Success Story 4

Name of Partner : GRAMYA SANSTHAN
State : UTTAR PRADESH
Theme : Women’s empowerment
Name of individual : Savitri Devi
Name of district, block and village : District-Varanasi, Block-Sewapuri, Village-Tendui
Problem : Tendui village has the majority of upper caste people i.e. Brahmin, Kshatriya castes and there is dominance of these people over the scheduled caste and marginalized people for many decades. By the time, progress is seen in the upliftment of the SC, OBC people due to various govt. acts and provisions for SC/ST and poor people. Still there is dominance of the influential persons.
Solution offered : Savitri Devi is the resident of this village. She is nearly 50 years old and belongs to SC caste. She is illiterate. Before GRAMYA intervention, she was like other women of her community/village. School Management Committee (SMC) were formed earlier when community people and even most of SMC members were not aware on the functions of SMC. Later on, when PACS project initiated and facilitated in formation of SMC as per the criteria, community participation and their representation also got increase in SMCs and some of Mahila Manch (village level CBO) members got selected as President, Vice President.
In this sequence, Savitri Devi also got selected as Vice President of a SMC in the village. She was very active in her role and time by time monitored the quality of mid day meal, children’s attendance, teachers presence and other school level activities. Gradually, she also motivated to other SMCs members for taking active part in better school management through SMC and got recognized by the school teachers.
On the eve of the Republic Day, 26th Jan, the principal, visited to her home and requested for the flag hoisting at the school. It was very surprising as she never went to school for study before this and now she is going to be honoured for hoisting the nation’s flag. At once, Savitri could not believe on it, but the principal told to her that she deserve to this honour. He invites to her for it.
Savitri reaches to the school on the given time. There she hoisted flag of the nation. At that time her eyes were brimming with tears. She had never thought about it and now it’s was the reality. It was unforgettable moment for her as she expressed in her speech on this great day in Indian history before a large no. of the participants.
How this work benefitted the individual : It was a very inspiring thing for other women in the village when they came to know about the honour given to Savitri Devi.
How the project helped to address discrimination for that individual/community :
PACS project focused on empowering to the women those who belong to the socially excluded community while organizing them into groups/CBOs and & strong collectives. Further, issues based knowledge, capacity building, increasing their representation in different committee as mandated from govt. side and realizing non-discriminatory access to their rights & entitlements is being ensured from the very beginning. It results examples like Savitri Devi to reach upto this stage and setting example of women’s empowerment.
Wider picture : GRAMA is working in 61 Gram Panchayats in Sewapuri Block and 9 Gram Panchayats in Baragaon Block in Varanasi district.
In each Gram Panchayat, Mahila Manch and other village level CBOs are working very effectively on their rights and demanding govt. services, scheme’s benefit without any hesitation.
Can we visit this individual/community?
Yes, we can reach to this village and individual and there is no problem.