In recent months a story from a remote village of Jhansi district (Uttar Pradesh) that attracted attention and won much appreciation at the national level has been that of the tireless efforts of about 18 women volunteers of Simravari panchayat for the rejuvenation of Ghurari river. This river which has been a lifeline for this and several other villages has been in decline after an important check dam got damaged and there was growth of weeds. This panachayat has about 18 jal sahelis or water protector volunteers who have been motivated and trained by a voluntary organization Parmarth. After a lot of discussion they decided to take up the work of creating a sack bund on their own as well as cleaning weeds.
Braving exceptionally hot weather in March and April, they filled up nearly 1000 sacks provided by Parmarth with sand and placed these at a carefully selected place in the river to provide a temporary bund. It was a very difficult task and involved entering and walking in the river time and again each time a sack was carried to be placed in the river. As Dhanwanti said, she even lost her payal (ornament worn just above feet) to the river. Similar was the case with two other jal sahelis.
This work continued for about six days. After this there were four other days devoted to clearing weeds. So for about ten days these women were coming from their homes early in the morning to the river and returning in the evening after back-breaking day-long voluntary work in hot weather. However as Meera, a jal saheli says, all our work was duly rewarded when we heard that even the Prime Minister has praised our work.
However to understand the full importance of how far the women of this village have come, we will have to go back more than a decade to see the conditions prevailing then for many rural women here, particularly those from weaker socio-economic sections. As some of the jal sahelis here told me in a group discussion in the village very recently, it was common then to see a woman carrying a big water pitcher on her head, trying to find the path with some difficulty as she was drawing a veil on her face (ghunghat or parda) as per prevailing social norms. That this may result in her falling down had to be ignored. What is worse, at least for a part of the path she could also be seen carrying her chappals or her footwear in her own hands, which were also used for balancing the pitcher on her head, adding further to her difficulties, apart from the humiliation involved in this. This was because those from the lower socio-economic status were not supposed to have any footwear on when passing in front of the homes of some of the most influential and dominant persons of the village!
One day a teacher said she will not do this, and she walked right in front of a very dominating person with her footwear on. Then an anganwadi worker did so. Soon several other women took courage and the humiliating custom was broken.
The veil has been becoming less and less strict with the passage of time. What is more, as Vimla said, with women taking up so many new responsibilities, this has to be reduced. Whether it is going to the bank or going to officials for identity and other documents or attending to various market chores, women have been taking up all this work and this also reduces the restrictions of the veil, she asserts.
When Parmarth started working in the village, jal sahelis now had to go frequently to the city for training. When a mother-in-law objected, the local Parmarth motivator would often reply—Mother, why don’t you also come and see what we are doing. Similar any husband who objected was also invited. Today such objections have become almost non-existent. In fact several families are now quite helping in supporting the work of jal sahelis. Two men also came forward to help jal sahelis in river rejuvenation work.
So while Parmarth’s work with water protectors benefited from a social change process that was already in the making, Parmarth’s work also contributed to it, and with so much of recent focus on the rejuvenation of river, the inspirational work of jal sahelis is clearly giving a big boost to the empowerment of women. As Sharda said cheerfully—earlier visitors came only asking for women. Now officials, media, other visitors come here asking for names of women.
Now Jal sahelis are giving more attention to Jal Jeevan Mission work, as they want to make ‘har ghar jal’ ( water to all village homes) a reality. The work of laying pipelines has been completed in this village but no water has appeared in these pipelines yet. They have been told that when the water tank is constructed they’ll get water. However even the laying of pipelines has seen problem so that several houses located in upper areas are unlikely to get water very soon. The jal sahelis say that they are determined to work in such a way that the objective of water for all village homes is realized in actual practice.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine, Protecting Earth for Children and A Day in 2071.
