NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 2000 & 2001
INTRODUCTION
BANASKANTHA
DANTA
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT: ADDRESSING GENDER CONCERNS
BAL VIKAS KENDRAS
DHANDHUKA TALUKA
EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND REHABILITATION IN KACHCHH
RESOURCE & SUPPORT TEAM
POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMMES
MEDIUM-SCALE FININCE INSTITUTIONS OF WOMEN – A MEDIUM
OF EMPOWERMENT : A Concept Note
COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS OF DALITS AND THE NEW
PANCHAYATI RAJ INITIATIVE: TOWARDS PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY : A Concept
Note
LIST OF BSC STAFF MEMBERS
INTRODUCTION1
It does not need iteration that India is today witnessing very turbulent times – social upheavals, political uncertainties, religious fundamentalism, increasing intolerance, uniform homogeneity being imposed on an essentially syncretic and plural social fabric. The vision of a new and resurgent India that Nehru outlined in his famous Independence Day speech lies shattered and betrayed. The enormous strides made, no doubt, in a few spheres of national life have apparently led to complacency, self-interest and neglect of certain sections of society. The story of India’s development is a story of two distinct Indias – one of bottled water and rising food stocks, the other of submerged lands and starvation deaths, with an unbridgeable gulf separating the two.
The Context in Gujarat
The present situation in Gujarat is a collage of contradictions - class disparities, inherent casteism, apparent non-violence hiding an oppressive social order, under-development of large sections hidden by the economic development of a few. Gujarat is a model state in more ways than one. It embodies all the contradictions of Indian society mentioned above and yet manages to remain in the frontline of the economically better-off states. The most compelling image of Gujarat is that of wealth, business, and enterprise. Together with this is the myth of a non-violent and peace loving, harmonious community. Gujarat is a classic case of how growth in certain sectors of the economy has been equated with overall development of the state and its people, an account which is not only misleading but evil in its intentions.
The image of Gujarat being highly developed is a partial truth being projected as the whole truth. In reality, the development of Gujarat has, over two decades, been equated with the tremendous strides it has made in industrial and infrastructural development. The mushrooming of small and medium scale industries along the “Golden Corridor” has been taken note of at international fora. This success gave further momentum to the establishment of a “Silver Corridor” and similar projects in other parts of the state.
The pattern of this development reveals disturbing trends. It is becoming increasingly clear that this development has been sans any long term planning as to its costs. The immediate visible impact has been the high level of land, water (surface and ground) and air pollution that these industries have caused (Hirway and Mahadevia, 1999: 82-92). There has been no ethical or social responsibility framework to guide this development (the High Court order asking the polluting chemical industries in Ahmedabad to clean up or close down is being made a mockery of). The occupational condition of the workers also has been known to be exploitative and hazardous. A study and visit by a Greenpeace (1996) delegation revealed the shocking details of the “Chemical Time Bomb” that the Golden Corridor has now turned into. The land is fast turning unfit for agriculture and cattle grazing due to slow poisoning; rivers with water polluted beyond recognition, with no forms of life left; borewells yielding coloured water which people are forced to drink; the poor being forced out of these regions due to destruction of their natural resources. All these are reduced into one economic category – “growth”.
The overall development paradigm followed by the government has over-emphasized industrial and infrastructure development to the detriment of crucial social sectors and ignoring the need for equitable regional development. Similarly, agricultural development has been extremely skewed, with prosperity seen mainly around the irrigated regions. The irony has been that the developed regions of Gujarat like Charotar (in Kheda and Anand Districts) and the irrigated regions of South Gujarat have been getting more and more water, while other regions like Saurashtra have been deprived of the benefits of development due to the absence of irrigation or any other measures for water conservation/watershed development. The solution that the political class has been advocating viz. “the lifeline of Gujarat” or the Narmada scheme, has itself exposed the paradigm of development that the State has adopted. Displacement of tribal and other communities, destruction of thousands of hectares of prime forest land, total lack of transparency as to the real social, environmental and human costs of the dam and numerous other problems have been thrown up by this model of development. The displaced population from other irrigation projects like Ukai dam in South Gujarat has now become permanent residents of slums in Surat city living in sub-human conditions.
The situation in Gujarat is, in many ways, a reflection of the national and international trends. The aspirations of the burgeoning middle class in India have not been fully answered by the new economic mantra, while the old caste and class based struggles have become sharper, brutal and more violent with each passing day. Polarisation on religious and communal lines has been used as a ploy to suppress the real social and economic contradictions in Indian society. A uniform religious identity is sought to be constructed and is being posed as the ‘national’ identity which works on the principle of exclusion; excluding an ‘anti-national’ minority which poses a constant threat to the integrity and security of the nation. It is the Brahminical order which seeks to propound an exclusivist pan-Hindu nationalist identity, directing all simmering discontent and frustrations at the ‘anti-national’ minorities and diverting attention from the centuries old caste and gender contradictions and preventing the assertion of any other identity which might disprove this ‘homogeneous, Pan-Hindu’ identity. Expectedly, we see strategies being used such as ‘cultural invasion’ leading to the decimation of ethnic identities and cultures, rewriting and misrepresentation of history and introduction of cultural and religious symbols as national symbols so as to shape the psyche of a whole generation. This strategy is also seen in the efforts of the Hindutva forces to appropriate the Ambedkarite discourse, in their effort to bring about a subtle shift by renaming the Adivasis as Vanvasis and in limiting the freedom of choice of women by excessively glorifying their traditional roles.
Moreover macro-economic processes of globalisation and liberalisation perpetuate the economic hegemony of the ‘First’ World over the ‘Third’ world. These processes operate mainly through ‘First’ world economic policies reinforcing unequal terms of trade, human and finance capital movements unfavourable to the ‘Third’ world nations, and creating institutions like WTO in which the domination of the ‘First’ world is complete. Where such economic processes do not work they operate through direct military and indirect intelligence operations whereby their economic and political interests are maintained. The managers of the nation represented by the politicians and the bureaucracy, mainly from the ‘upper’ classes and castes, respond to such policies in two ways:
Development and empowerment: evolution of the terms
The notion of ‘development’ has undergone vast changes over the past few decades, from a purely economic concept to one that encapsulates psycho-social, political and value dimensions. These include the following:
Economic factors: ownership, access and control over means of production and livelihood like land and natural resources; development of industries and other livelihood options which provide employment to a large number of people; creating a policy environment which would make credit available to the poor at easy interest rates;The shift from the growth model to the development paradigm itself had incorporated the aspect of distributive justice. In the words of Sen and Dreze “One way of seeing development is in terms of the expansion of the real freedoms that the citizens enjoy to pursue the objectives they have reason to value, and in this sense the expansion of human capability can be, broadly, seen as the central feature of the process of development” (1995: 10). Following the strides made by development economics it has been largely conceded that measurement of development must take into consideration factors other than economic alone. But even a cursory glance at the official reports and analysis in India will, even now, reveal the huge economic bias reflected in them2. We however recognise the fact that indicators other than economic alone have made inroads into development discourse and definitions.
Human factors: human dignity and respect; development of capabilities; existence of basic minimum amenities for human existence like nutritious food, good residential settlements, roads and means of transportation, means of communication, safe drinking water, facilities for health care etc.; educational facilities and opportunities to develop competencies for earning a livelihood; equitable opportunities ensured to girl children and women for the development of their capabilities; development of adequate social security and social defence mechanisms;
Political aspects: ability to participate in governance and politics in a decisive manner; special emphasis given to participation of women in the political process.
We believe that the development of any state should be measured from the condition of the most vulnerable communities/ sections of the population of that state. The indicators of development usually are averages that mask the pathetic conditions in which these communities live. In the context of Gujarat, it is essential to look at its much-acclaimed progress from the vantage point of the Dalits, tribals, the poorest among the OBCs, the minorities and women of these communities. It is our firm belief, guided by our experience, that the development that Gujarat has seen has eluded these groups. The following are statements of facts which we have observed in the course of our work:
In this light we examine the evolution in our thinking and understanding of development and empowerment – both concepts which are elusive and hard to define. Our understanding, as it has evolved, has been shaped and enriched by our work at the grassroots level and our own immediate experience of reality.
The concept of development, as it is commonly understood, indicates a movement towards a goal that is deemed as desirable from the vantage point of the communities in question or what is generally defined as desirable by the constitution and policies of the governments in power. In a way it is the end result that is indicated without reference to the necessary and sufficient conditions for realising this goal. Governments as well as development oriented NGOs lay stress on programme design, delivery mechanisms, policy framing and institutional arrangements as conditions necessary for the realization of this goal. However what we believe is that these are not sufficient conditions for attaining the goals of development, especially when we are dealing with situations where communities and individuals are controlled by ideologies of oppression and hegemony.
The various ideological dimensions that mediate the socio-political life of the communities and the country in general have been explained in the section on the context. The ultimate impact of these ideologies is to make the dalits, Adivasis and the minorities powerless, deprived of human rights, devoid of capabilities, assets and resources to survive. Empowerment, in this context, is the process through which communities and individuals counter these ideologies, appropriate personal, collective and institutional power and determine the course of their own development. This, in our estimation, is possible only through critical awareness and organised action. We are of the firm belief that development is ultimately possible for these communities only through this political process. (ibid).
Our contention is that it is possible to be empowered and still be at a lower stage as far as development is concerned, but it is difficult to be empowered only through (largely non-participatory) developmental programmes. The process of empowerment has to be essentially educational and organisational in its core. In the words of Ponna Wignaraja “… as the poor and vulnerable groups … deepen their understanding of their reality, they also, through greater consciousness raising and awareness, action and organisation, can bring about changes both in their lives and in society that will lead to human development and participatory democracy” (1993: 5).
Challenges before NGOs8
Gujarat has had a long and rich tradition of NGOs. Their contribution to the field of development is indeed immense. Yet it might not be out of place to suggest that the general approach has been non-confrontationist. It has resulted in NGOs working with the entire village, with all communities. This approach was based on an assumption that the village community was essentially homogeneous, and that this homogeneous community should be strengthened by building on common interests and values like harmony and peace. Such an approach would, deliberately or otherwise, overlook the inherent social and economic contradictions in the village. They end up, as they indeed have, implementing welfare programmes, sanitation and curative health schemes with the dalits and other ‘lower’ castes, but have side-stepped issues like untouchability and atrocities on Dalits. The Adivasis similarly were seen as communities to be uplifted and civilized disregarding their rich and ancient culture. They focussed instead on ‘educating’ and uplifting them and hence we see that one of the major interventions with tribal communities has remained running of ‘Ashram Shalas’ or residential schools were the tribal children could be educated but in an environment and language alien to them. This has tragically resulted in a generation of educated tribal youths severed from their cultural roots and their sense of identity shaken.
The point of the above critique is only to reiterate the fact that unless the NGO sector takes cognisance of caste discrimination and the deliberate marginalisation of the tribals as their take-off points for all interventions, they are sure to remain ambiguous in their commitment and hence ineffective in achieving the ultimate goal of social transformation.
We as an NGO address the following issues in the course of our work and we feel that it would help the cause tremendously if other NGOs took note of these issues.
The empowerment strategies in BSC have been enriched over time. From a Vankar community based approach9 where the counter ideology creation was limited to the assertion and confidence building of a single community (Heredero, 1979; 1989), we have moved towards a broad definition and recognition of a Dalit identity. This identity rejects the Brahminical order completely and challenges all Dalit communities to assume this political identity by shedding all symbols and practices of the Brahminical order. This identity is not a male identity but one that recognises the equality and paramount importance of the leadership of women in the political process. Also, our earlier approach focussed on organisational strengthening and all our efforts went into preparing the office bearers and the employees for sustainability of the organisation. This happened, unfortunately, at the cost of effective leadership from the community emerging10.
Our earlier empowerment strategy (approximately 1977-84) emphasised critical awareness raising in a Freirian sense using non-formal adult learning strategies. Critical reflection on experience and perception of reality in a community group was highly significant, thereby recognising the commonality of experience. This process was at the same time cathartic and establishing mutual support to culminate in a community action plan11, ultimately to result in an ability to bargain from a position of strength and dignity (ibid). The subsequent phase of developmental action (1985-97) was also equally strong on the empowerment dimension in terms of development of organisational capabilities in governance, management and institutional linkages. We have ample illustrations in the history of BSC that bears out this strategy; the village-wise awareness camps, the process of cooperative development, training in techno-managerial aspects of the cooperatives and the Federation, the search for new developmental projects like fisheries, sericulture, paddy processing, garments manufacture etc. The process of critical recognition of the impact of caste ideology and organised action were necessary pre-requisites for any developmental action, but once launched the developmental action itself was designed in an empowering way through its educational nature. Empowerment would be consolidated in the form of a strong people’s organisation.
More recently the empowerment strategy has been enriched by BSC’s recognition of the significance of the role of the state in development, the realisation and exercising of constitutional and democratic rights and people’s movements to achieve the same. The same applies to the attainment of entitlements in the form of basic human amenities, health, education, social security and welfare. The process of attaining these directly demands political participation in the various arms and agencies of the state in a collective and organised fashion. That in itself is an empowering process, and once attained, constitutes significant prerequisites for further development. This process is now familiar to us as seen in the various interventions taking place in Banaskantha through the Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan and the Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh (as illustrated in the sections on Banaskantha and Danta later in the report). It also educates us and the people regarding the way in which the political power structure replicates the discriminatory social system as revealed by the relatively low financial allocations for the oppressed communities and that too mainly in the welfare sector with only cosmetic allocations for asset building or access to means of production. This makes it obvious that these communities need a movement – struggle approach.
Our experience in Golana12 is today forming the basis of the struggle of the Dalit community against atrocities, for the right to life with dignity. It is becoming increasingly clear that constitutional and democratic rights and even franchise would have to be fought for, and calls for a movement approach. We are discovering through our experience in Banaskantha that struggle is a most potent way of empowering, as Ambedkar and many other leaders of political struggles have observed. The long-term process of struggle can be seen as progressional, interlinked and mutually reinforcing stages of empowerment and concomitant developmental gains.
There are many definitions of the term ‘social movement’ and a rather comprehensive definition is that of Paul Wilkinson “a social movement is a deliberate collective endeavour to promote change in any direction and by any means, not excluding violence, illegality, revolution or withdrawal into ‘utopian’ community” (Shah, 1990: 16). Of the various definitions of social movements available to us the one which perhaps best captures the essence of our understanding is the one by M. N. Zald and R. Ash: “a social movement is purposive and collective attempt of a number of people to change individuals or societal institutions and structures” (Desrochers et al, 1991: 3). To this we would add as per T. K. Oommen’s definition “…functioning within at least an elementary organisational framework” (ibid: 4). However as Ghanshyam Shah points out, the meaning and understanding of the term is essentially specific to the participants and their socio-cultural contexts (Shah, 2000: 16). Other interesting definitions of social movements are the ones by Ghanshyam Shah, M. S. A. Rao and H. Blumer (Desrochers et al, 1991: 3). A working definition, for the Centre, to emerge from the above discussion would encompass the definitions of Zald and Ash and T. K. Oommen and would thus be something as: “a social movement is a purposive and collective attempt by Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, minorities and women of these groups, together or separately, to change social and political structures, functioning within an elementary organisational framework, to attain goals of social justice and human rights, and working within the framework of democratic mechanisms of the Indian Constitution13”.
The broad features of social movements to emerge from these definitions are: Sustained collective mobilisation as against individual/sporadic action; Stand for or against change; Presence of an ideology; More or less conflictual nature (ibid: 16-17). According to Shah the components of social movements are objectives, ideology, programmes, leadership, and organisation (2000:17). For us at the Centre social movements have most of the above components: mass mobilisation, a stand in favour of social change, strong presence of an ideology in the sense of working for and developing a counter-ideology to the dominant ones obtaining at present (caste, gender, communalism, ethnicity), providing a constructive opposition to re-shaping the state, formal and informal organisational framework whose ownership is with the people, and strong leadership from within the communities.
Further elucidating the point, Shah states the forms that social movements can and do take, what he calls ‘institutionalised action’ – “petitioning, voting in elections, fighting legal battles in courts of law, etc.” (ibid: 17); the other form, non-institutionalised collective action includes “protest, agitation, strike, satyagraha, hartal, gherao, riot, etc.” (ibid: 18).
The foregoing discussion makes it amply clear that the situation of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, minorities, and women is such that we can realise the impact at a district level to affect a larger number of people. In order for that to happen we have to broaden the scope of our intervention and hence a district level focus has been thought of14. As stated earlier, the Centre believes that effective social transformation and empowerment of the marginalised is well achieved through people’s power, where ownership and responsibility rests with the people. People’s organisations are an effective means of achieving this. Our experience in our earlier areas of engagement and the success of the people’s organisations there are proof of this belief. Further our experience also indicates that in the given situation individual efforts of Dalits Adivasis, OBCs, minorities, women have not borne much fruit; collective efforts on the other hand have resulted in an increased bargaining power of these communities vis a vis the elites and the powerful blocks.
It is thus clear that any activity henceforth, whether it is training or basic amenities or any other, will necessarily have to be tackled in the context of human rights of these communities or groups. This cannot be done in an individual capacity but will have to be taken up organisationally to be able to sustain the movement. For this we would be adopting a district level organisational thrust. All other aspects of our approach and strategy will be channelised through it. Having a district level emphasis would give us the advantage of:
The above-mentioned strategy of empowerment requires a sound understanding of democratic and constitutional rights and the legal provisions to deal with adverse response by the State or the oppressors. A large number of motivated volunteers with commitment, risk-taking abilities and competence to engage in constant learning and mass education would form the background of this empowerment process. The following steps are important in making it effective:
The following report is a consolidated report of the past two years – 2000 and 2001. Owing to the great tragedy following the earthquake of January 2000 and BSC’s intervention in the area of relief and rehabilitation it was difficult to bring out a report for that year and hence a consolidated report. The last two sections are concept notes on two of the emerging areas of BSC’s intervention – the struggle for women’s empowerment and participatory grassroots democracy.
[We are grateful to Tara Sinha and Ashim Roy for their comments and suggestions on this chapter.]
Bibliography
The Banaskantha programme is an embodiment of the new shift effected
by the Centre and the direction
adopted towards promotion of people’s movements of the marginalised
groups. The programme covers the 5 talukas of Banaskantha district – Palanpur,
Vadgam, Vav, Tharad and Dhanera. The work in these areas is heavily concentrated
with the Dalit communities. The present report outlines the activities
in this programme
in the calendar years 2000 and 2001.
It was in December 1999 that we at the Centre brought in a shift in emphasis from promotion of organisations of the marginalised to promotion of people’s movements of the marginalised groups against the denial of their human rights. This implied a shift also from a purely developmental approach to a more rights-based approach. The Banaskantha programme is a concrete manifestation of this shift. Our tentative steps in this direction now seem to be on firmer ground. Having achieved a measure of success in our endeavours we are hopeful of more positive outcomes in the future.
The mission and goals of the Centre in Banaskantha were outlined in the earlier report. To recapitulate the points briefly, we entered the area in the context of the Dalits of the area whose lives were marked by large-scale violations of their human rights in terms of denial of access and control over resources, the right to live a dignified life and the right to determine their destinies. Our mission in the area then was to work intensively with the people and accompany them in their struggle for justice and dignity. The concrete objectives, the strategy and the activities adopted towards this end are detailed in the sections below.
Background & objectives of the Programme
The objectives of the programme are:
As mentioned earlier there has been a shift in the approach that the Centre now takes in its work with the marginalised communities. With a shift in focus in the direction of broad-basing the intervention and taking it along on the path of a people’s movement there has been a consequent shift also in the strategy and mode of operation. We outline below the various activities undertaken during these two years. The discussion on activities will also highlight the key aspects of the strategy adopted to achieve this.
1.1 Mobilising and organising
As mentioned earlier the activity of mobilising and organising the
community was a crucial aspect of the strategy of the Centre. One of the
activities of the team was that of mobilising membership and support for
the cause of a Dalit organisation. The organisation was envisaged as the
Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan (BDS) and work of mobilising took place under
this banner, even before the actual registration could take place. They
organised various programmes such as rallies, sit-ins, conventions and
meetings (we detail below the actual programmes) with the aim of establishing
the identity of the organisation and making the organisational entity visible.
|
DALIT ASMITA RALLY Being in the area brought us into contact with the lived reality of the people of the area viz. employment, livelihoods, atrocities, basic amenities, and discrimination. The government officers got in touch with us. A one-day meeting was called jointly by several organisations of the area like the Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan, Banaskantha Viklang Trust, various unions of the SC/ST government employees. At this meeting various issues such as the reservation policy, roster promotion etc. The BDS made a forceful presentation of other issues plaguing the community, like atrocities on Dalits, livelihood issue, tribal rights and the issue of basic amenities. It was decided to hold a rally and present a memorandum to the Collector, and through the Collector to the President, the Prime Minister and the Chairman, National Human Rights Commission. Accordingly it was decided to hold the rally on 7th January 2000. Prior to holding the rally it was necessary to obtain the permission from the police which proved to be an extremely difficult task. It was granted practically at the last minute, late night on 6th January, and that too with severe conditions laid down for that. There was a big turnout at the rally, mostly comprising of Dalits from the rural areas. The urban Dalits and the government servants whose issue the rally was ostensibly about were few in number and were conspicuous by their absence. Looking at the composition of the rally the speakers gave voice to the burning issues plaguing the larger community in the rural areas. The rally was well covered in the local media. By any standards, the rally could be called a success. The very fact
that the BDS, as yet not a registered or legal entity, could mobilise people
in such large numbers speaks volumes for the work done on this front. It
also yielded us the advantage of wider publicity and awareness among the
public regarding the issues of the community. The message of the need for
a local organisation was driven home very forcefully without having to
say it. More importantly, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took
note of it and started sending their replies to the BDS.
|
We had to encounter the reality of sub-castes within the Dalit group and therefore our endeavour remained that of fostering a functional unity within the various sub-groups in order to make the organisation truly representative of the Dalit communities and, more importantly, their issues.
The organisational structure envisaged was outlined in the last Annual Report. The process of organising has gone more or less in the same direction. The major work entailed was in establishing the identity of the organisation at the taluka level. So far we have not registered the formal entity which is expected to be registered by February 2002 and which will be called the Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan (BDS). The membership position of the various taluka level units (as on 31st Dec. 2001) is as provided below:
|
MORIKHA CASE Village: Morikha Taluka:
Vav District: Banaskantha
Date of the incident: 19/03/2000
The issue involved a piece of land belonging to Ishabhai’s father, Chhatrabhai. Chhatrabhai owns a house adjacent to a plot of land that belongs to Khema Choudhary, an upper caste person, also the Sarpanch of the village. He had the intent of grabbing that piece of land. He had, on several occasions, made demands and pleas for that land but Chhatrabhai was not willing to give it up. On the day of the incident Chhatrabhai’s son was taken to Tharad on the guise of going on a picnic, by a friend of his called Isa Pira. He was murdered and his body was left hanging on the outskirts of the village. In order that the needle of suspicion not be pointed at him, Khema Choudhary himself went and informed Chhatrabhai that his son had committed suicide and that his body was hanging by a tree on the outskirts of the village, and even went and himself registered a case with the police. On the third day after the incident the members of the BDS went to the village and made inquiries about the event. Initially Chhatrabhai did not trust the emerging leadership of the BDS, and instead chose to go along with the traditional leaders who did not do much. So the case was not registered and no further action could be taken. Finally, after a year he decided to leave his village and camped, with his family and cattle, in the compound of the Collector’s office in Palanpur. After a year of thus camping there without any headway being made in the investigations he approached the BDS in Dec. 2000. Once the BDS decided to take up the case they used several tactics to publicise the event. Representations and presentations to the ministers and officials, memoranda and a postcard campaign were implemented. Press notes in various local vernacular newspapers were also issued. His demands were:
 The Dalit Atychar Jyot Yatra - Dalit Atrocity rally also helped to draw attention to the case all over the district. Subsequently his daughter’s wedding had been arranged and he insisted on holding it in the compound of the Collectorate. This attracted media attention, locally and nationally. It was covered in the print media (dailies and in the weekly called ‘The Week’) and TV (Star News and Aaj Tak). The Dalits from several villages in Banaskantha converged at the Collectorate to show solidarity with Chhatrabhai in his quest for justice. In the meanwhile one member of the BSC Banaskantha team was selected
to represent the Dalit issues from BSC at the UN Conference Against Racism
(UNCAR) at Durban, South Africa. The local officialdom, fearing adverse
publicity, gave in to his demands. The government has accepted his demand
for a CID inquiry into the murder of his son. Additionally he has been
given 5 acres of land, and, a plot for housing in the village of Mandana.
|
|
RATILA: SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR Ratila, a village in Deodar taluka of Banaskantha district consists of 40 households of Dalits, apart from 400 households of Rajputs, some of Rabaris (OBCs) etc. The Dalits were agricultural labourers and in the year 1982 they registered an Agriculture Cooperative – “Shree Lavana Ratila Samudayik Kheti Sahakari Mandali Ltd.”. In 1984 the Cooperative made an application to the government for land for the cooperative. The District Land Revenue department surveyed the village and granted 150 acres of land to the cooperative. At this point of time this plot of land was free of any temporary or permanent structure. It was only after the land was awarded to the cooperative that the illegal occupation on this plot of land occurred, i.e. in 1984, when the Rajputs of the village built a temple to Goddess Ambaji on 2 acres of land. The Dalits did not oppose this. In 1997 the land was re-surveyed and this 2 acres’ plot was given to the village for performing religious functions. The rest of the land was divided among the 29 members of the cooperative. Some of the families started tilling the land. They put in great effort to improve the quality of the land after which they started sowing. The harassment started the year they started reaping the crops. In the initial years the harassment was not of a serious nature. However, this year the harassment has intensified; they have sown castor, Bajri, and pulses, and the agricultural output this year would have been approximately Rs. 5,00,000/-, had everything gone on smoothly. However the Rajputs destroyed the crop of each and every Dalit family. Two of the members raised their voice against this harassment and atrocity. They decided to file a case against the perpetrators of this crime. Hearing this the Rajputs thought of “finishing off” these two persons. When they got to hear of this plan the Dalits, a total of 61 members - 33 men, 16 women and 12 children, fled the village on 9th September leaving their property behind. Some of old people, the women stayed behind. The Rajputs had, since then, illegally occupied 15 acres of land. INTERVENTIONS BY THE PEOPLE
STRATEGY
1. Call a meeting of dalits of 84 villages of Deodar taluka
2. Meet the Collector and evict the illegal occupants of the land
3. To stage a rally in support of the cause of the 29 families
The rally passed off peacefully without any untoward incident. The Collector accepted all the demands, except the granting of cashdoles. The demands accepted were:
 Thus it was that the people of Ratila, who had been camping outside the Collector’s office in Palanpur, decided to go back to Ratila in an State Reserve Police (SRP) van, along with 10-15 SRP personnel, on 24th of October. The plan was that the police and SRP personnel would help to remove the illegal structures on the land at Lavana and see to it that calm and peace was maintained throughout the operation. However, before this could happen, about 3000 Rajputs from surrounding villages assembled at Lavana, where the land is situated. A scuffle between the Rajputs and the Dalits followed. In order to disperse the mob the SRP personnel was about to fire at a Rajput but in the nick of time a Deputy Superintendent of Police pulled his hand back and the bullet was fired in the air. In the ensuing confusion one Dalit was injured seriously. He was immediately taken to the Deodar referral hospital which refused to admit him without a police complaint being lodged. He was then taken to the Palanpur Civil Hospital. A First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged at the Palanpur police station under the Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 against 7 Rajputs. No arrest has so far been made since the procedure of the transfer of the police complaint to Deodar police station is underway. |
The other cases of atrocities which have come to our notice, and where action has been initiated by the Banaskantha Dalit Atyachar Sangharsh Samiti (BDASS), are listed below:
1.2 Creating a cadre of volunteers
We had sought to realise our goal of promoting a Dalit movement in
the region through the promotion of a cadre of volunteers who would represent
the issues of the people at the larger / higher level. This strategy is
based on the fact that we are going to be working at the area level in
5 talukas and this will necessitate the development of a volunteer cadre.
They could play an important role in the formation of the people’s organisation.
The volunteers would not have an organisational plan; rather their mandate would be to forever be vigilant and alert about the issues in the area. Therefore the question of professional accountability does not arise vis a vis them. This group of volunteers would be fluid i.e. it is not likely to remain the same; some may leave, others may join and more can be incorporated as they are identified. Strategically we could think in the lines of highlighting the village level issue of a particular village and get other villages to join the event.
The danger that needs to be guarded against is that of the volunteers starting to look towards the proposed organisation (BDS) as an outlet for power or employment. Therefore the challenge before us would be to sustain their motivation without unconsciously channelising their aspirations towards the organisation. Remaining in constant touch with them is critical to the success of this structure.
Selection criteria for volunteers:
We have met with limited success in this sphere of our activity. The reasons for this are discussed in the section below.
1.3 Women’s organisations
The organisations of women (the Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies)
were envisaged as the economic organisations of the movement and also a
concrete manifestation of the empowerment approach vis a vis women. In
this line the work progressed faster than expected. We had expected to
register around 2 cooperatives during the project period. However, on account
of the tremendous response of the women to the activity as also due to
the fact that our team members had built excellent rapport with the officials
in the concerned department we were able to complete the registration and
inauguration of all the 5 cooperatives in the project period. The position
of the various cooperatives as on 31st December 2001 is provided in the
sections on MSFI on page 44:
The output in this case has been sought to be achieved through a strategy of mass communication where the message of organising and coming together is communicated to a large mass of people. This is done through appropriate cultural forms which are more acceptable to the people. The message we seek to transmit is new i.e. of gender equality and ‘women’s rights as human rights’ but it employs media which are rooted in the culture and sensibilities of the people and the area. This serves the purpose of wider coverage and greater impact.
1.4 Awareness creation
Newsletters and Leaflets:
The BDS, with the aim of spreading awareness about the issues of the
area as also the message of organising, decided to start circulation of
a quarterly newsletter called “Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan Patrika”. A
function was organised to launch the newsletter on 25th February and it
was released by Mr. Hasmukh Parmar, Social Welfare Officer, Banaskantha
District. It seeks to disseminate information regarding the work of the
BDS, Dalit issues in the area, the movement for Dalit Human Rights, awareness
programmes and information on Panchayati Raj. A similar newsletter entitled
“Stree Awaaj” (Women’s Voice) is being brought out jointly by the 5 women’s
organisations of the area.
Apart from these newsletters, the BDS also brings out leaflets to disseminate information regarding some of the issues, the drought relief and the government’s response to it, or cases of atrocities in the area. E.g. they brought out two such leaflets: one was a public appeal to the people asking for support for Chhatrabhai and his struggle for justice; the other gave information regarding the measures initiated by the government to tackle the situation of drought and the various schemes of the government which could be beneficial to the people.
Dalit rights rally:
A Dalit Atyachar Jyot Yatra (Dalit Atrocity rally) was taken out by
the Dalit Atyachar Sangharsh Samiti from 9th to 18th June 2001, covering
88 villages of the 5 talukas with the aim of highlighting the issue of
atrocities on the Dalits. The rally would go from village to village and
would cover about 8 – 10 villages in a day. There would be cultural programmes
and other items which would talk about the particular issue of atrocities
on the Dalits. Since it came at a time when Chhatrabhai was camping in
the Collectorate at Palanpur, it also served an added purpose of highlighting
the particular case and the plight of the family. Two bye-products of this
rally were the increased awareness about the presence and work of the BDS,
and, a heightened sense of the essential oneness among the numerous Dalit
communities. This was a very visible expression of the strength of the
Dalit community and it seemed to convince the people that if they were
to seek redressal for atrocities committed against them then they would
not be alone in their fight for justice.
Apart from this the BDS also organised a huge rally on 22nd October in Palanpur to highlight the Rantila case and get justice to the affected families. The rally was organised following an uncooperative attitude of the local officials and bureaucrats to the case who challenged the Dalits to go to court. The rally was attended by both Dalits and Adivasis of Danta and was addressed by activists from the area as well as from Ahmedabad. It was only after the huge turnout at the rally that the Collectorate issued orders for the removal of encroachment under police protection.
Training programmes:
The trainings take the form of meetings where education is imparted
along with the implementation of the tasks. In the process of discussions
during these meetings the facilitators, usually from BSC, undertake the
clarification and explanation of the processes such as decision-making,
conflicts, development perspective, leadership and such like. Besides they
serve an important function i.e. of learning by doing where the team members
accompany the persons in their learning, providing timely feedback for
improved performance. They also serve the purpose of setting examples and
role models for the area and its people.
1.5 Drought relief programme
| The talukas of Vav, Tharad and Dhanera are the worst affected in terms of the drought. This has led to a severe scarcity of water, fodder and livelihood. The government survey showed faulty assessment and so the drought relief programmes were not started in time. Therefore the BDS decided to survey these villages. After the survey they held meetings with the village elders as well as with the taluka level committees of the BDS. They constituted ‘Drought Relief Committees’ in the talukas to make representations at the government level. They sent various memoranda to the Chief Minister, the Revenue Minister, the Taluka Mamlatdars and the District Collector. The state machinery did not take any action. This activity did not go further as there was a high level of frustration among the people; moreover it would have |
in village Baluntri of Banaskantha.  |
Year 2000
Year 2001
1.6 Earthquake relief programme
When the killer earthquake struck Gujarat on 26th January 2001 the
people of Banaskantha also decided to respond to this human tragedy. When
they learned that the Dalits were facing discrimination in the distribution
of relief materials they collected food items (flour, tea, sugar, bajri,
groundnut, grams, and water pouches) and mattresses. They went there themselves
and distributed the items to individual households. This gesture was all
the more commendable since the area had been under a spell of drought for
the last one year (then) and they themselves had been facing a food scarcity.
Vav taluka of the district was also affected to some extent by the earthquake. As part of disaster vulnerability reduction efforts in the area, the three villages of Baluntri, Daiyap and Mithavi Charan were selected for distribution of water tanks to 66 beneficiaries, through BDS in collaboration with Janpath Citizens’ Initiative. Besides this, the work of farm bunding was undertaken in Daiyap and Mithavi Charan and in Baluntri the work of pond deepening was undertaken. This provided much needed wages to the people affected by the drought as well as the earthquake.
* A Brass is equivalent (approx.) to 100 cu. ft. of
soil excavation.
1.7 IRDP survey
In the 5 talukas of our operation we have noticed that in spite of
the fact that a large number of Dalit families are in fact living below
the poverty line their names have not been included in the government’s
“Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) list. Consequently they cannot receive the benefit
of various government schemes. The BDS took up the task of surveying such
families, making applications to the taluka officials for the same.
The economic benefit accruing to the families is shown in the table below:
1.8 Basic amenities
Drinking water
|
filling muddy water from virdas.  |
Village Madali:
The drinking water problem in the village of Madali was very acute indeed. Madali village is on the border of Gujarat and Rajasthan and neither state accepts it as part of its territory and the situation is very deplorable. With the drought conditions intensifying this year the drinking water problem of the entire village was an issue. BDS mobilised money from some individuals and provided water through tankers which saw them through the summer. Village Kundaliya:
|
2. Difficulties and limitations
At the end of the first year we can sum up the year and its achievements as:
3.1 Establishment of the identity of the local organisation
We have been successful in fostering a strong identity of the local
organisation of the area – the BDS, among the people as well as the government
and the bureaucracy. This is evidenced by the fact that people are coming
to the BDS from talukas which are not covered by us at present such as
Dantiwada, Amirgadh etc. The BDS has been able to press forcefully for
their entitlements and rights which were hitherto denied to them, e.g.
the basic amenities, the inclusion of families in the IRDP list. This in
itself is a highly political act because the allocation of funds for development
and its utilisation is fraught with local politics and dominated by the
vested interests of the area which the BDS has been able to challenge to
a certain extent.
3.2 Establishment of linkages with the government
Further, the image of the organisation is that of clean and honest
administration. Therefore the government also comes to BDS for implementation
of its schemes and surveys e.g. the IRDP survey or the fact that the govt.
(Dept. of Social Justice and Empowerment) requested the BDS to survey the
extent of electrification in Dalit households in the area. The relationship
with the government has been confrontational at times also, and the BDS
has taken strong stands for the people and against the anti-people and
high-handed attitude of the bureaucracy and local government officials.
It means that the BDS is taken as a threat by the vested interests operating
in the area.
*****************************************
footnotes:
BSC’s interventions in Danta taluka of Banaskantha district began in 1994. Since then the Centre has helped to set up a local organisation, Shree Danta taluka Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh (ASVS). Its current membership stands at 1634. The ASVS has emerged as a forceful voice of the Adivasis of the area, sourcing and managing many diverse developmental works for and on behalf of the community.
Introduction
Our effort during these two years has been to consolidate the achievements over the past five years in terms of establishing and developing the ASVS and the savings and credit cooperative of Adivasi women (the latter is reported separately under the section titled ‘Medium Scale Finance Institutions’ and will not appear under this section). The strategy adopted has been three-fold:
We were expecting to resume full-fledged implementation during the period October 2000 to March 2001 but the complete failure of monsoon even this year sent panic waves all over Gujarat. As far as Danta is concerned it was a serious spectre of famine that was emerging in the summer of 2001. So again, during the second half of the year, we were preparing ourselves to handle a much worse situation.
The following sections will outline the various activities undertaken in accordance with the programme objectives and the strategies as mentioned above.
1. Danta Taluka Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh (ASVS)
As a part of its strategy to make an impact on the livelihood issues of the people, the ASVS undertook the following activities this year:
1.2 Seed and fertilizer credit
Due to failure of monsoon this facility was offered only on a modest
scale during the monsoon of 2000. The distribution was decentralized this
time to avoid inconvenience to the tribal farmers.
In October 2001 ASVS obtained a license, in the name of “Khanta ni Magri Irrigation Co-operative”, for the sale of fertilizer which would greatly affect the end-user, the tribal farmer, in terms of lower prices (a decrease of almost 5-8% as compared to the private retailers). Moreover, the ASVS can now earn a commission on the sale of fertilizer which would be an income for the organisation. This has broken the monopoly of the non-tribal agents (all such agents were non-tribals) who indulged in sale of fertilizer at exploitative rates. Besides this ASVS has also received permission for sale of seeds and fertilizers for agricultural use. This could translate into a possibility of setting up a seed shop.
Details of purchase and sale of fertilizer
Details of purchase and sales of local seeds
1.3 Capacity building and organisational development
of the representatives, committees and the employees:
An exposure trip, in collaboration with the agriculture department
of the state government, for 60 marginal farmers was organised to see the
white revolution belt of Kheda district to obtain a first hand understanding
of Dairying. In another exposure trip 11 ASVS members participated in a
Human Rights Rally organised by Legal Aid & Human Rights Centre (LAHRC),
Surat.
Several educational programmes were organised during the year with a view to enhancing the competencies of the various stakeholders of ASVS. The focus was mainly on strategic intervention in crucial issues affecting the region and the community. Besides effective programme implementation, emphasis was also placed on training for advocacy at the area level especially with regards to the severe drought situation and neglect of the development of the area and the community. The following table gives an account of the trainings organised during this period.
Year 2000
No. of participants in the various educational events:
ASVS representative training (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 50
ASVS Committee (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 12
ASVS employees (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 6
ASVS community leaders (from various villages):
On an average 55
Year 2001
No. of participants in the various educational events:
ASVS representative training (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 65
ASVS Committee (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 11
ASVS employees (Same group in all programmes):
On an average 7
2. Watershed development programme
We believe that the key to sustainable livelihood in the region is watershed development leading to sustainable agriculture and allied activities. While the community in the area has been prepared through training and exposure trips to take on this approach, our present assumption is that the actual technical measures to be implemented can be financially supported only by the Government. This has prompted us to explore the possibility of obtaining funds for this programme from both the Central and State Governments. Project proposals have been sent to Council for People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) which is the nodal agency of the Ministry of Rural Development (Government of India), District Rural Development Agency (DRDA, Banaskantha District, Government of Gujarat) and the Department for Co-operation (Government of Gujarat). All three proposals are pending approval.
2.1 CAPART:
In the early part of the year we submitted a proposal for watershed
development in 5 villages of the taluka covering 574 households over an
area of 1350 hectares. This proposal was rejected twice on flimsy grounds.
The first proposal was kept pending for six months and without any correspondence
whatsoever was rejected on the totally untenable grounds that the micro-watershed
proposed had more than 25% forestland. We submitted a revised proposal
in September ‘99 which was again not processed and rejected in March 2000,
taking advantage of a directive (passed in March 2000) of the Rural Development
ministry that all watershed programmes should be in regions declared by
the State Government as Drought-prone Areas. This ground also militates
against the basic principles of watershed development since the aim of
this approach is also to prevent any region from becoming drought prone.
We are beginning to suspect that there are ulterior motives behind such
delay in processing and subsequent rejection. We intend to take up the
matter at the highest levels. But at the same time we need to think of
an alternative strategy if the Government support would be further delayed.
2.2 District Rural Development Agency (DRDA):
We have applied to the D.R.D.A. (Banaskantha District) of the Gujarat
government seeking the status of a Project Implementing Agency (PIA) for
watershed development in the area. This proposal covers a total of 60 villages
situated in central, eastern and northern parts of the taluka. The application
for 1998-99 was rejected without showing any plausible reason. We have
submitted a fresh application. With the State Government we are less hopeful
because the application by BSC and by ASVS has already triggered off opposition
from the communal elements as well as the corrupt politician-bureaucrat
network.
2.3 Co-operation Department of the Government of Gujarat:
We had planned to initiate a Lift Irrigation project in Khanta ni Magari
village but the proposal is awaiting sanction. If this proposal is approved
it would cover a total land area of about 107 acres, 45 households, and
a Gross command area of 64.80 hectares. The project aims are:
However, we felt that despite non-cooperation from the Government we should go ahead with the programme with a fully community–sustained effort. Accordingly we appointed Abhigam Collective, an organisation with expertise in community based Natural Resource Management issues to assist the ASVS and BSC in this effort. We decided to initiate this on a small scale in three villages selected on the basis of certain parameters related to the stage of ecological degradation, watershed characteristics, agricultural productivity, water scarcity and community preparedness. Abhigam Collective has been able to study the situation in the selected villages intensively and has come up with a plan of action which involves various community based measures. Most of the measures will be executed by the people and some of the major ones will have to be financed by the Government or other agencies. Concrete steps were planned after the drought period and the monsoon of 2001. (A complete report of the study is entitled Towards Sustainable Livelihoods: Potentials for Rejuvenation in 3 Villages, Danta, Banaskantha by Vinay Mahajan & Charul Bharwada). Based on the detailed study, a proposal for community-based eco-regeneration in these three villages was submitted to Gujarat Ecology Commission. The project proposal is likely to be sanctioned by June 2001. The three villages selected for this intervention are Tarangada, Machkoda and Dhamanva.
Facilitation of effective implementation of Government welfare and development schemes
The following table gives the details of the various schemes of the government the ASVS managed to get sanctioned for its members.
3. Other Activities
3.1 Government Schemes – Implementation
Medical (T.B.) camp: Organised by ASVS and the Govt. Health department
No. of patients treated:
716
No. of patients diagnosed with T.B.
82
No. of patients who received free medicines
870
Total value of medication prescribed free of cost (for 6 months)
Rs.31,980/-
The TB diagnosis camp was organized at Hadad village on 11th February 2001 with the joint support of the government Health department. About 716 people came here for diagnoses out of which 417 were diagnosed as positive. The medical service was provided here by doctors of Prof. K. J. Mehta TB Association situated near Bhavnagar. The Commissioner of the labour department, Mr. A.M. Parmar remained present at the camp and the work was completed successfully under his supervision. A total of 870 persons were provided free medicines for TB continuously for 6 months by the labour department through the ASVS. There were two cases in the camp that needed a detailed check-up. They were sent to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital by the Sangh and the check-up was done according to the instruction. Their cases were sent for financial aid to the labour department in order to cope with the extra expenses incurred.
Camp for the physically challenged:
The camp for the physically challenged persons was organised on 15th
July 2001 at Sandhosi village. The district health officer, Orthopaedic
Surgeon, Civil Surgeon as well as officers from other government departments
attended the camp. 116 beneficiaries from a total of 37 villages has come
to attend the camp out of which 110 physically challenged persons were
given certificates identifying them as being physically challenged. 84
out of them were given free bus passes by the social security office. Moreover
those who did not have crutches were supplied crutches too.
Thus, this activity carried out by the Sangh for the implementation of the government schemes has been a successful one. It gives benefits simultaneously to a whole group of people at one time and place.
Along with this we have divided the government schemes into two sections and its activities have been very effective. The details are as follows:
Drought relief work undertaken by ASVS and BSC with the assistance of Catholic Relief Services: (April-August 2000)
Conducting the survey has affected the identity of ASVS positively in the area. For one thing, this survey brought the ASVS in contact with non-adivasi villages and people who were also surveyed to be included in the BPL list. Therefore the earlier suspicion and mistrust of ASVS and its activities was replaced by respect and trust. Secondly, many government officials sent letters of acknowledgement for the good work done and promising support to the ASVS in its future endeavours.
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS
Developing and initiating sustainable livelihood options for our
priority communities in our areas of intervention is an important activity
of the Centre. The task is to identify, initiate and stabilise agricultural
and non-agricultural income-generating alternatives and sustainable livelihood
options to increase the people’s skills and to decrease their dependency
on exploitative, seasonal agricultural labour. The aim is to link individuals
and communities with financial institutions, training institutions
and other resource personnel
to enable them to access the right tools and resources to succeed.
The following report details the activities undertaken in this regard in
2000 and 2001.
When we visualised working in the line of sustainable livelihood options
for the poor we had thought of actively pursuing livelihoods in the non-farm
sector, not ignoring the farm sector also. However this plan has not worked
out due to the economic environment hostile to the poor, lack of technical
and management expertise which is difficult for the poor to mobilise. Our
work in this line thus received a setback. The starting and winding up
of Jagruti Garments Ltd., a garment manufacturing unit set up in Petlad
is a case in point. We need to seriously rethink on this aspect of our
intervention. In order to augment the feasibility and sustainability of
their existing livelihoods (increasing productivity) options, goat rearing
and eco-regeneration at a micro level and organic farming have been thought
of.
| Last year’s report talked about the feasibility study undertaken with regard to promotion of goat-rearing in Danta as a secondary source of income-generation. Our endeavour was to introduce a scientific, commercial and entrepreneurial approach to this enterprise. Our plans for the same were also mentioned therein. However due to the drought which had gripped large parts of the state, and Danta was no exception, it was not possible for the activity to take off there. Yet, in Savli taluka of Vadodara district, where the situation of drought was not as severe as in Danta, it was possible to implement it on a pilot scale to derive learnings and experience of the activity. This is what we decided to implement in this |
 |
The activity is not new for the Dalits and Adivasis of the area. But the problem lay in the fact that they carried it out on traditional lines: releasing the animals for grazing and getting them back at milking time. The activity was undertaken in 3 villages of Savli taluka – Maninagar, Karanchiya and Sankarpura.
Number of goats distributed in the 3 villages
1. Training of CEDC staff
It is essential that the staff of the organisation receive inputs related to the promotion of goat rearing as a sustainable livelihood option for them to be able to convince the people to move in that direction. Although the training of the staff in this regard has been on-going two training programmes for an intensive input were organised where the following points were covered:
In order to give the staff a practical exposure into the scientific goat-rearing methods exposure trips were organised.
2.1 Central Sheep & Wool Research Institute (CSWRI):
Situated about 110 kms. from Jaipur this institute, apart from the
infrastructural facilities, also has expertise with regards to the world
famous Sirohi breed of goats. This trip was organised in September 2000.
This institute also offered to sell male goats to us at reasonable rates
for the purposes of breeding.
2.2 Sirohi Goat Farm:
This is run by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of Rajasthan
in village Ramsar, Ajmer district and conducts research on the Sirohi breed
and its productivity.
2.3 Barmer and Shivganj tehsils of Rajasthan:
The shepherd communities in the villages here have been successfully
carrying out this business. To get a first-hand exposure to their methods
and success in goat-rearing visits to villages like Balera, Rafua, Janpatrasar,
Aati, Udarwa, Vadala etc. of both these districts were organised between
31st March and 2nd April 2000.
3. Networking
Networking was undertaken with Animal Husbandry department of Baroda district, the goat rearers of Rajasthan, Ramser Farm, Ajmer and the goat rearers of Banaskantha. In order to implement our plans of vaccination, castration and training programmes related to goat-rearing it was essential for us to secure the cooperation of these agencies for which networking had been initiated. The Director of the Animal Husbandry office in Fatehganj, Vadodara had directed the veterinary officer in Savli to extend all help to us in this matter.
4. Vaccination programme
 |
The goat is a very resilient and strong animal and it has a capacity
to survive in varied environs and climatic conditions. But once it does
become sick it is difficult to bring it back to health. Therefore special
vaccines have been developed for goats. However, people in our sample villages
have been carrying out goat-rearing in a traditional fashion and were consequently
not very open to scientific methods such as vaccination and such like.
Our chief reasons for going in for vaccination were:
|
5. Monitoring system
In order for the CEDC staff to be able to undertake intensive monitoring of the entire activity, a special monitoring system had been devised and put into practice. The main objectives were to ensure that the goats were adequately taken care of and whether its growth was maintained, as well as to ensure that the sick animals were given timely medical treatment so that the mortality rate could be controlled. The monitoring system plays an important role in maintaining profitability. The aspects covered in the monitoring system were to do with rearing, health and shelter.
6. Medical follow up arrangements
We have been able to arrange for the free treatment and medicines for the sick animals. Almost 500 goats in the 3 villages were affected by the Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) and they have received treatment. Apart from this there have been incidence of other diseases also such as goatpox, liver flu, and premature deliveries. We have been able to get the support of the Livestock Inspector, the Veterinary Officer and Deputy Director of the Animal Husbandry Department.
Details of mortality of the goats in the 3 villages
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT:
ADDRESSING GENDER CONCERNS
Women’s empowerment has remained on the Centre’s agenda consistently
since the early 1980s.
The savings and credit activity was the concrete translation
of this concern into an achievable target; it offered immense scope for
immediate gains as well as a powerful symbolic tool of transformation in
gender relations. The MSFI function was earlier referred to as the Micro
Finance Institutions (MFI) and functioned within the overall thrust and
direction of the Centre for the particular area in which it was operational.
Its scope was thus restricted and circumscribed within a geographical boundary,
an activity which otherwise offered immense scope for mass mobilisation
of women for social empowerment. In the following report we describe the
efforts of the Centre to overcome this limitation and give the activity
a broad base and movement orientation.
Gender as a concern has manifested itself in the Centre’s programmatic approach and focus since the early 1980s. Debates and discussions as to the implications of such a stand, as well as locating appropriate strategies to operationalise this concern were undertaken. As a consequence of these several programmes and activities were initiated with and for women. The specific programmes for women’s empowerment such as the Community Health Programme (CHP), sericulture, adult literacy programme for women have been reported in the earlier annual reports. Learnings accruing to us from these undertakings coupled with intensive reflections with the women led us to the identification of the savings and credit activity as an appropriate intervention tool to address the gender issue.
The thinking behind this activity was clear: it was an economic activity by and for women. As an entry point for work in gender issues it was ideal as, at one stroke, it dealt a blow to the existing stereotype of women’s inability to manage large-scale financial activity in a professional manner. Besides, it was an activity which made a direct attack on one of the most fundamental aspects of gender imbalance viz. the economic dependence of women. We maintain that tackling social manifestations of gender inequality, important as they are, are frustrating if not accompanied by a creation of an economic base which offers some scope of bargaining and negotiating ones terms on a footing of equality. In sum, therefore, this activity is firmly rooted in our commitment for women’s empowerment, the activity of savings and credit being the strategy adopted to fructify this commitment.
Overview of the Medium Scale Finance Institutions (MSFI) activity
In keeping with the shift in approach, discussed in the introductory chapter, the Micro Finance activity was also taken up for in-depth discussion at the Centre. The discussion focused on the strengths and achievements as well as the shortcomings of the activity as it had been carried out till then. In light of that discussion a vision and strategy for the future were worked out.
Till December 1999 the Micro Finance activity was operational in 3 geographical areas of BSC’s intervention viz. Bhal of Cambay, Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district and, Danta taluka of Banaskantha district. The important achievements and successes of the activity to us seemed very much to be on the social parameters, although no effort till then had been made to chalk out specific criteria by which to gauge the progress of the activity. In the main they were:
* Non-productive assets include house, house repair and extension of the living quarters.
* Consumption expenditure includes expenses incurred on health, education, and consumption needs.
* Other expenses include expenses incurred on marriages, other social occasions.
1. Report of the activities during 2000 – ’01
1.1 Efforts at broad basing the activity
As discussed earlier the effort of the Centre was to make this activity
the main plank for a women’s movement, which would be a part of the larger
struggle for human rights of the Dalits, Adivasis and women. The challenge
was to transform a programme into a women’s movement for rights and empowerment.
This required a critical mass of membership as well as engagement with
the concerns of the membership to establish the credibility of the issues,
the people involved and the movement. Therefore it was necessary to increase
the number of such organisations from the existing 3 (in Bhal, Dhandhuka
and Danta).
We wanted to register at least 2 more such organisations in 2 of the
5 talukas of our intervention in Banaskantha. However, on account
of the tremendous response of the women to the activity as also due to
the fact that our team members had built excellent rapport with the officials
in the concerned department we were able to complete the registration and
inauguration of all the 5 cooperatives by June 2001.
| General assemblies of the new cooperatives:
The year 2001 witnessed 5 huge gatherings of women in Banaskantha district. The General Assemblies of the new cooperatives in Banaskantha were historic events in the life of Dalit women. No such event had ever evoked such an impact in the lives of women. The General Assembly created a sense of belongingness with the organisation. Each taluka level event brought women from approximately 35-40 villages together. Each event saw attendance of more than 400 women. Women came in tractors and jeeps to attend the General Assembly. For the first time women were getting up before a crowd of 350-400 to address the gathering, communicate the vision of the cooperative to women, and anchoring the show in front of Government officials and men of the community. |
Savings coooperative.  |
These structures helped to create the visibility of dalit women:
Dalit women are an invisible segment of society. Their contribution
was never recognised and their potential never given an opportunity. The
credit co-operative society provided such an opportunity. It is this structure,
which gave women an identity as office bearers/members of managing committee/President/members
of a modern formal organization. This identity made women visible. For
e.g. People now have started saying “Hansaben, president of Vadgam taluka
level cooperative spoke well”. Initially Hansaben was invisible but now
she has got new identity and her visibility has increased. So is the case
of many women who are the members of the cooperatives.
It further helps to break certain patriarchal beliefs and gender stereotypes and is therefore an invaluable educational tool. It is not claimed that all sorts of values and beliefs are broken but planned intervention to break such beliefs are already in process. The General Assembly of the Cooperative is one such intervention where conscious and planned intervention was done to break many beliefs about women. They were:
These structures helped women to create her assets i.e. financial
capital:
The savings from women’s point of view is security at times of vulnerability.
In Tharad taluka women have started depositing fixed deposits not with
the view of taking credit in future but to create an asset that would help
her in future.
The position of all the 8 cooperatives as on 31st December 2001 is provided in Table 1 and 1(a) below. As is evident from the table the position of the 3 cooperatives of Bhal, Dhandhuka and Danta is comparatively quite strong on account of the fact that they have been in operation for a longer duration. Not surprisingly therefore they have been giving out the credit facility for a longer duration and as of now a total amount of Rs. 60.42 lacs has been given to the members, the average amount of credit per member being Rs.3,531/- The rate of interest offered on savings also compares quite favourably with that of the nationalised banks, 0.5% more than the latter. The interest on credit is the same as that of the nationalised banks except in the case of Bhal where it is lower than the bank rates. This is on account of the larger volume of capital and savings at their disposal. 25% of the total members have availed of the credit facilities but the figure appears skewed because of the fact that the 5 recently registered cooperatives have not yet initiated the credit function.
Table 1 Primary statistics (as of 31st December 2001)
* Rates of interest of Nationalised Banks on
savings 4%; on credit 15%
** Average amount of loan per member Rs. 3,531/-
Table 1(a)
The perception of the cooperative in the minds of women, as also its
role and function, is well illustrated by the case below.
|
GIVE AND TAKE, JOYS AND SORROWS – TOWARDS SOLIDARITY A training programme for the Executive Committee of the Vadgam Credit Co-operative Society, the first of its kind for the participants, was held on 15th – 16th November dealing with the subject of evolving a vision and mission for the co-operative. Trainer: What is the objective of your Credit Co-operative Society?
Why do we need a women’s organisation?
There was a silence in the group.
This discussion became the focus of the first day of the training programme. The conversation clearly reflects the oppressive reality of a woman’s situation. Jasuben’s case is a prototype of the oppression of women. It also, very poignantly, brings out the women’s need for a space to share their problems and frustrations. OD interventions therefore take a backseat in the initial stage of the organisation’s life. At this stage it is more important to concentrate on aspects of gender oppression and its structural nature (as opposed to something which is “God-given”). The process is a valuable one for the individual woman as well as for the group which would be undergoing vicarious learning or catharsis. More importantly it serves an OD function – that of group building and promoting solidarity among the members. |
1.2 Increasing the participation of women in the larger Dalit struggle
 |
There were simultaneous efforts made to involve women in the larger Dalit struggle, in their own areas as also in various parts of the state, with a view to promoting solidarity among women and fostering a sense of responsibility towards the issues facing the larger community. Thus it was that 60 –70 women came and joined the rally and the subsequent dharna at the Collector’s office in support of Chhatrabhai (for details of the case see section on Banaskantha). Similarly 2 women stayed at Rantila with the affected families (for details of this case see section on Banaskantha) along with members of the BSC. Apart from this, the Presidents of the various cooperatives have been visiting the villages from where atrocities on women are reported. Several Dalit women from various areas participated for about 2 days |
| 1.3 Mass education programmes
We seek to arrive at the output through a strategy of mass communication, with the local women as resource persons, where the message of organising and coming together is communicated to a large mass of people. This is to be done through appropriate cultural forms which are more acceptable to the people. The message we seek to transmit is new i.e. of gender equality and ‘women’s rights as human rights’ but it will employ media which are rooted in the culture and sensibilities of the people and the area. This would serve the purpose of wider coverage and greater impact. Setting precedents and role |
 |
1.4 Evolving systems
Credit policies and recovery systems:
Apart from these another valuable function served by these cooperatives
is that of making women visible as entrepreneurs or as owners of assets,
in cultures where such role models are not just scarce, but non-existent.
As mentioned in the beginning of this section it was clear that we needed
to make more efforts towards creating assets in the name of women. Consequently
policies had to be devised to fulfill this objective. Since the member’s
ability to attract credit is a matter of prestige and status in the family
it was decided to introduce certain changes in the credit policies in the
three areas. Some of the major changes were:
|
WOMEN IN THE DIRECTION OF OWNING ASSETS Four years back women of Galiyana village, members of the Bhal Credit Co-operative Society had availed of a loan of Rs. 1,00,000/- to purchase land for constructing houses. They bought the land but on account of some legal wrangles it had to be in the name of two traditional male leaders. Having bought the land they were left with no money for house construction. The Co-operative thought of helping them to mobilise money from external sources. They contacted the Gujarat Gruh Nirman Board who agreed to loan Rs. 40,000/- per member at 10.5% rate of interest to build houses. There was however one condition which had to be fulfilled, i.e. women’s share should be reflected in the legal title of the houses thus constructed.A meeting of the Dalit community of Galiyana was called by the Cooperative. The meeting was attended by all members of the community including the village elders and the men. In the meeting it was made clear that money for the housing would be mobilised only if the above condition was met. The men agreed to this condition. The legal formalities and compliances to be met before approaching the Gujarat Gruh Nirman Board were explained to the members. They were told that firstly, the land, in the name of two elders, had to be transferred onto the names of the 44 members. Secondly, the land had to be converted into Non-agricultural land. The local organisations there assured them that they would be given legal assistance by their lawyer. Thereafter the community called a meeting to chalk out the future course of action. The community decided to constitute a committee comprising 3 men and 3 women who were given the mandate to manage the entire operation. The first thing the committee did was that they met the lawyer with some of the documents they possessed. The lawyer gave them the guidance as to how they should proceed further. The first thing they were supposed to do was to obtain legal records of the land of the previous fifty years from Talati and Mamlatdar. This was necessary for ownership of the land The second thing they were supposed to do was transfer the land as Non-agricultural land. For transferring Non-agricultural land they were supposed to have:
|
Recovery of credit is a tricky task and therefore systems had to be devised in order to ensure the minimum of default on the loans taken. Owing to such problems it was decided to introduce new rules to plug the existing loopholes. Some major amendments were made in the credit system. They were:
|
EDUCATING WOMEN, EDUCATING A GENERATION The Dhandhuka Credit Co-operative Society set an example in promoting a healthy management culture within its membership. It concerned the committee’s firm stand on credit defaulters. The committee members decided to penalize the defaulters by deducting the default amount from the savings of their guarantors. This was the first time that the committee was resorting to “unpopular” measures. There was a big hue and cry from the members. The guarantors complained that they were unaware about the fact of them being guarantors. Some beneficiaries were put under intense though informal pressure by the employees and the committee members. This was done through mobilizing women members of the village savings group to pressurize the credit defaulter at the village level. This made some of the men pass such comments as –“Bhavishya ma baheno ni mandali thi paisa leta pahela be var vichar karvo padshe, gammathi panch take leva sara.” (In future we must think twice before borrowing money from the women’s cooperative, it is better to take it from the village at 5% interest [per month].) This led to committee to create a new set of credit rules making it mandatory for the beneficiaries and the guarantors to come to the central office to seek loan. This would eliminate the possibilities of members being made guarantors without their knowledge. Such measures to ensure accountability and financial discipline were
unheard of in the area, even from the nationalised and co-operative banks.
|
In this line, it is worthwhile to mention the fact that the recovery rate in these cooperatives is highly commendable, almost 90% and above. Only in the last year, which was a drought year, it dipped and then too it was well over 60%. The measures for credit recovery that we have put in place are to offset the danger of a trend of defaulting on the loan setting in, and is in no way a reflection on the financial discipline that the women have been practicing by and large, with a few exceptions.
Problems faced:
In spite of the recovery measures in place there are a few loopholes
which will remain. There is the issue of assets in the name of women. The
credit amount to be disbursed for asset generation in the name of women
proves to be a tricky issue. The loan would be taken for house repair (which
technically does fall under the purview of asset generation), for instance,
but the asset itself would not be in the name of the woman, and yet one
cannot refuse such a loan demand. There were cases where money was used
for house-repair, or for buying readymade garments to do small-scale business.
The loan itself cannot make the woman the owner of the asset! This is an
issue that we will have to address in future.
The new rules have also ushered in changes and outcomes which were not envisaged, and are by-products of the actions taken. For one thing, the insistence on women coming to the central office to avail of the loans meant that their mobility increased. This has resulted in women coming to know or wanting to know more about banking rules and regulations. Women, specially the committee and the employees, have also started using credit as a bargaining ground. in several cases they dialogued with the members’ spouse in terms of dealing with patriarchal attitudes regarding ownership of assets. There has been at least a willingness in some men regarding joint ownership of assets like land. This has been found among those families where the credit demand was more than Rs.15,000/-. For e.g. a husband, on behalf of his wife who is a member of the cooperative, had asked for a loan amount of Rs.15,000/- to repay a debt and recover his land. The Committee said that it would disburse the full amount on condition that the member be made joint owner of the land. He agreed in principle but he said it was not possible as the land was undivided and it still in his father’s name. The loan was not sanctioned but we can see a definite shift in the attitude of men where initially they could not even harbour such thoughts. The major challenge lies in crystallising the objectives in action. It has been found that large a credit amount definitely puts women in a better bargaining position whereas small credit amounts do not provide a leverage for bargaining.
In Danta, although the credit amounts have not been very significant, the credit activity has given to women a new power. Some of the credit beneficiaries have commented “… earlier the subsidies and grants for which we used to sign and which were issued in our name were taken over by our men, but now the credit co-operative’s credit disbursement system prevents our men from cornering its benefits. Now we are owners of the benefits”.
Information system:
The quarterly newsletters, “Stree Awaaj” for Banaskantha and “Stree
Sandesh” for Dhandhuka are steps in this direction. They serve the purpose
of disseminating information and the voice of the cooperative in the area,
bringing in the ethic and principle of transparency in the functioning
of the organisations.
Apart from this there were some structural changes introduced in order to make the organisation a participative one as well as to help the cooperative identify potential leaders and nurture their leadership qualities. In the three areas of Cambay, Dhandhuka and Danta this was carried out. The newly registered cooperatives have yet to reach this stage.
The problem that the cooperatives were facing were mainly as below:
The major objective of the mela was three-fold:
|
The objectives of the programme were:
The programme started with women stating the aims and objectives of the co-operative through a role-play. Some of the members enacted how women had benefited from the co-operative in terms of having assets in their name, educational benefits to their children, acquisition of administrative skill and application of these skills in other spheres of life. The co-operative also had an open discussion session where the members
could pose their problems or queries to the committee members. The major
problem that came from the General Assembly was unavailability of credit
to some of the villages. The major achievement was Valmiki women taking
initiative and coming forward to express their experiences to the General
Assembly. One of the Valmiki women made a forceful plea to other Valmiki
women to take a more active role in the activities of the co-operative.
|
The year 2000 saw the three credit Cooperative Societies introducing region specific systems for increasing the efficiency of the organisation and making it more people centred (people-centred in terms of the members realising their stakes in the organisation, more participative decision-making, and undertaking more responsibility for the organisation). The Cooperatives saw introduction of management and information systems for the Cooperatives.
Information systems were devised for two purposes and for two target groups. The cooperatives of Cambay, Dhandhuka and Danta developed and put into practice information charts (which provide information regarding the share capital, Membership stature, savings, credit transactions, deposits, Income/Expenditure statement) to help the Managing Committee in understanding the financial situation of the cooperative and taking appropriate decisions. The new cooperatives (Vav, Tharad, Dhanera, Palanpur and Vadgam in Banaskantha) have fewer transactions so the information systems (which give information about the savings collected per month, share capital collected per month and membership stature) were devised accordingly.
Instituitionalisation of the representative forum:
As reported in the last Annual Report the Dhandhuka and Danta Cooperatives
had introduced the system of village secretaries to collect savings and
to provide information of the cooperative to its members. The Dhandhuka
cooperative wanted to introduce the system to consolidate its financial
position while the Danta cooperative introduced the system for mainly two
reasons: firstly, the houses in the tribal area are very scattered and
it is impossible for the representative to cover them alone; secondly,
the nature of tribal society and relations is such that in case of factions
or quarrels it would be impossible for the representative, who would be
from the same village, to rise above these considerations even if she were
willing to do so. In such a situation a village secretary, who would be
from another village, can play a more constructive and non-partisan role.
The system was introduced with the idea of increasing the savings, making a positive difference in the quality and quantum of information reaching the members, and ultimately increasing the participation of the members. However this did not happen and the system posed many difficulties. For one thing, the village secretaries came in place of village level representative turning the latter hostile and uncooperative. Secondly, in the absence of suitable candidates they had to recruit young women whose acceptance in most villages was far from satisfactory. This, together with the fact of a second consecutive drought compounded the difficulties which the secretaries were unable to cope with. More than anything else the system militated against the social objective of the cooperative. It decreased the participation of the representatives by minimising their responsibilities, whereas the cooperative is a people’s organisation and thrives only when its constituents and members take an active interest in its functioning and growth.
The Dhandhuka Cooperative faced the difficulty of total non-cooperation from representatives with the village secretaries in the matter of credit repayment; the employees, along with the Managing Committee, had to shoulder this entire responsibility. Some members displayed a tendency of wilful default and although very small in numbers it had to be arrested and stymied in the initial stage itself. Steps such as those outlined above in Box 3 were initiated. The initial hostility manifested in members’ disinterest in savings thus adversely affecting the savings collection. It was then that the plans to revitalise and institutionalise the representatives’ forum were put into action.
Danta Cooperative, on the other hand, had a mixed response to this system since it had used the system for savings collection only. The cooperative being yet in the formative stages the representatives were trained in organizational aspects. Unlike in Dhandhuka none of their powers were threatened by the secretaries and so there was no hostility. The savings increased substantially. The cluster level sammelans helped the members to identify with the organisation. The Credit crisis due to drought was taken serious note of and the responsibility of repayment was taken up by the Committee members along with the support of the SVS (the local organisation in Danta).
The BhalBara Cooperative continued with the representative forum. The representatives were responsible for collection of savings and credit disbursement. This ensured representatives’ stake in credit repayment. However the drought put paid to any hopes of good repayment as people did not have any cash for credit repayment. To avert the culture of non-repayment seeping in it was decided to keep in constant touch with the members through the representative forum and ensure at least the repayment of interest accrued on the credit to members. A summary of action points for institutionalising representative forum of the three cooperatives is given below.
The two major committee-training programmes this year were conducted jointly for the three committees of Cambay, Danta and Dhandhuka. Several novel training methods and materials were used so as to enable the non-literate members to understand, monitor and govern the cooperatives. Concepts like budget, financial statements etc. and their content were communicated and analysed using relevant local pictorial symbols. A vision and perspective building exercise was done keeping the next five years in mind.
1.6 Support functions
Trainings and other support:
Part of the mandate of the team is also to extend support to other
groups in Gujarat wishing to initiate such activities with women. The type
of support extended is indicated below.
Policy advocacy:
BSC, in association with Co-operative Development Foundation (CDF),
Hyderabad organised a workshop on policy level issues pertaining to co-operatives
in Gujarat. It was held on 16th September 2000. The objectives of the workshop
were:
The workshop met its objectives in that the participants freely aired the problems they had faced in the running of cooperatives, ranging from registration of the Co-operative, investment, distribution of surplus, to the management of the Co-operative. The Government official present there promised to look into some of the matters pertaining to the Co-operatives. The participants were also given an idea about the Parallel Co-operative Act drafted by CDF, Hyderabad. The Parallel Co-operative Act, in operation in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, and has shown positive results in the direction of growth of the sector as well as catering to the needs of its members. This Act promises to be a liberal act, which upholds the spirit of the Co-operative principles and promises more autonomy to members who are the real owners of the Co-operative.
The participant group felt that there had to be a State level debate on the Parallel Co-operative Act in Gujarat for which a five-member Steering Committee was formed. The main responsibilities of the Steering Committee were to draw out strategies for the Parallel Co-operative Act Movement in Gujarat. The workshop was well covered in the media by the Gujarati channel Gurjari and the newspaper Financial Express.
Some of the outcomes of this event were favourable for the Centre as well as the cooperative movement as a whole. BSC gained recognition in government circles as an outstanding organisation promoting cooperatives of marginalised women. The Gujarat State Co-operative Union took note of BSC’s work in this direction and they publicised our work in their periodical “Sahakar”. It also helped to forge functional linkages with some of the big co-operatives which could be tapped for diversification of services for women’s co-operatives.
1.7 Building linkages
The Credit cooperative Societies have tried to build linkages with
various organisations. The linkages were done for various purposes:
Linkages for furthering economic benefits of the cooperative:
The Bhal of Dhandhuka taluka was gripped by drought in the year 2001.
The earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 sidelined the impact of drought thereby
marginalising the drought-affected people. The drought relief programmes
started late and lasted for precisely one and a half months. Members of
the cooperative who used to migrate to Ahmedabad during the lean season
as construction workers were also disappointed due to recession in construction
industry following the earthquake. People had difficulty in obtaining foodgrains
as there were no reserves of foodgrains left. The Credit Cooperative Society
intervened in this situation by linking up with wholesale dealers of foodgrains
and disbursed foodgrains to the most needy members of the cooperative.
This was the first time that employees and members of the Managing Committee
were entering into business, an area which women normally do not enter.
After this experience, they learnt some elementary business skills in terms
of negotiating, setting up systems of payment, systems for disbursement.
The table below gives the details of the disbursement of wheat.
2.1 Dhandhuka
Disciplinary action against a general assembly member:
For the first time one of the members of the co-operative was removed
from the membership of the co-operative by calling a special General Assembly.
This was due to the fact that this member physically assaulted one of the
employees who had gone for credit recovery. A criminal case was lodged
against the offending member. The representatives’ forum and the Committee
took serious note of it and initiated action as prescribed under the co-operative
Act and also lodged a police complaint. They felt that such actions from
members had to be dealt with firmly to stop others from following suit.
2.2 Cambay
Achievements of grassroots level women:
The President of the Cambay Co-operative was interviewed by the T.V.
channel TARA in their shot of grassroots women leaders. She related her
experiences of how she fought against the traditional structures to create
an organisation of women
2.3 Danta
Uptil now credit of Rs. 2.67 lakh has been disbursed. Credit has been
disbursed for assets – house, tractor, agricultural equipments, education,
health. The activity of credit had to be discontinued following a directive
form the District Registrar who insists that any co-operative has to have
a share-capital of Rs.1 lakh to start credit activity. So we have been
instructed to recover the outstanding credit and make efforts to raise
the share capital1.
Trainings:
This time a special emphasis was put on capacity building of the Managing
Committee and the representatives of the Co-operative. Trainings were organised
for this purpose wherein the issues addressed were:
The management training for the cooperative employees, including village secretaries, focus on areas like communication with the committee and membership, legal aspects of the cooperative, financial planning and management, and conflict resolution. Besides weekly monitoring and training by the BSC staff the secretaries meet the committee every month to brief them about the functioning and progress of the cooperative. So far four major programmes have been held.
Cooperative education of the members is fundamental to the effective functioning of any cooperative. Such training programs are jointly conducted by the BSC staff and local staff. This year training events for 6 villages were organised. Principles of cooperation, essential information about their cooperatives like savings, interest rates, eligibility for loans, repayment conditions etc. are discussed in these programs. More importantly these programs also provide an opportunity to reflect on common issues as women which then forms the basis of the empowerment orientation of the cooperative.
As a part of the cooperative education for the membership and also strengthening of the women’s organisation, a “melavado” (cultural/educational get-together) was organised at village Sanali. There were close to 300 women. Many women, for the first time, used this opportunity to speak to the entire group; they performed plays with social messages; mass information dissemination was possible for the staff regarding the policies and programmes of the cooperative.
Training for Employees:
On-the-job training is given to the employees every fortnight with
reference to their responsibilities. These training are:
2.4 Challenges and concerns
For the future our endeavours will remain in making the organisations
move together towards their objective of women’s empowerment. The social
movement orientation will be pursued for this purpose. The challenge lies
in effectively blending the social concerns of the movement together with
financial and organisational viability of the cooperatives. This is particularly
difficult given the fact that financial viability has to be ensured and
yet monetary gains are not the only yardstick to measure the success of
the cooperatives. These are two disparate areas which have to be adequately
balanced and effectively managed.
Another challenge as well as a concern lies in the fact that the membership of all these organisations consists of poor women. They are geographically located in coastal saline areas (Cambay and Dhandhuka) or desert area (Banaskantha). All the groups/communities constituting the membership are dependent on agriculture which is by and large dependent on monsoon. The economic position of the people here is therefore very vulnerable to the vagaries of nature. Drought is a constant occurrence in their lives. The concern emanates from these facts put together i.e. what is the viability of a financial organisation in areas such as these which have to deal with uncertainties of such a nature every 2 or 3 years? The challenge lies in finding a solution to this issue, a solution which answers the issue of financial viability without compromising on the goal of women’s empowerment and well-being even in times of crises such as these.
Developing leadership from among the general membership of the cooperatives, as well as imparting cooperative education will also remain priorities for us. They become all the more important given the fact that these organisations have a social goal, in the absence of which (leadership and cooperative education) all our efforts and activities mean nothing and are reduced to redundancy.
*****************************************
footnotes:
The activity of Bal Vikas Kendras (BVK) was initiated in 1995
by the Centre in its areas of
operation with the aim of addressing the issue of low levels
of literacy in the communities
it worked with. It caters to SC/ST children between the ages
of 3 and 12. This activity is rooted in the belief that that values and
codes of society are inculcated and nurtured during childhood. If an intervention
is made at this crucial juncture then the debilitating effects of caste/tribe
and gender ideologies would be reduced to a great degree. The activity
is operational in 2 areas of the Centre’s intervention viz. Bhal of Cambay
and Danta taluka of Banaskantha district. The following report details
the activities undertaken as part of this programme.
The last report talked about the growth of the activity since its inception in 1995 and the achievements and successes of the activity. As mentioned therein the activity is operational in 2 areas of our intervention viz. Bhal of Cambay and Danta taluka of Banaskantha district. The BVKs are village-level classrooms, one in each of the 16 villages, with a teacher in charge of each BVK. The Dalit/Adivasi children of the village come here for a couple of hours each morning, where they are made to undertake various activities aimed at developing and sharpening the psycho-motor skills of the children. The activities include: singing songs, acting/reciting stories, making toys/pictures out of clay, leaves or other waste articles and such like.
The growing demand for the opening of BVKs in new villages points to a definite change in long-held attitudes towards formal education. Following the demands for this from parents 12 new BVKs were initiated, 9 in Bhal and 3 in Danta bringing the total to 28.
1. Vacation camps
Children of the BVKs enacting
a play
2. Admissions to schools
It is interesting to note the gender discrimination prevalent in the education pattern. All those admitted to the higher standards are male children. Only in standard 1 do the female children outnumber the males.
3. Role of the teachers
 |
The teachers of the BVKs play a crucial role in motivating the students and their parents in favour of this activity, maintaining the morale and interest of the students as well as constantly thinking of newer and innovative methods of child development. In the initial period the teachers used to run the classes on much the same lines as the other schools, confining the activities to the four walls of the room, without much involvement of the children. Since the last 2 years the teachers have received specialised training in child psychology, pedagogy and teaching aids. They have received specific inputs on the objectives of running the Bal Vikas Kendras and the concepts behind using particular teaching materials and/or aids as well as follow-up. |
4. New direction
In December 2000 a shift in the direction of the BVK was introduced in the context of the new approach of the Centre i.e. of promoting people’s movements with a human rights perspective. The BV activity lends itself well to this perspective on the following grounds:
There is need for devising pedagogical interventions aimed at countering the debilitating effects of discriminatory social structures of caste, ethnicity and gender prevalent in the environment. For this purpose there is need to first orient the teachers to the issue of child rights (Dalit / Adivasi) and discriminatory structures, and further, on how these could be tackled in the village setting and in the confines of the BV limits (not just physical). Consequently a series of training events were organised for the teachers of BVKs of both the areas. The trainings were on the following themes:
Dhandhuka taluka Dalit Pachhat Manav Vikas Sangh (MVS) was registered
in the year 1995
under the Societies and Trust Act. It is operational in 27 villages
of Bhal area of Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district. It was formed to
empower the Dalits and Other Backward Castes (OBC) through awareness programmes,
developing leadership among the community and conducting programmes of
an educational nature. At present it has a membership of 2316 members,
which comprises Dalit and OBC households. The present report covers the
activities of the MVS for the years 2000 and 2001.
Behavioural Science Centre, for the past 10 years, has been working in Bhal area of Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district and the work has resulted in the establishment of two local organisations viz. Shree Dhandhuka Taluka Dalit Pachhat Varg Manav Vikas Sangh and Shree Bhal Mahila Credit Cooperative Society Ltd. (the latter is reported separately under the section titled ‘Women’s Empowerment: Addressing Gender Concerns’ and will not appear under this section). The work here has been difficult in more ways than one. We present the background and context of the work for the years 2000 and 2001.
We initiated work in this area in 1987 with the formation of village level Forestry cooperatives in 3 villages, the objective being to provide employment to the Dalits and Koli-Patels. The adverse geographical and climatic conditions made the venture unviable. Moreover it had become quite clear that no more land would be available from the government for such ventures. Further, our attempts at creating employment opportunities through training inputs for non-farm sectors did not meet with success. This was due to the procedural wrangles involved in securing loans, getting raw materials, market availability and competition.
After much debate and discussion on the present status of the organisation and in view of the change in the approach of the Centre it was felt that we needed to transcend geographical as well as organisational boundaries which may not be possible in Dhandhuka given the limited scale of operations of MVS. It was felt that the local organisation in Dhandhuka should develop into an effective and efficient service delivery organisation and a bridge between the government and the people. Simultaneously the potential for mass leadership in the area should be explored.
It was in the above context that future direction in MVS was chalked out.
1. MANAV VIKAS SANGH (MVS)
MVS is operational in 27 villages of Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district and has a membership of 2316 members, both men and women. The membership comprises the marginalised population of the area viz. Dalits and OBCs. The organisation works for a sustainable gender-just development of Dalits and OBC communities through programmes that are of an educational nature, providing livelihood options and advocacy. It follows thus that the organisation requires skilled persons to carry out the objectives of the organisation. Moreover, education and advocacy strategy implies mass-level awareness programmes at grassroots level, establishment of linkages with Government machinery, and facilitation of grassroots people taking leadership in addressing their issues. The years 2000 and 2001 concentrated on developing MVS as an intermediary between the people and the Government thorugh:
Village Kamiyala:
The Dalits of this village had long pending demands of well-repair
and deepening of ponds. This, in the past, had been sidelined under one
pretext or the other. This time MVS played a proactive role in presenting
their demands at the appropriate fora and
| taking it forward decisively along with community members. A pressure
group of 6 members was formed to address their issues in the Gram Sabha
and a resolution promising to undertake this project in the new financial
year was passed.
Village Ambli:
|
for the proposed housing scheme.  |
Village Adwal:
The OBC women of this village had to walk 2 kms. to fetch water. During
summer and monsoon this task was rendered extremely difficult. 10 women
from the community along with the MVS employees presented their case to
the Mamlatdar Gujarat Water Supply Sewerage Board for a separate stand
post near their habitation. A decision has yet to be taken on this matter.
The MVS would wait till April when new projects and schemes are declared
by the Government and then act accordingly.
1.2 Linkages with Government structure
|
Ms. Nayanaben Chudasama and Director of BSC Mr. Prasad M. Chacko attending a meeting called by MVS.  |
MVS has been effective in increasing its visibility and credibility
as an organisation working for the development of the area. It has been
able to develop good and fruitful linkages with Taluka level officials
like the Mamlatdar, Taluka Development Officer, District level Social Welfare
agencies, District level Social Defense agencies, District Rural Development
Agency (DRDA). Efforts are being made by MVS to link up with Gram Panchayats.
This has helped MVS in influencing the Government agencies to change the style of implementation of certain programmes. E.g. Programmes for handicapped persons are implemented by he Social Defence department. To avail the benefits under the scheme the handicapped persons have to produce a medical certificate from a Government |
The visibility of MVS among state level Social Welfare Department is clearly seen in the fact that MVS is one of the few organizations in the state which was granted the ‘Legal Awareness Programme.’
The DRDA has taken note of MVS and its work. Officials from DRDA regularly dialogue with MVS officials for the implementation of some of their programmes. E.g. Formation of village level savings groups of women under the IRD programme was one such programme which the Government wanted the MVS to take up.
The TDO’s confidence in MVS was evident when, for the first time in the history of MVS, it was given the responsibility of building homes under the Sardar Awas Yojna as discussed above.
MVS has also tried to motivate the Dalits/OBCs to actively participate in Gram Sabhas through trainings in many villages stressing the importance of the Gram Sabha and the need to actively participate in it. This led to Dalits/OBCs attending Gram Sabha for the first time. In some of the village they participated in the Gram Sabha by asserting their demands for infrastructure development of their hamlet.
The Table below shows various Government schemes tapped by the MVS.
Last year MVS played an important role in easing out the drought situation in the villages where it operates. This was done mainly through putting pressure on Government officials to implement Government drought relief programmes. It was done especially in supply of drinking water and fodder, and implementation of drought related employment programmes. MVS prepared a proposal for Rs.1 lakh and managed to mobilize finances from New India Cooperative Bank, Bombay. Out of this amount Rs. 60,000/- was used for supply of drinking water. Drinking water was provided in seven villages. In 4 villages water tanks with a storage capacity of 10,000 litres were constructed to ward off the acute shortage of water. Now women do not have to tread long distances or enter into quarrels for water. It has made a difference in the lives of 400 women. MVS also disbursed fodder benefitting farmers of 8 villages.
Simultaneously the MVS employees created awareness among the members regarding government provisions for drought relief employment programmes. They distributed the copies of the GR to each and every member of the MVS and also reported certain discrepancies in the implementation to the Mamlatdar. This resulted in the members coming to know the allotment that the government had made for them and could therefore demand the same from the taluka officials, especially for the most vulnerable categories like the disabled, pregnant women. E.g. in village Khasta a pregnant woman was not given her due (Rs. 15/- per day). Her family and the community members told this to the Gram Mantri (temporary government appointee) and showed the copy of the GR to him. The Gram Mantri said he is not aware of this provision and was unable to give her the amount. This was reported to MVS employees and they later on reported this to the Mamlatdar. The Mamlatdar instructed the Gram Mantri to disburse the dues to the particular member. A similar incident happened with a disabled man. The important point is that the simple step of providing information led to the members asserting their rights and demanding services and their dues from the government. What is noteworthy is that even the government appointees were unaware of the government provisions!
2. WOMEN ORGANISING TO SOLVE WATER PROBLEMS
| Adwal is a village 4 kms. from Dhandhuka town, with a population of
4,500 families of which 60% are OBCs. This village is closest to the water
supply position but the irony is that some factions of the community do
not receive adequate amount of water. This is despite the declaration made
by the Government that each family member has the right to a minimum of
20 litres and a maximum to 30 litres of water daily.
The women complained to the MVS. The MVS sprung into action and a meeting was held. It was clear from the meeting that water supplied |
 |
EARTHQUAKE RELIEF & REHABILITATION IN KACHCHH
The earthquake that hit Gujarat on the morning of 26th January
left in its wake a trail of death
and destruction, leaving a population of close to 100,000 dead
and almost that many or more homeless and seriously injured. The Centre
joined a broad platform of NGOs called “Citizens’ Initiative” to initiate
rescue and relief operations, and subsequently rehabilitation in two talukas
of Kachchh – Bhachau and Rapar. The present report is a very brief report
of the intevention in Kachchh. A more comprehensive report on the Kachchh
intervention is being brought out and hence will not be dealt with in detail
here.
The destruction in villages
of Bhachau taluka.
| The earthquake that hit Gujarat on the morning of 26th January left
in its wake a trail of death and destruction, leaving a population of close
to 500,000 homeless and almost 100,000 dead or seriously injured. We, the
St. Xavier’s Nonformal Education Society (SXNFES), tried our best to do
whatever we could to alleviate the misery of those hit by the quake.
After the earthquake of 26th January we joined a broad platform consisting of various players from civil society under the banner of “Citizens’ Initiative”. The agencies / individuals involved in this initiative, apart from us, were Ahmedabad Nature Lovers’ Association (ANALA); |
 |
|
(Bhachau unit) at the base camp in Moti Chirai  |
Staff and students of St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad; Student volunteers from Centre for Environment Planning & Technology (CEPT); Student volunteers from National Institute of Design (NID); doctors; psychiatrists; psychologists; engineers; architects; and others. We carried out relief operations from a base camp set up near village Moti Chirai in Bhachau taluka of Kutch. Till the end of February around 315 volunteers had volunteered their services at the camp. The relief operations lasted till the end of February. |
Table 1: Extent of damages – loss of human lives, livestock and property
in Gujarat
Source: “Gujarat devastating earthquake” published
by Directorate of Information, Gujarat State.
As the needs of the region were immense, but only partially fulfilled
and the rest needed to be fulfilled, the relief experience in the region
inevitably led the Centre to initiate long-term rehabilitation programmes.
BSC members while carrying out relief activities learnt more about Kachchh
as a region (border of India and attitude of the Government of India towards
the region); as a society (its caste system and composition and social
ills, gender inequality) and prevalent socio-economic and political problems;
distinct geographic characteristics and disparities and uneven pace and
extent of development (economic imbalances, availability of infrastructure
facilities, precarious natural resources that needed to be developed like
water and land). The most striking learning was that all these problems
had been in existence ever since but were aggravated by this natural disaster
in which the already marginalized were further marginalized.
| In this situation, the Centre felt that it had a role to play – to support the marginalized and ameliorate their condition, develop livelihood options. Strategically also, Kachchh being closer to Banaskantha where the Centre had already established a base, it would help to foster a social movement covering a large part of the north Gujarat region. The transition from relief to rehabilitation and long-term interventions for development of Kachchh were debated and a perspective plan arrived at. The continuation of relief activities thus directed towards fulfilling primary needs of the people of Kachchh like shelter, drinking water, |
 |
BSC decided to be an effective agent of change in rural Kachchh, adopting the strategy of working with and through community based organisation (CBO) and community leaders like it has worked earlier in other parts of Gujarat (Bhal region – Kheda, Anand and Ahmedabad districts and Banaskantha district). Thus the concept of CBR came into existence where the appraisal, planning and implementation of programmes for the rehabilitation and resettlement were to be carried out with community based efforts and through formal and informal organisations to further carry out development initiatives and interventions.
 |
A base camp was set up at village Rajansar in Bhachau taluka during
the first week of March 2001 to carry out rehabilitation related activities.
The programme staff for these activities included experts in architecture,
agriculture and water resources, in community organisation and development.
We decided to focus our attention on the most marginalised groups viz.
Dalits, Kolis and Muslims and women of these communities. The main programmes
taken up relate to mass mobilisation and rehabilitation rights monitoring,
formation of a local organisation, women’s activities, shelters and livelihood
restoration.
Our approach in Kachchh takes cognisance of the existing social |
A separate booklet on the Centre’s relief and rehabilitation efforts in Kachchh is being prepared and will cover the se programmes in detail.
The Resource and Support team of the Centre was the medium through
which the Centre managed its mandate
to support localised initiatives of our priority communities
in Gujarat and was centralised and situated
in this team. With a shift in approach and strategy adopted by
the Centre in the early part of 2000
it was decided to decentralise this function and simultaneously
root it in the direct involvement of the
Centre with people’s movements and advocacy. Consequently a change
was effected.
The present report deals with the reasons and logic guiding the
change and outlines the activities
of the team in the year 2000 and some part of 2001.
The emerging movement and advocacy orientation of BSC made it necessary to redirect the support orientation of the Centre and bring it in line with the Centre’s overarching goals and mission. In this context a need was articulated for the deployment of a major part of our HR and other resources for Banaskantha. Consequently a decision was made in favour of decentralising this function (i.e. not locating it within a specific team) and making it the responsibility of the entire BSC. The principle of our direct interventions and grassroots experience informing our support function was reiterated and emphasised.
The intense phase of grassroots training and support to selected organisations (1994 – ’99) had led to a resurgence of grassroots NGO culture in Sabarkantha. It also succeeded in communicating BSC’s perspective to certain groups, although that was not the predominant impact. In this context it was proposed that the last phase of the support, which lasted from 2000 January to 2001 June, should focus on essential Dalit issues like land, education and atrocities while still supporting the selected organisations. It was also decided that this support should also conform to the emerging movement and advocacy orientation of BSC. It was in this context that the team took up a research project to generate data on and to clarify the land and education related problems faced by the Dalit community in Sabarkantha, which could be used for effective advocacy. Furthermore, the scope of the support function within BSC has now broadened with other areas like medium-scale finance for women, livelihood options, child rights and local self-governance having been taken up on a large scale.
Consequently, it was decided to have the support function distributed among all members of the Centre and informing all major functions of the Centre – direct interventions and academic programmes. It was proposed that the Centre would list out its priorities for the support function and constitute competent task forces to fulfill all the selected programmes. This would be groups constituted from the entire centre and would look into all the demands and needs related to Resource and Support.
Emerging areas of support:
The main involvement of the team was in the Sabarkantha district, and the work involved the initiation of a people’s movement in the area through the small local organisations. These local organisations would be acting as agents to mobilise people at the grassroots level with a view to increasing the participation of people in the movement. Our intervention in Sabarkantha was primarily with the Local Organisations (LOs) in 5 talukas of the district. To initiate this process the LOs had selected 5 to 10 villages in each taluka. The list of talukas and villages are given below:
1. Gathering data from different villages and preparing a database
This would help LOs to clarify the issues to be taken up for advocacy and help them to present their demand strongly. These databases were prepared according to the questionnaire in the survey form. The questionnaire was prepared keeping in mind mainly three issues: land, education and unemployment. Questionnaires were filled in five talukas of Sabarkantha district. Around 8000 forms were filled and coding and data entry were completed.
This activity made the people aware of their real problems and the obstacles they face in solving them. In some areas like Vadali, Bhetali Maniyol and Munai people have come together to press their demand for their rights.
2. Mobilising Dalits of Sabarkantha through meetings, seminars and rallies
We believe that to initiate people’s movement, mobilisation is a very important function. We tried to do this through conducting various meetings in the villages as well as at the area level, seminars on related issues (land, education and unemployment) and rallies to press for their rights. The special skills of running a meeting, organising a seminar or rally (see Box 1 below) were sought to be imparted on the job i.e. being with the people while they carried out the tasks.
We supported the LOs in identifying the villages for intervention and developing strategies to initiate the process of mobilisation. The LOs have decided to constitute village and taluka level committees to spearhead the mobilisation process. Our support was mainly at two levels:
|
RALLY BY LOs AND TALUKA REPRESENTATIVES OF BHILODA AND IDAR TALUKAS In order to tackle the issue of drought relief taluka committees of Bhiloda and Idar talukas along with the LOs of the area planned to organise a rally on 9th and 10th May 2001 respectively. The aims of the two rallies were to press for implementation of the drought relief programme in these talukas. Around 350 women and men attended the rally. In both areas, demands
were presented to the Mamlatdar in the form of a memorandum by each of
the participating villages. Joint applications from the talukas were also
given. The taluka level committees had a discussion with the Mamlatdar
regarding difficulties in drought relief programme.
|
|
|
3. Increasing awareness among the core team (LOs), taluka committees, and village Committees through trainings:
This is a function that is a good starting for any kind of development work. Here we had provided various trainings relating to awareness building on social issues, awareness regarding legal issues, mobilisation and group building skills to LOs and taluka Committees. This has enhanced their capacity to plan and carry out the tasks and activities related to the objectives.
A. Impact on the LOs:
As of next year, as mentioned in the beginning of the section, this function will be dispersed in the Centre and will be the responsibility of all teams of the Centre and will inform all our interventions.
The Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) team conducts the Centre’s
academic programmes.
The Centre runs two academic programmes viz. the Fellowship Programme
in Development (FPD)
in Gujarati and the Postgraduate Programme in Development Management
(PPDM) in English.
This report is a compilation of the activities of the team during
the calendar years 2000 and 2001. We also spell out the issues and difficulties
as we see them and a tentative plan for the future.
OVERVIEW
The objective of the PGP team is to prepare students belonging to the Centre’s priority communities viz. Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and women for work in the NGO sector. The means which the team has employed to achieve this objective are the running of two academic programmes – the Fellowship Programme in Development (FPD) and the Postgraduate Programme in Development Management (PPDM). In the present context we feel that the means are in tune with the objective of the team and the overarching goal of the Centre. In future if a better option is available then the team could think of the same.
In view of the fact that we could not present the report of our activities last year we present a consolidated report of the activities of two years – 2000 and 2001.
The programmes of the team have been characterised by stabilisation on the one hand and reorganisation on the other. The first two years of PPDM were marked by tentativeness and experimentation. Being in the fourth year of the course we can say that the course has stabilised in terms of the course content, the syllabus, the teaching and the outcome. Further developments and refinements to the course will however continue.
With the Centre running the PPDM, in English medium, the team had to rethink whether a (more or less) similar course in Gujarati medium was also required. From the discussions it emerged that the Fellowship Programme in Social Management (FPSM) would have to undergo a change from its present form. The sector needed trained activists and the course in Gujarati could be reformulated with this focus in mind. Given the workload and commitments of PPDM it would have been extremely difficult for the team to accomplish this and run the FPSM along with the PPDM. It was therefore decided to drop the FPSM for a year, i.e. for 2000-’01. The mandate for the team was to redesign the course and re-launch it in 2001-’02.
Over and above running the courses the team also made some headway in terms of incorporating the research function into its scope. This is not easy, given the limited faculty strength.
We provide below a report of the activities of the team over these two years and also the difficulties that we encounter in its running.
1. THE POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMME IN DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (PPDM)
The PPDM is now in the fourth year of its running. The fourth batch of students is currently undergoing the course. We present an overview of the course through some statistics.
The present course content:
1.1 2000-‘01
Modifications in the course design:
There were no major modifications in the course design for the batch
of 2000-2001. However in each module the courses were developed and upgraded
to a certain extent keeping in the mind the changing environment with reference
to the development sector. Moreover some of the suggestions and areas of
concerns which came out from the evaluation given by the outgoing batch
of 1999-'00 were also given due consideration while making these changes.
The duration of the course was extended from 8 months to a full year.
Marketing:
The marketing efforts for the third batch of PPDM were geared towards
getting more students from our priority communities. We had adopted a two
pronged strategy of marketing which included the main stream marketing
approach of reaching the target audience through various agents of the
print media and the more traditional approach of prospecting for the potential
candidates through personal contacts, acquaintances, professional partners,
and by word-of-mouth.
Our marketing efforts brought in nearly 67 applications for the Programme in 2000-2001. 45 students out of the 67 applicants had appeared for the entrance exam out of which 18 students (9 girls and 9 boys) were selected for the third batch of PPDM. 13 out of the 18 students selected belonged to our priority communities. Three out of the 18 selected students had an experience, ranging from 2 to almost 6 years, of working in an NGO.
The new batch:
The third batch of PPDM students began their classes in July 2000.
The students completed their classroom sessions in April 2001.
|
 |
It is evident from the above that 65% of the students are from the priority communities i.e. SC, ST, and OBC. The ratio of men to women in the group was balanced at 1::1. The students had varied academic first degrees like Bachelors in Commerce, Bachelors in Arts, and Bachelors in Rural Studies. The students hailed from Ahmedabad, Kheda, Anand, and Vadodara districts while one student was from Kerala.
The course began with a one-month intensive course in the English language. This continued even after the first month, as inputs in the English language thrice a week.
Their contribution in BSC's earthquake relief operations
Apart from the regular course work undertaken by the students, this
year was different from the others in that it saw the terrible destruction
and death in the wake of the earthquake that struck Gujarat on 26th January
2001. The Centre launched a relief operation through a campsite established
at village Moti Chirai in Bhachau taluka in Kutch. The students of the
course played an important role in the relief operations of the Centre.
They joined hands with the staff at the Centre in mobilising resources
 |
from civil society, maintaining records of the incoming and outgoing materials, stocking and loading them and finally dispatching them to the relief site. Besides this a majority of the students also remained at the campsite as volunteers and took part in distribution of the relief supplies to the affected population. They identified and covered the remoter villages, where no or minimal relief had reached the people, and distributed supplies there. Even in distribution of relief they kept in mind the marginalized groups which had been left out of the distribution process and reported their issues daily at the campsite. It helped the process of identification of the most needy groups and addressing their needs. In view of this the regular course work had to be abandoned for |
Fieldwork
Fieldwork was an essential component of the course. Areas of fieldwork
were the settlements of Dalit and tribal communities in the BSC’s project
areas. The aim of the fieldwork was to enable the students to get a first
hand experiential understanding of the social and economic issues relating
to development. The fieldwork was followed by a reflection session in which
the students would reflect and analyse their experience in the villages
in terms of its cognitive as well as affective dimensions, i.e. the intellectual
critical understanding of the situation as well as their experiential reactions/
responses to it.
Project placements and reports:
The aim of the placement is to enable the student to get hands-on experience
of working with a concrete project related to development. The student
is expected to:
Their one-month project placements took place in April. This had been preceded by an input on the rationale, expectations and the required output from the project placements. Each student spent around 3 weeks in the field carrying out the research objective of the project. They made presentations of the same to the staff and students around the end of May and then wrote up the final reports. The presentation as well as the final written report were evaluated. They were placed in different organisations of Gujarat as the following table indicates.
|
1.2 2001-‘02 The course design and the marketing effort remained the same as in the preceding year. We received around 65 applications out of which 37 candidates appeared for the entrance test and interview held on 3rd June. Out of these 17 students were selected for the course. 11 students joined the course; of these 2 dropped out after the first month. |
 |
Orientation:
The students underwent a one-week orientation programme in August.
Guest lectures:
Seminars and guest lectures help to greatly enhance the learnings and
confidence of the students while giving them an opportunity of interacting
with some of the practitioners in the development field, from within and
outside Gujarat. As of now the guest lectures organised are as follows:
2. THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME IN DEVELOPMENT (FPD)
As mentioned earlier we had decided to devote the year 2000-’01 to re-thinking and re-designing the erstwhile Fellowship Programme in Social Management (FPSM). The outcome of the deliberations is presented here to you.
2.1 2000-‘01
Rationale of FPD:
The earlier FPSM had a strong theoretical component to it along with
an emphasis on aspects of management. It was felt that we should have a
course with minimal theoretical component and a strong component of practical
experience. Therefore it was
 |
decided to rename the course also.
An effort was made to look at this course in the context of the difficulties that the Centre had faced in finding adequate numbers of students from its priority communities (SC, ST, OBC, minorities) who were capable of doing a 1-year course in the English medium. It was to offset the difficulties that otherwise good students from these groups face with a course in the English medium that the idea of a feeder course was mooted. This course would therefore have a strong English language component to it along with an emphasis on comprehension and writing skills. |
In this sense the FPD would not be a pre-requisite for the PPDM but a foundational course for it. However, for such students who enroll for PPDM after the FPD the team could develop a system of waiver for certain modules or requirements (such as fieldwork, etc.) which they have covered in FPD and they could devote that time usefully for some other requirement in that course.
Objectives of FPD:
With the above rationale in mind the objective of FPD is: to equip
the participants with grounding in the practice of development, coupled
with an emphasis on ideological formation and self-development.
Scope and prospects:
For those successful candidates who have a graduate degree, there is
scope to apply for the PPDM. Alternatively the successful candidates could
be absorbed into the NGO sector, especially in organisations working in
the areas of empowerment and human rights, at the level of Community Organisers
(CO).
Course design:
The broad course outline is as indicated below:
I.1 Reviewing the realityEnglish language
I.2 In-depth understanding of macro-reality
I.3 Sensitivity Lab
I.4 Response to RealityIII.1 Leadership Lab
Preparatory leave & Exams
II.1 Intervening for Change
II.2 Mobilising and Organising the community
II.3 Understanding Community dynamics and observation Skills
III.2 Values
II.4 Communication Skills
II.5 Training of Trainers (TOT)
II.6 Monitoring (people, programmes/activities)
II.7 Accounts and Book keepingIII.3 Personal Growth Laboratory
Preparatory leave & Exams
2.2 2001-‘02
The 1st batch:
For the FPD we issued advertisements in the Gujarat Samachar, Sansesh
and Doot. There were a total of 91 applicants out of which 50 appeared
for the final interview and test on the 5th of August. The results of these
candidates were scrutinised and finally 23 students were selected for this
year’s course. The present batch consists of 21 students (3 women, 18 men).
The feedback from practitioners in the field, those who have interacted with out students and the employers reveal the following:
Library:
The library has been constantly upgraded with purchase of new books,
journals and magazines. The following table shows this.
Apart from the above the library also offers the following facilities on computer:
Computer facilities:
There is a computer lab with 9 computers for the students. The computers
are connected by LAN to the Library which allows the students to search
for the relevant material.
5. RESEARCH
We have endeavoured to bring research into the scope of the team and its activities. In this line members of the team have undertaken various assignments in collaboration with other teams of the Centre, primarily with the objective of facilitating and initiating conceptualisation and forceful articulation of BSC’s experiences and to fulfil the research needs of other teams / functions of BSC. The assignments are also undertaken with a view to incorporating the Centre’s rich field experience into the teaching of the courses. The various research projects / assignments undertaken are:
ANNEXURE 1
MEDIUM SCALE FINANCE INSTITUTIONS OF WOMEN:
A MEDIUM FOR EMPOWERMENT
A CONCEPT NOTE
Geeta Oza
Persis Ginwalla
Vijay S. Parmar
Introduction
The present paper is written in the context of an ongoing movement for women's empowerment, which forms part of a larger struggle for the rights of the marginalised and oppressed sections of Indian society. The aim of the present paper is twofold: firstly, the paper attempts to pose a challenge to the prevalent perspectives on poor and poor women which we feel reinforce the stereotypes about them and are, therefore, counterproductive and ineffective. Secondly, it presents an institutional model, for women, for poor women, for marginalised women, with immense potential for women's empowerment. Since they form part of the larger struggle for human rights these organisations do not remain as mere economic organisations but become part of a dynamic social movement, a movement for social transformation. Based on our experience of directly promoting 8 such organisations and supporting the promotion of 10 others, the paper tries to argue how this model is better equipped to answer the empowerment related issues of poor, marginalised women.
Background
Women in poor households, Dalit, Adivasi and OBC women in the context of BSC’s (hereafter referred to as the Centre) work experience poverty in the worst form. Women's empowerment, an arduous task in itself, becomes all the more so in communities such as these facing economic and social disadvantages. Patriarchal mindset and practices deny women access to and control over resources, opportunities and benefits. The private and public spheres are male domains. In the absence of the articulation of women's issues, in women's voices, from their vantage point, they do not become part of the community's / society's consciousness. That they do is critical to an empowerment agenda. At the same time doing so requires an environment which is conducive to such a project.
Moreover, the entire issue needs to be firmly grounded in the context of the gender problematic (i.e. affecting both men and women). The gender empowerment debate is flooded with a host of jargons and clichés. The practice of gender empowerment leaves much to be desired. At the level of implementation the gender issue gets transformed into women's issue with specific programmes designed for women, accompanied by rather rigid target conditionalities. With a strict target orientation, the process of empowerment takes second place. The net result is that these "schemes" which were meant for transformation of gender relations do not succeed in realising any impact on this front at the grassroots level. It is unfortunate that many NGOs are either in it or are fast joining the race for these schemes and projects.
It is the Centre's firm belief that organisations of the marginalised communities, whether Dalits, Adivasis or women, are absolutely essential to empowerment of any kind (Dabhi, 1999: 32). The security and strength afforded by numbers bolsters the ability to withstand pressures (social, political, economic), and therefore to undertake negotiations and strike bargains to the advantage of the entire group. The programme and model under discussion here need to be located and viewed in the above-mentioned contexts.
Hypothesis
Having made a choice of adopting an organisational medium to achieve the empowerment goals, the task is to find an activity which would best serve these interests. The savings and credit activity lends itself well to such a project as it seeks to address the issue of poverty and poverty related needs such as literacy, asset holdings, small credit, social security, and insurance. The activity has been hugely successful and women have taken to it very well. In spite of it being an economic organisation it has gained popularity and success because of the social spin offs for women in terms of exposure, confidence, and assertiveness. To cite an example: at a joint meeting with the members of the Managing Committees of around 3 cooperatives the women were asked for their assessment of the impact of the Co-operative; not a single member mentioned the economic benefit; they unanimously endorsed and reiterated the social spin-offs of the activity (exposure to places and people, confidence to speak in public, ability to challenge/ confront their men or the ‘elders’ in the community.) Part of its success lies in the fact that the activity is rooted in their culture in that the women have been used to this activity, albeit at an informal and very small scale within their extended families or their community in their village. Furthermore, the activity is not highly technical in nature (as perhaps sericulture or fishery, to take a few examples), which makes it easy for women to take to it, without experiencing failures and setbacks (Dabhi, 1997). The success that they thus experience makes them bolder and ready to take up challenges in the interests of the organisation.
The lessons learnt from the movement make us to posit our hypothesis, which is that it is possible for women from poor and marginalised communities to initiate, sustain and lead formalised and viable financial institutions of an intermediate (as opposed to small or micro) scale. Medium scale finance institutions of women are, moreover, an effective tool for empowerment and effecting transformation in gender relations. Most importantly, the transformation does not remain localised to one woman or a few women but pervades the entire area and indirectly affects the lives of women in the area, membership to the organisation notwithstanding.
Medium Scale Finance Institutions (MSFI) are actually primary cooperatives and are defined based on certain criteria: coverage of upto 40 villages in a taluka / C.D. block, share capital upto Rs.10,00,000/- and, savings and credit to a limit as per the bye-laws which are decided by the promoters.
Assumptions
The activity is underpinned by the assumption that struggle against patriarchy and gender oppression can succeed only if there are interim measures towards economic empowerment and security. This is due to the peculiar nature of the structure of gender discrimination, unlike other structures, where the “victim” shares intimate and close ties with their "oppressors" (Franco et al, 2000: 5). The battle for gender justice is a battle fought within each household. To offset this danger there is need for a critical mass in order to make it a socially viable movement.
Another tacit assumption is that the activity cannot be seen in isolation with no relation to the larger developmental issues plaguing the community and the participants. There is a dynamic interface between different structures of oppression, viz. gender, caste and class. Recognition of this crucial fact is what imparts an empowerment thrust to the activity, without which it remains an economic activity alone, unable to challenge the factors of oppression even within the membership group. This is what makes it truly transformational - at the level of caste, class and gender. The cooperatives have adopted a policy of gender and caste equality; therefore members of the cooperative, irrespective of their caste position, have to adhere to this policy as far as the organisation is concerned. No discrimination on these grounds is accepted and thus there comes about a gradual change as far as the caste norms are concerned. It is now quite acceptable to see women from Vankar, Valmiki and Koli Patel1 castes visiting one another in their vas (place of residence in the village), drinking from the same pot of water at the cooperative premises, sitting next to one another at lunch time or in a meeting, things that were unheard of a few years back.
Scale, as pointed out earlier, is of great significance to this endeavour. Savings and credit have to be of a scale which can bring about perceptible and long-term change in the quality of life of the participants. Small or micro savings and credit, in our opinion, merely help to survive at the same level or at a marginally better economic level. But it certainly does not bestow any control over the same to women. The finance activity therefore has to be of optimum scale. The number of members, coverage of villages, the quantum of savings and the amount of credit disbursed have to be at a level which can not only sustain the organisation but also help the members to initiate qualitative changes in their lives, such as acquisition of assets on her name, release of mortgaged assets or jewelry, education of the children.
Moreover, it must be a legal entity which establishes the access and control of the members over it. An entity, thus formalised and legalised, has the scope of conferring a legitimacy and status to the activity which does not come with a small, informal and isolated endeavour. On the whole it has the potential of bringing the activity and the practitioners into the mainstream of financial activity, and thereby in a position of power and influence. An institution with, for instance, 1200-1500 members and a capital of Rs. 5-8 lacs is a force to reckon with in the area. Being in the mainstream of financial activity means that these institutions work on business principles; the most important criterion here is that these institutions provide an interest on savings, like any other mainstream financial institution. Therefore while profitability is certainly a consideration, there is a definite commitment and constant endeavour to provide the members with better quality of service. The rate of interest on credit is around 12-15%2, which is comparable with the banks. Further, it is member-friendly and flexible with regard to amount of savings per month, entry, and exit from the organisation. Because it is a registered, legal entity its future is also secure in the sense that it implies that the activity is long-term, with a commitment to its growth. It can, by that very fact, increase the quantum of credit to the members and also attract financial resources from other mainstream financial institutions like the District Cooperative Banks, social and other schemes from government departments, GRUH, etc.
This model simultaneously seeks to explode and challenge certain stereotypes of "poor" which pervade the mainstream thinking on the issue. The prevalent view always considers the competencies and needs of the poor as "small" and "informal". How else does one explain the plethora of government and non-governmental programmes which dole out cash (or benefit in kind) to the tune of Rs. 100-1000/-? What else but skewed logic could dictate that subsidies to the tune of crores of rupees to landed citizens are a worthy cause while investment in human beings to bring them to a level of a dignified existence is like pouring water into a bottomless vessel? And if writing off the loans and subsidies of landed and rich citizens is seen as investing in the future of the country then why the hue and cry about defaulting on loan repayment of Rs. 1500/- by people with no power over their destinies?
It is no surprise therefore that strategies for poverty alleviation are never mainstream activities like owning a production unit, scholarships for higher education, or management training programmes, or even upgradation of the available infrastructure. They are always activities which are low investment and therefore low income ones like the ambar charkha schemes, household industry such as production of papad, pickle and agarbattis, self-employment kits worth Rs.1,500/-, nursery schemes for women etc. The per-person-investment under such programmes never exceeds Rs. 30,000/-. The per beneficiary investment under the IRD Programme was Rs. 1,642/-, Rs. 2,698/-, Rs. 3,107/- in 1980-‘81, 1981-‘82 and 1982-‘83 respectively (Rath, 1985: 240).
Such thinking was all right if it were not discriminatory and bigoted. It reinforces the stereotypes of poor as ineffective, inefficient and wasteful. The micro-finance initiatives, which keep the savings groups small and informal, are not a tool for empowerment. The micro and informal model never allows the members to experience the power that the medium scale registered entity provides. Moreover it does not provide a forum for more women to come together and know each other as women, to discuss their issues and to deliberate upon those. It keeps women sequestered, almost, and unable to draw upon the collective strength and expertise of a large group. Consequently the women can never be independent of the need for an intermediary to negotiate with external agencies on their behalf. Whither empowerment?
The MSFI model:
In light of the above we delineate below an organisational model which serves as a means of intervening in the situation of poverty, discrimination, injustice and oppression.
We at the Centre have had a number of years of experience of organising women around the savings and credit activity which have now taken the form of primary co-operatives. We have promoted 8 such cooperatives in our areas of direct intervention. Apart from these we have supported the setting up of approximately 10 such cooperatives in other parts of Gujarat. Together they cover around 12,000 women. MSFI, according to our experience, has proved to be a powerful means of social and economic empowerment among women from the marginalised communities. Appendix-1 gives statistical details of these cooperatives.
The organogram of the area level Women’s Savings and Credit Co-operative
PRIMARY COOPERATIVE MODEL
This model seems appropriate to us because of its replicability. Women themselves have shown a marked preference for this activity, because it is not very technical in nature and women can learn it relatively faster. Besides this the activity in itself is also part of the cultural milieu of the women who have for long been undertaking this activity in an informal manner in their village and locality. It lends itself well to our aim of promoting a modern and democratic organisation which could function as a learning ground for the women - to learn new skills, experience new events, places and people and to learn the most important skill of them all - the mature exercise of power.
Goal and aims of the activity:
The ultimate goal of this activity is to work towards women's empowerment
through arriving at women's economic independence and economic security.
The aims of the activity remain threefold:
Conscientisation and action:
This involves undertaking intensive educational programmes aimed at
sensitizing the women, as well as the men, to the structures of oppression
and issues plaguing women. The understanding of oppression and its structural
nature become the rallying point for action against these practices, at
first muted and low key, but gradually gaining momentum.
Capacity building of women:
Once the organisation comes into being the tasks of the organisation
need to be managed in order to take it forward on the path of its stated
mission. Capacity building in the line of vision building, decision-making,
conflict resolution, negotiations and bargaining, financial management
and monitoring, recruitment and dismissal of employees, public relations
has to be undertaken. The fundamental principle to be followed is that
of autonomy and self-reliance of the women and their organisation from
that of the promoting agency.
Conscious efforts in evolving credit policies with direct impact
on women's empowerment:
An organisation with an avowed goal of women's empowerment must pay
close attention to this aspect. Proactive credit policies which seek to
address the strategic gender needs of women such as asset building, income
generation, need for working capital, education for children especially
the girl child, and insurance need to be charted out.
BSC’s experience with such cooperatives:
The Centre took the lead from saving schemes run by women in many villages
and decided to promote an area level savings and credit co-operative of
Dalit women. The reasons for taking up this programme were:
It would not substantially increase the workload of women:
A normal workday of women, especially labourers in rural areas, spans
10-12 hours, which during the peak agricultural season increases to around
14-16 hours. In such circumstances they would not like to invest time and
energy in any tasks where returns do not compare favourably with their
present tasks. Secondly the development intervention planned should not
add to the present workload or else it goes against the stated goal of
empowerment. The savings and credit activity suits the needs of women since
it does not make any extra demands on the time of the women.
It would make a direct attack on one main area of gender discrimination
viz. economic dependence:
Deprivation of economic assets like capital, land, cattle, other productive
assets make women vulnerable and insecure. At times of distress like widowhood,
separation, torture in the conjugal home, women do not have any option
but to accept the exploitative structure or take the extreme step of suicide.
The savings activity has the potential to make a dent in this exploitative
structure by equipping women with economic power viz. capital which in
turn leads to acquisition of assets through credit and systematically chalked
out credit policies. This has a definite impact on her bargaining power
and status in the family.
It was an activity which the women were skilled in managing:
Culturally it has been found that women have been saving irrespective
of the availability of banking facilities. Women have narrated their experiences
of saving money by economising in certain areas of household expenditure
without affecting the welfare of the family. In most of the villages there
are sakhi mandals which are micro-level savings and thrift groups.
It had the potential of bringing about women’s unity and their
economic and social empowerment:
Observations of informal savings group reveal that this activity has
the tendency to bring together women from different strata of society;
rising above their caste and family identities they come together as women
who share similar problems and issues and whose experiences are not much
different from the others. The organisational space forces women to come
together thus bringing about unity. Women share a bonding and start discussing
issues like water, family disputes, women atrocities, health issues affecting
them.
It was an articulated need of the women since the suggestion for
this activity came from the women themselves:
Earlier experiments with activities such as Community Health Programme
(CHP) and sericulture met with limited or no success, owing to the highly
technical nature of the activity and tasks which women were not already
equipped to handle. This activity, on the other hand, was very germane
to the lives of these women. Being poor they are always in need of money
and so savings is a way of life for them. Therefore the suggestion for
starting this activity emanated from them. Taking up this activity is answering
a felt need of the women and not an imposed activity like CHP or sericulture.
It would necessitate a formal structure which would create and
enhance women’s organisational power:
The activity which took off after the women’s articulation of their
needs was the savings and credit activity. However, the activity involved
finances and we would be dealing with women’s hard earned or saved money
and the issue of trust was critical to it. People in the area had had innumerable
experiences of outsiders coming to the area and initiating this activity
and running away with the money. Women therefore were expectedly quite
wary of the Centre taking up this activity. Keeping it informal and loose
would not go a long way in getting their trust apart from the fact that
an informal structure would not meet our empowerment goals. A formal structure
was best suited in this situation since it would offer immense scope for
empowerment and counter-culture agendas of the Centre.
It would serve as a platform for learning, transformation and
leadership for social management and development:
Since the organisation would have to be run by the women themselves
the process would entail learning new skills, opening avenues which were
not within the realm of the possible so far, and in the bargain setting
new role models for the area and its people.
The process of conscientisation and organisation has proved to be of tremendous value to the women and to us as an NGO. Involvement in the process of organisation meant:
|
Give And Take, Joys And Sorrows – Towards Solidarity A training programme for the Executive Committee of the Vadgam Credit
Co-operative Society, the first of its kind for the participants, was held
on 15th – 16th November dealing with the subject of evolving a vision and
mission for the co-operative.
There were tears in her eyes.
This discussion became the focus of the first day of the training programme. The conversation clearly reflects the oppressive reality of a woman’s situation. Jasuben’s case is a prototype of the oppression of women. It also, very poignantly, brings out the women’s need for a space to share their problems and frustrations. OD interventions therefore take a backseat in the initial stage of the organisation’s life. At this stage it is more important to concentrate on aspects of gender oppression and its structural nature (as opposed to something which is “God-given”). The process is a valuable one for the individual woman as well as for the group which would be undergoing vicarious learning or catharsis. More importantly it serves an OD function – that of group building and promoting solidarity among the members. (Names of individuals have been changed to protect their identity.) |
|
The Price of Membership ! Naniben Maganbhai Chauhan, a tribal woman, aged 40, and resident of Kotvas is a member of the Danta Credit Co-operative Society. Her husband has 2 wives. She narrates: "My husband has brought home a second wife. The second wife wants me out of the house. She instigates my husband by planting suspicion in his mind about where I am going, and what I am doing. Once there was an urgent Credit Co-operative Society meeting and a male employee of SVS3 had come to fetch me. I finished all the household work and left with him and returned the same night. My husband was furious and he questioned my intentions. He gave me a thrashing. I was hurt. I felt I should leave the Credit Co-operative Society as it created such a problem for me at the household level. Fortunately the SVS representative of my village explained to my husband and tried to allay his fears and suspicions. My husband was convinced; however, since then, for every meeting I am required to give him all the details about the meetings, the participants, the male members involved and the reasons for their involvement. I have accepted the situation since I was determined to continue with the Co-operative". When she decided to attend the Strategic Planning meeting in December 1999, she knew that she would be thrashed and the second wife would instigate her husband, but she was ready to take the risk. She said that the credit Co-operative Meetings give her opportunities to be exposed to new areas, knowledge, places, information and people. She says, " For me that is more important than trying to build estranged relationships. The suspicion will never go away, so why should I forgo the opportunities which are coming my way." This is an example of a woman setting her priorities, and making her own, informed choices. |
|
Educating Women, Educating A Generation The Dhandhuka Credit Co-operative Society set an example in promoting a healthy management culture within its membership. It concerned the committee’s firm stand on credit defaulters. The committee members decided to penalize the defaulters by deducting the default amount from the savings of their guarantors. This was the first time that the committee was resorting to “unpopular” measures. There was a big hue and cry from the members. The guarantors complained that they were unaware about the fact of them being guarantors. Some beneficiaries were put under intense though informal pressure by the employees and the committee members. This was done through mobilizing women members of the village savings group to pressurize the credit defaulter at the village level. This made some of the men pass such comments as –“Bhavishya ma baheno ni mandali thi paisa leta pahela be var vichar karvo padshe, gammathi panch take leva sara”. (In future we must think twice before borrowing money from the women’s cooperative, it is better to take it from the village at 5% interest [per month].) This led to committee to create a new set of credit rules making it mandatory for the beneficiaries and the guarantors to come to the central office to seek loan. This would eliminate the possibilities of members being made guarantors without their knowledge. Such measures to ensure accountability and financial discipline were
unheard of in the area, even from the nationalised and co-operative banks.
|
|
Women In The Direction Of Owning Assets Around 1998 women of Galiyana village, members of the Bhal Credit Co-operative Society had availed of a loan of Rs. 1,00,000/- to purchase land for constructing houses. They bought the land but on account of some legal wrangles it had to be in the name of two traditional male leaders. Having bought the land they were left with no money for house construction. The Co-operative thought of helping them to mobilise money from external sources. They contacted the Gujarat Gruh Nirman Board who agreed to loan Rs. 40,000/- per member at 10.5% rate of interest to build houses. There was however one condition which had to be fulfilled, i.e. women’s share should be reflected in the legal title of the houses thus constructed. A meeting of the Dalit community of Galiana was called by the Cooperative. The meeting was attended by all members of the community including the village elders and the men. In the meeting it was made clear that money for the housing would be mobilised only if the above condition was met. The men agreed to this condition. The legal formalities and compliances to be met before approaching the Gujarat Gruh Nirman Board were explained to the members. They were told that firstly, the land, in the name of two elders, had to be transferred onto the names of the 44 members. Secondly, the land had to be converted into Non-agricultural land. The local organisations there assured them that they would be given legal assistance by their lawyer. Thereafter the community called a meeting to chalk out the future course of action. The community decided to constitute a committee comprising 3 men and 3 women who were given the mandate to manage the entire operation. The first thing the committee did was that they met the lawyer with some of the documents they possessed. The lawyer gave them the guidance as to how they should proceed further. The first thing they were supposed to do was to obtain legal records of the land of the previous fifty years from Talati & Mamlatdar. This was necessary for ownership of the land The second thing they were supposed to do was transfer the land as Non-agricultural land. For transferring Non-agricultural land they were supposed to have:
As of now the land deeds and other modalities have been completed. The work of dividing the plots on individual women’s name is currently on. |
|
Kissa Kursi Ka (The case of a ‘Chair’) Maniben Valjibhai Parmar, a resident of village Motipura, has been associated with the women’s movement from 1992 onwards and with the Shri Bhal Bara Dalit Mahila Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd. since its inception in 1993. Her association with the movement involved attending awareness and training camps, exposure visits to organisations and places outside of the village. She was elected the first President of the Cooperative Society and in that capacity also has been participating in discussions, decision-making, policy-formulation, articulating the collective vision of the Cooperative within and outside the area, settling disputes, making representations to the government officials, confronting men – whether “upper” castes or from within her own community – on issues of importance to women, such as consumption of alcohol, violence to women, or minimum wages. Having gained valuable experience in management and leadership she felt
it time to make an intervention at the political level. This was at a time
when Dalit candidates or even the community had no power in the local bodies.
They had never taken part in these structures. In 199_ she decided to contest
the Panchayat election which she won. After her election, as she was making
her way to the Panchayat office to attend the first meeting, she met a
Rajput man on the way. They were engaged in a conversation for 15 minutes,
wherein the Rajput questioned her decision to attend the meeting and tried
to dissuade her, saying that it had never been done before (a Dalit attending
a meeting, and, that too a woman), there was no need for her to attend
the meeting and that she would be informed later of what had transpired
at the meeting. She told the Rajput that she would attend the meeting.
At the Panchayat office she went and occupied one of the chairs meant for
the members. This sent a shock wave among those present. A Dalit, and that
too, a woman, sitting on a chair ! This was unheard of.
There were numerous subsequent attempts to discourage her from attending the meetings, but they have, as yet, not succeeded. |
This incident speaks volumes for the transformative potential embedded in the process of community organising.
This led to the starting of Legal Counselling Centre in Cambay at the headquarters in village Daheda. This Counselling Centre was started to help women in distress through dialogues, mediation and sometimes legal action. In the last two years they have handled 215 cases. The cases that are handled are usually of harassment by the husband or in-laws, and desertion. Women are actively involved in the process of settlement of the cases. This involves listening to both the parties, understanding the issues involved, taking an objective stand, negotiating, and in some cases taking legal steps.
This centre has been able to develop credibility in the area. The centre, which was constituted to take up issues faced by Dalit women, has successfully transcended the boundaries of caste. It is now being resorted to by women from other so called upper castes such as the Darbars and Brahmins. Even the Caste Panchayat has taken note of its presence. Initially the Caste Panchayat used to openly extort money to settle disputes; this practice has not ceased completely but it has decreased. Moreover the Panchayat does not dare to do it openly. Further, because of the credibility of the legal counselling centre the police officials have also become cooperative and more sensitive towards such cases.
Gender justice and sensitisation in the area of operation:
These institutions were conceived in the context of gender imbalance
prevalent in society. It is imperative for these organisations to work
towards this end if it is to truly become an instrument for transformation
in the area of gender relations. Educational inputs for women and
men is an area which should receive more attention than it currently gets.
Federation of Cooperatives at the District level:
These cooperatives should eventually move in the direction of federating
at the district level to form an apex body which could play an important
role in the state level cooperative movement and to make the voice of the
so far marginalised women heard at crucial fora. This would be over and
above the membership to the District Cooperative Bank, whose membership
the cooperative is entitled to. This would also enable the organisation
to influence the direction and developmental shifts and policies of such
organisations.
References:
ANNEXURE 2
COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANISATIONS OF DALITS AND THE NEW
PANCHAYATI RAJ INITIATIVE:
TOWARDS PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
A CONCEPT NOTE
Vijay S. Parmar
Prasad M. Chacko
Persis P. Ginwalla
The enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) in 1992 and the consequent introduction of the Gujarat Panchayat Act in 1994 were indeed historic steps in the direction of devolution of power to the grassroots. Six years since its introduction, much has been written on the subject – the successes, the progress, the failures and the loopholes. While the success stories are encouraging, they are few and far between. The overall trend, at least in Gujarat, is that established interests and socio-economically powerful groups continue to wield power and exercise clout (Unnati, 2000). The provisions for the marginalised sections of society have thus not borne fruit. This is an area which has received scant attention, and one which BSC would like to focus on. We believe that the GPA and the provisions for the SCs / STs and women are powerful means for, a) ushering in changes in social relations, which is also the vision guiding our work and interventions, and, b) people’s participation in determining the course of development and gaining control over it.
The following concept note is formulated in the light of BSC’s experience of grassroots level mobilisation and organisation of Dalits into sustainable organisations owned and managed by them. The abject and desperate situation of the Dalits is for all to see. The main argument sought to be put forward in this note is the indispensability of Community-based organisations (CBOs) of the Dalits if any change of a lasting and permanent nature is desired in their situation. These organisations assume an added importance in the context of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and their effectiveness for the communities.
Statement of the problem
The religious origins of caste ideology and its operation in the collective psyches of Indians has conferred a legitimacy to discrimination and marginalisation of vast sections of population on grounds of “pollution” and “inferiority”. It is a structure of oppression and the beliefs are too deeply ingrained – in both, the “upper” castes as well as the Dalits – to be dislodged through attainment of positions of power by individuals from Dalit communities.
Various NGOs have intervened in this situation by mobilising and implementing programmes of a developmental nature with these groups. These interventions, if run on the NGO’s initiative alone, are not sustainable, for it ultimately means relying on resources sourced from agencies with no real stakes in the area or the community. People’s own participation in local level political processes and structures is of crucial importance to the sustainability of the development process. The provisions of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) thus hold tremendous potential for Dalit communities to gain entry into local level political structures and determine the course of their development.
The problem / issues are structural; the solution therefore must be structural. Reservation for SCs in Panchayats brings individuals to power, individuals who have to function in a socio-political structure tilted against them. Mere capacity-building of PR representatives will not yield the desired results, if their accountability to the communities and their issues is not established. We would further argue that PR initiative in itself, unaccompanied by formal community-based structures, would also not suffice. It is only when the PR representatives (SC) have the support of its own organisation – which has various issues on its agenda – that their representation can have any fruitful meaning for the community. The present approach to PRI being practiced by various organisations is, therefore, lacking in this regard. The capacity-building approach disregards the existence of unjust structures at the village level. The PRI initiative has brought in more resources at the village level but has failed to address the situation of the Dalits, and failed, therefore, to effect any change at that level. Attainment of political power has, therefore, brought about social mobility among the “upper” castes; the same is not the case with the “lower” castes.
Hypothesis
In the social milieu obtaining in the villages individuals (from SC communities) and their efforts cannot achieve much. Community-based organisations (CBOs) of the people are imperative to the success of any initiative (PRI being one of those). Such organisations can help individuals a great deal to withstand pressures, of various kinds, being brought to bear upon them. It would facilitate “redressal of issues” rather than “capacity-building” of individuals, and, in that sense, making the individuals true “representatives”.
BSC’s approach and experience with CBOs
Our experience of working with the marginalised communities dates back to the early 70s when we started our intervention with Dalits in the Bhal region of Khambhat Taluka of Anand district of Gujarat. (For a detailed description of the area and the strategy of the Centre, see ‘Behavioural Science Centre: A Historical Perspective’, Annual Report, 1998). We later expanded the scope to cover Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district and 6 talukas (Danta, Vadgam, Vav, Tharad, Dhanera and Palanpur) of Banaskantha district. Our interventions have been with the Scheduled Castes or Dalits, Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and women of these groups.
Our efforts in these areas have resulted in the promotion and establishment of organisations which are owned (membership restricted to men and women of those communities) and managed by them. The following is a list of organisations promoted by BSC.
Participation in political structures and processes thus seemed a distinct possibility. We recount below two instances of successful participation in the PRIs as an impact of the presence of the organisation and participation therein.
BSC’s experience with SC participation in Panchayats
in Banaskantha
Banaskantha, in northern Gujarat, is one of the most neglected and underdeveloped regions of the state. It has a relatively higher Dalit presence (7.41% of the total SC population of the state; 10.63% of the total population of the district). The socio-economic situation is extremely low and characterised by orthodox y and stringent observance of caste hierarchies. The major problem plaguing these communities is the denial of basic human rights because of their caste status. The denial and discrimination takes place at various levels and in various ways:
Existence of a strong caste conscious society:
The strong sense of caste hierarchy and the widespread practice of
“untouchability” among the people are major detriments to the operationalising
of the provisions of the Gujarat Panchayat Act (GPA). The SC representatives
(as members or Sarpanch) remain mere figureheads, while the real power
is wielded either by the Dy. Sarpanch or the Talati. In fact, it has been
reported from Banaskantha that in villages where the post of Sarpanch is
reserved for SCs there is a clamour for the post of Dy. Sarpanch! Even
then the candidate for the post of the Sarpanch will be decided by the
powerful elites in the village.
In a case reported from Talavdi village in Vadgam taluka a Dalit Sarpanch was elected on a reserved seat, made to contest the seat by the “upper” castes. A mason by profession, his economic condition was extremely impoverished. After the election, the Sarpanch was regularly sent liquor (by the “upper” castes) resulting in addiction. It was then easier for the Dy. Sarpanch to run his writ.
Only if this stratagem does not succeed do they resort to violence / murder. The murder is never proven1 and almost always classified as suicide.
Lack of functional working relationship among the Dalit communities
and inability (of the Dalit communities) to articulate their demands:
Division on caste lines among the Dalit communities prevents them from
speaking in one voice to articulate their demands on issues which are of
common concern to them all, viz. poverty, human rights violations, lack
of education and employment opportunities, denial of basic amenities, and
such like. Consequently, instead of representing the combined interests
of all the Dalit communities on the Panchayat they become representatives
of their own groups.
Existence of a strong patriarchal set-up:
This poses tremendous obstacles and difficulties in successfully implementing
the provisions in the GPA for the empowerment of women. As elsewhere in
the state, in Banaskantha too the duties of the woman member / Sarpanch
are dispensed by the males (of the family if she belongs to the “upper”
castes, by the “upper” caste males if she is a Dalit). Men rule by proxy,
women, in absentia. In the strongly patriarchal society of the areas under
consideration it would be unrealistic to expect full and effective participation
of women.
Lack of awareness of the CAA / GPA:
The Panchayati Raj Amendment is further rendered ineffective due to
the lack of awareness among the people about the Act and its provisions.
This can be gauged from the fact that the Gram Sabha, which is to be held
twice a year, is never held (this being the case in 95 % of the villages).
It is held only on paper, the resolutions written by the Talati and the
members giving their signatures.
Even in cases of atrocities on the SCs, the crimes are never reported to the Social Justice Committee, on account of ignorance of this provision (partly it is never reported also due to caste pressures in the village).
Strategy
Community organisation through issue-based mobilisation at the
area-level:
Promotion of community-based organisations, around certain crucial
issues, would be the core strategy of our approach and intervention. Activities,
such as those mentioned below, would be undertaken subsequently and under
the aegis of the organisation thus promoted.
Networks:
Here we envisage networks of various constituents of the PRI set-up
which would essentially serve the purpose of providing support and security
to individuals (collective strength and collective knowledge), and, the
ability to resist hostile forces in the village or the area. The networks
would be of:
DIRECTOR
Mr. Prasad M. Chacko
RURAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM
The Banaskantha District Programme
Mr. Dinesh Parmar – Programme Manager
Ms. Nirmala Solanki (Microfinance Institutions, Danta Taluka)
Mr. Rafi Malek (Watershed programmes, Danta Taluka)
Mr. Hitendra Rathod (Mobilisation of Dalits - Vav,Tharad, Vadgam, Dhanera
and Palanpur Talukas)
The Dhandhuka Programme
Ms. Geeta S. Oza (Microfinance Insitutions)
Bal Vikas Kendras
Ms. Agnes Patelia
Livelihoods Programme – goat rearing
Mr. Bharat G. Parmar
RESOURCE AND SUPPORT TEAM
Ms. Jyotsna F. Macwan – Manager
Organisational Support, networking
Ms. Shobhana R. Parmar
Support to small local organizations
Mr. Isudas Vaghela
Mr. Rajesh Parmar
POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMMES TEAM
Faculty
Ms. Anita K. Dixit – Course Director
Fr. James C. Dabhi
Mr. Jatin Christie
Secretary
Ms. Suja Macwan
Library
Mr. Shyambhai Parmar (Librarian)
Ms. Urmila Parmar (Library Asst.)
PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
Ms. Persis P. Ginwalla
ADMINISTRATION TEAM
Fr. Paul D’Souza – Manager
Mr. Albert T. Macwan (Accounts Officer)
Mr. Jagdish Parmar (Accounts / administration Assistant)
Computer Staff
Ms. Bina Christian
Ms. Minaxi Macwan
Ms. Priti Christian (receptionist)
Transportation and vehicle maintenance
Mr. Govind Thakore
Mr. Mahendra Makwana
Office assistance
Mr. Babu
Mr. Sandeep Patelia
Mr. Manoj Parmar
Documentation assistant
Ms. Ila Bhatia
LIST OF STAFF MEMBERS – 2001
DIRECTOR
Mr. Prasad M. Chacko
RURAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM
The Banaskantha District Programme:
Mr. Dinesh Parmar – Programme Manager
Ms. Nirmala Solanki (Microfinance Institutions, Danta Taluka)
Mr. Rafi Malek (Watershed programmes, Danta Taluka)
Mr. Hitendra Rathod (Mobilisation of Dalits - Vav, Tharad, Vadgam,
Dhanera and Palanpur Talukas)
The Dhandhuka Programme:
Ms. Geeta S. Oza (Microfinance Insitutions)
Bal Vikas Kendras
Ms. Agnes Patelia (Microfinance Institutions)
Livelihoods programme – goat rearing
Mr. Bharat G. Parmar
RESOURCE AND SUPPORT TEAM
Ms. Jyotsna F. Macwan – Manager
Organisational Support, networking
Ms. Shobhana R. Parmar
Support to small local organizations
Mr. Isudas Vaghela
Mr. Rajesh Parmar
POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMMES TEAM
Faculty
Ms. Persis P. Ginwalla – Course Director
Fr. James C. Dabhi
Ms. Anita K. Dixit
Mr. Jatin Christie
Secretary
Ms. Suja Macwan
Library
Mr. Shyambhai Parmar (Librarian)
Ms. Urmila Parmar (Asst. Librarian)
Hostel Warden
Ms. Sangeeta M. Parmar
KUTCH TEAM
Mr. Micheal Martin
Ms. Jacinta Canis
Ms. Dimple Solanki
Mr. Mayuddin Sheikh
Mr. Parshottam Parmar
Mr. Sailesh Christian
Ms. Darshana
Ms. Jadiben K. Parmar
Ms. Neha Gandhi
Ms. Benita
Mr. Vikas
Mr. Sharad
Mr. Ranchhodbhai
Mr. Premjibhai
ADMINISTRATION TEAM
Mr. Ruchir Sayani (Manager-accounts and finance)
Mr. Jagdish Parmar (Accounts / administration Assistant)
Computer Staff
Ms. Bina Christian
Ms. Minaxi Macwan
Ms. Julie Macwan (receptionist)
Transportation and vehicle maintenance
Mr. Govind Thakore
Mr. Mahendra Makwana
Office assistance
Mr. Babu
Mr. Sandeep Patelia
Mr. Manoj Parmar
Documentation assistant
Ms. Ila Bhatia
