 CHANGING EQUATIONS

The Mahila Samakhya has helped to change many stereotypes - it is a process of mutual learning in which there are no experts who know all the answers. Every experience becomes a base for learning. Rather than a series of events, training in Mahila Samakhya is an ongoing and continuous process. Women are helped to recognise and affirm their own and each other's strengths and skills, and overcome their fears and hesitation.

All over the world, women carry a historical burden of inequality, which is visible in every aspect of their lives - in their population, in the economy and in social and political life, in their access to health, information and all other aspects of development. The educational status of poor women holds a mirror to the larger realities of their lives. There has been an increasing recognition of the fact that if education is to fulfill its potential as a decisive intervention towards women's equality, it must move beyond literacy to create an environment where women are enabled to come together to explore their situations, recognise and affirm their own strengths and capacities, and act to bring about change.

Provision of educational opportunities for women has been an important art of the national endeavor in the field of education since India's independence. Though these endeavors did yield significant results, gender disparities persist with uncompromising tenacity, more so in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities. The National Policy on Education, 1986 saw education as an agent that could bring about basic change in the status of women. To quote "In order to neutralize the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be a well-conceived edge in favour of women. The National Education System will play a positive, interventionist role in the empowerment of women, the removal women's illiteracy and obstacles inhibiting their access to, and retention in, elementary education will receive over- riding priority through provision of special support services, setting of time targets, and effective monitoring." Formulated in pursuance to the National Policy on Education, 1986, a programme called Mahila Samakhya or Women's Equality through Education was designed.

Mahila Samakhya, which means women's equality through education, is a women's empowerment project which aims not only at service delivery but seeks to bring about a change in women's perception about themselves and that of society in regard to women's `traditional roles'. It endeavors to create an environment for women to seek knowledge and information in order to make informed choices and create circumstances in which women can learn at their own pace and rhythm. The centrality of education in the struggle to achieve equal is an im- portant focus of Mahila Samakhya.

The basic parameters of the programme are derived from a redefinition of education, as a process of ongoing collective action and reflection which would empower women by helping them to question and analyse their own realities, and give them access to the information and knowledge which would enable them to act for change. The basic starting point of the education process is respect for women's existing knowledge, experience and skills. The Mahila Samakhya project gives support for women to come together to critically analyse, question and conceptualise, seek knowledge and information and make informed choices. This

process leads to several empowering outcomes, a changed self-image and a change in the perceptions of society, enhanced access to new information and skills, Women are enabled to negotiate and build alliances with others in order to use the empowering spaces which are created through these processes.

Launched in 10 districts spread over three states in April 1989 through Dutch assistance the project today has expanded to 15 districts in four states under the Dutch assistance programme, as well as in 7 districts under the Bihar Educational Project and 3 districts in Madhya Pradesh under the DPEP.

Mahila Samakhya is not target-driven, but is controlled and directed by the women themselves. The ethos and values of the project are crystallised in a set of non-negotiable principles, which provide

the guidelines for implementation and monitoring. These principles are:

* All processes and activities within the project must be based on respect for women's existing knowledge, experience and skills.

* Every component and activity within the project must create an environment for learning, help women to experience and affirm the strengths, create time and space for reflection and respect individual uniqueness and difference.

* Women and women's groups at the village level set the pace, priorities, form and content of all the project activities. Planning, decision-making and evaluation processes, as well as all levels of per sonnet, must remain accountable to the collectives at the village level.

No Compromise

ONE OF the most interesting aspects of Mahila Samakhya is the articulation of a 10-point agenda on which no compromise is entertained. These inviolable principles provide a guide which will underline evolving strategies and will be the basis for mobilisation for education. They are:

THE INITIAL phase, when women are consolidating their independent time and space is not hurried or short-circuited.

WOMEN PARTICIPANTS in a village determine the form, nature, content and timing of all the activities in their village.

THE ROLE of project functionaries, officials and other agencies is facilitative and not directive.

PLANNING, decision-making and evaluation processes at all levels are accountable to the collective of village women.

EDUCATION Is understood as a process which enables women to question, conceptualise, seek answers, act, reflect on their actions and raise new questions. Education is not to be confused with mere literacy.

ACCEPTANCE THAT as an "environment of learning" is being created, what women decide to learn first may not be reading or writing. Women's priorities for learning must always be respected.

ACCEPTANCE THAT given the time, support and catalysts for such reflection, women are of their own volition seeking knowledge, with which to gain greater control over their lives.

THE EDUCATIONAL process and methodology must be based on respect for women's existing knowledge, experience and skill.

EVERY INTERVENTION and inter-action occurring in the

project must be a microcosm of the larger process of change; the environment of learning, the respect and equality, the time and space, the room for individual uniqueness and variation must be experienced in every component of the project.

A PARTICIPATORY selection process is followed to ensure that the project functionaries at all levels are committed to working among poor women and that they are free of caste/ community prejudices. (From the Revised Project Document: Mahila Samakhya-Education for Women's Equality )

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There is a feeling of hope and confidence. Even though change is slow and imperceptible, it is significant - in the words of a village woman, "The project may come and go but no-one can take away my consciousness."

All project structures and personnel play facilitative and supportive, rather than directive roles.

The nodal point around which the programme devolves is the village level "Mahila Sangha" or women's collective, which constitutes an easily accessible forum for women to discuss problems relating to their daily routine such as child care, health, fuel, fodder, drinking water, education; problems related to their status, role within the society and in the family; and problems related to their selfimage as women. These village women's groups set out their own agenda for education and collective action. They try to seek solutions to their problems by initiating action and pressurising the block and district structures to respond.

At least two women from each village work as activators with the women's collective, and help to catalyse discussion and action. The process is helped along by a `sahayogini' or facilitator who is a local woman trained by the programme to facilitate and coordinate the activities of about 10 `Sanghas'. Their primary functions are tuned to the needs of these collectives by way of providing information, support and guidance when required, and to act as a link between village level activities and the district implementation unit of the programme. The district unit shoulders the overall responsibilities for the programme at the district level and comprises women with experience in the field of women's development. It also provides resource support for specific inputs like education, child care, health etc.

At the state level an autonomous registered society is set up. An empowered body, it takes all decisions on the management and financial aspects of the programme. A State Project Director oversees the programme at the state level. The state office provides a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the programme, the necessary resource support for the functional areas of the project and arranges for the inter-district linkages of the programme so as to create a wider network for the women's movement. At the national level, the programme is coordinated by the Project Director. Guidance from a national level resource group of eminent women is provided to the programme.

The Sakhi or Sahayaki (friend) are the focal point of all Samakhya work in a village. Hailing from the same village, they are expected to grow with the Sangha. Selected a few months after t e initiation of the project in the village, the Sakhi is elected from among the Sangha members. The position is usually rotated among the women. In a majority of the cases, the Sakhis are illiterate and learn with the rest of the Sangha at the pace set by the group. Being pivotal to project work, the Sakhis work closely with the Sahayoginis whom they meet three to four times a month when the Sahayogini visits the village. The flexible project framework and diversity of the states, have seen different models of Sakhi-Sahayogini-Sangha relationships emerge.

A landmark for the project was the National evaluation carried out in 1993, with the objective of identifying emerging patterns and trends, and to assess the effectiveness of project processes and structures. This was an intensive exercise which provided the oppor- tunity to combine the objectivity and detachment of an external vision with the insight and depth of an internal viewpoint. The women who were selected as evaluators were not part of Mahila Samakhya, but shared a commitment to women's empowerment.

The evaluation helped in identifying the major strengths and weaknesses of the project. The evaluators felt that a foundation for empowerment had been built, which would endure even in the absence of the

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project. Women's issues were established as social and community issues, rather than being seen as family problems. The evaluation found that the Sakhis and Sahayoginis were the major strengths of the project they formed a motivated and committed network of grass root level women activists with the potential of becoming the nucleus of a rural women's movement. It was also agreed that the project had not succumbed to a target-driven approach, but continued to have a strong process orientation, which was sensitive to the needs and direction of village Sanghas.

Mahila Samakhya has played a noteworthy role in the TLCs in the districts of Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, the focus of attention of Mahila Samakhya has been on health care and stoppage of the evil system of "Devadasis" whilst in U. P., the central issue has been drinking water and nonformal education. In A. P. Mahila Samakhya is addressing the issues of social justice and access to Government schemes. In Gujarat, development of thrift soci- eties amongst rural women and literacy are the more prominent issues. The project in four states has touched the lives of some of the most oppressed communities in the country. Finding words to articulate problems and gaining strength from each other, these women are shedding the baggage of social discrimination. Education, under Mahila Samakhya, opens vistas not just to read and write but to organise for change.

The long-term vision of Mahila Samakhya has been built up from the experience and understanding of those who are part of the project. Women are discovering new identities and consolidating their strengths. They are confronting and challenging power structures and negotiating new relationships. For individuals who are part of the project, there are dreams of moving into new roles, of effective political participation, of acquiring new skills and qualifications. For the women's collectives, there is the challenge of aquiring control over local resources, of building an autonomous and inde- pendent identity, of building links and networking with other groups and movements. Even though change is slow and imperceptible, it is significant. In the words of a village woman, "The project may come and go but no-one can take away my consciousness."

Recommendation of the National Evaluation, 1993

INTERVENTIONS NECESSARY in the Context of Emerging Strategies

CONSTITUTING/ACTIVATING State and District Resource groups.

ACTIVE networking/interaction with other groups at all levels, including the village level.

MAKING TRAINING more focussed and need/issue based.

MAKING STRUCTURES and systems more responsive and accountable to Sanghas.

INVOLVING a broader specturm of women in the Sanghas.

GIVING SANGHAS the training, information and resource support to plan and implement their own strategies.

ENSURING THAT management is facilitative and provides space and opportunity for the exercise of autonomy in planning, decision-making and evaluation.

To SUPPORT/TAKE Forward Rising Strength and Consciousness of Women

DOCUMENTING AND studying individual and collective processes of empowerment taking place in the programme.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES for continued growth of Sahayoginis.

ENSURING MORE focussed and intensive capacity-building for Sangha women.

INCREASING THE spread and outreach of the programme in terms of number of villages and Blocks covered, as well as including a majority of women in each village.

TRAINING To be in relation to be oriented to empowering and capacity- building at the village level.

FOR SUSTAINABILITY of Programme Processes.

EXPANSION To cover a larger number of villages and women.

ENSURING CONTINUED interaction and exchange with other groups working for and committed to women's empowerment.

ENSURING THAT the programme structure is responsive and sensitive to the needs at the Sangha level.

INITIATING STEPS to delink from mature Sanghas, based on an assessment of their state of readiness.

EXPLORING RESOURCE support options for Sanghas.