In The Fight For Empowerment, She Taught Them The Weapons To Use

They are the dispossessed of the earth, people forcibly alienated from their own land. And like elsewhere in the country, it was no different for the tribals of south Bihar: ancestral lands being stolen, rank illiteracy, abysmal medical facilities and general all-round exploitation. For Sister Karuna Mary Braganza, the awareness of the state of affairs in these forsaken parts first came in 1987. That year this Catholic nun, an ex-principal of Sophiya College, Mumbai, was on an all-India tour of university colleges. On her itinerary was St Joseph's College in Torpa, 150 km from Ranchi (south Bihar), now in Jharkhand.
What struck her first was the poverty and malnourishment among the tribals who, paradoxically, lived on fertile land and amid plentiful forest wealth. Soon, she realised the wretchedness of life here was all-pervasive. Rapes and murder of adivasi girls were frequent, but there no redressal mechanism. While mutilated bodies were regularly found in the forest, mysteriously, no cases were recorded in the local police station. Middle-men routinely cheated the tribals out of a fair price for their agricultural produce, government anganwadis did not function and corruption and scams in welfare schemes was the order of the day. For Sister Mary, it was clear that most of these ills had their roots in the illiteracy of the tribals and Dalits and only by education could they become aware of their rights and fight back.
So, in 1988 Sister Mary asked to be posted as a professor in English at the Torpa College. And thus began her attempt to come closer to the people. For some time she had to use translators while she learnt the basics of Mundari, the local tongue. Next she started an adult literacy programme to raise awareness about community rights and responsibilities. At first, the people were suspicious but it didn't take them long to perceive her selflessness. Her early successes obviously angered the old exploiters and other vested interests. And charges of attempts to convert the tribals and Dalits began doing the rounds. The harassment also turned physical: the ramshackle hostel where Sister Mary lived with 95 first-generation college girls was attacked by 13 armed goons. The police post across the road didnt heed their cries for help and it was a priest wielding an old, empty gun who saved them. The terror campaign continued in various ways, but Sister Mary continued to network with parties working for tribal development.She started the Centre for Women's Development (cwd) at Torpa in 1990. The aim: to conduct a wide range of social improvement programmes. One of them was the Women's Thrift Groups in 49 villages, where each member contributed anything from Rs 2 to Rs 25 a week or month. As funds grew, the groups began to offer loans for income-generating activities. The women conducted all transactions themselves and the loans enabled them to start trades like small hotels, poultry farms and even cash crop plantations. The results are showing in one village, 85 per cent of group members started cultivating their fields which had lain fallow for many years. Women in another village, Patratoli, have spent Rs 6,500 on bringing in electricity for irrigation. The men have also started their own savings groups and now in 12 villages men and women sit together for a gramsabha, unheard of earlier.

Apart from the economic benefits, the initiatives led to social gains as well. In Dumbukel village, the growing menace of alcoholism was tackled by talking to the three villagers who brewed country liquor. Soon, two of them quit the trade and were given funds to start an alternative business. The third refused, and even lodged complaints with the police. But that only strengthened the women's resolve. The cwd's activities include 38 balwadis for about 2,000 pre-school children; 600 kindergarten teachers have been trained and health and sanitation programmes introduced in 92 schools. A total of 5,000 women have been mobilised into self-help groups the result of Sister Mary's drive to teach the people how to organise and defend themselves.
Whether the new state of Jharkhand will actually give the tribals a greater role in their own development is a moot point. For the vested groups are still around, and might get entrenched in the new ruling class. But then there's always Sister Mary and her groups to counter them. Her address: Sister Karuna Mary Braganza, Centre for Women's Development, Tapkara Road, P.O. Torpa, Ranchi, Jharkhand 835227; phone: (0653) 823379.