Taste of life: War rationing office conquers new dimension for women’s lives - independence

Annapurnabai Apte was 21 when she stepped inside a restaurant for the first time in her life

Annapurnabai Apte was 21 when she stepped inside a restaurant for the first time in her life. The year was 1943. She was about to get married in a couple of months and her colleagues demanded she treated them to a plate of fritters. So they went to “Balkrishna Upahargruha”, near the Central Building in Pune, one Saturday afternoon, and ordered three plates of fritters which were shared by the group of five women. They then returned to their work in the Rationing Office.

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The Second World War had entered India then. While India had been spared the material destruction that had befallen many other countries, she had suffered the devastating economic consequences of war. The British Government was forced to introduce the first structured public distribution of food-grains in India through the rationing system of a fixed quantity of ration (jowar, rice, sugar, kerosene) to ration card holders in several cities and towns.

The system was started in September 1939 in Bombay and subsequently extended to other parts of India. By the end of 1943, 13 cities had been brought under the coverage of rationing (including Pune), and by 1946, as many as 771 cities/towns were covered. The system catered to some rural areas, suffering from chronic shortage, as well. The Department of Food under the Government of India was created in 1942, which helped in food matters getting the serious attention of the government.

When the rationing office was set up in Pune in early 1940, the first batch of employees comprised 17 women. Annapurnabai Apte was one of them. She had just got out of school. When one of her classmates told her about the new office employing girls, she decided to grab the opportunity and showed up at the office, without informing her family. She was asked to start working immediately. There was no interview.

The War forced women to step out of their houses to contribute to household expenses. Their responsibilities were often clerical and limited to non - combat positions away from the frontlines. In India, women were either enlisted as nurses, or they worked at the rationing offices.

Great care was taken to not abandon the domestic ideals in India. Women were given the traditional responsibility of providing and distributing food. Men were employed at the armament depots and factories set up in Khadki, Dapodi and Aundh. The men earned ₹40 at the armament depots. The women earned ₹20 per month at the rationing offices. They were entrusted with making ration cards, keeping records, drafting letters, maintaining inventories and tracking orders.

The women were young and timid. Many of them had never ever spoken with men outside their homes. They suddenly found themselves in an unfamiliar environment, entrusted with work for which they had no prior experience. They would often fumble, or could not speak at all. They would get the names on the cards wrong and would burst into tears when people complained and their bosses scolded them.

Men found this funny. They would visit the rationing offices and enjoyed themselves when the women found it hard to answer pointless queries of visitors.

One morning in 1941, an elderly gentleman visited the rationing office in the Central Building. The female staff were asked to assemble in a hall. The gentleman asked the women to be more confident and believe in their abilities and skills. “You have been given a great opportunity to work outside your homes, make the most of it. Always remember that if you fail, women would be condemned to household chores all their lives. You have to set a benchmark for them. People are hungry. They have little money. It is your responsibility to make sure they are fed properly. Do not let them down”, he told them.

He was RP Paranjpye, the first Indian to achieve the coveted title of senior wrangler at the University of Cambridge.

Annapurnabai narrated this incident to me one evening in August, 2012. I was roaming around Kasba peth looking for a hostel established in 1880s by the Satyashodhak Samaj, and someone directed me to her. She was 92 then. She knew nothing about the hostel, but I got to listen to the gutsy lady narrate her experiences working in the rationing office and later, at the District Collectorate.

She and the 16 other women from the first batch worked till their retirement at the age of 55. They bought bicycles with their salaries, educated their younger siblings and later married them off.

They started wearing sarees differently. They relished puri-bhaji and misal occasionally at Santosh Bhuvan and bought jalebis at Mathura Bhuvan. They built homes and their careers. Their courage resulted in more women working in offices and factories.

Annapurnabai and the other women at the rationing offices made sure they did not let RP Paranjpye and Pune down.