Realizing dreams for Dalit Women*
My field visit to Sowlore village was anything but ordinary. Sowlore is located in Vellore District in Tamil Nadu, South India. I had visited Vellore a few years earlier to visit Karigiri, a home for those living with Hansen's disease (leprosy) after reading Dr. Paul Brand's book The Gift of Pain.
I had been invited to visit GLOW after its founder Mr. Annadurai wrote Ananda Foundation about the horrific situations that Dalit people are faced with on a daily basis. Mr. Annadurai had a strong desire to help his people and free them from social stigma and a life in poverty. A few months after receiving the letter and en route to Bangladesh to visit our children of Adeline's Gift, I headed to the remote village of Sowlore. Located halfway to Chennai, it was a three hour drive from Bangalore. After passing through the main town, we drove to the rural area of Sowlore located between mountains and open fields. It was made known to me that indigenous tribal people still lived at the foothills of these arid mountains.GLOW focuses on the emancipation, empowerment, and recognition of Dalits or "untouchables": the lowest caste in the socio-economic ladder. GLOW accomplishes this through education, micro-finance and small loans for business development, health awareness, and skills building of professional trades.
When I arrived in the village of mint and salmon colored mud huts, I was greeted by smiling white teeth and ebony faces.
We met with the staff to discuss the project proposal of computer education for Dalit women. The Dalit people are landless. They are usually employed into bonded labor (slave labor) doing agricultural work where they care for the land, crops, and homes of wealthy property owners. Giving these young women a chance at a life with respect and the potential to earn an income of their own, would be a milestone.
Before the cultural program that the villagers decided to spontaneously create, we visited the largest village where we sat underneath a small home with a roof of dried grass that kept falling on my head. Under the grayish hue of the single light above we sat in half darkness while I interviewed several women about why they wanted to pursue computer education. Their responses ranges from wanting to learn English and connect with the rest of the world, to helping to provide a comfortable life for their parents as an alternative to the dismal life that they were used to.
I also listened to the common, experiences of discrimination and intolerable acts of hatred faced by each of these women. They recounted their stories holding back their tears…How if they visited a local eatery, they were given brash, dirty water while their non-dalit friends were given clean water. How they were served with different glasses, different utensils and how they were told to keep quiet in school that their opinions did not count. It was wrenching, and I told them not to give up hope. Part of the remedy to this solution is to provide opportunities such as a computer education to these young women so that they will dispute the stigma held against them that they are not worthy or not qualified of a higher standard of living.
After speaking with the girls we headed to Sowlore; a village with 100 houses. The culture program was to be help in an open-dusty area near a single hut with a cow grazing nearby and a single light. I had no idea what to expect as we were fairly isolated from the rest of civilization. The whole village had turned out. This was to be a big occasion. We sat under the stars, with Orion's Belt, Pleiades, and the Big Dipper staring down at us. The moon was a single crescent.
The night began with an offering of lights or deepa by women elders. They presented me with a sweet and fragrant rose garland with strands of aluminum woven throughout. The night continued with dances and music. There were songs, speeches, and dramas about HIV, education, stories and dreams of liberation and a new life.
Next was the traditional performance of Fire-eating. Kerosene filtered through the air as men inhaled to blow fire plumes into the sky. They dipped their wooden sticks wrapped in cloths, ignited them and did all kinds of baton twirling acts. The beat of the drums and makeshift aluminum cans percussion filled my cells with a primitive rhythm. After the fire performance, two little boys painted as tigers did an aggressive dance playing tigers that were chasing and fighting each other with sticks.
It was amazing.
All became silent as the villagers asked me to dance. Being from Hawaii, I enjoy dancing, so this was no exception what better way could I convey my joy for these people than in giving them some joy.
In this village, in the dark, under the stars, I danced. I danced with the children. I danced with the elders and danced until my heart was pumping. At that moment nothing else mattered. The villagers were amused by my folk dancing and I was amused by their amusement. Laughter and joy was the language we spoke.
After the function, Mr. Annadurai asked me to eat at his house where his wife had prepared a little something. I had to set my health and sanitation biases aside. While we were eating Annadurai told me that the villagers were very happy to make my acquaintance and I told him that I felt the same.
Then he asked me: "They want to know why you traveled so far to see them?"
I told him, that I cared for these villagers and there are people back in my home that care for the villagers.
I know my time was too short with these beautiful people, but their life stories are with me a lifetime and that is my responsibility to convey them to the rest of the world. As I chatted with Mr. Annaurai I told him: "You can talk or you can act. By my coming here, I am acting on what I believe: that we are global citizens and we must take care of each other. I am acting on what I feel so passionate about: humanity needs humanity--no matter how try to connect."
It was definitely one of those nights that I will never forget. I wish you could have experienced this with me, but for now words will have to suffice.
Levani,
March 2003.
* This is an excerpt from a personal journal entry by Ananda's Executive Director while she was in the field.
Read the life stories of Dalit women in the computer education program.
Hear the voices of these young women
View the slideshow: Realizing dreams for Dalit women
View photos: Empowering Dalit women.
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