It was on another assignment near Kolar that Arjun Swaminathan first met Rajamma. He recounts what the 65-year-old mother of a farmer who practised the Akkadi Saalu farming system, a mixed cropping system often found in the drylands of Karnataka, told him: the seeds that her son used today had been given to her at her wedding. “These were native organic seeds,” he says, recalling how Rajamma explained how important it was to preserve them, abstaining from cooking them even during drought. “There were times when she went hungry, but these seeds were preserved,” says the Bengaluru-based visual storyteller, the director of Native Picture.
The meeting got him thinking about women’s crucial role in agriculture, not just the back-breaking tasks of de-weeding and harvesting but something more profound. “There is a culture preservation that happens through women,” he says.
The film opens with some interesting statistics–agriculture employs nearly 80% of rural women. | Photo Credit: Arjun Swaminathan
Of women and millets
His new short film Invisible: Women and the Future of Millets expands on this idea, drawing a parallel between the resilience of these hardy little grains and the women who nurture them. The film, which will be released on December 12 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, captures “the journey of millets from being a lost cause to a superfood, as well as the recognition of the labour put in by women farmers from all sections of the society - especially the marginalised communities,” as Arjun, who travelled to the Eastern Ghat’s Arakku Valley, Karnataka’s Hubli district and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh to make this film, puts it.
The film opens with some interesting statistics–agriculture employs nearly 80% of rural women. “Empowering and mainstreaming rural women workforce in agriculture can help bring a paradigm shift towards economic growth,” it states before delving into this inherent relationship between millets and women. With perspectives offered by a team of experts and, more importantly, the women who grow and live off the soil, the film delves into many aspects of millet: the effect of the Green Revolution on millet consumption, the nutritional benefits they offer, how millet seeds are preserved, traded and cultivated, the benefits of mixed cropping and female collectives, why India should spearhead the millet movement and so much more.
Still from the film | Photo Credit: Arjun Swaminathan
Invisible women
At its core, however, the film spotlights women’s tremendous work to grow and process these millets and how this is often ignored in the mainstream narrative. “Historically, you did not have these big mills or processing centres. All processing happened in the village at the household level,” points out activist and researcher Sudha Nagavarapu in the film, adding that while most of this strenuous work is done by women, they are often rendered invisible at a documentation level and denied many agricultural benefits. Arjun agrees. “Women have always been behind-the-scene workers in everything,” he says, pointing out that equality cannot exist in a vacuum, something the film captures, too. “
Still from the film. | Photo Credit: Arjun Swaminathan
Produced by The Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition to mark the International Year of Millets, Invisible: Women and the Future of Millets offers a nuanced take on the grain, acknowledging its many benefits but also avoiding magnifying them. “We need to understand that not all of us can eat millet. They are grown in certain areas, and it is only in those areas that the consumption is fine,” says Swaminathan, pointing out that seasonality, culture, aspirations, class and caste play a tremendous role in shaping the millet narrative in this country. “It is not just about eating more millet. Food is extremely political, and awareness needs to be built around it,” he believes. He adds that, in general, knowing where our food comes from is important because it creates a healthier, more conscious community. “All of our foods have stories behind them. There is nothing more fascinating than the history and culture of food.”
Invisible: Women and the Future of Millets will be released at Juniper, India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on December 12. It will be available on YouTube after the official release.
