October 9, 2008 at 9:47 am (Uncategorized) · Edit
This report contains a picture of a typical village of Karnataka. This was my first village study, so I was quite nervous! I got the bus at half past seven in the morning. I went around in the village and I saw a beautiful temple where the history of the village is hidden. Curious to know the history of the temple, my eyes are searching for the person who can tell me about this, and I finally found three elderly persons. The village has six tanks, namely Goudar Keri, Lakkamman Keri, Chutalamman Keri, Hire Keri, Chikkeri, Bandiyar Keri, Gollan Keri, Kamshetti Keri; the name of the tank is based on the nearest street. For example, if it is near to Goudar’s Street it is called ‘Goudar Keri’.
The village is blessed by twelve mini temples, which shows the people are very religious and they have a strong belief in gods and goddesses. They have common festivals, which are celebrated irrespective of their religion, namely Allihabba, Mailer Lingan Jatre and Hasiru Habba (Green Festival). In 2006 the people were affected by Chikun Gunya. Most of the people were admitted to the hospitals, except for those from Badiger Street and Kumbar Street. The people from here believe that they got saved because of the temple which is on their street. They offer a special prayer to the ‘Gram Devata’ for the betterment of the whole community.
The village has five Balawadi, one primary school and one high school. In this village most of the children are able to do their schooling till S.S.L.C., but for further studies they have to travel 26 km. Many of the interested students are not doing higher education, especially girls. In the last 20 years in this village education is reserved only for rich people and men. Socially and economically poor people used to think that ‘Education is not my cup of tea,’ because of their strong belief that education is not important for women. They believe this because they think that the girl should take care of her siblings and at the age of 12 or 13 she must marry, while the boy can do his schooling or whatever he wants to do. The women is waiting for the change she didn’t know that how it will change but the process of change started gradually when she started thinking of change. The interesting thing is how this change happened and what made the women to break out of the boundary and live a life. I can say that self-help groups contributed a lot to the life of women. For instance, after joining self-help groups, the women who is to be in her house and only limited to work for livelihood has now got the time of one hour once a week where she can talk about her own thoughts. She started thinking about what is happening in the world and that where she is something is wrong. At some point the women realized that education does contribute to their lives and that they should not allow their children to be illiterate. When the women started talking with her own peer group and gradually talking with other groups, once in a month the representative have to attend the meeting it became necessary to them to visit shirshetty koppa where the other group members also participating .In the year 1989 the high school was established. Before that the boys used to go to another place, but for the last three years ‘Kasturi baa central government girl’s hostel’ made a change in the life of socially and economically poor female youth. Now a woman can do her schooling till tenth class because the hostel is providing free accommodation and food, which made all the poor parents send their girls to school the backward community people who have not assumed made possible because of this hostel. Now in this village all the girls are doing their schooling till tenth and continuing the studies in cities.
While I was talking with elderly women, Ratnamma shared her own experience with me and told me that before they were not the part of the decision-making, that they had to listen to what men say. Now they are also the decision-makers. In local government is still difficult for some women to access any program, but those who are involved in self-help groups think that asking in the ‘gram panchayat’ is our right. They also discuss in weekly meeting about family matters, like who is having problems with their own family. She shared her experience about a time they counseled a man who didn’t want his wife to attend the self-help group’s meeting. This was really exciting to all the group members. Her statement made me wonder that now we are trying to reduce domestic violence against women and she too added proudly that if we were not in the self -groups it was not possible for us to think about this because the group taught us to do these kinds of things. Earlier we were having only thinking not action, but now we are recharged by groups.
Now I would like to tell you about three women. I have chosen three women engaged in different kinds of work. All the three women are from different classes, castes and sectors.
It was around 3:30 pm. I wanted to meet some other person, passing through the wadder colony (people belonging to a low caste), but when I saw a woman engaged in making leaf plates I went to her and we started talking. Her name is Neelamma, and she has three daughters and two sons. The two elder daughters got married. The other daughter is studying in sixth class, and the two sons are in ninth and tenth. She is the second wife of her husband. Both of her sons are staying in a hostel and her daughter stays with her. During summer she busy with making leaf plates beginning early in the morning. From 6 am till 2 pm she and her family go leaf-plucking. After collecting sufficient leaves they start making plates. Every day Neelamma is spending five to six hours preparing leaf plates, and the rest of the time she is busy with collecting fuel for cooking and other household work. Neelamma and her husband basically work in the fields as labor, and during the summer they engage in leaf plate-making. In early days these people were living in huts, and they used to go to each house and collect yesterday’s food to have for themselves and for their children. By the government housing scheme ‘Indira avas yojana,’ the people are having house to live, now neelamma is thinking that why we should ask others for our food? We may be poor, but we can find our own food. I think many “Neelamma’s” are in this village who are thinking in terms of their sustainability.
Shanthamma passed in sixth class, and she got married at the age of 17. She has two children. She was engaged with household work and taking care of children. In her family the women should not go out of the house, and a woman is not involved in decision-making. Even though she wanted to take part in self-help groups, she cannot because she does not have time to attend the meeting. She got adjusted with her routine life, one fine day she got the opportunity to take the training of health guard, now she is preparing medicine and selling it, it s helping to meet her needs . She observed that many people are coming and taking medicine from here and thus identified a livelihood for her family. She feels proud of herself because she is just passed sixth class and is able to do primary aid. Now she feels that I would have did my studies further but now it is not possible, but I am enjoying my work. This is very challenging for her because initially some people refused to take medicine from her but now people are coming from other villages. She thinks that a woman is not less valuable than a man. She thinks that every woman has potential but only needs an opportunity to explore herself.
I got an opportunity, so it became possible for me to do something otherwise I would have working at my home doing nothing other than my house work.
October 9, 2008 at 9:47 am (Uncategorized) · Edit
This report contains a picture of a typical village of Karnataka. This was my first village study, so I was quite nervous! I got the bus at half past seven in the morning. I went around in the village and I saw a beautiful temple where the history of the village is hidden. Curious to know the history of the temple, my eyes are searching for the person who can tell me about this, and I finally found three elderly persons. The village has six tanks, namely Goudar Keri, Lakkamman Keri, Chutalamman Keri, Hire Keri, Chikkeri, Bandiyar Keri, Gollan Keri, Kamshetti Keri; the name of the tank is based on the nearest street. For example, if it is near to Goudar’s Street it is called ‘Goudar Keri’.
The village is blessed by twelve mini temples, which shows the people are very religious and they have a strong belief in gods and goddesses. They have common festivals, which are celebrated irrespective of their religion, namely Allihabba, Mailer Lingan Jatre and Hasiru Habba (Green Festival). In 2006 the people were affected by Chikun Gunya. Most of the people were admitted to the hospitals, except for those from Badiger Street and Kumbar Street. The people from here believe that they got saved because of the temple which is on their street. They offer a special prayer to the ‘Gram Devata’ for the betterment of the whole community.
The village has five Balawadi, one primary school and one high school. In this village most of the children are able to do their schooling till S.S.L.C., but for further studies they have to travel 26 km. Many of the interested students are not doing higher education, especially girls. In the last 20 years in this village education is reserved only for rich people and men. Socially and economically poor people used to think that ‘Education is not my cup of tea,’ because of their strong belief that education is not important for women. They believe this because they think that the girl should take care of her siblings and at the age of 12 or 13 she must marry, while the boy can do his schooling or whatever he wants to do. The women is waiting for the change she didn’t know that how it will change but the process of change started gradually when she started thinking of change. The interesting thing is how this change happened and what made the women to break out of the boundary and live a life. I can say that self-help groups contributed a lot to the life of women. For instance, after joining self-help groups, the women who is to be in her house and only limited to work for livelihood has now got the time of one hour once a week where she can talk about her own thoughts. She started thinking about what is happening in the world and that where she is something is wrong. At some point the women realized that education does contribute to their lives and that they should not allow their children to be illiterate. When the women started talking with her own peer group and gradually talking with other groups, once in a month the representative have to attend the meeting it became necessary to them to visit shirshetty koppa where the other group members also participating .In the year 1989 the high school was established. Before that the boys used to go to another place, but for the last three years ‘Kasturi baa central government girl’s hostel’ made a change in the life of socially and economically poor female youth. Now a woman can do her schooling till tenth class because the hostel is providing free accommodation and food, which made all the poor parents send their girls to school the backward community people who have not assumed made possible because of this hostel. Now in this village all the girls are doing their schooling till tenth and continuing the studies in cities.
While I was talking with elderly women, Ratnamma shared her own experience with me and told me that before they were not the part of the decision-making, that they had to listen to what men say. Now they are also the decision-makers. In local government is still difficult for some women to access any program, but those who are involved in self-help groups think that asking in the ‘gram panchayat’ is our right. They also discuss in weekly meeting about family matters, like who is having problems with their own family. She shared her experience about a time they counseled a man who didn’t want his wife to attend the self-help group’s meeting. This was really exciting to all the group members. Her statement made me wonder that now we are trying to reduce domestic violence against women and she too added proudly that if we were not in the self -groups it was not possible for us to think about this because the group taught us to do these kinds of things. Earlier we were having only thinking not action, but now we are recharged by groups.
Now I would like to tell you about three women. I have chosen three women engaged in different kinds of work. All the three women are from different classes, castes and sectors.
It was around 3:30 pm. I wanted to meet some other person, passing through the wadder colony (people belonging to a low caste), but when I saw a woman engaged in making leaf plates I went to her and we started talking. Her name is Neelamma, and she has three daughters and two sons. The two elder daughters got married. The other daughter is studying in sixth class, and the two sons are in ninth and tenth. She is the second wife of her husband. Both of her sons are staying in a hostel and her daughter stays with her. During summer she busy with making leaf plates beginning early in the morning. From 6 am till 2 pm she and her family go leaf-plucking. After collecting sufficient leaves they start making plates. Every day Neelamma is spending five to six hours preparing leaf plates, and the rest of the time she is busy with collecting fuel for cooking and other household work. Neelamma and her husband basically work in the fields as labor, and during the summer they engage in leaf plate-making. In early days these people were living in huts, and they used to go to each house and collect yesterday’s food to have for themselves and for their children. By the government housing scheme ‘Indira avas yojana,’ the people are having house to live, now neelamma is thinking that why we should ask others for our food? We may be poor, but we can find our own food. I think many “Neelamma’s” are in this village who are thinking in terms of their sustainability.
Shanthamma passed in sixth class, and she got married at the age of 17. She has two children. She was engaged with household work and taking care of children. In her family the women should not go out of the house, and a woman is not involved in decision-making. Even though she wanted to take part in self-help groups, she cannot because she does not have time to attend the meeting. She got adjusted with her routine life, one fine day she got the opportunity to take the training of health guard, now she is preparing medicine and selling it, it s helping to meet her needs . She observed that many people are coming and taking medicine from here and thus identified a livelihood for her family. She feels proud of herself because she is just passed sixth class and is able to do primary aid. Now she feels that I would have did my studies further but now it is not possible, but I am enjoying my work. This is very challenging for her because initially some people refused to take medicine from her but now people are coming from other villages. She thinks that a woman is not less valuable than a man. She thinks that every woman has potential but only needs an opportunity to explore herself.
I got an opportunity, so it became possible for me to do something otherwise I would have working at my home doing nothing other than my house work.
