India
women have to work extremely hard every day to get their daily bread .
Due to ignorance & social customs like childhood marriage many
Indian men are illiterate . As a result of which they have to go for
jobs which involve more of physical work than mental work. However
there are some professions which neither demand much physical or mental
labor but still very hard & painful. Well in this article I am
elucidating on the profession of Rudali & women posing nude for
aspiring artists. Rudalis are women who are hired for morning in
Rajasthan . These women have to dress up in black attire & have to
cry loudly & beat their chest for hours. To cry continuously they
use a kind of kajal to maintain the flow of tears. Rudalis are paid
very nominal for their work . Just 15-20 Rs to cry for 4-5 hours. In
long run crying affects the health of Rudalis. In Rajasthan people hire
Rudalis for mourning when somebody dies in their family. It is believed
that hiring Rudalis is a matter of status symbol & prestige.
Wealthier the person & more number of Rudalis are hired by him in
the event of death in his family. Still more painful & harder is
the job of women posing nude for aspiring artists . In art schools
where students are trained in painting & sketching women for nude
modeling are appointed & are paid daily for their work. They have
to pose nude for several hours & some times even have to work
overtime. However these women are not paid in accordance with their
toil. They get around 200 Rs daily . Recently I read about 50 years old
Arai Sankar Naidu who is posing nude for last 30 years in Mumbai's
oldest art college - J J School of Arts . Arai is an uneducated lady
& due to domestic violence she left her in-laws house &
migrated to Mumbai . In order to earn her daily bread she took up the
job of nude model in J J School of Arts. When she started her career
she used to get 8 Rs for 12 hours of work . Now she gets around 200 Rs
from which she spends 25 Rs per day in transportation. Arai is not
happy with the pay scale , she is happy as she was able to educate her
son in an English medium school. Although Arai has helped several
students of J J School of Arts in becoming renowned artists but
unfortunately Arai is still a very poor lady living in Chembur area of
Mumbai. Thus to get petty requirements of life fulfilled many Indian
women have to take up profession of mourners & nude models &
other embarrassing professions.