Jagyaseni Muna is 25 years old a member a Reflect Circle in Bubel, a village under Puintala block of Balangir district in Orissa. Most of the participants belong to the Harijan caste - a socially excluded community who not only have a separate settlement, but are prohibited from dining and entering the houses of upper castes.
"When we began participating in the Lok Yojana kendra1 meetings, we never knew that we too had rights equal to that of men. We thought this was like our self-help group (SHG) meetings, which we had been holding since the last three years. We used to just discuss about our monthly savings and how much more we need to start bank linkages.
But when we came to the kendra meetings and as we started discussing our problems and how we can find solutions to them through our own efforts, things began to change. We realised that most of our problems were because we were not aware about our fundamental rights !! Now we know that we have equal rights with our menfolk, especially when it comes to participating in the Palli and Gram Sabhas.2 We used to not go to the Sabha meetings thinking we had no right to. But recently we went and even managed to speak up.
We presented the three main problems we were facing - muddy and poor roads within our hamlet, no verandah in the primary school forcing the children to either get baked in the sun or drenched in the rains. And last of all concrete steps leading to our pond where we can sit and bathe and wash clothes. Earlier when we used to go to the pond for our daily chores many of us would slip and fall, especially the older women.
But after we presented these three problems and demanded that the Gram Sabha allocate funds for these three works, two of our demands were fulfilled. The school now has a verandah and our pond has seven concrete steps leading to it. The road will also come by and by."
"We felt that by attending meetings where even the menfolk come, we can know more about different ways to solve our problems. Gradually we realised that by attending these meetings we were learning more and more about our rights. That is the greatest pull factor.
We also like to come because we feel happy to see the menfolk share responsibilities in solving any problem and lending us a supporting hand in asserting our rights. Really, we get a lot of support from them. Sharing has grown manifold between women and men, a thing not even conceivable two years back. But all said and done, we are the real leaders here. The men just support us.
Once when we were discussing the regularity of the allowance a few of our pregnant women were supposed to get from the government, we found that one of the pregnant mothers was seriously ill and in need of two bottles of blood. Her haemoglobin was just four per cent. We got together that night itself and collected one bottle of blood and Rs 700 from among us and took her to the district hospital in Balangir. Now she has a healthy son and is also in good health. After this incident, we have been doing all our works collectively, women and men. This is the strength of our Lok Yojana kendra. We are able to solve not only our own but also our village's problems one by one after a lot of struggle.
This kendra also helps us pass on a culture of self-help to our children. When our daughters marry into different villages then they can also mobilise the women, make them aware of their rights and teach them to solve their won problems instead of depending on the men."
For us the kendra is a collective gathering from where we draw the courage to fight our adversaries. A forum which has united us. Our village was divided into three groups - the upper castes, the tribals and we the Harijans. The enemity was severe. But through this kendra and continuous discussion on this issue, we were able to bring back unity. Now we all sit together in one place, though there are still restrictions on dining. But that will go away gradually.
Also, the kendra is also the collective effort that has given us self-confidence. We women could never speak up for ourselves. The men always cowered us down. Even when an officer would come down to meet us and ask us our problems, we had difficulty in articulating them. We were afraid of rebuff. Now we have the confidence of even facing the Prime Minister and articulating our needs. Recently, we had gheraoed our sarpanch (head of a Gram Sabha) and almost came to blows with him because he was not distributing the 15 kilos of rice we were entitled to as families living below the poverty line. He requested us to keep our cool and from then onwards he has never failed to disburse our rice quota.
But last not the least, it is a process for not only awareness of our rights but their assertion as well. Earlier, we womenfolk were never involved in the decision-making processes in the village and hence never found representation on any committee set up to monitor development programmes in our village. But after we protested at a general village meeting and showed courage by gheraoing the sarpanch and regularising the rice distribution, the menfolk have more respect for us. They had been trying to do this since very long. Now atleast one or two of us is on every committee in the village. It is a big victory - particularly as Harijans."
"Reading, writing and calculating is not literacy ! The very fact that we are able to articulate so many things without inhibition - this itself is literacy. Yes, but we have learnt to write our names and read notices on government schemes. There is this old lady, Udiya Kuanr. She never went to school because her parents thought it made more sense to herd cows and then get married the moment any man came asking for her hand. She did not know how to write. Now she can sign her name. By learning to sign, Udiya feels a great sense of independence. She used to ask me why a man should hold her thumb and make her feel inferior while giving her thumb impression.
This feeling was the main reason why she and many of us learnt to write our names."
