The Hindu : National : Women unlocking doors of society

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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

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National

Women unlocking doors of society

By Aniket Alam

HYDERABAD, DEC. 28. The enormity of her achievement sits lightly on Gyasri Devi Tanwar of Kanshi village in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district. In a society where most women remain illiterate and are confined to a life of domestic and agricultural labour since teenage, Gyasri Devi has decided not to marry and is busy preparing for her Standard 12 exam.

After finishing primary school in the village, Gyasri's determination led her to the high school in Rajgarh town, 13 km away. Kanshi is reachable only by a dirt track and there is no bus from the road nearby to take her to school in Rajgarh.

``I walked every day to school. It was difficult when it rained as the black soil sticks to the feet. But I never let it stop me. I covered my books with a plastic sheet and walked.''

``We had fixed her marriage when she was three or four and had to pay a fine to the boy's family when she decided not to marry,'' her father, Ramlal Tanwar says. But he has no regrets. The most educated in the village, she is the secretary of the village watershed committee and the respect she receives from the villagers makes her father proud.

Across the border in Rajasthan, Suman Devi is the village medico of Govardhanpura in Bundi district. Being a matriculate, she was chosen by the Bharat Agro-Industries Foundation to be trained in identifying basic symptoms and matching medicines to these.

Her face hidden behind a long veil, Suman Devi remains the dutiful ``bahu'' of the village — not speaking in front of men nor sitting down in their presence. But she displays a sturdy confidence as she opens her medicine box and taking one flap of tablets at a time describes the illness it is meant for. This ``barefoot doctor'' keeps her medicine-box full of dispirin, crocin, iodine tincture and other `over-the-counter' medication and charges Re. 1 for each tablet she gives.

Medical costs have come down by three or four times since she started dispensing her tablets, says Mathuralal Meena, one of the prominent farmers of the village. ``Now we hardly ever need to go to the doctor in Thana village, some five km away.''

Gyasri Devi and Suman Devi are unlocking doors in their society, which remained closed for women even a few years ago. The social space for this seems to have been opened by the economic success of improving agriculture in their villages.

Mathuralal says that his Rabi wheat production has doubled in the recent past with groundwater levels rising, due to watershed works over the past decade. Despite drought in 2002, Govardhanpura did not need even a single water-tanker for drinking water. He rather sold Rs. 11 lakhs of fodder to farmers in neighbouring villages and the village school saw no dropouts.

Kanshi villagers too report more water in their wells. Labour rates in their village too have risen from Rs. 10 a day five years back to Rs. 25 at present.

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