Smita Gupta
Jharkhand, a rural region of Northern India, has many “Educationally Backward Districts” where the female literacy rate is below 46.13% and the gender gap is above 21.59%. In these remote areas the majority of the population is marginalized and many other government programs and NGOs in this region have struggled to improve these gender discrepancies. Women in these sections face countless challenges and fall victim to domestic violence and gender discrimination. This is the challenge that LDM fellow, Smita Gupta, and her organization, the Mahila Samakhya program, address through their work empowering women and giving them the support they need to gain equality within their communities.
Smita, a born activist for women’s empowerment and rights, comes from a strong family where women are given very prestigious and respected positions. Raised in Bokaro Steel City, Simta’s father worked in the Bokaro Steel plant and her mother, the first female in her family to attend college, was a personal manager at the Steel Authority of India administration. Smita and her two sisters were given the freedom and opportunity to move wherever they liked and at fifteen, her eldest sister was allowed to study abroad.
“By giving freedom to us we learnt many things which always [kept] us [on] the right track”, Smita recalls. Compared to the progressive environment she grew up with, the community in Bakaro is not as “forward thinking”. Most women are not given an equal opportunity to travel or even be considered independent. Smita acknowledged the need for women’s equality and education and has since worked toward this goal in her role as the State Program Director of the Mahila Samakhya program.
Meaning education for women’s equality in Sanskrit, Mahila Samakhya fulfills its name through programs that create an encouraging environment which promote women’s and girl’s education and empowerment. The program also encourages women to identify and overcome the socio-cultural and systematic barriers, such as distribution of work in the family, behavior of family members toward women, and lack of mobility, that inhibit their participation in the educational process.
Trainings and capacity building are the pillars of the Mahila Samkhaya program activities. The trainings focus on education, health, legal and economic empowerment and participation of women in local administration. The organization has created three types of cohorts aimed for group empowerment and has developed a significant amount of inclusive and active communities in Jharkland. The first type of group is Sangha - a collective of between 10 and 20 village women. At the Sangha meetings, women who are amongst the most marginalized in the community, reflect, ask questions, speak fearlessly, and above all gain confidence to articulate their needs. The second type of group, Kishore & Kishori Manch for adolescent boys and girls who, united at the village level, take ownership of their personal development, from understanding their roles and responsibilities as citizens, to increasing their awareness of reproductive health. The third type of group, Mahila Shikshanan Kendra provide residential courses for girls and women between the ages of 15 and 35 that imparts formal literacy as well as life skills education.
Smita is involved in every aspect of the organization and is responsible for the program’s achievement. As leader, she guides courses of action within the organization and works with external organizations such as the national office, government and other networking agencies to implement successful programs.
One important issue that Smita acknowledged with the new state of Jharkhand, is underrepresentation of women in the government. Historically, the male dominated society made it difficult for women to run for election as they were provided with very little support from their family and society was unwilling to accept women administrators. Since Jharkhand opened their first local elections, in the year 2000, Smita has focused part of her program on helping women run for office.
Smita has been inspired by many of the women with whom she and the Mahila Samakhya program have helped to empower, educate and support in elections, but the story of Jiren Soy stands out in her mind. When Jiren Soy came into contact with the Mahila Samakhya program, she was living in a distant village of Murhu block in the Khunti district, one of the most marginalized sections of the society. When the program was brought to her district, she joined as a Sangha woman and expanded her knowledge through trainings and capacity building activities. She increased her mobility and began to visit the block office, in search of work for the women in her village. When the Mahila Samakhya program needed field functionaries in Khunti district, she was selected and became a Sahyogini, an individual who provides door to door information and services of nutrition, health and early education. In this role, Jiren worked whole heartedly for the empowerment of women and brought about great changes in her society. When the dates of the Panchayati Raj Institution PRI election were announced she intended to contest election for one of the Mukhiya, or village leader, positions.
Jiren lives in a highly Naxal area comprised of far left radical communists who support Maoist political sentiment and ideology. When Jiren nominated herself for the election, Naxals, who did not want her to become Mukhiya, threatened her to try and force her to withdraw. Jiren fought for survival, and even spent several nights in trees, as Naxals would come in search of her. However, Jiren had the support of the Sangha and did not give up. Despite her life being threatened, she did not lose heart and finally won the election.
“It is very heartening that women are finding their space in local governance. I personally believe that women [will] increase their participation in state and national level elections too and show their strength in politics as leaders”, Smita comments.
Seeing the smiling faces of empowered women like Jiren, whose goals she’s helped to achieve, drives Smita to continue this positive work. When asked about the future, her response shows modest dedication to her work, “I would like to spend the rest of my life for doing the same, working for the most marginalized section of society. It gives me utmost pleasure.”