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Profiles |
Imparting literacy is often seen as a neutral, uncomplicated activity. On the contrary. Even coming to the centre for a few hours every day is not a simple task for the women. What motivates the women to tackle the many challenges and attend?
The best way of understanding what the programme signifies and what it has managed to achieve lies in stories of struggle and achievement of the women – learners and facilitators – that the programme has reached out to. These are a few stories of women who have been involved with the programme in various capacities.
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SHYAMBAI
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Shyambai is from Khatora village, in Mehroni block of Lalitpur district. She says she is 30 years old, but some in the group feel that she’s much older! Shyambai attended the Sahajani Shiksha Kendra literacy centre for three years. In the beginning, she did not attend every day; her husband would drink and prevent her from leaving the house to study. Sometimes he would beat her to stop her from going to the Centre. Shyambai started making excuses – like she was filling water or cutting fodder for the animals – and escaping to the Centre. For the last four years, Shyambai has been attending the 10-day residential camps at the SSK. She told us, ‘In the first camp I attended, I learnt to write the name of my village and how to count to 100. I also learnt addition and subtraction.’ |
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Shyambai holding her 5th std mark sheet |
In subsequent camps, she learnt about different aspects of health, parts of her body, food and nutrition. Now Shyambai can read and even write letters. Just this year, she passed the Class 5 exam. When she first saw all the children she was giving the exam with, she felt a little awkward about her age. But from the second day, she enjoyed giving the exam. She said the ‘didi log’ from the Centre had helped her prepare for the exam, and now she wants to do the Class 8 exam also.
Shyambai told us how her husband had taken a loan from the bank, and was repaying it with the interest that was asked. Then one day, the bank official told them that their loan amount was Rs 40,000 – when in fact it was Rs 4,000, and Shyambai told him this. The official refused to listen, and started pressurising them to sign the loan papers. On Shyambai’s refusal to sign, the official said he would sign for her. Shyambai said she would say that it was not her signature. The next day, the official brought the bank papers to her house, with the loan amount corrected to Rs 4,000. After this incident, Shyambai’s husband was very happy, and stopped preventing her from going to the Centre. He and his son look after the house when Shyambai comes for the residential camps.
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MAMTA
Mamta, 25 years, from Pathrai village, is striking for how much tenacity and drive she manages to convey through her small, compact body. She gives the sense of being deeply committed and hardworking, and eager to learn, and subsequently oblivious to what people might think or say about her – whether her family or others in the community. She has been attending the Centre for five years. She went to school till Class 3, and was married when she was 10. She has attended the residential camps for the past three years, where she learnt to read – with Pitara and Bolti hai Bhasha. |
| Mamta speaking at the RTI mela |
She talked about how literacy efforts should be as regular as possible; how even camps every three months were frustrating as the flow of learning was interrupted. She has attended the melas as well, and enjoyed them, and learned a lot.
Mamta hasn’t done the Class 5 exam yet, but wants to, as well as the Class 8 exam. She wants to be a Sahajani. She talks about wanting to make something of her life, of wanting her children’s lives to be better. She has problems with her in-laws; her husband does farming, but there’s usually one crop in the year, and he sits at home the rest of the time. He used to think it was good that she was studying – atleast someone in the house would be educated. He also looks after her children when she’s away from home. Of late, her husband and other people in the village have started to ask why she’s studying at this age. Now, her husband mutters unhappily when she has to go for camps, or for a mela, but accepts that she’s involved with the work she is. Mamta, on her part, thoroughly enjoys being away from home – whether at the camps or the mela!
She took the initiative to file an RTI application as job cards in her villages were either not being made, or not being signed, or were fake. She didn’t think twice about signing her name on it, and didn’t feel threatened. But her ration card – and those of some of the poorest in the village – have been cut off, and not remade. No one has said anything to her face about her initiative in filing the RTI application, but she does think that people in the village would talk about it amongst themselves.
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GYASI
Gyasi is now the facilitator of the SSK. We first met her in May 2003 when we were trying to mobilise women to attend the literacy camp. She said she had studied up to Class 8, but had forgotten and wanted to read and write again. A six-month pregnant Gyasi argued with her family and somehow managed to attend the camp. After that she came to each of the four camps held that year. Gyasi had the potential of becoming a teacher. Once this was suggested to her she worked ceaselessly. Between camps, she would visit the centres regularly. |
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| Gyasi (left) with Vineeta, another Sahajani |
When anyone visited her village, she would bring out her books. We involved her in teaching at the camps. After a year of effort she was given a centre to run.
She cycles to the centre everyday from her village, five kms away, and has been able to reach out to a number of women. In an area where it is extremely difficult to find literate women, the programme realises that investing in women like Gyasi is one important way in which we can move forward. |
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