One woman's voice has
become the collective voice of an entire community's women force. "Nari
Gunjan" or Women's Voice, the brainchild of "Padma Shri" Sr
Sudha Varghese, has emancipated a whole
community of girl children and women from Bihar's Musahar community, facing the
worst forms of sexual exploitation and oppression.
The Musahars, who subsist
on rats, are the most downtrodden among India's downtrodden or dalits – and
they would have remained so if it had not been for the efforts of this earnest
and unassuming lady who made it her life's mission 20 years ago to uplift them.
The Musahar people are landless agricultural labourers who were never paid
adequately for their work; their other occupations include cleaning toilets or brewing liquor for
the dominant castes. Their women and children worked in the upper caste homes
and were often sexually exploited. Schools were out of bounds for them; the
ones who dared to go dropped out owing to the ridicule and neglect they faced
from upper caste classmates and teachers.
Child marriage was rampant.
Girls were married off at 10 and had 3-4 children by the time they were 20 and
barely old enough to look after one child. And that was the first issue that Sr
Sudha had to surmount when she wanted to start a school for girls – the mothers
said that at 10 the girls got married, not began schooling.
She started with 20 girls
at first – they not only learnt from the books but learnt to draw, colour, and
sew. And in a year and half when UNICEF heard about her programme for
adolescent girls, it supported her team in 50 centres. The girls went on to
join mainstream government schools after Class 6; tutions were arranged to help
them pass Class 10 Board examinations.
After the two "Prerna"
(Inspiration) boarding schools for girls in Danapur and Bodhgaya, she started
"Joyful Learning Centres" for small children. The elderly received
clothes and health care.
There was no stopping her.
Her next focus was the Musahar boys who spent their time drinking and gambling.
She found they were interested in cricket and got them bat, ball and cricket
gear. Soon they became proficient enough to win tournaments with other teams.
The Musahar men, for their
part, ran out of business when the Bihar government banned liquor. Alcohol brought
the upper caste men to their hamlet, and rape of the women often followed
drinking. Untouchability ironically did not extend to the liquor they consumed
or the women they raped.
The Musahar women took it as
their fate until Sr Sudha came to the scene in 1986. She persuaded them to file
a case at the police station and taught them to recognise their dignity.
In return they gave her
food, love and loyalty – she was their "Cycle Didi" who travelled as
far as 50 km in a day. She lived in a mudhouse in their midst until it became
unsafe for her on account of death threats.
"I have lived a
thousand lives and died a thousand deaths." She learnt not to show fear.
"If you kill me, there will be hundreds to take my place," she told
her detractors.
From a young girl who wanted to dedicate her life in service of
the poor, Sr Sudha has become a colossal figure of love and hope for India's marginalised
sections. Leaving her native Kerala after Class 10 against her family's wishes
to becme a teacher at a school run by
Roman Catholic nuns in far-away Bihar, she searched out the poorest of the poor
to dedicate her life to.
Thanks to the Indian
government honouring her with the Padma Shri, she gets ample support from the
State government and the State Police. The Police even bring trafficked girls
they rescue from bus stops and elsewhere
to the centre for trafficked girls she started last year.
For now, she will leave the
Asia Mission Conference a couple of days early because her girls need her. Some
have fallen sick. Their welfare takes precedence over any accolades and
publicity she and her organisation gets. A truly great soul who practises the
selfless life that Christians are expected to take up!
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