Have you ever heard of a stranger giving up her name, language, culture, comforts, and life for a group of unknown people? Among the infinite tales of women’s solo struggles is the one from Daya Bai a.k.a. Mercy Mathew, a Malayali by birth, but tribal by work. Daya Bai is an elderly woman of about 83 years, and despite her active engagements for the welfare of society and nature for more than five decades, she is still a stranger to many. She is not identified as a social activist like Medha Patkar or at least as a familiar face by people or media. Her fight is a lone fight, not for publicity but solely for the welfare of the poor tribals. She becomes unique when compared to many other social activists in India owing to many reasons, yet mainly due to her way of struggle.
Mercy Mathew to Daya Bai
Though born into an affluent Christian family in Palakkad, Mercy Mathew was a determined girl who wanted to serve the poor and dedicate her life to their betterment. This strong willpower invigorated her to leave studies in the higher secondary to join a convent. In this way of sisterhood, she thought she could make her life complete, but life had a different take for Mercy Mathew. She left for Bihar (now part of Jharkhand) Holy Face Convent at 16 years old. There, she came more in contact with the poor, illiterate tribals, understanding their daily struggles at close quarters. These sights served as her final vision to leave her convent life. This was because, by then she realised the constraints placed on her from the position of sisterhood.
In the meantime, she completed her degree in Botany and MSW from the University of Mumbai. And for her field study, she selected the Gondi tribal region of Madhya Pradesh, the place that remains hers for now and forever. Her name Daya Bai is a mix of both her original name Mercy, ‘Daya,’ in Malayalam and ‘Bai,’ a name for tribal women among Gondis. She not only changed her name but also her lifestyle, attire, and language, because this was the best way to help the Gondis.
Daya Bai’s social activism
The developments that Daya Bai happened to foster in Chhindwara of Madhya Pradesh, especially benefitting the tribals are numerous. One among them is her struggles and campaigns to bring schooling and basic medical facilities in the region. Her appealing speeches, street plays and campaigns secured this with the immense support of the residents.
Even her encouragement for the tribal people to demand their rights takes many forms. When the tribal women were denied their rightful wages for collecting tendu leaves, Daya Bai instructed them to revolt against this with ahimsa. Dujiya, an elderly woman from the Tinsai village says, “When the truck came in the night, Bai called me first. I called the women, and we gathered where the tendu leaves were kept. Galobai and other women sat on the bags full of leaves, so the officers couldn’t take them away. We made a circle like a chain, holding our hands around the bags, and we sang. Bai taught us a lot of things and stood with us to fight for our rights.”
Daya Bhai’s social activism has spread beyond the borders of Madya Pradesh. Her support activities for the civilians caught up in the Bangladesh war are a direct testimony to it. Yet she has admitted in many interviews that her experience helping in the war affected her and this led her to realise that watching gory sights is not good for her peace of mind. Daya Bhai was also associated with the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement (1985), protesting against the developmental activities over the Narmada river.
Her activism and participation in the social movements of Kerala were noteworthy and greatly impacted the outcomes of these. For instance, she led a fifteen-day-long hunger strike in front of the state legislative assembly at Thiruvananthapuram in 2022. Daya Bhai’s participation in the hunger strike for endosulfan victims, for ensuring their basic medical facilities ended in the state’s assurance. Sadly enough, the assurance remains in paper alone, but her continuing struggle to give the poor victims all that she can defines her. The story of the endosulfan victims is a long tale of negligence and a resilient fight. Their oppressed voices are never heard or addressed by any politician and nonetheless to say about the Government. More than 3000 people are affected by this pesticide showering in the Government-owned cashew plantation, impacting not just one generation but their posterity as well. In this scenario, Daya Bai’s involvement becomes poignant like the unfailing support and care of a mother.
Like the said struggle, the Chengara Land Struggle (2007) in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala that lasted for many years was supported and participated by Daya Bhai. It was the struggle of the downtrodden landless people after being fed up with the false promises of the Government. As a part of the protest, this large group of people mainly poor farmers and tappers encroached on the private estate of a wealthy group. They argued that they could only descend voluntarily from the land once all their demands regarding the Government land allocation were met. But the Government forcibly tried to remove them using the police to which the people responded with mass suicide. Their months-long strike to secure land rights was turned down by many popular politicians and activists, but Daya Bhai supported them, calling out the callousness of the Government.
As a woman mingling with the commoners and dressing like them, she had to face many objections, even from her people. There was once an incident when she was verbally abused by a KSRTC bus conductor who acted improperly just because she was dressed like a tribal. Also, she was not recognised by him, which also points to her lack of publicity. As unrecognised as she is, her actions also go unawarded many times. She has received only very few awards though her social activism spreads over fifty long years. They include the National Award for Social Work from Dharma Bharati (2001), the Vanitha Woman of the Year Award (2007) and the Good Samaritan National Award (2012).
As awards and prizes are never a direct witness to the hard social labour by anybody, they only form an external form of awarding. She has a Hindi biopic Daya Bhai tracing her life and works, also she acted in Kanthan-The Lover of Colour (2018) which secured the Kerala State Award for Best Film. Daya Bhai continues to exist among us as an extraordinary example of how far a lone fighter woman can go, even when the entire world or the system is against her.
In her own words, her tools for fighting include holding the poor people closer than ever, for this it does not matter even when it requires “declassifying and getting smaller” to bridge the gap. For the time, she lives in her mud house in Madhya Pradesh on her land, made with the money she got after the death of her parents, practising and spreading organic farming. Daya Bhai also planned to contest in the last LS elections in Kasargod, Kerala as an independent candidate to secure permanent justice to the endosulfan victims, but had to change her plan.
About the author(s)
Vidhu (she/her) is an emerging writer with Masters in English language and literature, keen on learning the politics of the world around her. She has dreams to create a career in journalism and writing, where she unburdens her self. She has a great taste for movies from varies geographical spans and pens down poetry in magical charms. She is open to projects or research centring on humanities.
