Gayatri, State Coordinator, Chhattisgarh
Gayatri is an advocate practising in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. She sees herself as a social justice lawyer.
Hailing from Masuri village, she has been inspired by Dr Ambedkar’s ideology from her school days, when she first watched a film on him. She has witnessed discrimination from an early age: recalls an instance in school where the building only had pictures of Tilak, Nehru and Gandhi - confronted principal to get it installed. Her activism continued into college where she organised a protest against the administration to get fans installed in their classroom.
Initially sustaining her practice through a fellowship from Dalit Foundation, she was introduced to CSJ through a lawyers training programme. She then started the Kanuni Margdarshan kendra in Bilaspur in 2011, and now heads CSJ’s operations in Chhattisgarh.
The most important thing she has learnt from CSJ is that it has provided her a platform to translate social issues into legal points. The biggest change in this period is that people now trust her as a leader, and she has grown.
She feels sad when people portray her as an angry person. But she feels angry when she sees human rights violations, as well as by non cooperation of government officials.
As a social justice lawyer, she said it was very important to give people the impression that you are with them at all times.
“Aaha moment” was the MNREGA PIL which was generally a success. Also when she gets to go home at the end of the day and meet her kids.
She admits that balancing work and family has been difficult, especially gives from a conservative family where her in-laws insisted that she should wear a veil inside the house (she refused). When she first became a mother, she was on a fellowship, but was clear that she would continue working. Today, she continues to manage taking care of her two kids while practicing in court.
She has experienced frustration with staff imbalance, which has driven her to question herself on her management skills, but has been motivated to continue because of her previous work and experience.
Five years from now, she hopes to see herself as an experienced advocate who does not need a senior.
She does not regard the State very highly, saying that it is 20% useful and 80% negative (nakaratmak). Society on the other hand, she has received full support from the society she seeks to represent.