Women in the villages of Kargil are waging a different battle, one of empowerment and financial independence. It’s a difficult fight but the courageous, with support from their family members, are breaking barriers and touching new heights, writes AZRA KHATOON
Eight kilometres from the town of Kargil, a silent battle is on in the village of Akchamal. Headed by a 36-year-old house wife Fiza Banoo, this fight is against the societal odds that have always kept women at a lower stratum, not allowing them to participate in the process of empowerment. Fiza, courageously chasing her dream to empower like-minded women around her, started a self help group six years ago with just Rs 100 in her hand and a handful of women by her side, concentrating on generating large-scale employment in the backward regions of Kargil District. This was done essentially by promoting the usage of traditional garments.
Fiza’s sincere endeavours that started in 2007 with support from the womenfolk provided her a platform to register a non-Governmental organisation in just three years. What Fiza could achieve in these three years working in one of the most isolated regions of the country is truly commendable. Kargil is located 204km from the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir. Inaccessible for most part of the year, this snowbound region has lived its share of miseries for being located near the border that India shares with Pakistan. The credit for recent familiarity about the place goes to the Kargil War in 1999. Sadly, their struggles are yet to be highlighted in the mainland.
Fiza’s struggle is an intelligent one. She decided to stay active when the rest of the Kargil is virtually dormant. During winters, when all other livelihood tasks are at a standstill due to extreme cold and erratic connectivity, this NGO provides a platform to housewives and young girls by training them and refining their skills at basket making from local grass; tailoring, knitting and carpet-weaving by using the easily accessible local yarn called ‘bal’.
The work is distributed among 75 workers, in the age group of 24 to 50 years, such that the older women spin threads out of the ‘bal’ and the younger ones knit and weave. “50kg wool costs us Rs 2000, from which about 42 sweaters are knitted. Each sweater is then sold for Rs 1,200. A pair of carpets is sold for Rs 4,000”, states Fiza, whose craft production relies on the orders received. Each trainee is sanctioned a stipend of Rs 300 to spin a kilogram of bal and Rs 250 to knit the same quantity. Products like seat covers, gloves, mufflers and socks are also produced and with the left over wool, quilts and pillows are made.
Despite the autonomy and ease at the work place, a few women have been forced to quit work, pained by the criticism and callous allegations of ‘wandering in the market unnecessarily’ from petty-minded people.
“Earning a livelihood can never be considered unnecessary, especially for a lady, when numerous ‘unnecessary’ impediments and censures crop up in her journey toward progress and self-reliance”, Fiza avows. In her own struggles, she too has tasted disdain, her ideas shot down not only by her male peers but also by womenfolk, for flouting the conventional roles ascribed to a woman. Her only crime is her capability to broaden the horizons beyond her domestic confines. Travelling was thus declared a taboo for women those days. “My backbone is my family and my husband. It is with their support that I could travel till Jammu for the promotion of my NGO and organise awareness camps”, she claims with a certain degree of pride and ecstasy.
Recognising Fiza’s eternal attempts to bring the women folk together to not only work towards an independent life but to work as a team and develop a sense of sorority and mutual understanding, the Block Head supported her organisation both morally and financially. She received a sum of Rs 20,000 for putting up awareness camps on issues regarding hygiene, girl-child education and anti-smoking in Suru, Akchamal and Poen, small villages nestled in the lap of nature in the outskirts of Kargil.
However, her biggest crisis at present is the lack of funding. Multiple appeals to the concerned authorities have not made the grade and thus she fails at saving the desired capital to run her unit efficiently.
She believes in the notion of hard work. “Bekaar nahin baithna hai” (we must not sit idle), and encourages everyone she meets to work by every possible means, because work gives her enormous contentment and a sense of being alive.
It is this aspiring aspect of her character that enables her today to run 10 centres in Kargil district. She even received suggestions about running for the position of a Panchin in her village, which she declined owing to her reluctance in engaging with the murky politics expected and illegitimate accusations likely against a woman candidate. This fear factor seems to be yet another stumbling block to be tackled, one which still remains unsurmounted.
With some hope and buoyancy in her voice and a firm belief that her righteous step toward the emancipation of women shall not wither and waste away, her smiles confirms her resolve to continue working for the women of Kargil, frowning nay-sayers notwithstanding.