Community mobilisation, gender equality and resource mobilisation in adult education

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International Journal of Educational Development 26 (2006) 153–165 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev

Community mobilisation, gender equality and resource mobilisation in adult education Komal Srivastavaa, Ila Patelb, a Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, New Delhi, India Institute of Rural Management, Post Box No. 60, Anand 388001, India

b

Abstract Despite an overall improvement in the educational situation of girls and women in India, there are considerable gender inequalities in education. In the last decade, the Government of India introduced the campaign approach to tackle the problem of widespread illiteracy among women and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups in collaboration with the wider support of civil society. This paper attempts to understand the efforts of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), a voluntary organisation supported by the People’s Science Movement, for women’s empowerment through its innovative approach to large-scale community mobilisation and organisation at the grassroots. It shows both the potential and limitations of the BGVS in sustaining the process of empowerment among poor and vulnerable women in the state-sponsored literacy campaigns, and challenges in linking literacy with livelihoods issues, development and democracy in the context of limited state support and resources. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Literacy; Gender equality; Women’s empowerment; Community mobilization; India

1. Introduction In the 1990s, education of girls and women became an imperative development as it is considered an important investment for social and economic development. However, despite considerable improvement in the educational situation of girls and women since India’s indeCorresponding author. Tel.: +91 2692 260391;

fax: +91 2692 260188. E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Patel).

pendence, towards the end of the twentieth century nearly two-thirds of non-literates (189.56 million) were females. In 2001, only 54.2% of the female population in rural India was literate as compared to 75.8% of the male population. During the last decade, the government developed some special mechanisms and programmes to address gender inequalities in adult education. The National Literacy Mission (NLM), launched in 1988 as a societal and technical mission, was a landmark in the history of adult education in India (Government of India, 1988).

0738-0593/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2005.07.022

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This paper focuses on the total literacy campaigns (TLCs), organised by the Government of India in partnership with the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, a voluntary organisation that made a key contribution towards evolving an innovative strategy for large-scale community mobilisation of the poor, particularly women, to change their material conditions and struggle for gender equality. Women participated in the literacy campaigns in large numbers, both as learners and volunteers, pointing to the extent to which they valued literacy in their lives. However, little attention was paid to sustaining and building upon the confidence and skills acquired through the campaigns. This paper focuses on processes of women’s empowerment through mobilisation and organisation, while at the same time indicating the barriers and challenges to this process, not least in terms of lack of resources and an often hostile policy environment. Discussion is based primarily on secondary sources of information and field insights of one of the authors, who was actively involved in mobilisation and organisation of women in the TLCs.

2. Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti: the background In 1989, the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), one of the pioneering people’s science movements (PSMs) in the country, undertook a massive literacy campaign in the district of Ernakulam in collaboration with the district administration. KSSP made use of its time-tested medium of kalajathas (cultural caravans) to reach out to every nook and corner of the district to create an ambience for the literacy programme. The district administration and KSSP, along with various other voluntary and mass organisations, worked hand in hand on the platform of the now famous Zilla Saksharatha Samithi (District Literacy Society). Hundreds and thousands of young men and women came out to become voluntary literacy teachers. The campaign approach of Ernakulam proved to be a major success. Later in 1989, the National Literacy Mission (NLM), set up by the Government of India to urgently address the problem of illiteracy in the

country, decided to replicate the Ernakulam experiment on a nationwide scale. The All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN), at the request of the Government of India, decided to form Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi (BGVS), with the primary responsibility of placing literacy on the national agenda. The general council of BGVS included activists of the people’s science movement (PSM), representatives from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and eminent educationists, social workers and artists from all over the country. A 13-member executive committee, elected by the general council, included an NLM nominee and functioned from its central office located in New Delhi with the assistance of four sub-committees in specific areas—Literacy Campaigns (literacy, post-literacy and continuing education), Primary Education, Literacy and Health, and Women and Literacy. In 1992, BGVS became a national-level organisation with state-, district- and block-level units in 17 states and Union Territories (UTs). Today, the BGVS operates in 250 districts in 23 states through a network of state units, and district and block committees. The vision of BGVS was of holistic development through a people’s movement and literacy was seen as the first step in a process that would lead towards self-reliance, sustainable development and a democratic society. In contrast to the targetoriented approach to promoting literacy, the BGVS had a broad-based vision of literacy: A potential starting point for social transformation. The crusade against illiteracy is a crusade against conditions that maintain illiteracy, a crusade against communalism, a crusade against dependence. It is a second independence struggle, for national integration and for selfreliance, a struggle to make democracy meaningful to the millions (www.BGVS.org). BGVS started the process of educating the masses in active partnership with the NLM. There was speculation regarding success of the TLC, as mass campaigns for literacy had been carried out only in societies that had gone through or were in the process of a social revolution. In India there were no conditions for social revolution, yet the

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activists of BGVS and PSM took this as a challenge and also as an opportunity to move one or more steps forward towards social revolution. The 6–7 years up to 1995–1996 saw the rise of an unprecedented mass movement for literacy. About 100 million adult learners went through the literacy classes. Not all of them gained sufficient proficiency. But the movement mobilised about 12 million volunteers, who functioned as voluntary instructors or organisers without demanding or expecting any reward other than the joy of participating in a mass movement for literacy. Furthermore, the government–BGVS partnership did much to instill self-confidence in the poor, to reduce their fear of officials and to initiate a variety of movements both for economic and social justice. Even though the longer-term impact of this campaign remains to be assessed, an immediate impact was the phenomenal increase in the demand for primary education as well as retention of children in primary schools. Saldanha (2003, pp. 8–56) divides the history of BGVS initiatives during 1989–2001 into three distinct phases. The first phase (1989–1993) was characterised by mobilisation for literacy through kalajathas (cultural caravans) and collaboration with the NLM for planning and implementation of TLCs at the national, state and district levels. In the second phase (1994–1997) of rapid expansion and bureaucratisation of TLCs, the BGVS attempted to link literacy with national unity, natural resources management, Panchayati Raj Institutions (local government) and health. It also attempted to establish linkages between literacy and elementary education through Joy of Learning Campaigns, and generate social awareness through publications and Jan Vachan Andolans (reading campaigns). With marginalisation of BGVS by the state since 1998, the BGVS has focused on building and strengthening decentralised institutions around women’s savings groups, continuing education centres and Gyan Vigyan Vidyalayas (nonformal education centres) and their interface with formal schools. The partnership between the government and BGVS could not last the entire journey. Today, BGVS has emerged as an autonomous organisation, running independent and often parallel

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programmes to the NLM. BGVS knows that state support is essential for working on large-scale programmes of literacy, post-literacy and continuing education. However, it has also realised that grassroots organisations and the people’s movement for their basic rights cannot be sustained through state-sponsored programmes. It is within this broader organisational context that BGVS has made some efforts for women’s empowerment through mobilisation, and linking learning and development.

3. Empowerment of women through mobilisation in the TLCs Of the 40 million learners and nearly 4 million volunteer instructors, who participated in literacy campaigns in the early 1990s, more than twothirds were women. However, empowerment of women was not the stated objective of the TLC. In practice, women’s empowerment flowed from the organisational strategy of the BGVS (Sundararaman, 1996), rather than from literacy per se. This section highlights how TLCs contributed to empowering women who participated in literacy campaigns. 3.1. Kalajathas as the mobilisation strategy In the initial years of TLCs, the BGVS made a significant contribution to creating a cultural climate for literacy through environment building and other programmes. The BGVS used cultural mobilisation as an innovative tactical approach for large-scale mobilisation of literacy learners, instructors and activists, and garnering the support of local communities for literacy and social development. In the environment-building phase, the BGVS extensively organised many peoplecentred activities, for example, cycle rallies, human literacy chains, neo-literate fairs, jyoti kalash yatras (processions with earthen pots with literacy symbols painted on it), wall writings and slogan writing, cultural caravans, sanitation camps, literacy exhibitions, literacy fairs, film shows, cycle learning and repairing camps, person to person contact, saksharta geet yatra (a troupe singing

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literacy songs), kavi sammelan (meeting of poets), use of festival symbol for literacy, etc. Both the traditional folk media forms and the conventional media (electronic media, posters, banners, hoardings, etc.) were used to elicit the creativity and imagination of the common persons, and mobilise public opinion. Kalajathas served as a powerful tool for mobilisation of women and motivating them for active participation in the campaign (Sundararaman 1996, p. 1193). It consisted of cultural troupes that performed street plays, songs and skits that packed development themes in the popular cultural idioms. More than the form, it was the messages themselves that linked literacy with basic livelihood problems and issues related to poverty, exploitation, caste discrimination, gender inequity, etc. Literacy per se was not expected to address such complex issues. But the messages communicated through popular media succeeded in reaching the hearts of millions of women learners from the weaker sections of society and inspired the educated youth to serve as voluntary instructors and organisers in the literacy campaigns. Various patriarchal constraints that hinder women’s participation in the public sphere became temporarily inoperative due to the massive environment building. Kalajathas provided a socially sanctioned space for thousands of young women, mostly school and college students, from the conservative social milieu to participate in various cultural activities as performers. 3.2. Women’s empowerment through social mobilisation How did the large-scale social mobilisation, generated in TLCs empower women? Environment-building activities motivated a large number of illiterate women to participate in literacy classes, which provided women learners and instructors a social space to congregate daily and interact and share with each other their common problems and experiences about work and the family (Dighe, 1994a; Sundararaman, 1996, pp. 1193–1194). Literacy learning as a collective process contributed to building their self-confidence and challenging existing gender relations in

some places. It was the way in which BGVS articulated literacy as a strategy for mobilisation that led to empowerment. In several places, the literacy movement was effectively channelised into other areas of women’s lives. The most known examples of women’s empowerment through mobilisation come from the TLCs of Nellore and Pudukottai districts. In Nellore district (Andhra Pradesh), the literacy campaign did not just focus on imparting literacy skills but also empowering learners to deal with development issues. After the literacy phase, jana chetna kendras (centres for people’s awareness), popularly known as ‘village parliaments’, were formed, where neo-literate women discussed problems faced by them in the village. It was a lesson in the post-literacy primer that inspired women from a small village to launch a blockade against arrack (country liquor) in their village, and motivated others to join the anti-arrack agitation (see Dighe, 1994b; George, 2000). The agitation, spearheaded by rural women, was also supported by several mass organisations (political parties, voluntary organisations, women’s groups, civil liberties organisations, etc.). Participation in the agitation empowered rural women and made them confident and articulate to fight against the local liquor contractors and the bureaucracy. After a prolonged struggle, the government introduced a ban on selling of arrack first in Nellore district in 1993 and then in the entire state of Andhra Pradesh. However, the government withdrew the total prohibition of arrack in the state in 1997. In the aftermath of the anti-arrack agitation, rural women started Podupalakshmi (saving and credit groups). The women’s credit cooperatives were replicated in several states (for example, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) and provided impetus to starting income-generating activities for women. The TLC in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, spearheaded by a dynamic woman collector, attempted to empower women by linking literacy with livelihoods issues from the very beginning.1 A conscious effort was made to provide women 1 For a detailed discussion on TLC in Pudukottai district, refer to Athreya and Chunkath, (1996).

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learners training in a range of skills, such as managing assets and credit, and handling local problems and conflict situations (Rao, 1993). For example, poor women learners from the literacy classes were trained as gem cutters and hired for the first time in gem-cutting businesses. The collector also helped literacy learners to form cooperatives of women stone-quarry workers. Women struggled for the lease of quarries and eliminated the contractors who had till then reaped huge profits by hiring cheap labour. Furthermore, a cycling campaign for increasing women’s physical mobility was an innovative feature of the Pudukottai literacy campaign. More than 50,000 women in the district learnt to ride a bicycle. As one of the stone-quarry workers narrated: By learning to cycle, I have broken many barriers—the gender barrier, the age barrier, the caste barrier and the class barrier. It was unheard of for a woman from a poor scheduled caste labourer’s family like mine to even touch a cycle, let alone ride one through the streets of our village. Now I can talk on equal terms with contractors and even ride past them on my bicycle. (Athreya and Chunkath, 1996, p. 220). Village women who learnt to ride bicycles experienced a sense of autonomy and independence and developed self-confidence to move around on their own and explore the outside world. The study of the impact of a cycling campaign on women’s lives showed that cycling for women became an efficient and cheap way of meeting their daily transport needs for unacknowledged and unpaid household or social tasks (Rao, 1999). The increased physical mobility also contributed to enhance their self-esteem and selfconfidence. The cycling campaign was also emulated by TLCs in other states (Sundararaman, 1996, p. 1196). To what extent did the government-sponsored literacy campaigns then provide space for the empowerment of women? In Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry, voluntarism and mobilisation were perceived as threatening by the local politicians and the state government (Sundararaman, 1996, pp 1194–1195) and despite successful

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literacy campaigns received lukewarm response from the state politicians and the government machinery. In Andhra Pradesh, as the anti-arrack agitation spread from the village to the district and to the entire state the government took several repressive measures to weaken the movement. The textbook containing the lesson that sparked off the agitation was withdrawn and the functionaries who supported the agitation were removed from the campaign. The spontaneous savings movement that emerged after the anti-arrack agitation was co-opted by the government and lost its momentum. Similarly, after the large-scale mobilisation of volunteers in Pondicherry for the post-literacy campaign, the government undermined the role of BGVS and NGO representatives in implementation of the campaign. According to Sundararaman (1996, p. 1194): There are some common features about all these forms of opposition. All of them attacked voluntarism, all of them attacked a strategy where mobilisation is the key, all of them question the linkages of empowerment issues with literacy (and where they succeed they proceed to delink it at once) and all of them seek to marginalise or remove NGO participation in the leadership of such campaigns. Thus, though the successful literacy campaigns reached out to women and people from the socioeconomically disadvantaged sections of society and mobilised them in a major way, the ‘democratic space’ within the state-sponsored literacy campaigns for women’s empowerment remained limited. The BGVS too was unable to create autonomous organisational structures through which the vast majority of neo-literate women learners could continue and sustain the process of empowerment (Rao, 1993; Banerjee, 1993; Saxena, 1993).

4. Samata: an emerging platform for women’s education and equality Despite the large-scale participation of women as volunteers, learners and jatha performers in the initial phase of the literacy campaigns, neither

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BGVS nor NLM paid adequate attention to place women’s issues on the agenda of the literacy movement (Sharma, 1993, p. 1). Although women constituted the base of literacy campaigns, they were almost invisible in the coordination and leadership positions at all levels. There were a very small number of women who worked as coordinators. They played an important role as mobilisers of women at the grassroots, but, their ‘supportive’ role and their contributions were hardly acknowledged. There was a need to develop women’s leadership potential within the literacy movement. On the other hand, there was a growing demand from the women’s organisations to address women’s issues in the literacy campaigns. BGVS took up the challenge of bringing women’s issues to the forefront of the literacy movement and development through Samata, a women’s platform for promoting women’s education and equality. Initially, Samata was conceived as a platform to integrate experience of the literacy campaigns with the larger women’s movement that had a deeper understanding of women’s issues and struggles. It was envisaged to link women learners and volunteers who participated in TLCs with the women’s movement. 4.1. Samata jathas (1993) In 1993, BGVS decided to undertake a nationallevel women’s jatha, called Samata, for promoting education, equality and peace (see Sharma (1993) for detailed documentation). Samata was conceived as a mobilisation strategy to generate an awareness about women’s issues among literacy volunteers/activists, learners, functionaries and the community. To plan and organise the Samata jatha, BGVS used the consultative process, training programmes and workshops were held in a cascading manner from the national, regional and state to the district levels. First, a national-level organising committee was formed with representation of various national women’s organisations. A national convention of 150 women delegates along with several state- and district-level conventions for women literacy activists and volunteers were

held (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi, 1992). The production of cultural programmes was first undertaken through a 16-day national Samata kalajatha production workshop during January 18–31, 1993 to prepare a detailed plan for cultural activities and develop prototype cultural programmes. This workshop identified four major themes—women and literacy, the girl child, women and work, women and communalism— and produced 11 plays, action songs and the documentary on Hindustan ki Betiyan (the daughters of India). Given the paucity of time, several items were taken from the plays created for the Vanitha (women’s) kalajathas of Kerala. Subsequently, eight regional training camps were conducted to train the jatha members and prepare the material developed at the national workshop with a local flavour in regional languages. Some local songs were also introduced in these camps. Eight Samata jathas started on International Women’s Day (1993) and travelled all over the country for a month, and culminated in the central Indian town of Jhansi (Sharma, 1993, pp. 23–25). More than 250 artists, mostly adolescent girls and young women, performed plays and songs on the selected themes over a period of one month and reached out to nearly 200,000 men, women and children. Everywhere the village community welcomed the troupe with enthusiasm and voluntarily contributed resources for making arrangements for their stay. Performances initiated detailed discussions on the education of girls and women, women and culture, and women and work. What was the impact of Samata jathas? The jathas succeeded to some extent in creating an awareness about women’s issues at the community-level and focusing attention on illiteracy among women as an equity issue. They also highlighted the importance of addressing women’s issues in TLCs. Samata jathas were also a very empowering experience for the kalajatha artists and performers. As each jatha included people from different regions, interactions with people from divergent cultural backgrounds broadened their understanding about different cultures. They also learned to live in a group with the others. Although these jathas provided opportunities to other women’s organisations for participation in

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various conventions and local organising committees, their involvement could not be sustained, as they were unable to relate to the novel approach of BGVS for mass mobilisation of women around literacy campaigns. Nonetheless, Samata jathas created space for women volunteers and activists within the organisational structure of BGVS at all levels to develop their leadership potential. Towards the end of the jathas, BGVS did not have clarity about what shape Samata should take (Sharma, 1993, p. 25). How should Samata move forward to promote women’s education for equality and empowerment? Should it be an open forum or an organisation? Should Samata function as a women’s wing of BGVS or should it be a linked but autonomous body? What would be the nature of relationship between Samata and the literacy campaigns? After Samata jathas, it was envisaged that each state BGVS unit would develop its own strategy for focusing on women and their concerns in its work. In the absence of an organisational strategy, however, no nationally coordinated programmes could be launched for the next two years. Sporadic efforts were undertaken in some states by the state units of BGVS. For example, Samata jathas followed in Bihar, legal literacy programmes in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, and the thrift and credit movement in Andhra Pradesh. The focus remained on various activities for women rather than on addressing the question of organisational form and structure for long-term sustainability of Samata as a platform for women’s education and equality. 4.2. Samata Vigyan Utsav Finally, in response to the demands from the state units for guidance and support for womencentred activities, BGVS constituted a national core group with ten members, known as Samata, to lead the integration of women’s issues in all programmatic areas of BGVS. In 1996, a national coordinated programme of Samata Vigyan Utsav (Samata Science Festival) was drawn up (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi, 1996). Its objectives were: to provide Samata a platform for women from the village to the national level to focus on women’s education, literacy and other gender issues; to

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disseminate information on gender issues among neo-literate women, and recognise women’s knowledge. It was envisaged that after each Samata Vigyan Utsav, a women’s group/committee, known as Samata Samuh/Samiti, would be formed to nurture the leadership of women at the grassroots level. For designing Samata Vigyan Utsav, a participatory process was followed. From each state, a group of Samata coordinators and other volunteers contributed to developing training modules and material on various themes, depending on their expertise. Two regional workshops were organised in 1996 to build the capacity of statelevel women activists for conducting Samata Vigyan Utsavs, and they were followed by stateand district-level workshops. The format of all the Samata Vigyan Utsavs was like a mela (fair) so that communication between resource persons from Samata and village women could be easily established. Different theme-based ‘corners’ (stalls) were set up on various women’s issues: health, education, Panchayati Raj (local governance), home-based production, environment, women, science and technology, personality development, women and violence, small savings and so on. Resource persons selected the theme as per the local situation and designed the stalls using stories, songs, experiments, case studies, skits and role-plays. Samata Vigyan Utsav was one of the most successful nationally coordinated programmes. More than 7904 Samata Vigyan Utsavs were organised at state, district, block and village levels in which about 300,000 women participated (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi, 2001). Despite high participation of village women in these fairs, the lack of an adequate number of resource persons with organisational skills, lack of coordination between Samata’s work with BGVS, and lack of follow-up plans adversely affected the formation of Samata groups in the villages. The mobilisation could not be sustained in many villages as the leadership was not able to keep pace with the emerging demands of women’s groups for minimum wages, handling of cases related to violence against women, prohibition on the sale of alcohol and livelihood opportunities for women.

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A national convention of Samata activists was held in 1997 in Topchachi, Dhanbad (Bihar) to understand the different dimensions of the movement during the literacy campaigns (such as antiarrack movement), review Samata Vigyan Utsav and suggest a future strategy for Samata (Saldanha, 2003, p. 100). It was felt that the BGVS as an organisation could not respond to all the demands articulated by the grassroots women during Samata Vigyan Utsav, particularly those that involved directly confronting the powerful (for example, attacking the nexus of big politicians, criminals and the police for prohibition of alcohol), and the Samata network should link up with other movements like the women’s movement to take up these issues. On the other hand, BGVS decided to work on micro-credit through self-help groups and continue to work on women’s literacy. Subsequently, the Samata national workshop conducted in 1999 examined the linkages between post-literacy, continuing education and the women’s micro-credit movement. In terms of achievements Samata has managed to develop women’s leadership at all levels within the BGVS organisation (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi, 2002). However, representation of women in leadership positions at the state level is not yet satisfactory. In 2002, out of 411 members of the State Executive Committees of 16 states, only 90 (21.89%) were women. Nonetheless, the BGVS envisages having at least one-third women staff at all levels of the organisation and involving more women in leadership positions. Though Samata has not been able to fully integrate the experience of the TLC with the larger women’s movement, and has continued to function as a sub-committee of the BGVS, it has come a long way since its inception. Its network has spread to about 8000 villages in the country and reached approximately 500,000 women through various Samata groups. As a result of sustained efforts since 1993, Samata has been engaged in the process of building institutions at the village level for women who are involved with the work of selfhelp groups (micro-enterprises), continuing education, health, prevention of violence against women and local governance (Panchayati Raj). It started with mobilisation around literacy, but at present

there are Samata committees in each state, and efforts are being made to evolve a decentralised district-based women’s organisation by federating the self-help groups (SHGs), which is one of the main activities of Samata.

5. Beyond literacy Based on the emerging demands from grassroots women, Samata decided to build the bridge between literacy and other development concerns, such as enhancing women’s participation in health, micro-credit, micro-enterprises, local governance, continuing education, etc. Samata took these issues on priority to work out a strategy for intervention beyond the literacy campaigns. 5.1. Self-help groups: a strategy for building selfreliant grassroots organisations The savings movement was first born in Nellore district (Andhra Pradesh) after the anti-arrack agitation (Ramachandran, 1999) and soon spread to several other states. Though it lost momentum in Andhra Pradesh itself once the government took control of it, the Mahalir Association for Literacy Awareness and Rights (MALAR) is an example of how mobilisation of women around literacy was consolidated through village-level organisations in the form of self-help groups. It is important to understand the MALAR model, which has been adopted by Samata for building the SHG movement across the country. MALAR was formed in the high-literacy (82%) district of Kanyakumari in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in 1995 with support of the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) that played an active role in implementation of TLCs in the state. With the abrupt discontinuation of post-literacy campaigns by the government, TNSF decided to evolve an alternative strategy of organising village women through SHGs, while forming a federation of these groups and also registering it as a society. MALAR was established as an organisation of women for their social and economic development. MALAR has built a decentralised organisational structure at the village, panchayat, block

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and district levels.2 Besides regular weekly/periodic/monthly meetings at each level, a district conference is held annually and it is preceded by the SHG, panchayat and block-level conferences. Regular review meetings have contributed to bring transparency in the entire process of accounting and financing, and ensure accountability of the office bearers at various levels. The weekly SHG meetings for savings transactions also serve as a forum for discussions amongst women. MALAR has operationalised a strategy for sharing of interest on SHGs/district loans for economic and organisational sustainability.3 The transactions of SHGs are designed to ensure that SHGs are selfreliant and self-sustainable. Considerable efforts have been made by MALAR to build administrative and financial capacities of its members and office bearers through various training programmes on issues related to accounting, report writing, general awareness, personality development, etc. As MALAR has emerged from the literacy movement, considerable attention is paid to the continuing education of SHG members. Besides economic improvement through loan and saving schemes, MALAR also tries to give women a learning space. A neo-literate broadsheet, containing stories, news (mostly district or local) and health information, a monthly resource paper, and neo-literate booklets are introduced and discussed at SHG meetings. Neoliterate women are also encouraged to keep the minutes of the weekly meeting and maintain their own account books in order to sustain their literacy skills. 2

For example, there is an SHG of approximately 20 members with a President, Secretary and Treasurer at the village level, a Panchayat Committee of village coordinators who each look after about five SHGs, a block committee of all village coordinators, and a district committee of all block coordinators. 3 Each SHG member contributes an annual membership fee of Rs. 10, and a minimum saving of Rs. 20 per month (i.e a minimum amount of Rs. 5 every week) to her respective group. Each SHG contributes Rs. 50 per month to the district-level federation, which goes towards the reserve fund. Individual loans are available to members from SHGs and group loans are available to the SHGs from the federation. The interest on loan is distributed such that 50% goes to the group, 30% to the village coordinator, and 20% to the district committee.

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MALAR has worked systematically towards the economic and social empowerment of poor women. SHGs have become the forum for discussion and group activities have contributed to building solidarity among them to take collective action. MALAR women have taken up protests against atrocities on women, alcoholism and wife battering, against exploitation of ration dealers, and networked with other women’s groups for legal counselling. Some of the SHGs have participated in a health campaign for monitoring health and nutrition status of pregnant women and children. Some MALAR members have also contested the elections in the local self-governing bodies. On the economic front, MALAR has been able to stop the mortgaging of essential survival items such as ration cards and has also enabled the redemption of personal possessions such as family jewellery, which has enhanced the status of the woman in the family. Over three years, there has been a perceptible shift in the borrowing purpose from emergency or social purposes such as a wedding, medical or education expenses to the purchase of assets, establishment and expansion of petty enterprises, purchase and maintenance of livestock, etc. A spirit of entrepreneurship is also emerging among women. The micro-enterprises that have been initiated are readymade garments, poultry development, embroidery centres, coir making, and coconut oil extraction As a member of the Samata network, MALAR members also participate in various activities of Samata at the national level to enhance social awareness. All the activities carried out by the state unit are also carried out by MALAR, for example Samata Vigyan Utsav, health programme, participation in regional and national trainings and workshops. Members of MALAR have become the main resource persons for SHGs at the national level and are part of the national resource team. Samata has adopted MALAR as a model of SHGs and expanded it to all the states. The MALAR movement of SHGs that accompanied and built upon the mobilization and learning of the literacy phase, demonstrates how mobilization can lead to processes of institutionalization. y MALAR is a good

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illustration of the combination of efforts around mobilization towards learning followed by organisation building and institutionalization processes towards revolving issues of livelihood. y [T]he inspiration from MALAR and similar efforts linked to livelihood have created a major network of empowered women’s groups in the state of Tamil Nadu and within other districts of the country under the banner of Samata. This network has the potential of giving the literacy campaigns a much needed character of a women’s movement. (Saldanha, 2003, pp. 110–111) Expansion of the SHGs has taken place at a fast pace. There are more than 22,000 SHGs in 20 states. Building of self-reliant and self-sustainable organisations of women through SHGs has become the main activity of Samata. However, the challenge for Samata is to link literacy with livelihoods and build sustainable organisations in low literacy districts with considerable caste, class and gender inequities. 5.2. Building capacity of women for local governance Enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Indian Constitution created opportunities for women’s representation in local governance. Since 1995, Panchayati Raj (local governance) has become an important programmatic area of BGVS to enhance people’s participation in planning for their own development. Under this programme, most of the state units of BGVS have organised different kinds of training programmes and exposure visits for the elected panchayat representatives to broaden their outlook. BGVS also organised several workshops to develop appropriate materials linking post-literacy and continuing education to local governance. Panchayati Raj was taken up as one of the important issues for discussion in the melas organised at the state, district, block and village levels under Samata Vigyan Utsav. To create awareness amongst women about panchayats and the role of elected women therein, a six-day Samata workshop was held on Literacy, Women’s

Empowerment and Panchayati Raj’ at Bhopal. About 140 women from 18 states and two UTs participated in this workshop. Samata activities familiarised women learners and volunteers about PRIs and contributed to developing their capacities to participate in available democratic spaces at the local level. Participation in Samata melas and workshops enhanced women’s self-confidence to deal with government officials and functionaries, and contest elections in the local governance system at various levels. Increased political participation of women who participated in literacy campaigns was visible in several areas. At the village level, women learners started participating in gram sabha (the village assembly), mandated by the Constitution. Several women got elected in the states of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. One of the best examples is that of Begusarai District in Bihar in which more than 50 women were elected in the local governance system at the ward, panchayat and district levels. The local newspapers called them members of the ‘literacy party’ (Oommen, 2003). It was a big struggle for women without much access to resources to get elected, and fight against economically and politically powerful individuals. The literacy learners and volunteers campaigned for them and also raised funds for them from the community. The case study of Usha Kumari illustrates how Samata contributed to political empowerment of women (see Box 1). Although the case study cannot be generalised, it shows how literacy campaigns and mobilisation of women through Samata activities (Samata Jathas, Samata Vigyan Utsavs, leadership training workshops, etc.) contributed to developing the leadership potential of women literacy volunteers at the grassroots. Undoubtedly Samata energised women to enter into democratic institutions at the village and district levels. However, several issues have emerged within the Samata-BGVS network regarding continuous support to such women leaders for enhancing and sustaining their political participation. Women have entered the local institutional structures; however, they are often not able to fight against the powerful local leaders and political parties that use them for their vested

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Box 1 From a village level literacy volunteer to a member of Bihar legislative council. Usha Kumari is from a small village Bhakhari in Begusarai district of Bihar. She had studied up to class 7 when she got married in 1990, but always had the zeal to do something. Today she has completed her graduation in spite of opposition from her family. In 1993, the BGVS activists approached her and asked her to become a literacy volunteer and teach 10 women in her neighbourhood. Stepping out of the house was a big step for her. In the first meeting she was hesitant to even speak her name, but gradually started conducting the literacy class despite opposition from her husband. She gained a lot of confidence and started going for meetings outside her village and linked herself with Samata activities. In 1994, she participated in the state-level Samata jatha; by then she had gained so much confidence that she started performing plays in her village, although girls were forbidden to participate in stage performance. Rumours that she had joined a dancing troupe spread like wild fire. It demoralised her initially and she took a decision to leave work, but the BGVS activists and her sister-in-law motivated her not to do so. Ever since then she has not looked back. Very soon she became the woman coordinator of the District Literacy Society and started working at the district level. In 1999, she mobilised women of the literacy campaign and formed 600 self-help groups. She also registered a separate society called Sambal in which she was the treasurer. In the 2001 panchayat elections in Bihar, Usha contested for the post of a member of the District Council. Local women campaigned for her as if they were again in a kalajatha. They made songs and slogans for her, organised melas (fairs) to explain the importance of election and casting of the vote. She did not have funds so the women took it up as a challenge and did the campaign on foot. This proved to be so effective that she won the election by a thumping majority. The battle did not finish here. She contested for the post of a vice president of the District Council against a big landlord with a criminal background, supported by the ruling party of the state. To withdraw her name she was offered Rs 500,000 and a big car. When she did not accept the bribe, she and her supporters were threatened. They kept themselves in hiding till the day of the elections. In the District Council she worked very hard to push the women’s agenda and tried to introduce a number of schemes for women. Her journey does not end here. The political parties realised her potential, her mass appeal and clean image. She was chosen as a candidate of the Communist Party of India for the Bihar legislative council. She won the election by a large number of votes. Today she is a legislator in the upper house of Bihar. The literacy movement provided Usha with opportunities to develop her leadership potential. Source: Compiled from field notes, prepared by Komal Srivastava on the basis of field visits to Bihar during 2003.

interests. But the BGVS-Samata platform is unable to provide sustained support to upgrade their knowledge and make them good politicians who are accountable to the people. Within the BGVS there is a debate on building such strategies, yet as a voluntary organisation BGVS has been unable to extend continued support to women

political leaders beyond the initial efforts for capacity building. 5.3. Challenges ahead Today’s scenario is not so positive for literacy programmes; there is immense bureaucratisation and

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routinisation, and no clear strategy for post-literacy and continuing education. The policy context is hazy and lacks the flexibility to incorporate the multifaceted social dynamics of the campaign situation. As a result, the creative participation of the people and involvement of the community has shown a sharp decline. Apart from the large time gaps between the different phases of the literacy process, there is uncertainty regarding the fund flow, often leading to the loss of momentum. It is a fact that the post-literacy programmes could not capitalise on the mobilisation in the literacy phase; therefore the participation of women in post-literacy programmes has reduced, even though there was an improvement in literacy skills and also the organisation of some self-help groups. This has been mainly because the emphasis on the ‘community’ is missing in practice and the flexibility of the earlier programmes does not exist any more. BGVS launched the Jan Vachan Andolan (JVA) or Peoples Reading Campaign to develop a reading culture and to publish interesting and low-cost books for neo-literates, the underlying theme being to know the world through the word. Writers were mobilised from all over the country to write books for neo-literates and more than 500 titles were published, yet establishing a library in the village and supplying books did not mean in itself that the books would be read. An important lesson learned in the TLC was that for the women, activities have to be organised at their doorstep. The process for preparing the teaching-learning materials has also undergone a shift. During the literacy campaign, for the first time in the history of adult education in India, the preparation of instructional material took place at the district level. The District Literacy Society had to form an Academic Committee and plan and print its own primer, for which support was provided by the State Resource Centre and the BGVS, only securing approval from the national committee formed in the NLM. Even though the national committee was not always favourable to new ideas nor encouraged local initiatives in terms of curriculum design, yet to a large extent local people were involved in material production, thus demystifying this process.

The materials produced, however, continued to be largely gender insensitive, depicting women in a stereotypical manner.4 A review of post-literacy and continuing education materials undertaken by BGVS in 2001 (BGVS, 2002) pointed to the continuing lack of attention to gender issues. Out of the total books produced in Hindi by BGVS only 30% addressed the issue of gender disparities. Most of the books dealt with women, but in a rather contrived way, describing, for instance, how a girl went to school or preaching the importance of delaying the age of marriage for a girl. Finally, the funding available for adult education is very limited, the main source being the government. In view of the priority given to women’s empowerment since the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997–2002), it was expected that at least from 2001—the year of Women’s Empowerment—the government would allocate more resources for this purpose. However, nothing much was attempted in the 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 budgets. On the contrary, it is interesting to note that the percentage of total allocation to education has dropped to 2.9% in the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002–2007), the lowest allocation for education since independence (ICAE, 2003). There has also been a decline in the outlay for the National Programme for Women’s Education (NPWE) from Rs. 16 billion in 1999–2000 to Rs. 100 million in 2001–2002. Now the scheme is to be implemented within the framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan meant to universalise elementary education. The scope of women’s education programmes thus seems to have been marginalised considerably. This trend in government policies and resources made it clear within the BGVS that it needed to urgently mobilise funds for the women’s programme. While some resources have been found to support women coordinators at the national and state levels, resource mobilisation remains a key challenge in the struggle for women’s empowerment. While local activities persist, in the absence 4 There were a few exceptions such as the primer produced in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, one lesson of which inspired the anti-arrack movement. Other exceptions were the material from Pitara and Subash.

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