Bengaluru: What is common among Garbattanese workers Ahmedabad, a young girl from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, flight attendants from Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer and Swish ‘Girls in Pearls Who of Jor Bagh, Delhi? Long answer: their search for financial empowerment and escape from stifling patriarchy.
Short answer: Bollywood Heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan.
How does Bollywood star match in the equation? Shrayana Bhattacharya, economist with the World Bank and a writer with a broad job spread over 15 years to his credit, said love for icons like Shah Rukh Khan is a general thread that inspires many people to share with him their economic struggle, hope of humans, and Disputes with the patriarchal system when he tried to collect data on women’s wages and participation in the labor market as a young research assistant.
Shrayana Bhattacharabhattacharya said women throughout the country were associated with Khan in a variety of ways – from viewing it as an ideal masculine, to provide escape and comfort from everyday struggle.
“This project with agarbatti workers and I have designed a questionnaire.
But when I asked questions, they stared blankly at me,” he recalled.
The women actually fought their workers’ rights and realized their reality, but did not want an outside researcher to come and tell them what they knew.
Get rid of its formal questions, Bhattacharya sneaks into ‘recess surveys’ and starts chatting with them.
Immediately, their conversation turned into discussions about their favorite actors and a man who was most often liked by women – from the rural Uttar Pradesh to Jharkhand tribes – Shah Rukh Khan.
Suddenly, tone changed, opened a conversation that revealed how even economic fandom, he said.
“The women told me how none of them watched Khan’s film.
They found out from interviews, songs, etc.
They did not have money or free time to watch the film.
According to the National Family Health Survey, only 8 percent of women in India watch movies every month , “he said, adding conversations around Khan to offer their economic peak too.
It also helps find a way to discuss the idea of ​​female masculinity and ideal ideals.
“Women in the countryside complained that the people around them were like Salman Khan and they preferred Shah Rukh Khan,” Bhattacharya said, adding that in addition to the work crisis, women face a crisis of love and they say men in their lives talking to them like those who are like Khan .
“The word they keep repeating is ‘Tameez’ (polite).” “When women step out their homes and do what people prefer, they face isolation.
They are lonely in the workforce and also in the kitchen,” he said.
India, along with South Korea and Pakistan, is on the list of five of the five global in women getting help from men in doing household tasks, he added.
Manu Pillai’s writer who was chatting with Bhattacharaya at a program at Bangalore International Center, said: “The woman who managed to get out of the house, worked and occupied a room in the economy conjn to dignity, deadlines and plates.” Citra Khan helps women in the kitchen or even his wife regardless of the screen makes it popular, he added.
Bhattacharya believes that for the current generation equivalent to Shah Rukh will be a woman.
“They no longer want Shah Rukh in their lives.
They want to be her with their opportunities, produce capacity and potential.
Increasingly, the women currently see Priyanka Chopra or Padukone Deepika,” he added.