AssamI have been involved in community service since 1996. I was inspired by my sister to enter this field of work. Ever since I began to understand issues affecting our society and community, I have been aware of corruption and injustice ingrained in our society, often perpetrated by leaders and people holding positions of power. It was as an expression against this injustice that organisations like ULFA, BALT, BTF, etc came into being. In this situation, the poorest people suffered the most.The political, economic, social and educational situation was deplorable, but they did not have the courage to protest or raise their concerns for fear of the repercussions. Since my younger days I used to participate in political meetings and express my views in their midst. But there were not many listening to what I had to say. It was then that I decided that I would work for making improvements in my society and community. In 1996 I joined a social development organisation, thinking that I could contribute towards improving society through this. I started going to villages, organising participating in several training programmes, etc. A few months later I realised that there are several problems in the organisation I was working with. The organisation was headed by a woman. It had received a grant form CAPART for a low-cost housing project under which 27 houses were to be built. In reality only three houses were built, and there were no records of the remaining funds. Such a large fraud was being perpetrated in the name of poor people. I decided to quit the organisation immediately. Thinking back, I sometimes feel I should have stayed back, exposed the truth, and stopped the corruption and injustice. I did not do this. I had failed in my first experience.An acquaintance told me at the time that if I was interested in doing some good work I could approach the Rural Volunteers Centre (RVC) which worked in Dhemaji district. RVC was looking for someone to help in formation and strengthening of women’s self-help groups (SHGs). I took permission from my mother and set off to join RVC. On reaching there I felt this was a place where I could work. After a year of working there I joined Tamalpur Anchalik Gramdaan Sangh (TAGS) in Nalbari district. I continue to be associated with TAGS and its founder Ravindranath Upadhyay till today.TAGS works in the Kumarikata region, which borders Bhutan and is about 100km from Guwahati. This region is famous for two reasons – malaria and terrorists. People have a lot of problems. People from different religions and castes stay here – Hindu, Muslims, Christians; Bengalis, Santhal, Bodo, etc. At the time I went to this region, around 1998, the Bodo community was making demands for a separate state which will not have any non-local or nontribal people. This problem was fuelling unrest in the region. No government official wanted to work in this region. BLT, ULFA, NDEB and other militant outfits extorted money from the local communities.When I began working in this region, Ravindra bhai and other colleagues cautioned me against going to the villages. But I started going anyway. There were schools in the villages but no teachers. Government schools were few, but even private schools did not function. There were no local employment opportunities. Men would go to Bhutan to work as labourers but it was not safe for women to leave their villages and go for work. There were also several people from Bangladesh who were living in the forest areas for several decades, but they had no rights or recognition as citizens. This situation was particularly stark in Angarkata and Bamanjuli forest areas.In 1998 I started work in the Angarkata area. I went around to villages telling them about selfhelp groups – a concept that was new to most of them. People were suspicious of me and my motivations. They worried if I was from the police. Two months passed by, in 1999, probably around April, I was summoned to a meeting in the Vagajuli-Khamjuri area. There I was asked about why I was roaming around in the villages, and even threatened that those who came to the area once never went back. I was asked to be present at the meeting at 9am, which started at 10.30am. A large number of women and local youth were present at the meeting. I explained the purpose of my visits t the villages, and told them that if they came together they could achieve a lot of things. Gradually I gained their trust, and their fear reduced.People in the Vagajuli forest area, live in constant fear of eviction. Being close to Bhutan, the locals are also often suspected of being spies. Gradually people started joining us and supporting our work. Women’s self-help groups were formed and their financial needs were addressed to some extent. With help of TAGS, trainings and workshops were organised for SHG members and anganwadi workers. As the SHGs expanded I engaged Savita to work with me. While all this went on, I felt it was necessary to do something proactive to counter militant groups in the region. I discussed this with Ravindra bhai. With five women from the area, I attended a programme on the mahila shanti sena (women’s army for peace) at Vaishali, Bihar.Back in Assam, we decided that together with mobilising women to form SHGs, we will also motivate them to form mahila shanti sena. At this time there was a government directive to form self-help groups for extending rural credit. A target of 1000 self-help groups was set for each block, which would be linked with NABARD, DRDA, banks, etc. With such a target, overnight block officials and others started forming selfhelp groups in a random manner. The quality and strength of these self-help groups was obviously poor. Even groups formed by us, enticed by the funds available, started veering from basic principles and became weak. Some were even disbanded. Our basic principle of self-help group functioning was that they should work independently in the beginning and build some strength, before external funds were injected into the groups. I was disheartened with these developments.It was during this time that I registered a Trust named Asha Darshan. The Trust was registered on May 14, 2002 to work in the field of education, women and child development. The Trust had started work in 2001 itself by running balwadis (pre school and child care centres) in Vagajuli, Angarkata and Shkar villages. With this my responsibilities multiplied. Four more girls joined our work – Pranati, Pathini, Ambika and Deepali. These girls trained women in maintaining records and keeping accounts. Under aegis of the mahila shanti sena, training was imparted on pig and duck rearing, making incense sticks, etc. Exposure visits were also organised for women.Gradually some of the better groups also got funds from banks. Things were improving, but there were also problems. In November 2003, railway examinations were to be organised in Guwahati. Youth from across the country came to take these examinations. At Guwahati, they were attacked by local youth, who demanded that they be given priority in these jobs. These youth were disillusioned by widespread unemployment in the state. These attacks spread to other parts of the state and manifested as ethnic strife. People from Bihar and Jharkhand were attacked in the districts of Kamrup, Jorhat, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Dhubori, Nalbari, etc. Several cases of assault, rape, setting houses on fire, etc, were reported. I was upset after reading these reports in newspapers, and seeing what was going around. In our locality, police went house to house and took Biharis and others to the security of police stations, but this was no permanent solution. I spoke with Ravindra bhai about this. He advised that the situation was volatile and we should be careful and not get involved. I did not agree, and decided that we would hold a peace rally on the coming Sunday. In informed him of this decision. On November 24, with women of the mahila shanti sena, we held the first rally in Darga Mela, on the Bhutan border. This was followed by rallies in Kumarikata on November 26 and in Tamalpur on November 29. Our slogans were – we are all brothers, give up violence, participate in creative development. We were afraid that our rallies calling for peace may be attacked and that there may be more violence, but that did not happen. In fact our support base increased quite a bit after the rallies.The self-help groups have begun to impact lives of women in positive ways, but the problems that remain are enormous. The indiscriminate implementation of programmes and schemes by the government is leading people to be greedy and corner to as much of the benefits as possible, without much effort. Going against the tide, our efforts are continually directed at building people’s capacities and confidence, and the courage and motivation to fight injustice. The tentacles of corruption have spread right from the highest offices to the villages. Old age pension, widow pension, Indira Awas Yojana, Public distribution systems are all fraught with corruption. The mahila shanti sena has raised its voice and taken proactive steps against such practices. The work of mahila shanti sena needs to spread. Work has started in six districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, etc. As of now there are 366 self help groups and together with the mahila shanti sena, is growing as well. Together we will continue to agitate and keep trying to create a better society.These are some experiences in my work – the struggles, the highs and the lows. I find it hard to write about one incident, as this is the first time I have tried to write something.
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