Empowering Women:

Empowering Rural Economy

by Thomas John, Companionship Facilitator

India lives in its rural villages where the economy is sustained by agriculture and other allied occupations, which could be termed as natural resource based livelihoods. The Dalits and tribals in the rural areas are either landless laborers, tenant farmers or small and marginal farmers. A total of 86% of female workers in rural India depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

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Mechanization of farming activities, commercialization of agricultural products, and unsustainable agricultural practices have made farming non-profitable as a livelihood option and only led to the loss of employment in this sector. The already high levels of rural distress are even more exacerbated by the displacement of people due to industrialization, mining and speculative real estate investment.

Because of these trends, Dalits, tribals, women and other vulnerable groups go without jobs for the major part of the year. This leads to decreased intake of food and nutrients resulting in ill health, to increased mortality, particularly of women and children, and to migration. Lack of credit facilities in the rural areas also increases their dependence on private money lenders who charge exorbitant interests, leading to debt, bonded-ness and suicides. Migration to urban areas and associated disintegration of families and communities result in the spread of contagious diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Chethana's Women's Alternative Livelihood Initiative

The Women’s Alternative Livelihood Initiative of Chethana, supported by PHP and Presbyterian Women, is meant to reactivate the rural economy by helping women to engage in industrial and other productive activities that are related to land, agriculture and traditional skills and are based on readily available natural resources.

The ‘alternative’ character of the program activities are defined under the following terms:

- They are initiated by small women’s groups (SHGs) using their own traditional skills and crafts
- They facilitate sustainable agriculture by producing organic manure, pest repellants,etc. and by preserving bio-diversity

- They add value to agricultural produce.
- Their production is mainly geared towards meeting the needs of the rural community
- They propose to establish market networks that value preservation of diversity, organic farming, and rural employment generation and are committed to justice
- They intervene directly in the market, avoiding middle men for loans and marketing
- They are engaged by women in their own domestic surroundings, with possibilities of taking care of children and enjoying the security of a familiar and safe social environment

This initiative has begun to bear fruits by making agriculture a more profitable and attractive livelihood option, by creating more employment opportunities and by providing supplementary income through other sources.

Mobilizing for change

The basic livelihood security created this way becomes the ground for mobilizing these marginalized segments of society into pressure groups to avail the benefits of government schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. This program guarantees 100 days of employment in a year to people below the poverty line by involving them in some of the developmental activities at the village level. As a pressure group they can also jointly demand food at fair prices, as well as access to primary health care and educational facilities. They become the small ‘stones’ to be used against the “Goliath” of the Worldbank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and their insistence on structural adjustments that deprive the poor of all social securities and services.

Two initiatives for solidarity action

by Garry Cox

Campaign focus on land

Land rights and acquisition is the new campaign focus for the India Joining Hands chapter. It is part of a national movement calling for the poor in India to obtain the title to one or two acres of land for each family to be used for farming. The campaign was initiated in November as the active partners in Chethena and Joining Hands of Sacramento agreed to make this the new focus of our common work. This campaign will mobilize many different sectors of the community into a focused campaign for land rights.

JH Sacramento correspondent mission advocate

Another new approach to being in solidarity with our Indian friends is underway right now. Wilma White, one of our JH team members, serves from January 30 to April 30 in India as correspondent mission advocate. She is meeting with groups of people served by Chethana and getting their stories in more detail.

Companions in Transformation

by Wilma White, Sacramento JH Volunteer in Mission

Namaste' - “The Spirit in me greets the Spirit in you.”

You and I enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom of choice, but the villagers of Banarpet - untouchable Dalits in the former caste system outlawed 50 or so years ago- still live with the stigma of old beliefs. Their lives are dominated by cultural attitudes about class, caste, and political inequality among the villagers, many of whome have little education

Earlier this week CHETHANA Director C.G. Jacob, traveled with me by car to Bangarpet, 80 kilometers east of Bangalore, to visit TREES, one of the 19 groups under the umbrella of CHETHANA. TREES programs are about educating and empowering Dalit villagers to seek justice and gain access to what they are entitled to: land, water, a right livelihood, equitable compensation, just treatment by “upper class”, education for all their children, and the rights of women in a patriarchal culture.

Training empowers
Here is an excellent example of progress since our India journey last January. After a training time focusing on the steps needed to gain land deeded to the Dalits, two women took the initiative to follow those prescribed steps and located the official who maintained the maps of the area. They found the hectares originally allotted to them when the English left India, and received from the authorities the official certificate stating their ownership. The women had it recorded, and after two-and-a-half months of waiting one of the two received her deed, while the case of the other woman is in court as I write.

That is what CHETHANA is about!

Overcoming marginalization
The next two days I accompanied Prabavathi and Padma, who are responsible for three wards comprising 60 villages in the area. We visited a women’s sangha to observe another part of the program in action. After the introductions and initial reticence with a foreigner in their midst the women openly shared the issues in their village:

- By 6th grade, 60% of the village school children has dropped out.

- The literacy rate in the state of Karnataka is 65%
- Parents do not have enough money to pay for basic school supplies like books, paper, pencils etc.
- There is a agender based wage discrepancy: whereas women earn 40 rpees (just under $1.00) for 8 hours work, men receive Rs 70
- Women make 16-hour days between their outside job, housekeeping, and caring for their family. One woman in her mid-forties shared her choice of walking 18K to work on the highway for higher pay or remaining closer probably in the fields for less.

- Feticide is still a problem,

- In dowry negotiations women are treated like property

- Women suffer prejudice.

Besides sharing, the women also sang for us about their pathos of life as a female.

Ensuring access to drinking water

Ten years ago the Dalit women all had to walk an average of one-and-a-half miles to a common well where they were required to wait until the “upper class” got their fill. After petitioning the local government, a water tank of about 15 feet tall with spigots was erected in their village which gets filled by the government. The villagers have also petitioned the local government to increase the water required for the organic farming. They make their own compost using dried cow dung mixed with leaves. Within the last ten years their homes have been upgraded as well, from thatched huts to brick structures of maybe 15” across,

Re-claiming land

The next day we headed to another village meeting with the adult age male students, male leaders, women, and children.They shared how an individual had begun building a house on a piece of land the villagers have the deed to and then showed us the plot: a long strip with no structures that the villagers planned to expand on. After approaching the local government and presenting their proof of ownership the poacher’s structure was dismantled by the villagers. They are now in the process of petitioning the authorities for another piece of land across the dirt road running through the village.

While there, I visited a class room of 20’x15’ with thirty second and third graders, even number of boys and girls. It had a slate floor and no desks, while dim light filtered in from the doorway and a small window by the teacher’s desk. She has been teaching in this school for 16 years and always starts the year with a class on good hygiene. In this way students begin early to take responsibility for arriving in class with hands and face washed, hair combed, and clothes neat and clean.

Dalit camp in rubber plantation

For another visit we were in hilly rocky terrain hiking down a steep ravine in order to reach a rubber tree plantation. The first thing we saw were blue tarps over lean-to dotting 4 hills, about 6,000 acres of land. Those were the make-shift tents set up by 14,000 homeless Dalits.We made it down safely on foot and knew we were blessed when a bumpy jeep ride was offered lateron, to see three kinderkarten classes. There are no amenities, and the creek is the only source of water.

In the camps many men leave during the day for work. So women and children are camped out in the barest of circumstances. As a westerner our camp ground set-ups look like a palace in comparison to these shelters!! The people were most thrilled that I showed up from America and that is essentially the welcome I have received everywhere I go. My visit made people feel the outside world knows of their situation, and I told them I was taking pics and their story back to the states.

I will next be leaving on an overnight trip by train to Kerala and visit another CHETHANA program. I will keep you posted.

Joining Hands in the US

If your church or group would like to learn more about Presbyterian Hunger Programs work in India please contact Joining Hands Sacramento, garrycox@westminsac.org and we will be happy to arrange a slide presentation and discussion on this important mission project. You may also call Garry Cox at 916-442-8939.