Fulbright Scholar Taisie Berkeley---India Women in Poverty.mov

So Much Resilience, So Much Wisdom

Taisie Berkeley spent six months in India on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005-6 documenting with her camera and recorder the lives of Indian women living in poverty. She focused on self-employed workers, those without any benefits, often earning just enough to buy that day's food. In this video, she shares four women's stories.

These women's stories reflect Berkeley's journey to absorb centuries-old culture and attitudes--from caste prejudice to the invisibility of women--that cause Indian women to struggle so desperately in poverty. An Indian newspaper once said that India's most oppressed caste today is women.

Berkeley worked with three female founders of organizations helping impoverished women--Nobel Prize Nominee Dr. Kiran Bedi of India Vision Foundation, Padmashree winner Lila Poonawalla of the Lila Poonawalla Foundation, and Magsaysay (known as the Asian Nobel Prize) winner Ela Bhatt of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA).

Documented statistics report that 75 percent of the world's work is done by women, while only 10 percent of that income goes to women, and just one percent of the world's assets are owned by women. Each woman shown here, says Berkeley, through sheer grit has found grace under pressure and a way to make things better for subsequent generations.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Taisie Berkeley
• Fulbright Scholar
• women
• poverty
• informal workers
• caste
• Kiran Bedi
• Lila Poonawalla
• Ela Bhatt
• India
• Travel
• Poor
• Hungry
• Inequity