The 42 household Musahar residence area from Jutpani was also called, by the so-called upper caste community, a dirty area. Musahar children would not attend school. They used to go fishing in their small age when they had to go to school. When they grow up, they would go abroad or to India in search of some work. Most of their parents would work as haruwa and charua in the landlord’s house. They did not have access to getting various certificates like, birth/marriage/citizenship/death etc, issued by the government. They also did not have access to getting an allowance distributed by the government in several headings.
During these days, SUS formed a SHG named Namuna Mahila Samuna in Musahar residence. One of the members from the group was Malati. Once she started to attend the group functions, she knew that there is another world outside her home. She also knew that other women also shared difficulties she had to bear. When the group started to save 10 rs every month, few of the Musahar women were capable of saving such a small amount. The group gradually started to give various training of income generating skill and other entrepreneurship like grazing boar. It distributed baby boar also. Also, SUS helped uplift their economy. Malati shared, “people who were not able to save even 10 rs in a month earlier, now have been able to save 100/200 each month. The total savings of the group have been 2 lakh itself.”
SUS collected all the children who were not going to school and managed to teach them. Once they started to discern letters, SUS managed to admit the children in government schools. Malati led in all these matters. When she was about to admit 40 children to nearby government schools, the upper caste people from the community were humiliated, “Where are you taking these cattles?” Malati did not listen to them.
As Musahar would live in a hut, it was difficult for them to safely keep the government related documents. Although SUS started to help Musahar people in making birth certificate, citizenship certificates, Musahar people did not have a safe place to put these documents. Then, SUS, under initiation of Malati, gave the people a box-like tank where they could put the documents safely. Many Musahar were devoid of many government services because they did not have citizenship certificate. Now, 12 Musahar community people have fled to Golf country once they made their citizenship certificate and passport.
After her engagement in the group, Malati started to learn by listening to other people’s problems, initiating some ideas to solve the problem and talkin about it with concerned people also. She learned things. She said, “Earlier nobody would recognise me, neither did I. Now, everyone in the residents knows me personally.”
Once Malati started to chair the woman’s group and work, she gained quite confidence. When women face violence, Musahar community children face discriminations in their schools or anyone devoid of medical treatment or justice, Malati goes to the concerned institutions and puts her voice on behalf of the community confidently. She kept on developing her skills from various training SUS gave like leadership development training, human rights training, cooperative management training etc. She said with great confidence, “Now, I can speak and put my voice wherever and whenever in need.”
Once, an incident came out; a school teacher discriminated against and assaulted a Musahar child. Malati went to the school and talked to the principal directly. She also warned him, “If the discrimination goes on, we will start a movement.” Then, the school administration promised for the medical treatment of the child and also promised not to repeat the same incident in the future.
In another incident, police severely assaulted a Musahar child and locked up. Malati went to the police office to find out the details about the incident. She asked the reason for assaulting the child. Police, in return, tried to restrict her effort of talking on behalf of Musahar child. She again told the police that it was her right to speak and police do not have any rights to assault and lock the child in custody without any proof of mistake by him. Police were back as they saw the confidence of Malati. The child was brought back home successfully.
Once, a Musahar adult, 30 years old, was hit by a vehicle in Nijgadh jungle. The man was bruised by the accident. The vehicle owner refused to take responsibility for the medical treatment of the fellow. Malati knew this, and collected all the women and struggle for justice. They obstructed the way towards district headquarters. So, the CDO called them in their office. Malati demanded that the man should get medical treatment from the vehicle owner. She said, “We put our demand in a single voice and the vehicle owner was ready to bear the expenses. The man was treated with expenses of 6 lakh.”
Once she got engaged in social work and made her identity in the community, she got support from her family also. In the backdrop of her social acclaim, she gave her candidacy of ward member in 2072 elections. She was defeated by a small number of votes. Party representatives have been asking her again to give her candidacy in the upcoming ward election. Malati said, “Once I do good work, I can get support from other people. I felt this in these entire working experiences with the community.”
Had SUS not supported her, she feels, she would not have been able to come out of household chores, as she realizes. She said, “If SUS had not taught us to work in groups, I would not have made such great progress in my life. Now, nobody can stop me.”
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