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Traimit Saanjh! (Women organizaion) تریمت سانجھھ
In two U.C’s named Pattal and Bait Qaim Ala of our development area, especially women are facing a lot of problems and issues related to their education, health, economy, poverty, unemployment and backwardness. Women, including young girls are the most effected community in our development area. Women have to face the violation of right to education, the aggression of male domination and sexual harassment. The males are so narrow minded that they create hurdles for women to get education properly. Men openly violate the women rights because they are dominant in our society. Men do not discuss the issues and problems with women therefore women do not know anything and have no participation in activities like political, economical and social. Women in our society have their own problems like early marriage, exchange of marriages and home violence. They don’t know the overall effects of all these social evils and are unaware of the solutions of these problems. They are bearing the home violence as their faint since long. The political figures also exploit them in many ways and give favor to the male. Most of the women in our development area are related with agrarian activities from harvesting to reaping but they have no proprietary rights of land. Most of the community is landless and homeless therefore they have built their houses on government land.
In 2008, the related program officer visited the whole area and started continuous meetings with women and discussed their problems and issues deeply and thoroughly. We made them aware of their rights through meetings, seminars, group discussions, workshops, multimedia presentations, cultural activities like drama, music, speeches and fares, press conferences processions and demonstrations and legal support through panel of advocates. In all this process the women from community felt the need of an organization and unity and then they made their own organization named Traimet Sanjh [women organization] to achieve their rights and start the rights based struggle. To discuss their problems and issues and sort out their solution they held regular meetings and actively participated in trainings, workshops, demonstrations, seminars, conferences, cultural activities, women reflect centers, multimedia presentations and processions. In the whole process the community women learnt their basic rights and started struggle against all the forms of violence.
H.D.C. with the collaboration of Action Aid supported all these activities by providing opportunities for meetings, seminars, group discussions, workshops, multimedia presentations, cultural activities, press conferences, demonstrations, trainings, legal support and processions. The said organizations facilitated with transportation, dining and skilled guidance. These organizations also played an important role by setting the reflect centers in the development area where the women gather daily to discuss their issues and sort out their solutions. The legal professionals and social activists made them aware of their human, basic and legal rights to overcome their issues and problems. They became helpful to reduce the violation of women rights. The organizations also provided the technical support for multimedia presentations.
A lot of changes in the women of community have taken place through the whole awareness process. They have become aware of their basic, human and legal rights. The women know that how can they prevent themselves from home violence, what legal position they have in the society, what legal rights they have, how much protection they have from sexual harassment, what proprietary rights they have and how much important their role and character in the society is. Now they openly discuss and argue on their basic rights, male domination, exploitation, home violence, different forms of sexual harassment, prevention from H.I.V Aids, their legal rights and proprietary rights. They are better informed about their health, cure from different diseases and child health. They have learnt a lot about reading, writing and calculating at reflect centers and now they are emphasizing on girl education. The children are enjoying better response and care from their mothers. Because of the reduction of home violence the children are living in peaceful atmosphere. Women are bringing up their girls like their boys.
Indigenous women!
We have observed that women of different social, political, cultural and economic status have different issues with respect to their rights.
Indigenous people (Kehal/Mor) women, as compared to women of neighboring communities -we can say the settled communities- have traditionally enjoyed equal status to their men. However the men of these communities are increasingly adapting to behavior of typical men of mainstream society. They are asserting their newly assumed status of family heads and learned notion of male honor. Reportedly distribution of work and its benefits among Kehal/Mor women and men had been quite fair in the past. The major livelihood activities like harvesting wild bushes, weaving of baskets, cages and ropes and women and men did hunting together. In view of the decreased traditional livelihood sources, begging has emerged as their major income source, which is viewed as a responsibility of women. Increase in begging has affected women in three ways: one, begging replaced the traditional creative work and so turned the women from artisans to beggars; two, it has exposed women to harassment and violence while begging in the neighboring markets and streets and there, children are the immediate victim of this shift in livelihood source. Women have to leave their children back in huts when they go for begging normally for a period of 4-5 hours a day. Increasing livelihood dependence of Kehal/Mors on neighboring Muslim communities has badly influenced their celebration culture. These indigenous groups were once democratic in social and cultural behavior but under the influence of neighboring communities they fast becoming discriminatory against women. For example Kehal/Mor women and men used to sing and celebrate in groups normally but now the situation is changing swiftly.
The Women of settled communities are more deprived. In the settled communities can be categorized with respect to their economic and social conditions. With respect to economic condition they are divided into three main categories one who do not own any land second who have small land holding and the third who are big land holding. In the last two categorized the main issue of the women is right to land. According to inheritance law the women has right to land but due to cultural values, 98% women could not get her land rights. Keeping her deprived from her land the kin men kept her in wall boundary so that they can arrange her marriage according to their wish. The family men member do not allow girls to education therefore the education level in women is very low.
The condition of women is more verse Sayyad social group. They are very rigid to women rights.The condition of women in land less group is relatively better they have the mobility; they take part in income generation activities but over all they are also under the control of men
Effects of TBERMP on the lives of Indigenous women!
Kehal/Moors
were considered as hated community by the other communities. So Irrigation
Department displaced 900 persons forcefully for the implementation of
TBERMP at Taunsa Barrage although there was agreement between Irrigation
Department and World Bank that there would be no displacement during the
project. So no funds were allocated for the resettlement in the project.
When we went to the displaced community, they were depressed and afraid. While the politicians and the feudal of this area were trying to get jobs for their sons and relatives in the Descon Company [the contractors]. It was very difficult for us to prepare historically hated and depressed community to come in struggle for getting their rights. After many consultation, meetings with women and men of displaced community, giving them guarantee that there would be no further loss to them. Because they have no more to loose so they prepared for struggle to get their rights but they were afraid of police, irrigation officials and feudal. We arranged a cultural program by which we trained them to deliver speeches and to perform drama to expose their problems. We also invited writers, journalists and poets who supported the kihals and moors in their poetry and speeches. They also criticized the policy of irrigation department and World Bank for the indigenous community. Through this process they became confidant and started struggle to get the rights through demonstrations. They also stopped the work of Descon Company through this process. The women were very active and were leading the movement of ‘Sindhoo Bachoo Tarla’ which was their own movement.
The women of this community also became helpful in motivating the women of settled community for solving their problems of water logging and land erosion. These women through their initiatives in cultural activities and rights based struggle involved about 1000 women directly in different periods and thousands of the women through press, demonstrations and hunger strikes at different places. These places were Multan, Kot Addu and Islamabad. The whole struggle was at the plat form of Sindhoo Bachaoo Tarla. They also stopped the Minister irrigation when he came at Taunsa Barrage and demanded to solve their problems. We are proud that women of hated community [kihals and Moors] and landless people are leading the movement of right-based struggle and they had got respect among other communities and are feeling empowerment. They also had taken investment of Rs 170 million by the Irrigation department as compensation of losses caused by TBERMP [funded by world Bank]. They are also vanguard of other kihals and Moors who are living near the riverbed of River Indus from D.I.Khan to D.G.Khan [200 Km distance]. The challenges faced during this movement were the threat of police by local feudal, Irrigation department, fisheries department and Descon Company in the form of issuing FIRs and pressures but we tackled all these pressures through peaceful political struggle. Another challenge came when Irrigation department and Descon Company gave salary on monthly basis to their women leaders without taking any work for sabotaging the movement but we overcame this problem by developing more leaders among women.
Our process of decision-making is totally democratic and is through involvement of community even in the making of Budget. Our strategies are good to get the socio-political and economic rights of marginalized people.
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