Women's Empowerment

Women and Progress

Around this time BCT began a programme which was to change dramatically the way in which the rural woman regarded herself and the way in which she was perceived by others. A group of very poor, landless and illiterate women were given training to become paravets, paramedics, thrift collectors and village animators. For the first time these women were able to play a role as useful and skilled members of society. They had a worthwhile job to do instead of merely labouring to keep body and soul together.

Initially, the menfolk scoffed, but when they found that these women were pretty good at what they were doing, distain gave way to grudging respect, especially in the case of paravets, who did yeomen service in treating minor ailments and referring major ones to the vet. In some villages, the paravet became so popular that she was called ‘doctoramma’. In a village like Marripalem where the women folk had been confined to their homes all their lives, the Mahila Mandal began to operate successful thrift programmes, run a balwadi for pre-school children and manage a ration shop where amounts of less than 1 kg could be bought (in the usual government ration shop, the quota of rice or oil was sold as a whole, the buyer had to take the entire amount or forfeit it).

Says Veerayamma the Mahila Mandal president, “I found in myself qualities that I had never dreamt existed.” When the village Panchayat hummed and hawed over the payment of dues to the electricity department and the village was on the verge of losing its power supply, it was Veerayamma and a group of Mahila Mandal members who collected the money and went to Anakapelle to pay the bill. They also managed to do what no one had ever done (or even wanted to) –they drove out the liquor seller from the village and much before the government imposed prohibition, Marripelam was dry.

Veerayamma wasn’t the only one—all over the country side, in the villages that BCT worked, women began to experience not just economic benefit but a surge of self confidence. Says Chenchulakshmi of Murakada—“Before I joined the Mahila Mandal, my husband made all the decisions and controlled the family money. I learnt about dairying from BCT and now own a buffalo. The milk brings us a regular income. My husband has changed his mind about women getting together. Things have changed in my house too: my husband actually asks for my opinion and I have an equally say in money matters. My other relatives respect me a lot too.”

There was no looking back after this. The conviction that women’s development is integral to development of the village grew and was firmly embedded in BCT’s policy.

(taken from Smt. Asha Nori’s article “Bhagavatula Charitable Trust in Retrospect” in BCT's 2003 Souvenir Book)

Learn More: Thrift Groups, Women and Progress