This was my first visit to India and so it was difficult to know what to expect. Before I went, I began reading about women’s lives in India. With this as my introduction I arrived in India expecting women to be living demanding and marginalised lives, with little opportunity to change their circumstances. However, on meeting women’s groups throughout my stay I found that some of my expectations were unfounded. Life is still hard in India and I was struck by how physically demanding simple domestic tasks can be. However, the women I met were motivated, organised and optimistic. They were proud of their self-help groups and all that they had achieved within them.

 

Membership of the Mahila Mandal (village level women’s self-help groups (MM)) provides three central opportunities which women can use to improve their own lives. The first and most obvious are the income-generating activities that are made possible by project and Kosh loans. Participation in economic activities enables many women to be more involved in household financial decision-making, due to their contribution to the family income.

 

Secondly, women are able to make good use of their own village level forum, in which problems and issues identified within society  and the home can be addressed. There are examples of MM groups highlighting a problem and taking action to improve the situation. For example, in Manamedu one of the 25 project villages, there was a considerable problem with alcohol addiction, which led to a growing business in illicit liquor production and sales. The women were unhappy with the situation and discussed the issue in an MM group meeting, in which they decided to take action to stop their husbands drinking. They decided that they would remove the liquor salesman from the village and destroy his premises. The men of the village were angry and most beat their wives for their actions. However, the women were not disheartened and they organised a special temple service and insisted that their husbands attended. During the service the MM President demanded that her husband made an oath to give up alcohol, before the gods and the rest of the community. Following the President’s example, 42 such oaths were made at this service. These oaths have been honoured and the village is no longer considered to have an alcohol problem.

 

Finally, there are opportunities to benefit from training. This is either to improve the viability of economic activities or to be able to work as an animator, disseminating their training within their village in health seminars and night schools. As animators women earn small wages and gain the respect of other members of the village who call on them for advice.

 

The women that I met were a far cry from my expectations. They were no longer powerless and entirely dependent on their men folk. They have recognised and taken advantage of the opportunities that are on offer from the project and made good use of them to improve their own lives.