Collective strength propels empowerment of SHGs in UP

The collective strength of women self-help groups (SHGs), when determined to fight against injustice and social evil, is like a tsunami. It washes away resistance whether it is the errant husband at home, corrupt village pradhan or the surly bank manager. There was ample evidence of this power in the villages of Chandauli, Varanasi and Mirzapur districts of Uttar Pradesh where the women have stopped gambling and drinking, prevented construction of a pond on fertile agricultural land and pushed a government bank manager to open accounts of village SHGs.

Geeta Maurya of the Saibaba Mahila Gram Sangathan says gambling was the norm in Ramapur village, Majhwa block of Mirzapur district in 2014. Men neglected work as they played cards and gambled in homes, near liquor and tea stalls. When Madhuri, a member of the SHG, did not come for a meeting, inquiry revealed that her husband had come home late at night and thrashed Madhuri when she pointed out there was nothing in the house to cook. Madhuri’s husband is a handpump mechanic but whatever he earned he blew up gambling.

At an emergency meeting of 18 SHGs (each with 10 members), it was decided, “Gambling has to be stopped or our homes will be ruined.” The next morning armed with the thick stalks of the arhar crop growing in their fields they raided a gambling den where about a dozen men were playing cards. They tore up the cards, even some money in their anger and thrashed the men. This confrontation continued for months. Young boys, acting as intelligence, would give the location of the shifting gambling addas and the women would reach with their bamboo and arhar chaddis. Men were even caught playing cards in the Panchayat Bhavan. Madhuri’s angry husband shouted at her, but ultimately, succumbed to community pressures.

Change was slow but today around 250 households in Ramapur are free of gambling and debt. Even if a single woman of the village faces a problem, the Sangathan comes to her aid. Madhuri’s husband, back at work, has bought a motorcycle. With the support of the SHGs, Madhuri has learnt to read and write in Hindi.

Over 1,30,000 SHGs working in 49 districts of UP have been empowered by the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) over the last 14 years. Gulabi’s husband would go to the brick kiln, which in addition to making bricks, brewed liquor. Evenings were spent drinking and gambling. After women took up cudgels, the brick kiln is functioning but the still has been broken.

In the neighbouring Pindra block of Varanasi, the Ambe Mahila village organisation and the Jai Bajrang Bali Gram Sangathan of Jamapur showed women power by demolishing liquor shop, constructing toilets as well as a road with material procured from the pradhan.

Thekas (country made liquor vends), drunken husband and thrashing of women is common in rural India, but early in 2016, a member of the Ambe Mahila SHGs complained that her husband was selling away pots and pans in the house to buy booze from the village theka. Men were even enticing children to buy snacks with a promise of a sip of the forbidden elixir. Sanju Devi, one of the Sangathan leaders, says there was a chorus of protest about drunken husbands. Since most of the women were employed under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) they complained to the pradhan about the theka and sought his help to remove it. They even asked the theka owner to move out. He pointed he had a licence to run it. Finally in June, the women barged into the theka, threw away all the utensils, caught the owner by his collar, pushed him out and pulled down the shutter.

The police accused women of goondagardi (hooliganism) and threatened to throw them in jail. They said: “We will all go to jail.” Advised them to file a complaint in courts against the theka, the women approached the sub-divisional magistrate and the theka closed with his intervention. The confidence of women soared. A hospital has replaced the theka.

At Devrai village of Pindra block of Varanasi, Rita Devi and the members of the Jyoti Mahila SHG came together to oust a corrupt PDS owner. Ten SHGs of Pindra block held group meetings and sought the pradhan’s help. He too was unhappy with the ration shop owner. With the pradhan’s support, two tractor loads of women, raising slogans against the corrupt PDS owner met the SDM and lodged their complaint. The shopkeeper was questioned, his licence revoked and a new person was given the job.

Women SHGs contribute rice and wheat to the grain bank in the village every month and help out women in dire straits with the proviso that they return a fistful more than they received. However, if a woman is genuinely unable to return the grain, she is let off.

While most pradhans realising the collective power of the SHGs have supported them, Geeta Maurya recounts how a pradhan was stopped from constructing a pond over fertile agricultural land in August 2015. Anita and Babita were working in their fields when two men came and announced that a pond was to be constructed on their land. The two women immediately informed the Sangathan and armed with lathis the women confronted the men. The men told Geeta Maurya to keep away because it was not her land. The pradhan then hired goons to threaten women. Seeing the confrontation, other women of the SHG rushed off to the police station to file a complaint. The pond project was stopped two and half bighas of land of 10 women saved.

Ironically, a woman, Sita Devi, was the pradhan of the reserved seat and a member of the SHG, but it was her husband who was taking all the decisions and she stopped coming for the samooh meetings. Work was procured under NREGA, and the pradhan’s husband arbitrarily decided to construct the pond. Sita Devi has been replaced as pradhan by Sulekha, also a member of the SHG.

Those in authority tend to ignore demands of the marginalised and the poor, specially if it is women. However, the growing assertion of the SHG collectives is now being recognised. At Nograha and villages of Chandauli block of Chandauli district, the SHG Sangathans were able to get job cards and the 100 days of work given to poor families under NREGA because of this strength. Both the pradhan and the BDO refused to give work to women, so they met the district magistrate, presented their job cards and got work. The first job assigned to them in 2013 was to clean a filthy canal. The wages then were Rs 40 a day. Today it is Rs 162 a day.

There are similar heartening stories of SHG bank accounts being opened in the State Bank of India, four km from Nograha village. The charge was led by Sageeta Devi. When repeated requests failed, women turned out in large numbers and put a lock on the bank door before the staff arrived. They stayed on dharna till 7 pm, raising slogans till the bank manager assured accounts would be opened from the next day. Bank accounts of all nine SHGs were opened in 2013 and today, each Sangathan account has Rs 9 to Rs 10 lakhs.

The writer is a veteran journalist based in New Delhi