Women at work. Creating ballads for those at the margins

In May last year, an 18-year-old girl in Paschim Medinipur district of the State suffered acid burns on her face for allegedly rejecting a marriage proposal. Days later, the stigmatised girl left the area to start life afresh.

“No one took note of her fight to start life afresh. I traced her and wrote a song chronicling her fight ,” says Bipuljit Basu, a Bengali singer who has been working to bring stories of the marginalised to mainstream music.

He doesn’t specifically restrict himself to women. LGBT community , sex workers — everyone comes up in his songs. But women surely take the centre stage by virtue of social bias. For the 35-year-old Basu, it was a choice to give up his public sector job and to lend his voice to their battle against violence and stigma, through what he knows best — songs.

Bengali songs have evolved. But stories of the marginalised somehow fail to be a focus. He is clear that the challenge lies in bringing them to popular discourse rather than for a selective audience.

“Look at the social awareness a movie like Taare Zameen Par was able to create for dyslexia,” Bipulji says that ensuring commercial acceptability is the challenge.

His production house, Bindubot, is now looking at live concerts featuring women — her story, struggles and attempts against marginalisation and violence, interspaced with songs written for her. Branded as ‘Koyekta Meyer Galpo’ (Stories of a Few Women), the year-long ‘production’ will feature nine stories, mostly from Bengal, including ones such as a tribal woman’s fight for her rights to raise a kid and taking care of a mentally challenged husband, and an HIV patient’s battle with life.

Noted Bengali singer Srikanto Acharjyo may play the lead singer. Proceeds will be shared with NGOs which work in these communities. “Later, we may work on royalty basis.”

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