No one can humiliate me now

Nirmaladevi feels proud of her new social identity. Earlier she would not have time to spend outside household chores. It was also a great feeling for her to come outside from the belief that would not allow women to come outside of home. She passed 2 class, but her social identity is more important for her changed life now.

Once SUS made the women’s group in her community, then she also joined it as a member. The group gave her a different training, like, self-reliance training, skill development, leadership development and training on women rights. These training gave her confidence to put her own voice in front of people. She became chair of the group. In her journey of walking with the community, she not only understood the similar problems o

Nirmaladevi Das, Chair, Deep Jyoti Mahila Utthan Samaj, Sarlahi

f other women from the community, but also, she learned that if she puts her voice clearly, she can have more rights of her own.

SUS supported to establish Deep Jyoti Mahila Utthan Samaj (a CBO) with selected 50 group representatives. Nirmala Devi has been leading the group as a Chair for 7 continuous years. Samaj has been helping local women’s self-reliance activities, develop leadership skill, raise voice against violence against women. It has been providing training in tailoring clothes, animal husbandry, cultivating vegetables and other income generating skills. After attending the training, to promote small entrepreneurship, the CBO has been providing, based on their entrepreneurship, 6% loan of 20 thousand, 15 thousand, 10 thousand. The locals are now rid of begging loans from sáhu at 36% interest. This has lowered the economic burden in their life.

SUS has not only been working to make women self-reliant, but also to mitigate violence and work for providing justice to women. Nirmala said, “Women have been facing violence related to dowry, sometimes they face violence due to alcohol, violence due to multiple marriages. Samaj has been working to solve these problems for women.” In one of the cases of multiple marriages, the women solved the case by visiting the police office multiple times. She said, “In one of the incidences of multiple marriages we successfully brought back the dowry.”

On behalf of CBO, they solved an issue of a person who was bearing economic exploitation. In another incident, they helped a person who was kept in home and exploited for 12 years. The locals from the group registered, in the police office, the case of exploitation and violence and successfully worked for the justice of victims.

Nirmala was busy with her household chores for several years. But now, she goes to various government offices with several jobs. She is able to renew the registration of the organisation and put a clean economic record also. She has not only been developing her leadership skill in her term of chair in Samaj, but also got a chance to know the problems of the community, find out why women are underprivileged also.

Nirmala has increased the economic status of her family with her skill of working as a chair and using her skill of income generating. Now, she has 3 goats, 7 kids and other goats. She is able to bear the expenses of her children studying in 10^th and 7^th grade. Once Nirmala started to have a good income from grazing animals, her husband came back from Kuwait from foreign employment two years back.

CBO has policies of making itself stronger and making the local woman self-reliant. Now, it is in the process of making its own building, so the process is going on to get 6 dhur land through the ward office. Nirmala said, “Once the organisation has its own building, it will be easier to work further.”

People listen to Nirmala these days, this makes her feel that she can work going to government offices. She said in great confidence, “no one can humiliate women now.”