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Her way of channelling Change

Photo: S.Subramanium

Actualizing dreams: SEWA Economic and Rural Development, Director Reema Nanavaty.

From a degree in microbiology to the creation of the ‘International Fund for Agricultural Development’ for earthquake victims Reema Nanavaty , the social reformer who lived with rural women for seven years to understand and help them with their hardships, has many things to her credit. Madhur Tankha catches up with the woman who gave up a career in Civil Service to make financially marginalised rural women self-reliant.

For over two decades, Reema Nanavaty has been working closely with rural women artisans to enable them to stand on their own feet. With earnings of women artisans showing a perceptible increase the Chairperson of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Trade Facilitation Centre is now inviting artificers from abroad to work with indigenous craft persons.

Sparing time from the launch of “Hansiba” boutique at Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhavan here this past week, the Ahmedabad-based social reformer says she gave up her high-profile Indian Administrative Service job to work at grassroots level with marginalised women in Gujarat for an entirely altruistic reason.

10 lakh members

“I wanted the ostracised women of my State, who were content doing humdrum domestic chores, to become resilient and fight for their rights by becoming an equal partner with men in the generation of wealth. Now SEWA has 10 lakh members in seven States.”

Sharing her first experience of involving women in decision-making process about the development of rural water supply in Gujarat, Reema says that in 1985 she started the novel concept of organising women as water users in the desert areas of the State. “The whole programme was aimed at providing drinking water to villagers. I got so involved working with villagers in the Patan and Kutch districts that I lived with them for seven years. It was very frustrating for a city dweller like me to live in places where there was no water and power. To further compound the problem, there were a lot of sandstorms. We used to boil ‘neem’ leaves for bathing. But the ever cheerful and hopeful village women inspired me to continue the struggle,” adds the SEWA Economic and Rural Development director.

Stating that she was often pushed out of the villages by the belligerent men folk, Reema says men in the community resented her presence and resisted the idea of women leaving their homes to work outside. Recalling one such incident the social-reformer says that, “There used to be caste panchayat in which women used to cook for men. Once when women were not able to cook, the village heads put a spanner in their works by imposing a fine of Rs.10,000 on any female found working. Refusing to take things lying down, the women asked their male counterparts to be entrusted with the task of feeding their families.”

To rebuild the lives of villagers after the devastating earthquake of 2001, Reema started the Jeevika programme. “I initiated and negotiated the creation of the ‘International Fund for Agricultural Development’ to rebuild the lives of 60,000 earthquake-affected SEWA members. (Under the programme) women are producing eco-friendly sustainable products. Cutting across religious denominations, women assemble at one place to work, eat and share each others joys and sorrows. As we are following Gandhian principle, work is equally distributed,” says Reema, who studied microbiology from Gujarat University in 1984.

Reema has literally seen young rural girls grow up to become economically self-reliant women. “Initially, when I started work there was backwardness and poverty in the rural areas. Now there is sudden transformation in villagers’ lives as they can afford to live in concrete houses. They possess telephones, mobiles phones and travel across the country on their own. Some of the more innovative do designing on computers.”

Stating that Hansiba was SEWA’s main brand, Reema says that it ensures livelihood security, girl child’s education and addresses climate change issue. “Our aim is to empower rural artisans. We are working towards improving the quality of life and creating livelihood opportunities for them. Hansiba has married age-old embroidery techniques with modern designs. The owners of Hansiba are rural women artisans.”

Holistic approach

Pointing out that villagers have gained confidence by leaps and bounds as they are economically secure and less vulnerable, Reema says: “Comprising 72 villages in Kutch and Patan, Hansiba is specialising in embroidery, tie and dye and mirror work. The income earned from craftsmanship is pumped into agriculture. Women have constructed watersheds to revive the whole agriculture cycle. So now villagers have multiple sources of income. There is economic revival and freedom of choice. Women don’t have to tread long distances to fetch water. So this is a holistic approach to solve the problem of villagers. We at SEWA only act as facilitators so that they can access new markets.”

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