Chandan Singh Banjara, Age-36,Chakdeopur
Mala was only three years old when her father passed away. One of seven sisters, education in a good private school was out of the question yet Mala pursued her education till MA earning top ranks throughout. This is her story. A tale that some may call ‘resilience of women in the face of adversity’ and others ‘helplessness of women in the face of adversity.’
While good grades and higher education should equal better prospects that is rarely the case inrural India, especially for women. There is no employment in the formal sector for educated men, much less for women. To understand this, we do not have to go very far. While I was talking to Mala who was lying down on a bed struggling with an injury that had forced bed rest upon her, her brother-in-law was in the same room. The young man’s experience is the perfect exemplar of the myth that more education leads to employment, that is, a convenient narrative fed to people to shift the blame from the multi-faceted problems that haunt the employment sector in India to individual efforts. Her brother had just returned from a long and exhausting day of running circles in his college to fill an examination form. A short conversation with the man had me convinced that he was driven, intelligent and a critical thinker. In the urban population much less would land you some kind of employment. Currently, the young man’s only hope was to clear the SSC exam for a government position.
What chance did Mala have in this world that was built to keep her in the naked red walls of her small village. Like every other person, she did dream. She wanted to try for the UP police but a woman has better things to worry about than taking up men’s places in the world, for example cooking him dinner. In her final year of MA because of family pressure, she agreed to marriage. Unlike the common belief, a woman’s hardships do not end with marriage and in Mala’s case they were only beginning. A few years into her marriage, her family fell into extreme poverty. There was no income. She had small children and she had just given birth to the youngest. If she wanted to save her children from the cycle of poverty, she had no choice but to work.
In 2017, women from Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Pariyojana came to her village looking for women to join the organization. Due to financial pressure, Mala Yadav decided to join the organization. Her decision to become a working woman was met with a lot of resistance from her in-laws and husband. However they had no choice but to support the decision because of financial necessity. In this position, Mala’s education and communication skills came in handy and distinguished her from others. The head of her organization promoted her, and Mala started
making Rs. 1,000/month.
Mala’s transition into a working woman raised several eyes in the village. People would question the household, make subtle remarks, and also outright question her character. Her work required her to be on the field everyday for several hours prompting people to say ‘We also know what she does outside all day.’ However, Mala was climbing through ranks because of her skills and within a year she was making Rs. 3000/month.
Related posts
