Gandhi once said that the heart of India lies in its villages. Today, that heartbeat remains strong. Rural-urban migration within India continues to grow, yet the majority of development work focuses on hard to reach, marginalized, rural communities. My host organization, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program-India (AKRSP(I)), was one of the first organizations in the world to pioneer development work with rural villages. This means that AKRSP(I) has a well-established relationship in hundreds and thousands of village blocks across the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar. It was because of these relationships that I had the opportunity to spend time in the community of Wankaner, in the dusty, desert-like Saurashstra region of Central Gujarat.
As part of my AKFC International Youth Fellowship, I am a Gender Officer for AKRSP(I). My primary reason for going to Wankaner was to conduct research with female students who had graduated from YUVA Junction - a youth skills training centre which teaches life-skills and work place knowledge, employing its graduates in respected office or retail jobs. YUVA Wankaner has one of the highest female enrollments across all YUVA centres. My excitement of starting my work at YUVA was quickly met with logistical complications which everyone had somehow overlooked: a language barrier.
English is uncommon, and my broken Hindi wasn't even of use, as locals are most comfortable speaking in Gujarati. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of meeting a community superstar: Prateeksha, a State Bank of India fellow on a 12-month education-based placement. After living 11 months in Wankaner and learning Gujarati, she selflessly became my official translator for interviews, community liaison, gracious host during overnight stays, and a friend. Anyone loosely affiliated with AKRSP(I) will tell you it is crucial to spend time in a village. I absolutely agree, but if it wasn't for Prateeksha's help, I would have been lost. Prateeksha translated much more than the gender dynamics at YUVA - she translated a whole village!
During my time living in Wankaner, I learned many contextual nuances about society in the region, and development work in general. Wankaner is not actually a village - it is a town of 50,000 people along a highway, surrounded by hundreds of 'real' small villages. AKRSP(I) has an impressive presence in these communities. There's an on-site field office in Wankaner, village community workers or ‘para-workers’, as well as a YUVA centre, and many surrounding schools where village teachers, 'balmitras', are specially trained by AKRSP(I). And these are only some examples! Needless to say, everyone on the street knows 'Aga Khan'.
Wankaner is what is referred to as a 'minority' community, with a large number of Muslim residents. Through my research with YUVA, I found that, while a lot of girls in the community did not know what the term ‘gender’ meant, an equal number did – and had a lot to contribute. While a lot of girls didn't know what the term 'gender' meant during my interviews, an equal number of girls did, and had a lot to contribute. Nearly every girl I met had completed or was pursuing post-secondary studies. Slowly, cultural norms are changing. Girls in this region are now viewed as also able to 'bring honour' to a family by studying or working, just as boys are.
One example is Pooja Zala. Pooja is a village teacher at Vaghasiya School who cares passionately about her students. Though she is from a very conservative village, her father insists that every girl in the family is educated and finishes high school – an uncommon practice in this area. Pooja is the youngest of five sisters and one brother, and is the only girl to have gone to university. She’s currently completing her Master of Arts. By pursuing advanced education, Pooja is a trailblazer for other girls in her community. To help introduce technology in her school, and hold an office job one day, Pooja is learning how to use a computer from Prateeksha in her free time. Computer Skills is one of the training courses offered at YUVA, as AKRSP(I) seeks to provide new forms of livelihood support in rapidly changing rural environments. The demand from young girls is especially high. Not only that, once female YUVA graduates are employed, they tend to hold jobs longer, and pursue post-secondary studies at a higher rate than their male colleagues.
Still, girls like Pooja from rural areas face difficulties finding jobs which are close enough to home, as many families disapprove of them moving alone to larger cities. These cultural perceptions overlap with practical concerns, such as safety while commuting. After collecting data from YUVA, my report will help provide more gender-sensitive support systems for female participants. In the meantime, I look towards leaders in the field: the Wankaner office's Area Manager is a woman, and the office recently hired a young woman as program staff in the education department. Embodying gender equality within AKRSP(I) as an organization is crucial. And in a place like Wankaner, it is clear that gender empowerment sends ripples throughout the whole village, one meal and smile at a time.
