‘I have completed 12th class, I wanted to study further but my family doesn’t allow it. I have insisted a lot of time but they have no money’, shared a young girl. Many women around her while nodding their heads said what can the parents do they have no money.
Mona asked, ‘Does your
brother go to college?’ The answer was a YES.
In our quest to make
Rural India gender equitable, we at Sahas Foundation took a major step of
expanding our gender work to a new village Kakrari Gaon in the same district in
Uttar Pradesh. We have been working in Khushipura village since 2020 with
women, girls, young people and now persons with disability as well. The initial
community program organized in the month of Dec’2020 in the presence of NRLM
team was a major success gathering the attention of the villagers and leading
to the formation of 100+ SHGs in the entire panchayat. However when we started
focusing on young girls and women, the work became challenging and we had no
support be it structural or financial. Our tenacious team comprised of Mona,
Sarla Devi, Anegshari, Bharti and I continued working hard and developed Sahasi
Girls program in the span of 4 years engaging 160+ girls.
With this, we are
beaming with confidence to launch Sahasi Girls Program in different villages in
Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. So, we started the New Year with the orientation
session with women and girls in Kakrari village. Our team set out in freezing
cold morning with fog so thick that one couldn’t see things few meters away. Unlike
in the city spaces, the mornings are slow in village with lots of household,
agriculture and livestock chores. We knew that people may not arrive at the
time we had set for the meeting but the excitement of the team was palpable.
Sahas team was warmly welcomed by Pradhan Ramdhun ji and other members at a
beautiful, enticing and informative Panchayat Ghar. To our surprise, women and
girls started immediately coming in and the men without us saying anything left
the premises.
The orientation meeting
began with a brief introduction of Sahas team, our work in Khushipura village
and our intention behind this session. Purvi engaged the participants in a fun
energizer where even older women participated joyfully and slowly even sun
warmed up. On the question of education, most of the girls shared that they
have completed 12th class but their parents don’t want them to study
further. Many of the people don’t send their girls to school because of
household chores. Among the women, though few of them know how to calculate,
read or write Hindi only one has studies till 8th. One of the older
women enquired if we can teach her also? Other women started laughing however
Mona responded by saying why not? There is no age to learn; education is not
about getting degrees or finding a job in a company but about learning,
navigating and striving the challenges of daily lives too. There was small
smile on her face that was warm with hope.
On the issue of health,
most of them prefer going to private hospitals rather than government ones
except in case of pregnancy. Many of the women experience pains in different
parts of the body. There was mixed responses on the interaction with ASHA and
Aganwadi workers; few women said that they give some information and they
didn’t share what kind of information. None of them knew they can ask for basic
medicines or even contraceptives. Some of them shared that they haven’t
received any medicine or pills from them. The girls shared that they have no
interaction with them, not even with respect to information, pads or any health
issues. It’s like they didn’t know if they can seek out ASHAs for any medical
issues.
While discussing on
livelihood, there was an interesting discourse on gender. The facilitator
asked, ‘Do you do anything other than household chores.’ The answer was no
The facilitator asked
again, ‘Do you work in the fields or contribute in agriculture?’ There was
confusion among the women. One of them said that they engage in the cutting of
crops during harvesting.
‘Do you carry food from
the home to the field?’ The answer was unanimous Yes! And taking the cue from
their answer we engaged on how women themselves don’t recognize their labor and
how their labor is not accounted for and acknowledged. There was also a discourse
on SHGs and NRLM scheme- like many other villages, there was lot of confusion
about the scheme and functioning of the groups. Many complained that the
educated ones take advantage and use the money for their own benefits and
rarely the group functions. On asking if given a chance, would they like to
earn money – ‘Of course, who doesn’t want some extra cash with them?’
In the final part of
the session, we enquired if they want us to organized programs for girls and
women on education, health and livelihood? There was curiosity, hope and
enthusiasm and everyone raised their hands. And with this, our session came to
an end. Sahas Team was invited to one of the houses in the village where few
women had gathered. While we were going to the house, the girl from our session
accompanied us. She shared, ‘Asha workers sometimes do
tell things to us and we listen to her. They say that at least girls listen to
them but others don’t.’ She also said that we should do workshops on Sundays so
that school going girls can also join in. It was wonderful to see many girls
interested in mobilizing girls and women for the sessions.
We then went to one of
houses in the village where few women had gathered. One of them shared that due
to pain in her legs she couldn’t participate, it’s challenging for her to even
walk small distances. Some of the things that came out in the discussion –
‘Even when the parents
want to send their daughters for higher studies outside the village, other
people talk behind them, spread rumors.’
‘Some of the parents
simply don’t want their girls to get educated, they feel that educating girls
would bear no use to them.’
One of them shared that
she couldn’t send her daughter to study further but on asking about her son who
goes to nearby town to study – she had no answer.
‘I married my first
daughter bit earlier however she completed her 12th class with good
marks. I am holding off the marriage of my second daughter because there is lot
of household chores, and I am practically useless as I can’t walk much so she
has to help in the house.’
There was also
curiosity and excitement around the workshops. ‘Why don’t you invite my
daughters also, they are just like you – they study hard, work in home also.
Teach them something so that they can also become something in their lives.’
The environment in this
village was inviting and full of hope – we are excited to see how things turn
out here in our pursuit to build gender equitable villages.
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