Stories from the field

ARSHering Winds of Change
Azad India Foundation,Kishanganj, Bihar

It is easy to miss out Simalbari. Hidden between fields of yellow mustard and rapeseed and lush verdant tea gardens, it is not hard to see why this Santhal hamlet in rural Kishanganj, Bihar, is not very popular with government officials. The dusty track leading to the tribal community is narrow and uneven. Electricity too, is a distant dream. Yet, slowly and silently with no hullabaloo, change is taking place is this tribal community. 

In a state where 60 per cent of girls are married before the age of 18, young teenage girls in Simalbari are beginning to take a stand against the practice of early marriage.

When 15-year old Radha Hemdar refused to give up her studies and get married, it sent ripples of shock in her community. It was hard for the illiterate tribal hamlet to understand why Hemdar was ruining her life by giving up the golden opportunity of marrying a `good’ boy for the sake of school. But Hemdar steadfastly stuck to her beliefs.

Thanks to her determination, she has become the first in many generations of Santhals in that hamlet to reach Class 9. “If I have to get married and work in the tea gardens for the rest of my life just like everyone else in my community, what is then point of studying? I am studying because I want to become something and also because I know that an early marriage is not good for my health,” says Hemdar, pride in her accomplishment obvious when you speak to her.

In fact, Hemdar has inspired more young girls in her community to follow in her footsteps. Several between the ages of 10 – 14 years have told their parents they do not want to forsake their studies for marriage before they are eighteen. “It is convictions like these that has given us hope that our work with these adolescent girls on reproductive and sexual health is finally bearing fruit”, said Sayeeda Hussain, chairperson, Azad India Foundation (AIF).

But the path has not been easy for AIF, a non governmental organization working on Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH). Funded by the National Foundation for India (NFI), this ARSH project, which began in 2003 in 15 villages in Kishanganj, has seen numerous twists and turns. There have been several occasions over the past three years when AIF field workers have almost given up in frustration.

One of their biggest challenges came from a rural village Mirbhatta in Powakhali block. A majority of Mirbhatta, a predominantly Muslim village, is illiterate. Girls are married young and have no control over their bodies or the number of children they bear. Local religious leaders or maulanas (religious leader) play a crucial role in influencing decisions within the community. “The maulana of this village opposed all our efforts to talk about ARSH. He argued that young girls would become `polluted’ by information about their bodies or talking about reproductive and sexual health,” recounted Parwez Raza, AIF field supervisor.  So pervasive was the maulana’s influence that even his brother Qurban Ali, an influential community leader and one-time AIF ally also resisted any ARSH intervention.

But AIF workers did not give up. They just changed their strategy. Instead of talking about ARSH, they decided to use their existing Non Formal Education (NFE) centers as a platform to gather parents of the students. Since the centre was next to Ali’s house, he along with other parents were invited every week to see what their children were learning.  After four weeks AIF workers enquired from the parents if they were satisfied with what their children had learnt and if they had the confidence that their children would not be taught anything wrong, they (the parents) should give the NGO a chance to talk about ARSH.

It was then that Ali changed his mind. “In the beginning I was opposed to it because many people in the community including my brother were against it. But after AIF explained that our children would be able to protect themselves by learning about the biological and behavioral changes that take place when girls and boys reach puberty, I realized I was wrong in resisting them. Now I have convinced my maulana brother also to end his opposition,” said Ali.

Although it took several meetings to bring around Ali and the small group of parents whose children attended the NFE centres, AIF was quick to realize that they could sustain the intervention only if a member of that community spearheaded the initiative. So they decided to train Ali’s daughter, 17-year old Marguba, as an ARSH peer educator.

This was a smart move considering most of adolescent girls in the village see Marguba more as a friend than teacher. With many parents still reluctant to send their girls to the ARSH classes, AIF is hoping this friendship will attract these girls too.

But 55-year old AIF worker, Madhuri Das, needed more than just perseverance when she was given the duty to introduce ARSH to village Mohiuddinpur. Despite being a more affluent, educated and urbanized village, the mindset of its residents was no different from rural Mirbhatta. Here too, the maulvi (religious leader) was opposed to any discussion on ARSH. Matters came to such a pass here that the petite bespectacled Das had to don an aggressive avatar to counter hostility. “I am follower of goddess Kali. I realized that I had to be equally aggressive if I was to succeed in my mission. So I kept at it despite the abuses and taunts. Even when some people pelted stones at me, I did not run away. I told them I was ready to face anything. Fortunately, the maulvi finally understood that what we wanted to teach the girls would help them to look after their health before they took on the responsibility of child-bearing,” revealed Das.

Once AIF was able to win over the maulvi, the 70-year old religious leader invited Das to hold classes in his madarsa (local schools). “The Koran says that if need be one should go to China to acquire education; so why not the madarsa? Although chairs are not permitted in the place where the Koran is kept or recited, we just take the Koran from the verandah to another room when the classes are held,” said Maulvi Gyasuddin.

However, not all religious leaders have been helpful. AIF has had to close down three of its centres because of resistance from both Muslim and Hindu religious leaders. Nevertheless, AIF believes that without religious leaders on their side, it will be difficult to make a breakthrough.

The district of Kishanganj ranks 588 out of 590 districts in the country on the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) index according to a government survey of 1998-99. Although the ARSH work AIF is doing is showing some results, they have a long way to go before this RCH index improves.  Their lessons on nutrition, personal hygiene and contraception will be of little use unless they also include adolescent boys and newly married couples. Equally important is the need to design stronger linkages with the local health delivery systems.

AIF’s biggest advantage is the rapport and trust that it has built with the community with which it works. But to turn this advantage in to a successful strategy, it must develop better tools to monitor and evaluate its work. Only then can their interventions be more meaningful and sustainable.

It’s an amazing sight for the dusty township of Hazaribagh.  Women of different a

They all nurture a common dream – to have a garage of their own. Learning to ride a motorcycle is the first step, says their young trainer Mohammed Kalam who has eight years experience as a mechanic in a workshop and motorcycle and scooter showroom. Kalam also owns a small garage and despite being very young has remarkable patience with his students. The sprawling playfield of the Ramakrishna Sarada Math and Mission school serves as their training ground, a small room adjacent to the play field is their garage cum workstation where two old Hondas are ripped apart, their innards dissected and trisected and then reassembled.

While Soni Kumari and Neelam Kumari, 17 and 19 respectively, are members of the Ramakrishna Sarada Math and Mission (RSMM) Sirsi Girls Club, the rest of the women are older. Most of them are married and all are members of self-help groups, promoted by the RSMM. Having learnt about sexual and reproductive health through their network of clubs, the girls had determined that they would not marry before 18.  Pahile vidya dan, phir kanya daan (first education, then marriage) was the slogan of the youth clubs.  Since college education entailed travelling out of their villages, both boys and girls were keen on vocational skills. The girls wanted to do something challenging, something different!

Rakesh Narain, RSMM’s project coordinator and his two associates, Mamta and Shamshad, were able to link the ARSH Clubs and SHGs with vocational skills, supported by the Bangalore based Functional Vocational Training Forum (FVTF). They have also been able to tap into various government schemes and funding. The idea to train women to repair, maintain and service motorcycles was born after seeing an article in a women’s magazine.  The district administration in Hazaribagh, with whom the idea was shared, has offered space for the city’s first auto garage run by women.

These trainee mechanics have visited the local Bajaj and Honda workshops and showrooms and their excitement is mounting by the day. Mamta says “both companies are even willing to give the women jobs once they prove themselves.”

Initially 15 women joined the auto mechanics course but for a variety of reasons four have had to drop out. Anita, 32, of Kirti Shankarpur village is a member of the Mahila Samiti. Her husband is a security guard who is extremely supportive of Anita’s new venture. So are the other husbands of the trainee mechanics. Malti Devi, 22, of Sirsi village had completed a six months course in tailoring and machine embroidery. But when there was the opportunity to do the auto mechanics course, she jumped at it. “I want to do something that other women don’t,” she says. Malti’s husband says “it is great if you can ride and repair motorcycles. In our family no one knows how to ride a cycle even. You can give me a lift to work every day.”

But it is grey haired 50 plus Rajshree Devi from Sadar block that astonishes everyone with her enthusiasm and courage. You can see her pedalling a cycle round and round, in untiring circles. Learning to cycle is the first step to riding a motorcycle and Rajshree is determined to complete the course and get her certificate as well as the kudos. Her 25-year-old daughter, Neelam, has also joined the course.  Forty-year old Renu identified all the tools on display and explained the intricacies of opening the bike, greasing various parts, changing the oil and the oil seal for repair of the shock absorbers.

In four months the trainees will be able to open the motorcycles, fix the defect identified, change parts if necessary and service them. The FVTF provides the trainer’s fees, the running cost of parts, tools of the trade and of course the cost of the two motorcycles. The District Development Commissioner Mr. A. N. Pande has guaranteed space for the all women’s garage in the shopping complex being developed.

After the women complete the course and have their certificates, RSMM will approach the bank for a loan. The RSMM is a credible organisation and has built its reputation on the school that it runs and its spirituality. This reputation enables it to access various government schemes and bank loans. Trainer Mohammed Kalam, who has own garage, will assist the all women’s garage for a minimum of six months.

In Banadag village 30 girls are completing a very different kind of course, a six months beautician’s module.  Currently eight others are waitlisted to join the beautician course. There was a real scramble to join this course because it meant an opportunity for a livelihood and a bit of glamour in their lives. Television and Bollywood have whetted young women’s desire for better lives. This course too is supported by Bangalore’s FVTF (Functional Vocational Training Forum). Lovely Rose, a qualified beautician from the Women’s World Development Institute, was having a tough time deciding how many she could handle in a class.

Here again most of the girls are from the adolescent clubs and some are members of the SHGs (self help groups). The course includes hair cutting, threading, massages, manicure, pedicure, mehendi of hands and feet, bridal dressing. It’s a hands-on course and the students practise their skills on one another. Occasionally, Mamta, who handles the ARSH programme, gets her eyebrows threaded at the classroom.

On completing the course, the girls can run their own beauty saloon in groups of two and three or work out of their homes. For bridal make up they can charge anything from Rs 300 to Rs 500, for a good facial Rs 500, for a massage Rs 110 and for threading Rs 10. Those who have learnt to do mehendi can sit with shopkeepers selling bangles, the various requirements for pujas and at festivals like Teej, Karwa Chauth and Diwali and make a tidy Rs 600 to Rs 800 in a single day.  Rose, who runs the course, was working out of her home and earning Rs 3000 a month.

There will be an entrepreneurship and soft skills (handling clients) development programme towards the end of the course. There will also be exposure visits to beauty saloons in the city of Hazaribagh.

Before starting either of the vocational skills programme, RMSS carried out a detailed adolescent needs assessment amongst its youth club members.  Some 900 young people filled in their responses and it became clear that livelihoods, career counselling and life skill training were a priority.  RMSS has been able to partner with 13 other organisations including, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Janshikshan Sansthan, the Fisheries Department, Soil Conservation Department to implement skill training schemes. 

The ARSH (Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health) programme run by RSMM and supported by NFI could not have sustained itself on its own for very long.  Apart from discussions on cleanliness, nutrition and sanitation, reproductive health young people needed skills and professional courses that would give them access to world outside their villages.  They wanted the resources to run their own businesses and training in vocational skills.  RMSS has been able to do this extremely successfully.

Transforming Rajauli’s Piped Pipers
Mahila Vikash Samiti, Nawada, Bihar

Women stand with small babies at their waist, wide-eyed girls still in their school uniforms jostle with men trying to hold back the restive crowd. Some young boys are dangerously perched atop a tree. The residents of Gairwa village in Rajauli, Bihar, gathered to hear the nukkad natak (street play) occupy every inch of space around the village temple. 

Surprisingly the play is neither historical nor mythological. Rather, it is about gender equality, dangers of early marriage, and Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH). Yet, the audience remains riveted.

But achieving this feat hasn’t been easy. In 2003, when the Mahila Vikas Samiti (MVS) first started work on ARSH with Muhsars (Dalit community) a tribal community known traditionally to survive on rats, they faced resistance and hostility. Cleanliness, personal hygiene, reproductive and sexual health were all alien concepts for this tribe hovering on the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder. But three years later matters have come to such a pass that not only are young and adolescent boys refusing to follow the traditional practise of killing rats because it is unhygienic, there has also been a significant drop in the number of early marriages.

“In the beginning when we began the ARSH initiative in 15 villages with the support of the National Foundation for India, we were worried about the kind of response we would get to street plays on gender equality, personal hygiene and adolescent reproductive and sexual health.  This was especially because much of our work was with the Muhsar community, which did not consider these issues important,” said Leela Kumari, project director, Mahila Vikas Samiti (MVS).

So, instead of embarking on ARSH straightway, they decided to adopt a multi-pronged approach. They identified a group of families who were already sending their children to MVS’s Non-Formal Education (NFE) centre in the muhsar hamlets. Then, MVS trained their NFE teachers on ARSH issues. MVS believed that since the teachers had already built a rapport with the community, it would be easier to introduce the subject.

So while young girls and boys at the NFE centres learnt that rats were revered along with Lord Ganesha, the street plays were used to enliven the issue of ARSH and make it interactive.

The strategy of getting the audience involved was easier said than done in the beginning. But after a couple of performances, the theatre group realised that adding a personal touch was what was needed to get the audience involved.

So, as the actors sing and enact the dangers of marrying off girls early instead of educating them, lead actor Ravindranath Sharma taps the head of a five-year old dishevelled girl in the torn dress sitting in the front row. Then he points to the neatly dressed boy with his front teeth missing and sings about the importance of treating daughters and sons equally. And when it comes to the part about the parent’s responsibility, he dances up to a toothless granny who nods in agreement.

At the end of the performance, when the audience is asked questions about gender equality, the age of marriage, reproductive and sexual health, so many hands are raised that Sharma finds it hard to choose.   “Unless we involve the audience, it can be difficult to retain their interest during the three hour performance. We base our street plays on real life stories to sensitise people on adolescent reproductive and sexual health,” explained Sharma.

Sharma and his group are not a full time theatre group primarily because it cannot sustain them financially. Yet, they unhesitatingly take time off to perform whenever MVS requests them. “We do it not just because we love theatre. We see ourselves as agents of change and it gives us great satisfaction when we see an attitudinal change in people,” contended Sharma.

One of the biggest impacts has been the change in the mindsets of many young and adolescent boys belonging to the Muhsar community. They now refuse to kill rats not just because it is unhygienic but also because it is revered along with Lord Ganesha as his companion. While some of their fathers continue this traditional practise, many have been forced to give it up because of pressure from their children.  In village Nirmal Bhiga, the MVS organises a prayer service for Lord Ganesha every Saturday to ensure that the children of this Muhsar hamlet continue to revere the God and his companion.

Another significant change MVS has effected is a drop in the number of early marriages in the community. According to Leela Kumari, their records show a 30 per cent decline in marriages of girls under the age of 18 years at the end of three years of their work.  This has been possible by dovetailing the issue of ARSH with livelihood skills. Amidst the sewing and stitching, various issues like pregnancy, contraception and other reproductive health programmes, menstruation and personal hygiene are discussed. For 15-year old Hema Kumari who was unable to study because she had to look after her younger siblings, this was a novel experience. “Since I didn’t study I didn’t know about the right age of marriage or why my body undergoes changes. I was married young but I have persuaded my parents not to marry my younger sisters before they are 18 years,” said Hema.

Hema’s transformation was just what MVS needed to boost their programme. They were quick to make her a peer educator. Now, Hema accompanies the NFE teacher who makes a home visit two days in a week to interact with parents whose daughters attend classes and also those still reluctant to send their daughters

Interestingly, attracting adolescent boys to ARSH classes has been easier for MVS compared to their experience with adolescent girls.  This was because boys had already formed small social clubs in their villages and met regularly.  So MVS field supervisor Shankar Singh did not have to go from house to house to organise an ARSH meeting. Initially the boys were shy but now they ask questions about their reproductive and sexual health openly. Vishal Singh of village Kairgaon said that the information had helped them understand better many issues including the much-feared HIV and AIDS. “One of our club members fell sick. But he didn’t tell us what had happened to him. Only when he was very sick he told us that he is HIV positive. We use his example to tell everyone the importance of having safe sexual behaviour and of using condoms. If our friend had been careful, he would not have died,” said Singh.

This information is given specially to newly married couples. The club has taken on the responsibility of become the conduit for couples in the village who may want oral contraceptive pills and condoms but may be too shy to ask MVS or the local medical practitioners.

However, there has been a surprising lack of response from the local self-government bodies or panchayats (local governance). Despite several efforts MVS has been unsuccessful in involving the panchayats. According to MVS Director Kamal Kishore Bindu, persuading pradhans (heads) and other members of the panchayats, who play a crucial role in the development of the village, remains their biggest challenge.

Change is creeping into the Muhsar community. However, it will be difficult to sustain this change in the long run unless MVS can develop strategies to convince panchayat leaders that their participation is critical in linking ARSH programmes with other health and livelihood schemes.