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The Centre for Women’s Development Studies has worked over two decades to train Santhal tribal women in Bankura, West Bengal, in collective and individual livelihood skills.
Peasant women from the Bankura district of West Bengal now have a voice in panchayats (local self-government bodies) and family matters, thanks to a remarkable partnership with academicians from Delhi. Following a land reform camp organised for landless workers in 1980, Dr Veena Mazumdar of the Delhi-based Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) agreed to organise the women of Bankura. Most of the women were Santhal tribals and low-caste Hindus. All of them were landless, while many had been deserted by their husbands and did not even own a homestead plot. Their worst ordeal was seasonal migration to the distant Burdwan or Hoogly where they slogged in the paddy fields for a small income. CWDS began action research projects to study the impact of migration and to explore alternative employment opportunities. In 1981, 65 women formed the first collective (Samiti) in Jhilimili and decided to find alternatives to migration. Initially they began to sell kendu leaves and sal seeds to a government co-operative society. In neighbouring Bhurkura, another collective was formed and women took on the Herculean task of planting arjun and asan saplings on stony donated land. They also volunteered to protect and maintain the plants. Their sincere work paid off and plant survival on the Samitis’ plantations was routinely 98 per cent, in sharp contrast to the average survival rate of 55 per cent on government plantations. Impressed, the Central Silk Board’s field station (Birbhum) imparted training in tussar silk cocoon rearing. Women diversified to other income-earning activities, matching their needs and skills with local demand and raw materials. Among these were sal leaf tableware, rope-making and goat/pig-rearing. When seven collectives had been formed in adjoining villages, the apex body, Nari Bikash Sangha (NBS) (Women’s Development Union,) was set up in 1986. Today it comprises 24 collectives in three districts. NBS women now get training and small loans to start fledgling ventures. New technologies such as vermiculture and compost-making have been taken up in collaboration with the Vidyasagar University. Women also receive training in professional management, management of assets, enterprise and organisation-building. Women have become active participants in management, and have the skills necessary to regenerate wasted community assets. Incomes have gone up steadily, though not dramatically. Most households are still poor but few now resort to migration to survive. The women have grown in confidence and understanding. For the CWDS there have been gains too -- in perspective, in understanding peasant women’s strengths, and in realising the value and viability of grassroots democracy. Contact: Centre for Women’s Development Studies
25, Bhai Vir Singh Marg
New Delhi 110001, India
Tel: 91-11-336 6930/334 5530
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