Role of women in collective action has always been questionable. This was clear from one of the experiences I had during my fieldwork where the women were not allowed to participate in the gram vikas samiti-a collective action initiative taken by the NGO we worked under. Even after their willingness women were kept uninformed and kept away from it. The evident reason behind this was the patriarchal setup in the village which bound the women only to the household chores prohibiting them to participate in the common good of the village. Even the deputy Sarpanch of the village was against teaching girls as it was supposed to ruin the Indian tradition. Till such conditions prevail the collective action in a village will always be incomplete benefiting only a part of society in turn increasing the gender divide.
Aditi- 30001
7 comments:
It is rightly said that women have to struggle hard to participate in any group or collective action in Indian context.There are very few examples of success of women,who tried her best for collective action.
On the birthday of Lata Mangeshkar last year,I was listening her interview on BBC.And,when she was asked,what she would like to say to the GOD.She replied-"ISHWAR MUJHE AGLE JANMA MEIN BETI NA BANAYE....BETA BAN KAR JANMA LUN...BETIYON KO BAHUT SAHNA PADTA HAI...."
well women struggle to be a part of collective action. but there are incidents where women have been very effective. in the field work we had in kerala, we came across several incidents of successful women participation. the village had both male and female SHGs and we observed that the women SHGs were performing better. another example was the women group called thaikulasanghom, which collectively fought the menace of alcohol in the village. all these were possible due to the awareness the women had which in turn was an out come of conscious efforts from the govt ngos etc. so we can think of a collective action to make women more aware and strong to activate collective action.
sanju 30038.
I partly agree with you all.I think this varies in relation to family background,education/awareness of the women and after all interest of the women.Off course all these contribute to this.As for example in our village where we stayed in Bihar,the lady working as community mobilizer under Jeevika,Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society(BRLPS) was an Intermediate in Arts who seemed to be the most educated lady in the village and she had got enough energy to motivate people for so many collective works. During our stay she boosted people to open a Dairy-cooperative there and succeeded also.Again she was also encouraging people to join the proposals put forth by BRLPS for other two more projects.Due to emergence of SHGs the women feel it secure to go for collective action.But while asking for any individual effort very very few were coming for any initiating any collective action.
I partly agree with you all.I think this varies in relation to family background,education/awareness of the women and after all interest of the women.Off course all these contribute to this.As for example in our village where we stayed in Bihar,the lady working as community mobilizer under Jeevika,Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society(BRLPS) was an Intermediate in Arts who seemed to be the most educated lady in the village and she had got enough energy to motivate people for so many collective works. During our stay she boosted people to open a Dairy-cooperative there and succeeded also.Again she was also encouraging people to join the proposals put forth by BRLPS for other two more projects.Due to emergence of SHGs the women feel it secure to go for collective action.But while asking for any individual effort very very few were coming for any initiating any collective action.
It is really disappointing to know that women are barred from participating in the programmes of NGOs.But we found very encouraging signs in Bihar during our field work on this front.The SHGs which consist entirely of womenfolk are working nicely and the male members of the family encourage women to become part of the group.All SHGs in the village have come together to form Gram Sabha which again consists of women only.The women Community Mobilizers are doing great work in encouraging the women to become part of the SHG movement.But I observed some signs of overdoing the women empowerment thing.Women are equal to men and should be treated equally.But we confuse equality with similarity. A case in a point is the appointment of only women VRP(Village Resource Person).The job of a VRP is to convince farmers to adopt SRI method of rice cultivation.The job demands meeting with farmers, giving them technical inputs and regular advice as the crop progresses.The job was handeled by men previously.I am not saying that these works can't be done by women.But when the basic mobility of the women in the village is in question then expecting a women to meet farmers(mainly male)and convincing him about the adoption of the new method is asking for too much.VRP is a key functionary in the whole scheme of things.The project will suffer till the situation improves. Is it fair to sacrifice the goals of the project at the altar of women empowerment?
In the village of Dulam in Uttarakhand, women formed the backbone of every household and therefore had a certain degree of involvement in different collective actions. Debarring women from collective action is indeed wrong. I cannot think of a successful collective action without the involvement of women at least in the village I visited.
It is really disheartening to witness the plight of women to get their right and honour in the society.But I think slowly but steadily they are moving forward .In my field work in Orissa I realised the women power while interacting with them.They have played a major role in anti-alcoholism movement.This is definitely a collective action for a better cause to the society.Whether its individually or collectively but women are making their marks equally in every fields of the society.
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