Throughout the world, women are the central point of family life. They continuously look out for the family and its best interests oftentimes using compassion and foresight to make decisions, which then benefit the entire community. In India , women are born second class and expected to serve the family duties of cleaning house, cooking, washing clothes, collecting firewood and water, and tending the younger children and any domesticated animals. These duties begin at a young age and continue throughout the girl's life until she is married at a high dowry cost. Many times she is uneducated and only knows her duty to her family as her only defining place in the world. After an arranged marriage, the young woman is usually sent to her new husband's house where the man's family then expects her to continue with the chores of keeping up and running a household.

Woman dying pappadams

This is considered woman's work, which is unpaid and often goes unnoticed and unappreciated by the men in her family. Seventy percent of the Indian population lives in small villages where the women continue this work today. Oftentimes in today's world, the income brought in by the husband and/or sons is not enough to keep the family going and the woman must work outside the home as well doing hard labor and manual work for a much smaller salary than men with the same jobs. These women are often far from the family home and land where they grew up, are isolated by their work and family chores and disconnected from the other women in their community.

A solution to this problem is underway in four small villages in Kerala, south India . A social worker by the name of Subhash Chandra Bose has formed the Swasraya Mahila Federation, an apex of about one-hundred eighty Self Help Groups comprised of women who reside in the four villages. The term Swasraya Mahila means 'women's self-reliance through collective rule.' Subhash came up with the idea of uniting the women of poor, local communities and organizing them to make collective efforts to solve the problems they encounter. Ten percent of the money raised by Panchayats (local government) is earmarked for women yet most of this is unseen by them. Subhash is raising awareness about their rights to this money as women and as individuals in the local and state-wide government. With his support, they have maintained the groups and successfully found ways to make sustainable change.

Woman's self help group

Each Self-Help Group consists of fifteen to twenty women. They meet once a week. Each group has one coordinator that keeps track of what problems exist, what they want to achieve, and how much money they have collected. Leon and I, of the rubybleu foundation visited two of the meetings to assess the situation and see how the women came together as a community, what they were looking to change and what problems existed. This was a wonderful opportunity that provided us with insight into the women's issues of India and will help to guide our mission to help women and children in India . (see our Mission Statement at http://rubybleu.org/mission.html )


Self Help group

We visited two communities located just twenty kilometers south of Trivandrum , the capital of Kerala. The first community is a colony of landless people that was formed by the government. Their meeting place was a cleared, outdoor spot on the hard, red earth with papadams drying in the sun. Twenty or so women clustered around us to hear our ideas, ask questions and tell us about their lives. They offered us delicious, fresh coconuts to drink and their smiles were brilliant and infectious, even amidst the hard survival that surrounded us.

Several decades ago, these people were Adivasis, the tribal people of south India . They were wandering, nomadic groups that subsisted off the plentiful Keralan land of fruits, coconuts and fish. Since becoming displaced in modern development, the government set up land for them. Their current community consists of eighty-four families who are descendants of the Adivasis. They are surrounded by lush coconut, jackfruit and mango trees yet live in shoddy mud huts or basic concrete block houses. The situation is very similar to those on Native American reservations in the United States , only more poverty stricken.

The women cook indoors and many of the people suffer from asthma and tuberculosis as a result of the heavy indoor smoke. Most of the women of this group are uneducated and in need of basic needs like better sanitation, places to cook outdoors, cleaner water and improved houses. They have very little income, as the men can only find porter work a few days a week and often spend the little money they make on toddy, or local alcohol made from coconuts. Both groups of women complained bitterly of this problem which indicates the obvious need for women's empowerment. Again, the community can only benefit from the collective work of women, as they tend to look out for the best interest of their family and others, rather than squander hard earned money on selfish gains.

One of the major solutions that has come about in the last decade or so, is to give micro loans to women of developing nations. These self-help groups employ that method well. At weekly meetings, the women each donate a sum of ten Rupees (twenty cents) which is collected and saved by the group coordinator. When the savings grows large enough, the women take out individual loans of one-thousand Rupees to begin their own businesses to bring in more money for basic needs like rice, flour, milk and utensils. When we spoke with the group, two of the women proudly told us of the work they were doing. One collects dried palm fronds and thatches them together for roofs and outdoor walls. Another used her loan to buy tapioca and is tending a small patch of plants that she intends to sell in the local market.

Due to their lack of education in the colony, the work is limited to basic manual labors and, being women, they make far less than their male compatriots. The self-help group is working to understand these realities and help the women to gain confidence to demand what their work is truly worth. Yet the women seemed hopeful for their sons and daughters, many of whom are able to attend the local government school. They are open to making change and do the work necessary to bring better development to the their small community.

The second community we visited is a fishing village called Karumkulam. The houses are bigger than the colony and painted in bright colors that line wide streets leading to the vast beach. The people have most likely lived here for centuries and rely on the sea for their livelihood. The men go to sea during the season September through May for fishing and a few of the women buy the fish and sell it in the market for a small profit. During the off season there is little to no income from the men and they often spend the savings they have made drinking the toddy and chatting all day with their friends. Again, this leaves the women in a dire situation, unable to acquire basic necessities for their families.

The group we visited was obviously more organized than the first. They began the meeting with a simple prayer, then proceeded to ask us to present our work. We told them of the foundation while the coordinator took notes. Many of the women are literate, as is more common in Kerala, opposed to the rest of India . These women are not landless and have forged a tradition on the coastland. Yet, they too are looking for ways to bring income into their family household.

One project done by the women is making delicately embroidered pillowcases, sheets and door hangings. The young women hope to sell these to tourists at the nearby resorts in Kovalam beach, where Westerners have been coming for decades for sun and fun on the Indian coast. This project has yet to make much gain and is in need of larger funds to market the beautiful work. Yet, the women of the group we visited are all wives and mothers and therefore receive no grants or loans from the local Panchayat and cannot afford to invest in their handicrafts. Only unmarried women are considered to receive any aid for doing handicraft work. Once they are married, their financial situation is believed to be taken care of by their husbands.

Two of the women have taken micro loans of one-thousand Rupees to make churidas, the local dress for women other than saris, but others are still looking for ideas. They expressed anger over the lack of governmental support in giving them grants to open larger businesses. Some of the projects they would like to pursue are: tea and textile shops, buying and selling fish at the market and making and selling ready-made garments. One woman asked me, "What can mothers do?" I was bereft of ideas, and could only witness her frustration in a limited world.

Currently, the Self Help Groups have several projects underway. The most important is to provide awareness to these women, to let their voices be heard. They have become involved with each other and their community and have broadened their awareness on issues such as health, domestic violence, employment, gender discrimination and skill development. Programs to strengthen women's leadership are needed to help them learn more about running a business like building up banking, credit and savings skills. They have exercised important campaigns to help their community such as cleaning up hospitals, clearing roads and implementing polio vaccination programs.

By learning new skills such as the embroidery work, women can make an income. Other possible training programs include soap making, candle making, jam and squash making, worm compost and poultry farming. These projects, with more funding, would enable women to not only provide an income for their family but get involved with a project that is sustainable. This boosts a woman's self-worth in her ability to provide for her family and is a satisfying experience as well as broadening her worldview.

With the help of Stuart Ramsden, from England , sustainable, long-term programs are being developed. He is supporting funding for children's education costs. For a mere three to seven dollars a month, children can buy uniforms, books and pencils as well as paying for extra-curricular activities that often cost money.

Stuart is also looking for volunteers to come and donate their time to the villages. There are many health problems in these villages including polio, asthma, cancer and kidney problems that are left untreated due to lack of funds. During monsoons the sanitary conditions are poor and the floodwater generates disease carrying insects which causes outbreaks of cholera and malaria. Stuart is seeking skilled doctors and nurses who would be valuable assets to these communities. Health educators could provide basic understanding of sanitation and offer solutions for disease prevention.

Another volunteer option is teaching English. English is fast becoming the international language and would give the people a chance to branch out of Kerala for national jobs. Most jobs in other parts of India hire based in either English or Hindi, not Malayalam, which is the local language of Kerala. This would give students an advantage in working, enabling them to enter the work force with confidence.

The rubybleu foundation supports the women of these groups who are struggling day by day to get by. We are assisting a project that offers a discounted Microsoft Office course to women at a nearby computer center called Akash Computers. Computer education is a necessity today to further sustainable development and this will enable the women to seek more long-term jobs in the nearby capital. The requirement for the course is a high school education and we are hoping that the schooled daughters of the families will use this opportunity to further their education and skills in an ever-increasing modernized world. The three-month course which normally costs fifteen hundred Rupees (thirty-four dollars) will be available to women of the Self-Help Groups for only a thousand Rupees (twenty-two dollars). By donating money through the Vayalar Memorial Youth Club we will be able to offer the discount as a grant to women who want to take the course.

The women of these tiny villages in India are doing remarkable work. They are bonding together and donating their hard-earned Rupees to make their lives and the lives of their families better, healthier and happier. We were inspired by their spirited outcry, one that deserves to be heard, one that has been resounding over our global village for far too long. In taking an interest in these tiny, yet collectively empowered women's groups, we are raising awareness for the plight of all women around the world. We are making change, in hope that the world can become a better place for all of us to live in.

If you are interested in donating your money to help women and children through the rubybleu foundation please visit our site at www.rubybleu.org To contact us about more information on projects we are involved with or about volunteering, you can email us at katalin@rubybleu.org

* Note: Information taken from the article "Swasraya Mahila Federation: An Apex of SHG's" written by Stuart Ramsden.

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