and now they have to suffer the pain of sterization without being about to show their husband's knowing what pain they are really going through.

As a woman my heart goes out to them. This documentary has moved me and connected me to the women feachered within it. All woman are sisters. We share happiness, sarrow, and pain. This documentary shows the strenght of women. It also shows the need for better hospitals and healthcare in India. Reachout.