Women's empowerment: In Dalit settlement, elsewhere bathrooms are called samman ghar, place of dignity

By Bharat Dogra* 

In a hamlet of Mahuari village, in Hussainabad block, several woman had collected around a small contractor who had been assigned the work for constructing several toilets in their village (located in Palamau district of Jharkhand). They had heard complaints that the toilets were being constructed in a very hurried and poor way. They knew what poor construction meant, as they had seen elsewhere—the toilet work was declared to be completed but the toilet could not be used or its use lasted for only a short time.

So they surrounded the faulty construction work and pointing out its flaws, they demanded that this toilet should be entirely reconstructed.

This led to heated exchanges but finally the matter was settled in favor of the women, resulting in much improved construction of all the toilets in this particular hamlet of this village. The result is that ODF (‘open defecation free’ campaign) is a success in this hamlet, unlike in some other settlements.

The women who made this possible are members of a self-help group (SHG) called the Parvati samooh. The 15 members of this group meet regularly and discuss social issues. It is this unity of the women which gave them the strength to confront those responsible for the faulty construction of toilets.

In more normal times, however this group is identified more with a collective savings effort, each woman contributing a saving of Rs. 100 per month and then borrowing from the SHG when a need arises in the family. As Lalita explains—from here we can borrow at 2% per month whereas a moneylender charges 5% per month, or even more, depending on circumstances. What is more, if someone in difficult circumstances is unable to pay back in time, we can decide to postpone the repayment or waive off the interest.

What is more, the interest payment remains within the group.

Aarti says—This keeps women and entire families relatively free of tensions, as they know that in times of sudden need, they can get at last some loan from the SHG at a low interest.

Women also discuss various development and social issues of village. With many government development and welfare schemes coming up, the issue of accessing their benefits, the forms to be filled, the formalities to be completed attracts much attention.

This has been helped much by the initiation of a women’s literacy scheme under a development project called HRIDAY, which has also initiated several such SHGs like the Parvati Samooh. This project implemented by Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra and supported by LIC HFL emphasized functional aspects of literacy including accounts keeping of the SHG (this is done with a lot of care and very neatly too) and learning to fill up the various formalities for development schemes and benefits. Here it may be mentioned that Jharkhand has several attractive schemes for women and girls which are widely reported to have played an important part in influencing the recent state election results. Women gathered at a meeting showed cards such as those meant for migrating workers as well as Ayushman cards for medical care. An elderly lady on hearing this joined the meeting to inform that her husband Munshi Mehta has just received healthcare benefits worth Rs. 1.5 lakh and this has alerted others also to the need for having Ayushman cards properly made to meet any health emergency.

In the dalit hamlet of Basari village the resource base of various households is even lower but despite this women like Pinky Devi and Malti Devi have got together to form Roshni self-help group. Although they can afford to deposit a saving of only Rs. 20 per member per month, they rightly take pride in their effort made in the middle of severe economic constraints. Its saving aspects apart, Roshni (which literally means light) also lights the path of unity and empowerment, accompanied as it has been by a literacy effort.

An aspect of HRIDAY project widely appreciated by the women in this dalit settlement (as well as several other villages) relates to the bath room, called samman ghar or place of dignity, constructed here. This has improved hygiene as much as protected dignity of women. While toilets have received a lot of importance in recent sanitation efforts, bath rooms have been neglected. It is good that this neglect has been made up at least partially in this project in project villages, and the widespread appreciation of this effort by women here indicates that this idea should certainly have a wider spread.  

Another aspect which strengthens the economic base of members of these SHGs is that they have received goats under HRIDAY project and as their numbers continue to increase, selling goats has become an important means of meeting family needs for cash without having to take loans. However in the case of some women, their goats could not survive and they feel sad about this.

Apart from organization of SHGs, the HRIDAY project has also made more specific interventions for widening and increasing the employment prospects of women in the project area of 10 villages. As managing coordinator Amit Singh says, broadening the livelihood and employment base of rural women has been a very important and priority aim of this project.

The Hriday project has supported efforts which resulted in the formation of small groups of women entrepreneurs who take up various small-scale production activities including making sanitary pads, cloth bags, paper plates and bowls. In addition food processing activities like preparation of besan and sattu, based on gram, have been taken up. These groups and their products have the brand name of Urmi. While these efforts have seen a lot of enthusiastic participation of women and the women involved in this effort whom I met were happy and enthusiastic with what they have achieved so far, the market situation is sometimes adverse for such small-scale efforts and several constraints have to be overcome. Nevertheless the women of these groups are happy to welcome every small order and are trying their best to make a success of their efforts. They certainly take a lot of pride in their work.

Another aspect of diversifying employment prospects is to offer women help for partially meeting the costs of setting up vending or street food stalls. The main share of the initial investment has come from project funds while the women were asked to put in a much smaller part. Several of these stalls have started operating with the help of family members of these women.

Sewing classes have helped several women and also adolescent girls to at least pick up skills of meeting most of their domestic tailoring needs. On the other hand computer classes started under HRIDAY have been utilized mostly by younger girls. 

At another level groups of adolescent girls (kishori samoohs) have come up in the villages covered by this project, and here the emphasis has been more on health, hygiene (particularly menstrual hygiene) and education. Being together in the group made these girls more assertive. Once when auto rickshaw drivers were charging unreasonably high fare for taking them to school, they got together and said—don’t you know that we have to go daily for our education? Isn’t it very unfair to charge high fares from us? The auto- rickshaw drivers felt ashamed ad took them to school at the proper rate.

Nikki is a college going student of Lotantiya village. As her mother is a SHG member, she was well-informed of HRIDAY’s work and first enrolled as a kishori group member. She says that she learnt much here, but was also very happy to be just here with her friends. Then she joined a sewing class for about 3 months and finally she joined a computer class again for three months. Both the classes were started under this project. She says that she could pick up a lot of tailoring as well as computer skills during these courses, something that will be very useful in her life, but apart from this she was very happy to be there with her friends together in an important growth stage of her life. She says, “I was able to meet my friends whom I otherwise meet rarely regularly every day, we were talking and laughing and discussing a lot, and this made me very happy.” 

This is an important aspect of the impact of the project regarding how it brings more happiness and hope into the life of women and girls and this aspect should not be missed.

Apart from this, the progress made by and popularity achieved by several community women who joined the project as its team members is also having an inspirational impact. Naushaba comes from a conservative Muslim family and it was once not considered possible that she would be playing such an active and wider role in mobilizing the community. However after overcoming some initial hesitation she has proved to be a very popular team member who has endeared herself more and more to community members with her deep commitment to her work combined with very friendly ways.

Aarti has been another such team member of the Hriday team who has played an important role in community mobilization. She has done her MA in history and would have gone for a teaching course but her husband who was in Hyderabad had an accident which prevented her from further studies. Later when she got an opportunity to work in HRIDAY she seized the opportunity, being very active in mobilization campaign as well as literacy work, while at the same time taking care of her two children (with the help of their grandparents). She has progressed very well and has also contributed much to the success of various community efforts. 

Being in the thick of a lot of promising welfare work makes Naushaba, Aarti and several others happy and at the same time enhances their social standing and the affection they receive from community members.

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*The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include "When the Two Streams Met", "A Day in 2071", "Navjeevan", and "Protecting Earth for Children"