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.