Kalavati Bandurkar, the forgotten face of 2009 Maharashtra elections

JALKA VILLAGE (YAVATMAL): Five years ago, Kalavati Bandurkar was flooded with attention, sympathy and aid.

Elections were due for the Maharashtra assembly and, with farmer suicides and agrarian distress becoming centre stage issues, the farmer’s widow who became the face of the tragedy thanks to an unexpected visit from Rahul Gandhi to her home, was being courted from all quarters.

The campaign organization Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti ( VJAS) wanted her to contest elections, NGOs wanted her to keep away from political agitations and serve as an ideal example of charity-backed rehabilitation, local politicians wanted her to campaign for them and reporters wanted her interviews.

But the relative marginalisation of farmer suicides and agrarian distress as issues in the 2014 assembly election campaign has ensured, the poster woman of India’s farm widows is relegated to the margins of attention.

In fact, even as the election campaign peaks, the contrast in Kalavati’s life couldn’t be starker.

“I don’t have time to follow who has said what in their election campaign. I have other things to worry about,” she says matter-of-factly, when asked for her opinion about the elections.

Sitting in the Veranda of her home, Kalavati says she’s concered about how she will compensate for the money lost in farming. “It rained so poorly this year that cotton did not take root at all. I had invested Rs 1 lakh 20 thousand in cultivation of cotton and was hoping for a crop of 50 quintals. But there’s no yield despite sowing two-three times. I have even stopped visiting the field for the last 15 days, since I have lost all hope of getting any yield or compensation from the government,” she said.

Before her husband committed suicide on December 23, 2005, he had leased land for cultivating cotton. In the nearby village of Wai, Kalavati has rented six acre for farming. Of her nine children—two sons, seven daughters—four stay with her.

A major share of her expenses are met through a monthly interest amount of Rs 15, 000, which she receives from a fixed deposit sum given by an NGO after Rahul mentioned her in his parliamentary speech. Since she fell out with the VJAS, which helped initially after her husband’s suicide, she isn’t expecting their assistance.

While Bandurkar acknowledges that she is relatively more privileged among farm widows in Vidarbha, she stresses that the woes brought in by drought and poor rainfall this year worry her as much, if not more, as they do other farmers here.