Ladybug's field notes

I received a phone call a few days back. The caller described how he has taken a new house on rent in the city he has shifted to. How the preparations were in full swing in the house for arrival of his wife and their only child. How he look forward to the reunion! All normal conversation between two erstwhile neighbors. Only this time it was raising my heart-beat. It was worrying me to no end that the "wife" in question would have to go and stay with this man. The man who was bragging about reunion of family, is a violent man. He called to boast that all my efforts to ensure peace for his wife fell flat. This man who verbally and physically abuses his wife and quite unabashed about it, scares the hell out of me too. Yes. I get scared. The one who is generally referred to as "the tigress" of the family and the neighborhood gets actually scared in the heart of heart. I become scared because I know how low these men can stoop and I also know that I am no match in that...

Have you heard this buzz of citizens' responsibility recently in the development sector? Take a careful look at who are ones who talk about them. Who are these people? Which strata of the society they come from? And you may be left wondering why these well-paid, well-fed ( and in my true foot in mouth style, not necessarily well bred, in terms of social manners) people who demolish rights at every opportune/inopportune moment love to talk about responsibility! I grew up in Bengal in the 1980s. Group Theater movement was still very strong at that time. It was actually stronger in suburban areas and industrial townships than in the sahar Kolkata (Calcutta that time). A group named Smarak from Durgapur steel township  was fortunate enough to be mentored by an extremely talented play-write and director named Gopal Das. One of his critically acclaimed play was named, Rakkhos (The demon). In this play, troopers of a circus sang a song "jader roj roj table e sajano thake a...

After a long and arduous battle to establish that human rights interventions can actually translate into long term quantifiable economic benefits to the community along with larger impact on thought processes ( what-is-empowerment ),   now the new question was whether there should be a community based institution to sustain the empowerment and the efforts towards poverty reduction. A well regarded development sector consultant suggested in the Empowering Rural Women (ERW) program ( setting-it-right-for-generations-to-come ), the natural progression should be towards formation of SHG federations in order to sustain the collectives that were bringing economic benefits to the participating women and their families.I knew, understanding how it worked in the current environment of donor support, he was trying  to save the program the only way he could.  But wait a minute! Were we working towards poverty reduction in the strictest economic terms in the Empowerin...

All through the past 14 years of work in the sector, I saw Fellowship Programs (FP) very closely. I remained a staunch supporter of Fellowship Programs both as an insider that is when I worked in an organisation that provided fellowship as well as an outsider that is as part of a donor organisation. I would not go into the details of why we need FPs as there are umpteen discussions around it. If any of my readers want to pick my brain on the subject, I am game! But here in this piece, I would rather focus on fellowships to develop people's organisations. Now here I am taking the proverbial big leap of faith (if you would like) and actually saying that  people's organisations are important to sustain empowerment. And yes I am saying that people's collectives are the long term answers to the "white elephants in their old age" called NGOs. Let me not get carried away here. Lets talk about Fellowship Programs. In this write up I will focus on sangathans (people...

As I traveled in South-Western Rajasthan, village after village I met communities in denial. There was either silence or they tried hard to convince me that the phenomenon of sex selection does not take place in their villages. Period! If you push, show data, ask them to ponder and after a long pause it was a tentative, "May be...some women in some other villages are doing it" and then quickly turning to, "It is the urban areas you see..not us". It was tiring to talk to these walls of silence! We met them in different social groups. They were Local Government members (PRI) as we know them in India) or the health workers like, Auxiliary Nursing Matrons (ANMs) and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA). Health, Nutrition and Sanitation Committee members and local doctors and others. "Although you say nothing is wrong, the data says otherwise" chipped in a NGO worker. "May be that's what God is doing. He is sending less girls to the world...

Apparently all three of them are very different. One is very fashion conscious and likes to match every accessory she carries, the other could not care less. One can not be found dead without her books and the other, well! she could die at the sight of a book till recently. One is fond of ethnic jewelry, the other revels in junk jewelry and  for the third one all jewelry is just that... "junk"! One has too many friends, the other  is very serious about her friendships and for the third, "Friends? ...ummm...will sisters pass off as friends?" But then, all three are passionate human beings. Very emotional. They share a strong bond to their birth place and home town. They love going back to their roots. Perhaps it reminds them that they faced several odds and still emerged victorious. They always win. You can be almost sure, if they are in the field hollering out for each other, its one of them who is going to win it. And if one of them does not actually win,...

"We believe in five principles", Sumati started again with a smile (she was amused that she had to repeat it), "We make collectives. Our collectives bring us strength. The strength helps us to get access to resources. These resources help in bringing solutions to social problems. And finally the solutions bring peace in the long run". Several of the gathered women repeated the principles with equal ease. Sumati and the others present  have formed a village level organisation to struggle for their rights, which they call Mahila Sangathan. ERW program The Mahila Sangathan did not only take up issues of five entitlements, that they call their resources, which are, 100 days' job card, ration card (access to subsidized food-grain), Mamata card (health entitlements), houses and land patta (registration) but also worked towards sorting social problems such as excessive drinking among men. They have made sure that although their God still needed an offering of li...

I was thinking the other day about the lectures I get from time to time about how I should dress, what I should add to my get-up to give myself a more acceptable (according to patriarchal standards) and/or serious (read, older woman) look, how I should conduct myself, why I should not laugh out loud and the list just goes on! The list is so long that if I actually maintain it for a year, I may not find anything 'right' about me at all! And then there are always those doubts and disapproval about the "right". Was that the "right" place to be? the "right" time to be there? and the "right" reason? Too confusing? Allow me to explain. All my female readers might find it easier to understand.  Please think of the last time you were harassed on the road. No! I am not talking about those every day incidents that we have all learnt so well to ignore, the same way we ignore barking street dogs! It is not about those. I am talking of the in...

They say, "Going back to your own past is never easy!" I tasted the uneasiness this week, albeit a bit differently. Murshidabad district of West Bengal is a place that I associate with my childhood as my father belonged to that district. All our holidays were spent near the mighty Ganga. Mighty, cause when I saw the river the Farakka barrage was already built and that brought in huge quantity of water to Ganga ..to much dismay of the neighboring country! It was beautiful to live in the village home surrounded by coconut and mango trees, pond in the backyard and a river flowing at doorstep. I never learnt to fear water. I lived with and loved water. And our love-story continues.. I visited the same place (well! not my village) last week and being a rationale human being, I knew I could not expect to go back to the fun and frolic of my childhood. After all I was going to one of the poorest districts of the country. Murshidabad is famous for all the wr ong reasons.  It i...

My friend from a land rights movement support group was aghast! She could not believe her ears. A fellow country-man landed in Delhi to 'support' the march of the tribes for land rights and seemed visibly disturbed on not finding a welcome committee with garlands, cars to take him to the venue 180 km away. He was also worried about being cheated by Indians and warned my friend against the same too! "They are basically cheats, you see!" My friend lost her cool, "Why did you come to India to stand by Indians in the first place? and you say you are a supporter!" But, this was a Frenchman! I thought of my experience during the trips with the Indians (not bharat ke log...but Indians), mainly from donor agencies and at times national capital based NGOs, to various parts of the country. I found a similar echoing in the sentiment. They couldn't think who to blame other than the rural women for remaining unlettered and not sending their children to school! ...