Bihar: The Cycle-Girls, Empowerment and Elections

Today is exactly five years to my first steps into Bihar for CTEP. Today I am posting a piece I had written before the Bihar elections this time    

The year 2005 saw a regime change in Bihar. A new government came into power and some of their first measures were related to law and order and education, with a special emphasis on improving the status of girls in the state. One such flagship program was the Mukhya Mantri Cycle Yojana. In this program, every girl who enrolled into school for class 9 was given a cycle. The idea was simple. Secondary schools were further apart and we could not bring the school closer to the girls but we could make it faster and cheaper for them to reach the same school. Given the situation in 2005, it was a miracle that this program was implemented with little-to-zero corruption linked leakage. 

But the bravest thing was done by the girls of ages 13 to 15 years who took the almost unheard of step to ride out of their homes and cycle to school. Interestingly, this is not the first time that women have used the cycle to show that they are ready to take things into their hands. It happened in the 1800s in the US, when women took the bicycle to break out of the restrictions on their movement.  Again the girls of Bihar, almost 150 years later, have used the same symbol of personal mobility to bring about unprecedented change in Bihar. 

Within a few years of the cycle program starting, more girls completed class 10 in Bihar than had ever done before. Now 15 years later, many cycle-girls have finished school and have also gone on to college. 

During my research-related surveys in Bihar, I met some of these dynamic young girls. A few of them have left indelible marks on me. Two young cycle-girls had progressed to college and were the first in their family to do so. However, like many others, they have to take a private bus to the nearest town for their college. Their parents could not afford the bus fare for them, but this did not discourage these aspiring and enterprising young girls. They had taken tailoring classes earlier to garner new skills. Now they decided to put these skills to use and started teaching other girls in their village. Doing this, they not only earned enough money to pay their fees and their bus fare but also helped other girls in the village acquire vocational skills. 

These girls who have brought about the first wave of change in Bihar, are now in their twenties, and they have aspirations of becoming independent working women. They want to work and are willing to work hard. Another girl I met would wake up before dawn every day to train for the police academy exam, which she hoped to take in a few years’ time. 

But economic growth remains sluggish in Bihar and the only jobs available are in the public sector. The announcement of reservation for women in state police (and other government jobs) by the Bihar government during the campaign for the 2015 election was seen as a welcome move. This was also seen as a way to cement the vote of the cycle-girls who in 2015 would have been voting for the first time. However, given that government jobs are fewer now, this is too little. A lot more has to be done to boost economic growth in the state, so that the aspirations of this young generation are not squashed. It is election time again and the government faces a strong anti-incumbency this time. How will Nitish Kumar ensure that the women who helped vote him into power in 2015 will continue to support him in 2020? 

My day is dedicated to the young girls of Bihar

I never celebrate any of these designated days, like World refugee day, Valentines’s day, mother’s day, etc. I did not believe that we need a specific day to talk about any issue or express ourselves.

The same holds for international women’s day. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I do not understand the need to talk about women’s rights and empowerment, I just do not believe in doing it on one day. However this year is different. 

I have spent most of the previous year collecting data and analyzing data from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.  And now I have a completely different notion of empowerment. I have spoken to and surveyed women who cannot fathom a world where they will take a simply decision, talk directly to their male family members or leave the house without permission and without being accompanied.

My survey asked them if they took decisions on small purchases for the house, schooling for the children, asset and wealth decisions.  They would stare at us in disbelief, not because they where offended but simply because they did not understand why I needed to ask these questions. In Bihar their answer was “guardian lete hain, aur kaun lega” (translates literally to guardian takes them, who else will). But who is this mystical person, the guardian? As I find out, it’s the husband or the father-in-law depending on the household. I am amazed why most of them are referring to their husbands like this.  But this is the context-- they are their guardians!

I can ramble on about such things forever, but I want to talk about something else. A shift that I see in the same society. In 2005 Nitish Kumar came to power in Bihar and started what is called the cycle program, to get girls to high school. It was not meant to do more.  I went and spoke to people in the same state 10 years later. I spoke to younger and older girls and spoke to the boys.

In Bihar, a common site now is groups of girls riding cycles. In any other context it’s a good thing but no big deal.  But lets put it in context. Girls who are 30 years and over in Bihar do not know how to ride cycle, they have not left their houses with being accompanied.  Then you have the younger ones, they studied more, are vocal about what they want and are more mobile. A lot of this is due to the cycle-- it broke the stigma attached to girls being seen outside the house.

For me my day today is for these girls, they are very brave because they did what they had never seen anyone around them do before them. They picked up the cycle at the ages on 13-14 years and rode out into the public spaces. They rode in a new social movement. A silent one at that! They have gradually got the men and boys to accept that they will share the space with them.

What’s next? The cycle goes this far and no further. We need to create job opportunities for our next generation of girls. Empowerment will not stand ground till they see the next steps materialize.

So policy has to step up in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to create job opportunities not just in urban areas but also in rural areas.  So in my mind today is the day to talk about the achievements of the girl’s like the cycle girls and to remember we are not done yet.

Field Diaries Part I: Re(producing) Empowerment

Here is the first post by Manika Bora, who led the wonderful and doughty members of the CTEP fieldwork team across Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through potholed highways, endless cups of sweet chai (tea) and serious charcha (discussions). Here, we invite her to tell her stories. 

In the outermost room of a large village house sat Kirti Rai reading a Nursing and Midwifery manual or as it is known in these parts the NM manual. There were some old and new registers on the table, and a few bottles of medicines in the side cabinet mounted on the wall. Her 5 year old daughter Gayatri sat with her, peering in and out of the main doorway to the makeshift clinic room. As I walked into the room, the child ran outside hopping onto the boundary wall of her house. It had been a slow day, and not many patients had come in today. Twenty seven year old Kirti is currently enrolled in an NM course from a private institute associated with a big established hospital in Banaras. She was married in 2003 while she was in Inter College.

Her husband, Ravi Kumar Rai, 28 years old is currently a teacher in a private English medium school. He also teaches in a Science coaching centre in the nearby market, adding to the family income. Her father-in-law who passed away some years back was a worker in an ancillary steel unit in Bokaro. Her husband completed his education until BSc. in Jharkhand, living with his father. Since, she was interested in studying, both her husband and father-in –law encouraged her to study further after finishing up her Senior Secondary degree. Her maternal village (also in Ghazipur district) was densely populated, but not a single girl was enrolled in graduation back then she tells me with pride. Today ofcourse, most girls are studying atleast till Inter-College, and many are also completing graduation. It has led to a lot of competition in the government job market she says. However, she is confident she and her husband will secure a government job sooner or later.

In keeping with a government job aspiration she apprenticed under a Nursing Midwifery trained nurse in a nearby village during her graduation years. The experience she acquired on the job allowed her to open up the one room clinic for women in her husband’s village. However, she realised the knowledge acquired from the apprenticeship was not enough to qualify the government NM examination, and enrolled herself in an NM course in Banaras. It is a two year course which will make her eligible for both the government ANM (Auxiliary Nurse and Midwifery) jobs, as well as the private clinic/hospital jobs in town areas. She has to spend three thousand rupees every month on a private girl’s accommodation close to the institute, in addition to the tuition fee of two lakh rupees on the course. She finances a part of the fees from her earnings at the clinic. However, her ‘practice’ has suffered as she alternates between Banaras-Ghazipur depending on her classes and clinic schedules have become more erratic. She is currently also trying to convince her husband to join the medical line, as he will not be able to get a government job as a teacher without a B.Ed. degree.

With both her in-laws dead, and the only sister-in-law married, she finds raising her daughter along with managing the house and the NM course rather difficult. Recently she requested her own mother to come and stay with her to help her with the unmanageable situation. This was no easy feat, as she had to not only convince her mother who felt hesitant about the unorthodox practice of boarding with her married daughter but also fight with her own younger brother who was completely against the idea. She articulated her anger against the conservative views of her brother saying,

Since it wasn’t only him that my mother bore and I too was born out of her, she can choose to help me if she wants to, without his interference.

Even other members of her husband’s family had opposed the idea. However, she stuck to her decision. She laments about the orthodox views of her family, and their inability to appreciate the job of an NM professional. For many years after her marriage she had to hear brutal barbs from family members about the delay in producing an heir, blaming the ‘sins’ of her profession (read abortion) for the unsuccessful attempts at conception. She remembers retorting to such caustic remarks with equally severe counter strikes telling a younger cousin with four children

If you are interested in conceiving like a goat, then why don’t you gift me a few (of those) you reproduce.

It is possible to view this exchange of words between women in the family as merely utterances of a heated conversation but they also reflected the contention on the issue of reproduction among the women of the younger generation, for whom the notion of choice has become relevant in such matters. It would be foolish to perhaps view it simply as a clash between the traditional and the modern views on reproduction. Kirti pushed to a corner no doubt attacked her cousin by likening her with a goat, implying lack of education and backwardness as the reason for producing multiple children.    Such a response unfortunately does not recognise the absence of choice many women have even today as regards reproduction, reducing the act of bearing more children to a case of ‘backwardness’.

Changes over generations

Her training and work experience as an apprentice NM has positioned her to witness the change from the older to the younger generation in rural society. Younger women in her view, with education and increasing levels of awareness have begun to negotiate with their husbands about various issues around reproduction. For instance she has encountered women who have explained to their husbands’ that producing 4,5,6,7… children weakens their body and is therefore medically unadvisable. Or reproducing at an early age can jeopardise their and the child’s health. This realisation has come about not only because of the concerns around women’s health but also about the difficulties of bringing up children in a world of scarcities and competition. Since, it is no longer possible to provide adequate resources for upbringing, providing education, and ensuring settled down existence for four or five children, these women are choosing to have lesser children.

Men and women she says, and later clarifies “educated men and women” are expected to consult and explain to each other about the need for lesser children. She cites her own example where her daughter was born 7-8 years after marriage. She and her husband had decided earlier on to have a child only when either of them clears a government examination. It is later on the advice of her gynaecologist and ‘having read’ about the health issues with late pregnancies that she convinced her husband about starting a family sooner. As was the case of constant pressures from the family before having the first child she now faces the pressure to have a son. However, she would like to have a second child only if she or her husband clear a government exam, and get a secure job. Otherwise, they will make peace with the one daughter they have. The constant barbs about having only one daughter no longer bother her or her husband, she says.

The transformation she cited in the younger generation of men although anchored on the advancement of education, also touched upon the prevalence and persistence of caste in the village life. In her view it is because of education that the men of the new generation are no longer fooled by the ‘big’ men of the village. There was a time when taking advantage of the lack of education of poorer peasants the landlords exploited them, often forcing them into a life of penury. Although caste exploitation has not entirely ended, and surfaces at the time of elections, the spread of education has meant people are more aware of their rights and exercise them well.

I do not care about caste. I am a Rajbhar (OBC) married to a Rajbhar, but don’t think the ruling party is working for the welfare of people. Infact, in the recently held MLC election they (meaning the ruling party) openly threatened villagers with dire consequences if they did not secure enough votes. But people (BCs) are now smart, and take money from everyone with the promise that they will vote for them, but they vote even now only for their own castes.

However, everything has not changed. Citing an example from the last panchayat election she says:

No one except the more powerful families (upper caste) in the village wanted the current pradhan to win. Everyone else in the village (OBCs and SCs) were unhappy with him. But they (pradhan) spent money like water in the elections. Just two days before the elections, they campaigned, and distributed five hundred rupee notes folded in a Saree to all houses in the Harijan toli, and some even among the Rajbhars.

Between the Village and the City

At several points during the conversation Kirti praised her husband, who in her view was exemplary in every way because of the excellent education he received.

He never stops me from wearing anything I want to or from pursuing my dreams. He is more sensible because he has lived in the city, and is not ‘backward’ like the men in the village.

The educated-city/backward-village binary appeared repeatedly in her narrative, whether discussing the changes in reproduction, the college life in Banaras, or the evolved views of her city bred husband. She also talked about the specific experiences of her college life, constantly reverting to how her village society might perceive it

People in the village are still not so open. On the day of our Fresher’s I told a friend of mine in jest that my mother would never let me study further if she saw the occurrences of that day.  As it is a Co-Ed institute and girls and boys study together, they also eat and live together.

Since, her education and work has meant constant traveling between the village/city space, she finds herself comparing, and reviewing the life in the two spaces continuously. The resultant view is the binary which makes city synonymous with educated and progressive, even as village is seen as synonymous with tradition and backwardness. However, this elevation of the city life over that of the village is not completely resolved, and often comes into conflict with her own perceptions,

Banaras is very different from this village, and many things are permitted by their society. There are young male and female teachers in my NM classes who get romantically involved without even getting married. But everyone is not like that. In these matters it really depends what kind of upbringing you have had yourself.

The sentiment expressed by Kirti especially in her last statement conveys some of the conflicts educated women in rural areas deal with. There is constant balancing on their part between the individual aspirations arising out of modernity and the distancing from the ‘earlier’ ways of being, without necessarily reconciling with everything that is construed as part of being modern.

Zamindari lives on

This is Sonu and Monu’s village. It’s a village with a gate, I have not seen many of them. The gate has the name of a Thakur. We enter into one of the biggest villages we have seen in these parts! Every community is represented, and the inequality is also as well represented. Most of the village has pucca houses overpowering small little mud huts.

We start talking to the people and we hear the name of one household creep up often. There are no complaints registered in the police stations  from this village. There is never a need to. Thakur sahib resolves all issues and his word is final. There is harmony here, all castes and the two religions live here peacefully. After some prodding we heard of the mosque that was not built because it was opposed.  We heard of the BPL cards that were taken away. We move a little further and hear of the children who did not get the uniform from school; of the hospital where the doctor never comes. But why I am surprised, this is how development has been happening.

But this village is not the same, it is the village with gate! But it means more than that. The panchayat is family business for the Thakur sahib here. Different people tell us that 4 or 5 members of the Panchayat are from his house. This is the village of the former MLA (also from the same family, obviously!), so it is well connected with the political center.

We visit a kori household where a woman has 5 children before her 30^th  birthday. This desperate

woman tells us that she does not want more children but does not know what to do! Where are you, Asha Bahu? She has a 2 year old and 3 year old, too young to go to school, so I naively ask if they go to he anganwadi. She says they come and get the children when there is some inspection, otherwise the anganwadi does not work. So this woman leaves her children at home and goes to work at the field, since she has no other option.

The women and her mother-in-law are working on Sonu’s fields, cutting his crop. He does not have to pay the market price, since they have worked for him for generations! 

We are told time and again that not much can happen in this village without the blessings of that family. For a moment I forget that Zamindari has been abolished.

Pradhan Pati

I rolled into Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh on the day the results to the panchayat elections were being declared. The atmosphere was very charged.

In my survey I am asking people about the main reasons they voted for a certain candidate or what issues were most salient for them. After hearing the discussion about the panchayat elections my questions seemed unnecessary. The discussion was around how much money each candidate spent and which caste voted for whom. In the village I was in, a Yadav won, the reason given is that the Thakur vote got divided among the numerous candidates of that caste and the Yadavs stood behind their guy. He or I should say his family (his father was the previous one) is returning to power this time. It was reassuring to hear that at least some people spoke about the good work he had done in the last five years. So at least in one place I heard the `vikas’ agenda being spoken about.

This village had two surrounding villages with seats reserved for a woman candidate. I got excited that I would get to meet some dynamic women who had decided to step into politics. Till now we had not come across any women who had entered the work force, barring the first day in Gaya were we met a smart young vikas mitr (that is a development worker, whose job it is to make people aware of the numerous welfare programs available to them).

I went to Maksoodan, a village that does not seem to have benefitted from any of the welfare projects. The outgoing pradhan’s house does not have a toilet, so much for swachch bharat! This village is on the banks of river Gomati and lends itself to some beautiful views of the meandering river. But we could not enjoy that much the stench from the open toilet of the village was too nauseating.

My interest in this village lay in the weavers that reside in it. We had not come across such a group yet. They are all Muslim and they used to weave a course cloth that was used as a quilt. Their market is long disappeared, and now they are trying their hands at sharecropping.  The women in these houses weave baskets from elephant grass that I have not seen anywhere else. I asked them if they would make to sell in the market, they look at me all puzzled and ask “who would buy these?” I am lost for words, I have paid over Rs. 2000 for a much inferior product at the crafts melas in Delhi, without batting an eyelid. For them it is part of the dowry they make for their weddings and bring with them.  

In the next household I met a young bride married about two months ago. She is smart, confident and very sure of herself. My prejudices make me believe she must have studied at least to get an undergrad degree. We ask her and she tells us she has only studied till class five in the madrassa and can read the Holy Scriptures. Then were does she get the confidence from? She is also very talented. She can design and stitch kurtas well, there is a piece she has been working on next to here sewing machine. When we ask she tells us she was interested and picked it up. She once in a while has am apprentice she teaches. She points to what she is wearing and says that she had made it and shows us some of the other ones… they are good!

The economist in me cannot resist, such talent would have been found by the market. So I ask, if she earns anything from this. She says of course not, she only does this for family and friends.  Where are you my dear markets? Why have you not reached Maksudan yet!

There is still hope, there is going to be woman pradhan here, maybe the next fie years will see some new jobs being created here for these young talented girls. As I walk around in the village, the posters from the panchayat elections still decorate the house walls. This is a seat reserved for women, then why do I see so many men on the posters? In fact barring one poster, there are no women on any posters.  The man with big mustache is the outgoing pradhan, his daughter-in-law is the candidate this time. I asked why do we not see the pictures of the women contesting. The women have the pardha system and they can obviously not be seen by by anyone outside their houses. Alright, then how will they perform their duties… I am explained that they will obviously not. The pradhan pati’s will! Now who is this person, it is the actual male member of the family seen plastered on the walls.

Empowerment through reservations will happen if the women actually perform their roles. Chattopadhayay and Duflo (2005) show that women’s reservation has resulted is a shift in the policies implemented by the panchayats. Also a later piece shows role model effects of women panchayats. My little village in eastern UP will have to wait for that, no women’s empowerment here with the pradhan pati’s! I also witnessed the victory rally for the pradhan for this village, there were no women in it—not even the elected pradhan.

Is it peculiar to this village, I go a few miles ahead to another women’s reserved panchayat. Here the rally had the elected representative in it, she is from the scheduled castes. She was an elderly women in her 80s who needed help walking. Her grandson was thrilled and was the one being congratulated. A pradhan grandson