A school dropout at 13, bride at 15, and widow at 19, Godavari Dange grew up against a backdrop of mounting debt, wilted crops, and recurring disaster in the epicentre of India’s agrarian crisis, Marathwada. Driven by her personal tragedies and everyday exclusions of other marginalised women in the region, Godavari has spent over two decades in feminist organising around building Indigenous, sustainable climate solutions such as the innovative “one-acre model”. Ever since, supported by NGO Swayam Shikshan Prayog, she has backed over 50,000 women in Marathwada and has addressed various public platforms. This is an excerpt from a comic book telling the story of her life and work.
Reetika Revathy Subramanian is a journalist and researcher from Mumbai, India. She is currently a PhD student and Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, UK. Maitri Dore is an architect and freelance illustrator from Mumbai, India. She is currently pursuing a PhD in cultural heritage conservation at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Raindrop in the Drought: Godavari Dange, with text by Reetika Revathy Subramanian and illustrations by Maitri Dore, was produced as a part of the “Movements and Moments – Feminist Generations” project instituted by Goethe-Institut Indonesien.