http://scroll.in/article/775839/why-over-one-lakh-rural-women-in-bihar-sent-postcards-to-prime-minister-modi
WOMEN AT THE GRASSROOTS Why over one lakh rural women in Bihar sent postcards to Prime Minister Modi Concerns rise over the shutting down of 26-year-old Mahila Samakhya, hailed as one of the country's most successful women’s empowerment programmes. Aarefa Johari · Yesterday · 06:30 pm Eight years ago, Angurwati Rana was just a quiet, unlettered housewife in Uttarakhand’s Diyori village. She looked after her home and children, worked in the fields and, like all the other women around, kept her head down. Since her wedding day nearly 30 years ago, she had left the village on just a few occasions, always chaperoned, to visit relatives in neighbouring towns. Angurwati still lives in the same village, but her world today is dramatically different. She can now decipher most letters of the Hindi script. She often travels alone, for work meetings, across the district and beyond. She knows how the panchayat is supposed to work. If a woman is abused by her husband, she can tell you the laws that promise her justice. And when other women in the village need any medical help, she is the person they turn to. “I am not a doctor, but I’ve been trained a bit in local herbal medicines. And women feel comfortable telling me about private health problems that they can’t speak of in front of men,” said 48-year-old Angurwati. After listening to the symptoms of their illnesses – most often gynaecological problems – she encourages them to visit the nearest doctor or hospital without fear. “Earlier, women just ignored these health problems because they were afraid of being mistreated by male doctors. But my colleagues and I make sure there is no mistreatment so that women feel more confident in seeking medical aid.” Angurwati speaks as one of the three chief members of the Nari Sanjeevani Kendra in Khatima tehsil, a block-level women’s health centre launched by local members of the Mahila Samakhya programme. Mahila Samakhya, which roughly translates as “equal value to women”, is a central government programme launched in 1989 under the department of education of the ministry of human resources development. The aim of the scheme was not just to improve literacy among rural women but also empower them to solve their own problems through the formation of village-level collectives. Mahila Samakhya may be one of the least known schemes sponsored by the centre, but in the past 26 years, the programme has expanded from three states to 130 districts in 11 states across India. It has been described as one of the most successful grassroots movements in the country, mobilising lakhs of marginalised rural women like Angurwati. Despite all its successes, however, the central government may shut this programme down after March 31, 2016. ‘Save Mahila Samakhya’ Nearly six months ago, state-level directors of Mahila Samakhya were informed by the national office that the centre would stop funding the programme at the end of the current financial year. Not only will this move jeopardise the futures of 2,000 staff members across the country, it could also spell the end of a scheme whose funding, according to senior MS functionaries, has already been growing consistently smaller and irregular in the past decade. The centre, however, hasn’t announced a complete closure of Mahila Samakhya. Senior Mahila Samakhya members claim that the HRD ministry and the ministry of rural development are in the process of discussing a merger between Mahila Samakhya and the National Rural Livelihood Mission, a move that many fear will completely compromise the autonomy and unique methodologies that contributed to the success of the women’s programme. While negotiations are still going on in private meetings between ministry officials and Mahila Samakhya seniors, members and supporters of the programme have been consistently registering their protest against the government’s intentions for the past few months. In September, rural women in Bihar carried out a massive “Save Mahila Samakhya National Postcard Campaign”, sending more than one lakh postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an explanation for the government’s decision to do away with the “most successful” women’s empowerment programme in India. In October, a new forum called Friends of Mahila Samakhya sent a letter to the HRD ministry listing out the various tangible and intangible successes of the programme and urging the government to expand it instead of closing it down. In November, the forum also started an online petition to gather more support against the proposed closure and potential merger of Mahila Samakhya with the National Rural Livelihood Mission. “The government’s rationale behind this proposal is unclear and there has been no public debate or discussion on this so far,” said Malini Ghose, a member of the National Resource Group appointed by the HRD ministry as an advisory body for the programme. “If there is a merger with the NRLM, the Mahila Samakhya programme as we know it will cease to exist, because the focus of NRLM is completely different.” Beyond literacy The National Rural Livelihood Mission does centre on women, but mainly focuses on low-level skill development and setting up small projects to enable self-employment among them. This, say defenders of Mahila Samakhya, reflects only a fraction of the work that the Mahila Samakhya programme has accomplished in the past 26 years. “Mahila Samakhya was designed for the empowerment of the poorest women through the formation of village-level collectives in which they discussed their situations and made decisions about their own lives,” said Revathi Narayanan, who served as the state director of Mahila Samakhya Karnataka from 1996 to 2002. As Mahila Samakhya expanded from state to state – it has a presence in 44,446 Indian villages today – it acquired a reputation for giving voice to the most marginalised sections of women and for taking the idea of empowerment beyond just literacy or livelihood. Women who join the programme are given an education on their own rights, the laws that support them, the functioning of local institutions and government bodies and other issues that impact their lives. “The Mahila Samakhya programme brought about a conceptual shift in the understanding of women’s education – that it is not as much about literacy as about access to information and building self-confidence,” said Ghose. It is the only rural [government] programme, she says, that deals with issues like domestic violence, through the setting up of Nari Adalats. According to a 2014 independent national review of the Mahila Samakhya programme, conducted by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, there are now 481 Nari Adalats or women’s courts set up by Mahila Samakhya members, and they have cumulatively dealt with more than 30,000 cases so far. Similarly, Mahila Samakhya women have established women’s health centres, set up savings and credit groups and have been closely involved in the smooth functioning of government-run schools for women and girls, such as the Mahila Shikshan Kendras and the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas. “In some states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the government has handed over Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya to Mahila Samakhya groups to run,” said Dipta Bhog, an independent education and gender consultant who has done trainings, evaluations, documentations with Mahila Samakhya since 1991. “Because MS groups are so embedded in the community, their ability to bring girls to schools and bridge connections between the community and school centres is excellent.” Towards independence The starting points for mobilisation in the Mahila Samakhya structure are the facilitators, or sahyoginis, who move from village to village bringing groups of women together. These groups – of at least 25 members to begin with – then form collectives, known as sanghas, which meet at regular intervals for training in and planning their various activities. Once a sangha is empowered, the Mahila Samakhya structure allows it to eventually register as an independent, self-reliant federation. Today, 32% of the 55,402 sanghas in the country are already under autonomous federations. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
