When appearances can indeed be deceptive… Sushma, lean, thin, yet energetic activist

By Gagan Sethi*
I received a mail from Shabnam Virmani, about whom I have written earlier, introducing me to Sushma Iyanger, another young pass out from Cornell in development communications. Shabman told me in the mail that Sushma was frantically exploring to do work on issues of women and development. This is where our journey of the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), now a well-known women’s organization in Kutch, began.
The year was 1989. Sushma, lean and thin, yet energetic, quietly walked into my office one afternoon, saying she was interested in exploring to work in remote rural areas of Gujarat. My first thought was: Was this yet another example of a person who has romanticized development work at the grassroots?
Yet, I threw a challenge to her. I had a request from the Gujarat State Handicrafts Development Corporation (GSHDC) to look at women and development, as women were the largest beneficiaries of the drought relief scheme in Kutch, where different types of handicraft works were being procured by GSHDC.
My initial recce had shown that the remote areas of Gujarat, especially Kutch, were more bothered about the basic issues of drinking water, healthcare, and literacy, and pumping in money by buying handicrafts from there would be actually counterproductive in the long run. Yet, here was Sushma who thought things could be moved.
Ravi Saxena and Annie Prasad, two senior IAS officers, also thought it was possible to go ahead by involving women in remote areas in developmental activities, especially handicrafts. They told me that time had ripe to set up a women and development cell. I agreed to take up the matter in right earnest, and asked Sushma whether she would take up the challenge. I saw a twinkle in the eye of this demure girl, who seemed to be almost undernourished! She told me straight: That’s what she wanted.
We went for a meeting with the local district development officer (DDO), Bhuj, and the project officer, GSHDC, reaching there early in the morning by train. The DDO had booked a room in the panchayat guest house to freshen up. When we entered the room the need was to head to the toilet.
When I opened it I was aghast. I had never seen a dirtier, choked, clogged toilet in my life. The smell could almost faint a person.
We looked at each other in dismay, sat down in disgust, but within in three minutes she was up, asking for a bucket. And, in the next 20 minutes we cleaned up the toilet with several buckets of water!
The Cornell girl had passed first her test of managing to survive. The KMVS was born as a joint programme of Janvikas, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), the Gujarat Women Economic development Corporation (GWEDC) and GSHDC, with Sushma as executive secretary.
She was quite clear about one thing: “I don’t want foreign funds to start the programme.” Annie Prasad helped us negotiate a Central government grant from the Ministry of Education, and Janvikas got a small grant from Misereor.
Around the same time, Meera, a young Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) graduate, joined Sushma, and the two started work by staying in the remotest of the Kutch villages of Paschim Banni.
People living in the remote area had earlier never seen urban women travelling by chhakdas to approach them. Word went round that two policemen, disguised as women, were trying to enquire about what was happening!
Ever since, KMVS under Sushma’s leadership — and later mentorship – has grown into one of India’s most powerful women’s collectives, leading campaigns against alcoholism, for decentralized control of water, and improving women’s livelihood through exquisite brands like Khamir. It runs its own radio station and a helpline service for the women in distress. KMVS has empowered hundreds of women, including panchayat members.
Today, Sushma is a household name in Kutch as a woman who has ably addressed issues ranging from individual crisis to complex environmental issues, which the district faces today. Such beacons give hope to people that one person who is determined to make a difference and immerses in the life of communities can make a difference. Sushma and KMVS till today remains the best human and institutional development role model Janvikas has supported and learnt from.
—
*Founder of Janvikas & Centre for Social justice. This article first appeared in DNA

Comments

India’s climate tech ecosystem in dire need of both early, growth-stage funding: Report

By Our Representative India’s climate tech ecosystem, which boasts over 800 startups, is in dire need of both early and growth-stage funding to leverage its full potential, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (Ventures) and MUFG Bank , Japan. Despite a robust initial funding landscape, with approximately two-thirds of climate tech startups receiving seed capital, growth-stage investments remain critically lacking.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded reaction in the form of a link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra* The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.”

105,000 sign protest petition, allege Nestlé’s 'double standard' over added sugar in baby food

By Kritischer Konsum* 105,000 people have signed a petition calling on Nestlé to stop adding sugar to its baby food products marketed in lower-income countries. It was handed over today at the multinational’s headquarters in Vevey, where the NGOs Public Eye, IBFAN and EKO dumped the symbolic equivalent of 10 million sugar cubes, representing the added sugar consumed each day by babies fed with Cerelac cereals. In Switzerland, such products are sold with no added sugar. The leading baby food corporation must put an end to this harmful double standard.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

UNEP report on how climate crisis is impacting displacement, global conflicts, declining health

By Shankar Sharma* A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled "A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing," warrants urgent attention from our country’s developmental perspective. The findings, detailed in the report, should be a source of significant concern not only globally but especially for our nation, which has a vast population and limited natural resources.

Industries fueling climate crisis draining public funds in Global South: ActionAid

By Our Representative A new ActionAid report has exposed the alarming financial drain on the Global South, as climate-wrecking industries like fossil fuels and industrial agriculture receive over US$600 billion annually in public subsidies. The report, "How the Finance Flows: Corporate Capture of Public Finance Fuelling the Climate Crisis in the Global South", reveals that an average of US$677 billion in public finance is directed toward climate-destructive sectors each year, depriving crucial social sectors such as education.

75 years of revolution: How China moved away from ideals of struggle for human liberation

By Harsh Thakor* On October 1st, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, a pivotal moment in the struggle for human liberation. From 1949 to 1976, China achieved remarkable social equality and revolutionary democracy, outpacing other developing nations in literacy, health care, agricultural output, and industrial production.

Search This Blog