Last month, a panchayat in Jalore, Rajasthan, announced a ban on camera phones for daughters-in-law and young women in 15 villages, effective January 26. It decreed that these women would be allowed to use feature phones instead of smartphones. The panchayat disguised this piece of patriarchal bias as a move taken to protect eyesight and also to keep women from becoming distracted and not carrying out their regular household chores.
The village elders were in for a shock when women pushed back against what they saw as a move to control them. The elders were forced to revoke the ban and then tried to cover up saying that this had been a suggestion, not a diktat.
An evaluation study in Kishangarh block, Ajmer — conducted by the Center for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) and supported by the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) and India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) from 2021 to 2025 — shows that key local bodies including gram panchayats are demonstrating a greater capacity and willingness to handle violence cases with the seriousness they deserve. In comparison with the baseline findings (2021), uptake of services such as Women’s Helpline increased from 13% to 76% by the end of the project, Mahila Sahayata Sewa Kendras surged from 4% to 68%, and the One-Stop Center quadrupled from 13% to 52%.
The resistance from women may not always be visible as depicted in a heartwarming short film made by Anita Gurnani called RuBaRuset in rural Rajasthan. It looks at the lives of two sisters bound by blood yet separated by the rigid structures of caste, gender, and inherited labour.
One sister earns her living as a rudaalia professional mourner. The other performs as a dancinga folk dancer whose art is both celebrated and stigmatized.
Though their roles place them at opposite emotional poles — one embodying sorrow, the other spectacle — both women exist on the margins of respectability, their labor commodified but their dignity remains intact.
Gurnani says, “Women across Rajasthan are standing up to patriarchy with incredible bravery and a sense of sisterhood. They are transforming silence into power and defying tradition every day to build a brighter future for those who come after them.”
The film frames its protagonists as women navigating oppressive systems with awareness and resolve.
The title captures the film’s core confrontation between tradition and selfhood, visibility and invisibility, performance and truth. The film concludes without dramatic resolution, instead leaving viewers with a sober reflection on how deeply social structures shape women’s lives, and how courage often resides in endurance rather than escape.
Sachin Pilot, former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, says, “While there is increasingly greater acceptance for gender equality and sincere efforts for genuine empowerment of women, there are still some such incidents that occur which question our societal mindset. Dominance by diktat is a thing of the past and there has to be a realization that the primitive mindset has to yield to the new reality. I am proud that women, especially the younger generation, are holding their ground and pushing back on. oppressive actions. Rajasthan has come a long way in making a more equitable society and kudos to the women that have spoken up and made their mark by not meekly yielding to those that still find comfort in outdated whims of the past.”
The views expressed are personal
