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FIROZABAD
A CITY OF MISSING CHILDHOOD
A report by GOONJ.. Part 2
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‘Not
Just a Piece of Cloth’ and SHGs
Apart
from providing financial assistance and management skills, SHG’s
also function as forums for generating awareness about many relevant
issues like education for their children, the perils of child labour,
hygiene and health related issues.
In
this area, most members of SHGs are mothers of the children who
attend the UBVKs. This enables a parallel education process for
the children and parents associated with the Vikas Trust. This is
essential, as it is not enough to educate just the children. For
this education to truly bear fruit and assist them in rising above
the exploitative system they are stuck in, parents need to be educated
too; as children can take no action without the consent of their
parents.
For
the work that GOONJ..
is trying to do with women, in the sanitary napkin issue, SHGs are
crucial for making lasting inroads in their lives.
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When talking to women about their usual practices while menstruating,
it was the same story- all women, whether in villages or in slums,
use absolutely any cloth they can get hold of, even if it is torn,
used, dirty or synthetic. This throws light on their ignorance towards
hygiene and disease/infection. Some of them admit to the fact that
infections have occurred due to these practices, but they have solutions
in the shape of home remedies and medication from the doctor. None
of them have ever bought new cloth for this purpose and almost none
of them wash and re-use the cloth. They all dispose it in the fields
or bury it in the ground.
Women who have begun using GOONJ..
provided sanitary napkins are very thankful for the product they
are being provided, and also for unearthing this issue by bringing
it to the fore. Earlier they were all extremely shy to talk about
it and did not understand why we were giving it so much importance.
But now, after hearing stories of how some women have lost their
lives or have become prone to major diseases like cervix cancer
or germs, they are thankful to GOONJ..
and their SHGs for giving this hushed-up issue its due attention.
So much so, that even the very economically backward women, like
those in the Banjara Dera of Surnampur Village, are willing to buy
a pack of ten cloth-sanitary napkins for two Rupees, as they all
want to use clean cotton cloth, which is hard to come by.
There
is another segment of women, mostly young girls, of a slightly better-off
income bracket, who have switched from buying market sanitary napkins
to the cloth napkins GOONJ..
is providing. This may seem absurd on the surface, but the truth
is that market sanitary napkins are too expensive. They only bought
them out of compulsion because using old, dirty or synthetic cloth
was an option that had become redundant for them. But now, faced
with a cheaper economic alternative, they opt for cloth sanitary
napkins. Disposal of these is also easier as cotton cloth is biodegradable.
The only change they all unanimously want in the GOONJ..
provided sanitary napkins is for them to be thicker. This is something
we are immediately going to work on.
GOONJ..
along with Vikas trust is all set to create massive awareness about
this issue in the area and provide this napkin to as many women
as possible. There are about three thousand women in the network
of Vikas trust as our immediate target.
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| Banjara
Dera in Surnampur Village
Surnampur
village, about thirty five kilometres away from Shikohabad, is quite
inaccessible if dependent on public transport. Comprising three
communities – Thakurs, Yadavs and Banjaras, it is dominated
by the former two caste groups, the Banjaras being the oppressed
under-dogs.
Banjaras
are traditionally known for their semi-settled nature. Being in
constant transition and movement, they are very open to, and even
desirous of change. Owing to their perpetual movement from place
to place, their multiple exposure has armed them with the ability
to seek methods of development; but their poverty has rendered them
helpless and frustrated.
In this village, they are more-or-less settled. Their fifty
families live in a separate area, where no proper road goes and
where houses are made of mud. They have nothing in the name of infrastructure
– no electricity, no school for the children. They used to
have a school but the Thakurs who did not want their subordinates
to travel the road to development strategically burned it down.
After this, they were successfully running another school, but had
to shut it down due to lack of resources. The current situation
is that a teacher comes to their village to teach the children.
However, these visits are infrequent due to the inaccessibility
of the dera, and probably also because of the low revenue she receives
for this effort. Villagers are not happy with her due to her high
absenteeism and low expertise in her job; children feel she does
not know enough to be able to teach them. The teacher complains
that when she makes such an effort to come all the way, only six-seven
children actually turn up. This reflects the mismatch between needs
and resources available, which is what GOONJ will attempt to address.
Right now they do not even have a shed for the
students to collect under, to study. We aim to raise funds through
our network, to provide some basic infrastructure and other schooling
essentials to run a school there. It goes without saying that our
support for them will be sustainable and long-term.
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What we found most interesting and gripping in
this little dera is the attitude. Banjaras are ambitious for advancement
and progress. They are ready to go great lengths for socio-economic
elevation in their community. And, they are angry with the government,
the teacher, the NGOs or any other agent of advancement, for not
playing out their role efficiently. GOONJ..
intends on tapping into this very positive attitude and making it
instrumental in engendering developmental changes in their community.
GOONJ..
will also introduce its sanitary napkins here. Women here have the
same unhygienic practices while menstruating, as other village women
do. After speaking to them about this issue, we saw scope for initiating
a movement to upgrade these practices, as women were willing to
try something new and better, even if it is slightly expensive.
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Education Centres/ NFEs near Brick Kilns
Just
as we witnessed exploitative labour in the glass industry of Firozabad,
we heard of such practices in the brick kilns too. In fact, not
only is labour exploitative here, but also bonded. Unemployed villagers
from Bihar and Orissa are lured into this job by contractors who
promise to pay them a lump-sum amount in the beginning and once
employed in the brick kilns, give them stipends on a daily basis
for food. Eventually this results in bonded labour as the rightful
due of the labourer is never paid to her/him, but s/he continues
working here, hoping in vain that s/he will get it some day.
Children of these labourers loiter around near the kilns, having
nothing to do; no books to study from, no toys to play with. Due
to extreme and abject poverty, they obviously do not go to school,
or even have sufficient clothes.
GOONJ..
is planning to start a project in collaboration with the Vikas Trust,
to start NFEs for these children. These schools will be managed
by the Trust, and sustained by GOONJ...
All in all, there are many basic issues that need to be worked upon
in Firozabad. Given the shortage of resources available to the Vikas
Trust, but its knowledge and foundation in the field, GOONJ..
has the opportunity to intervene in all possible areas that it can.
We intend on launching our major initiatives like Vastra-Daan,
‘SCHOOL to SCHOOL’, ‘Not Just
a Piece of Cloth’ and ‘Cloth for Work’
in a big way over here.
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How
YOU can be a part of this –
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By
monetarily supporting us for infrastructural developments in
the NFEs, for e.g. a shed for the Banjara Dera School or building
many more schools for the brick kiln children; and also for
paying salaries for the teachers and facilitators here; buying
more sewing machines for the girls learning stitching.
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By regularly contributing school material like notebooks, stationary,
water bottles, lunch boxes, bags, uniforms, shoes etc. for a
sustained growth and maintenance of the NFEs.
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By
contributing large quantities of clean cotton cloth and cotton
for making sanitary napkins.
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By monetarily supporting us to buy a steralisation machine for
proper cleansing of cotton cloth before we turn it into a sanitary
napkin.
We
are not asking for any major bulk contributions, but only a little
amount that you can commit…as every penny counts…
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Our
contact Details-
GOONJ..
Tel.- (m)-98681-46978, (o)-011-26972351
J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-44
E-mail - anshugoonj24@gmail.com
anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in
Website-www.goonj.info |
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