The child brides whom I encountered in different schools and communities during my fellowship are living examples of how patriarchal society subjugates women in the name of culture, reducing their identity to mere objects with no agency. “You can talk about sanitation but don’t mention anything about menstrual hygiene,” is what the principal of a Government senior secondary school in Bikaner told me a few minutes before I was going to begin a session on gender sensitivity and health. I am posted in Bikaner as a Gandhi fellow under the Rajasthan Government’s Mission Buniyaad mission, which aimed to provide access to digital education to 10 lakh girl students in the state and was there to take a session as a part of the mission. I was a little shocked when I heard the principal, not only due to what she said (after all, I was there to take a session about menstruation as a part of sanitation!) but also because just a day ago, she said she was totally fine with the session when I had told her about it. I did try to convince her to let me include the bit about menstruation, but she wasn’t convinced. Me facilitating a Session on Gender Sensitivity at Govt. Senior Secondary School of Rajasthan After conducting the session, I again tried to initiate a discussion with her to understand her reservations and what had made her change her mind. While I didn’t get a satisfactory response from her, another senior teacher posted at the same school told me that men usually don’t engage in issues related to women. He also told me that discussing sensitive topics like menstrual hygiene could in fact make things tougher for girls. Instead of showing the movie Padman to boys and girls together, as was instructed by the state government, he told me that the school administration only showed it to female students in the presence of female teachers. Hearing such regressive words from a teacher really rattled me. But, due to this incident, I also got to know how deep-rooted and complex patriarchy is, how tough it was going to be to work on the issue related to women’s education in a state with the biggest gender divide in literacy and high rate of dropouts of females. I remember it well how during my college days, I used to discuss with my friends the need to implement strict laws to combat regressive practices in our society. Working in Rajasthan and seeing the deep-rooted complex realities have made me realize that awareness programs hitting the patriarchal norms, authentic research before drafting a law, and monitoring of policies are deciding factors for how things will play out on the ground. Joined the fellowship to get exposure on the ground During the panel interview, I was asked by a senior member of the organization about my reason for wanting to work in the education domain and I told him that my reason was that I wanted to see positive change in society and that education was the only medium that could accomplish that. When I was told that I’ll be sent to Rajasthan and will be a part of the state government’s project Mission Buniyaad, I got very excited and researched extensively about the state and its education structure. I have been working as a Gandhi fellow in Bikaner Rajasthan for the past eight months now and have witnessed several incidents that show the ugly reality of the male-dominated society we live in. This short journey has made me realize that researching on the internet and witnessing the reality of how things play out in real time are two completely different things. I am not obviously completely denying the importance of education to bring about change, but seeing the power dynamics on the ground, I no longer feel that education alone is enough to bring radical change in our hierarchical society. Having seen these realities so closely, I now feel that I was living in a bubble in the past, a topia of sorts, created by the same University campus that provided me an atmosphere in which I was able to acknowledge the privileges and prejudices I held, unlearn my bigotry, and helped me in transforming myself into a rational human. “She has been married to a man because her uncle wanted to marry his sister.” Ranvijay, who studies in Class X told me this when I asked him about a girl I saw in his classroom who was wearing a salwar kameez instead of a school uniform like the other students and had vermillion on her head. I was shocked after hearing that statement. He also told me that there were other girls like her in classes 9th and 11th who were married but who came to school in uniform. The statue is a hope to 120+ Dalit families of Kapurisar Village While facilitating my session on gender sensitivity and the importance of digital education in that school, the image of that little girl from 9th class kept playing in my mind. So, later, I visited her house and asked one of the elder family members about her marital status. He justified the practice by telling me that it’s a tradition and told me that the Gauna of the girl hadn’t been done yet. He also told me that the girl would only be sent to live with her husband once she would legally not be a minor. This girl and other child brides like her whom I encountered in different schools and communities during my fellowship are living examples of how patriarchal society subjugates women in the name of culture, reducing their identity to mere objects with no individual agency. Although I knew that working in the remote villages of Rajasthan was going to be tough, the constant failures and arguments with some stakeholders In the initial months of the fellowship program increased my pessimism. To be honest, I wasn’t mentally prepared to witness and face such normalization of casteism and patriarchy as I saw. Yet,
7th of March I left for Jatoli (2310mts above sea level) and was sure of the destination but unknown to the journey and the path to be taken. It was a long 3 hours trek, steep rocky pathways, thick forest and you will hardly meet someone on the way. Jatoli cannot be travelled either in the monsoon or in the winter as the road is usually broken. Harsh rain washes away the path or snow blocks it in winter. Jatoli, arcaded by humongous Sundardunga Glacier stands as the last village in the Pindar Valley. The world is just a click away but this village doesn’t have the privilege of electricity. Jatoli has a population of 23 household and the government primary school has a strength of 10 students and 11 Anganwadi students and definitely a single teacher. I hardly had any clue about with whom I will stay in Jatoli, so had in my mind if no one allows me to stay with them I may have to get back. Trekking in the Pindar valley is not that easy but mother nature never fails to mesmerize. Then after reaching Jatoli locating my place to stay and to my surprise, the headmaster had to leave the next day because of some important work in the Education Department. To keep the school open, became one of the major responsibility and to experience in the shoes of a single teacher. The approach of each CRI to be activity based and help the children grow leadership qualities by taking ownership in what they are doing in school from assembly to after-school activities. Not only so to link the community to the happiness and well-being of the students. From the second day onwards, I found children wanted to stay in school for extra hours. Students not registered with school or, the secondary students who were having their break after an annual exam, to the girl who did not continue with formal education after class 5, everyone enjoyed their time there. An SMC meeting leading to a large group meeting attended by every singular person on the notion to create a better learning environment for the children of the village and how could every household support the same. It was pleasant to see the youth of the village coming to school in midst of their daily schedule to participate in the activities with their little brothers and sisters. From a holistic assembly in the morning to classroom activities and the Sunday activities, students started of steering it in their own way with a very little help of mine. Dhana Devi, Ward Representative and also a mother of two (students of GPS Jatoli) had to spend innumerable evenings with her discussing on the gap areas that need support and that definitely helps to build my perspective. Communication to each and every parent and other stakeholders of the community helped in need analysis and understand the socio-economic situation of the village. Education can just not be restricted to the books and syllabus it is beyond that especially in a place where there is lack of resources, environment and the society starts being a teacher. I will forever be thankful to Kapil bhaiya and Kalavati didi who made space for me in their place and never made me feel I was away from home in a new place. There is a lot of “I learned” and “I miss”. I learnt to cook food in a clay oven, to cut grass, learn to basics of agriculture, feed cattle and a little bit of cane work. I will definitely miss waking up to the beautiful glacier, outdoor classes with my children. Every day they taught me about a new plant, we played badminton together and had never-ending conversations with Amma (who had none to call family). She made amazing rajma for me and she taught me a lot of Kumauni words. The never-ending conversation with those hardworking women who surely spared time to talk to me and know the world beyond their village and the process left me spellbound with their daily stories. I feel sad about the fact they treated me with so much of warmth. But, I was unable to live up to their request “Ma’am, aap humare gaon mein rook jao, bacche bhi chahte hai”.
Gaurav, Gandhi Fellow, Batch 2018-20, with his efforts tried to solve the problem of electricity in Darbha village during his community immersion. Here he recounts his story of community immersion. I, Gaurav, Gandhi Fellow, Batch 11, stayed in Darbha village for ten days as part of my Gandhi Fellowship Community Immersion. On my first day in the Durba village, there was a strange feeling that I had never gotten during any of my regular field visits, and this was because I realized that the people of the village were looking very strangely at me. They were looking at me like they wanted to ask me a lot of questions, and I would have the answers. Before I could go past this strange feeling and ask them what’s wrong, I noticed the biggest problem of the village in the evening was that there was no electricity in the village. That day I lived without electricity. Because I had only 10 days and in my opinion, the absence of electricity was the biggest problem of the village at the time, without waiting for a single day, I immediately convened a meeting of the village people and asked them the reason for not having electricity. It was peculiar to me because there were electric pillars in the village and they also got the line, but there is no electricity! The villagers told me that four years ago, electricity first came to their village, but due to the breakdown of a pillar immediately after the arrival of electricity in two days, there was no more access to electricity. After hearing this, the next day I went to have a look and noticed that three electric pillars were broken, due to which there was no electricity. Then on the same day, together with all the villagers, a letter was written to the Tehsildar there, and the Tehsildar assured us that the problem would be resolved as soon as possible. A major challenge during this period was giving confidence to the villagers in regards to the problems that they face, that if they come forward and take initiative, then there will be a solution to the problem. It is a big challenge to motivate villagers even today. They feel that their initiatives will not produce desirable results, as they cannot identify any facilities designed to help them, leading the villagers to agree that their effort will go waste. After all these challenges, the day finally arrived when even in the Darbha, the light of light appeared and the whole village glowed with electricity. Those who used to eat food in the dark or they used to eat before dark, could have dinner with light and in peace. Being a Gandhi Fellow, I feel that bringing electricity in the village within 10 days is the biggest success during community immersion.