It's all about voices

It's all about voices

In India, in Thailand and around the world, it is the marginalised themselves who must ultimately find the remedy for the injustice imposed on them, writes SUPARA JANCHITFAH

The drum was hit hard and fast by a young girl aiming to make noise to attract passers-by on a busy street in Bangalore, an IT hub of India. Many people glanced at the drum-girl and then paid more serious attention to a younger girl (about eight years old) near her but several metres above the ground. The girl was crawling on a rope tied between two poles.

Afraid that the girl might fall down, some threw a few coins into a basket. The older girl collected the money and loudly beat the drum as the younger girl continued walking and crawling back and forth on the rope.

In a quiet village some 20 kilometres away from downtown Bangalore, a group of young girls were reading and singing at Bandhavi, a residential programme provided by Visthar Trust for those at risk of being dedicated as Devadasi - young caste girls "married" to a diety. These girls would have no chance to laugh and read if they remained in their home villages. Some were referred to Visthar by social workers.

Some among the 73 young girls in the programme told their stories and how they were opposed to becoming "an offering". The programme provides education and accommodation for them. After some time under the programme many start to gain confidence and are eager to express themselves, and begin to voice their problems and concerns.

Originally, Devadasi was a Hindu religious system in which otherwise low-caste girls, after they were offered as servants of the dieties (in effect, serving the Brahman priests), were accorded a higher social status. They took care of the temple, and practiced classical Indian art forms. The system has however, degenerated over time, and during the colonial reform period witnessed a movement to suppress the practice because these women were not only treated as the servants of god but also as prostitutes for the priests.

The Devadasi system was outlawed in the states of Karnataka (1982) and Andhra Pradesh (1988). However, it is still practised in many remote villages, especially in southern India.

India boasts of its economic growth and is regarded as the next Asian giant in the global economy, but this future superpower has many internal issues that need addressing. Gender inequality is still a major problem. Scholars agree there are many factors involved. In his book, the Argumentative Indian, Amartya Sen, pointed out that "class is not the only source of inequality and interest in class as a source of disparity has to be placed within a bigger picture that includes other divisive influences, gender, caste, region, community and so on. For example, inequality between women and men is also a major contributor to inequality...."

Considering the caste system, Sen wrote that "even though being of lower caste is undoubtedly a separate cause of disparity, its impact is all the greater when the lower-caste families also happen to be very poor. The blighting of the lives of Dalits (untouchable caste) or people from other disadvantaged castes, or members of the Scheduled Tribes, is particularly severe when the caste or tribal adversaries are further magnified by abject penury...."

Padmashree Patricia Mary Mukhim, the director of the Indigenous Women Resource Center of Meghalaya, north-eastern state of India, expressed the thought that even though the World Economic Forum placed India way ahead of some advanced nations, the country needs to reconsider its own situation in terms of the political empowerment of women.

"The participation of (Indian) women in the economy, their educational attainments and access to health is way below par of those advanced nations," she said at an international conference in Bangalore on Women in a Changing Indian Economy, Silence to Voice: Problems and Possibilities, at Christ College, organised by Fredskorpset of Norway.

Mukhim cited statistic from the 2006 Global Gender Gap (GGG) Report which reveal that India ranked 20th in the political empowerment of women, although Indian women constitute just eight percent of the parliament and only three percent hold ministerial positions.

In the 2007 GGG Report, which surveyed 128 countries worldwide, India slipped a notch in the political empowerment of women, to 21st. However, this is still much better than Thailand, which ranks 110th.

Indian women are beneficiaries of the 73rd Amendment to the Indian constitution, which was passed in 1993. The amendment made it mandatory to reserve one-third of the seats in rural and local councils for women, paving the way for women to come to power in rural India.

India placed higher than Thailand in the GGG Index mostly because India has more women in political positions of high rank.

In Thailand's last general election in February 2005, 447 men won parliamentary seats, while 53 went to women, for a total of 10.6 percent. In all 15,353 males and 184 females contested in the last election.

In the upcoming election, 271 women and 988 men are contesting for the proportional representation or party-list positions. For the constituency system, there are a total of 3,892 candidates; 573 women and 3319 men.

Yet, when health care and survival - determined by the sex ration at birth and the male-female healthy life expectancy ratio - were considered in the 2007 GGG Index, Thailand was among 35 countries (including Sweden, France, Brazil and Mexico) to share a first place ranking. India was ranked 126th.

Measuring empowerment

The GGG Index aside, in Thailand the degree of political empowerment of women should not only be considered by such measures as the number of political office holders, but also the amount of political engagement and participation in social movements. A good example is Petch Kanjantra, an active member of the Assembly of the Poor (AoP) grassroots movement which started operations as an umbrella organisation of people's movements in 1995. She is an outspoken core member of the AoP even though she didn't join until 1999, and her influence is second to none.

The daughter of a farmer who lost her land after the construction of a small dam, she fought side by side with her mother, Hai Kanjantra, to get the land back. After lengthy protests and negotiations under the AoP banner, they were successful.

Hai became a well-known woman when former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the Huay Laha dam to be demolished upon learning of her plight, covered intensively by the media.

Finally, Petch and her mother got the land, but unfortunately that wasn't the end of the story. More struggles have followed, as the land was left unfit for farming.

At the recent funeral rites of Wanida Tantiwittayapitak, an activist who selflessly worked with and for grass-roots movements and who also inspired her, Petch recalled her mother's words when she first came back to her hometown of Ubon Ratchathani after a long period of working in many unskilled positions in Bangkok.

"My mother told me no matter how hard I worked, the earning would not be able to buy a single rai of land, as only a small piece of land would be very expensive. My mother was so determined to get the land back by making her voice heard to the public. She told me that she had learned through the grass-root movement that we would be able to get our land back."

Petch related how she joined the movement. "I got sick after working in Bangkok, and I went home to rest. I didn't find my mother, she had joined those who were affected from the Pak Moon dam, protesting at the dam site." she said. She went to find her mother.

Petch's story is mirrored by so many in Thailand and India who have been marginalised by unconsultative development projects, except for one big difference: she chose to stand up to the powers-that-be.

The victims of development

Dr Walter Fernandes told the delegates at the international conference organised by Fredskorpset that imposed development has displaced 27 million of people from the southern states of India alone. Moreover, it is women and children who suffer the most.

"Development-induced displacement shows that Indian society is divided on a ladder of class, caste, habitat and gender. The lower one is on that ladder, the greater the negative impact of changes introduced in their lives without their consent. Most displaced persons, especially Dalits and tribal people, feel it more than the others," he said, adding that in general women also see the worst consequences.

"They are deprived of the resources that were basic to their survival and are denied access to education, health services and nutrition. It forces them to deny their children rights to childhood and to a decent adulthood. Women are deprived of the little autonomy they had. Development cannot be real until such failures are remedied and its benefits reach those who pay the price," he added.

But what is the remedy for these marginalised peoples? Will the powers-that-be realise on their own that they should redress their failures in matters such as the of Pak Moon dam in Thailand or the Narmada dam in India? That would seem to be a daydreram. The Narmada dam has displaced about one million people, and the Pak Moon has displaced more than 6,000 families who depended largely on the Moon River for their livelihood.

In Thailand, there is ample evidence that the theory of trickle down and the invisible hand haven't been working. There are those who get richer and richer, such as the former Thai prime minister and numerous other politicians. But the marginalised became poorer and poorer. A concrete example is in the lives of many Pak Moon fishermen, such as Thong Pukaothong who became scavengers in Bangkok, leaving a decent livelihood behind the dam.

What's more, many young people were denied a chance to further their education. Petch is one of them. "Despite having a chance to go to school as I had wished, I had to seek odd jobs in Bangkok," she said bitterly. When Petch went back home again she was 25 years old.

Petch told how she started to break loose from her silent suffering and take matters into her own hands. "The night that I went to Pak Moon dam site, it was raining cat and dogs. I listened to one of the advisers to the Assembly of the Poor describe the plight of the poor and how we had become poor due to structural faults in the political system." She added that as time went on she was exposed to many different sources of knowledge and information.

"I listened to the voices of those who face similar problems as me, and I had a chance to attend a 'political school' organised by AoP," she said.

Petch ended up stayed with her mother at the Pak Moon dam site. After attending many political courses provided by AoP, she decided to fight for herself and other people's rights to the land, rivers and forests, and became a core member of the organisation.

Now married, with a son, she is still participating in the movement, but three years after Huay Laha dam was demolished, she still cannot farm on her land.

"I don't know if the soil became saline or what caused the death of our rice. We need some academic assistance, but no agency is reaching out their hand to us," Petch said.

Petch said she was inspired by many people whom she regards as role models. One of them is Wanida Tantiwittayapitak, who recently passed away after three years of battling breast cancer.

"She shows us how to be a true fighter, not for our greed, but our need. She made me aware that poverty is not the result of bad karma , but an unjust society." Petch spoke of the impression made on her by Wanida's kind words when many people whose land would be confiscated for a golf course came to seek assistance after hearing of the dam demolition.

"I consulted with her (Wanida) about those who were seeking advice. She told me that we need to open a space for them, allow them to vent their anger and frustration. We, the poor must stand united and muster our little power together.

"More importantly, she told me to study and analyse the matter, to get information, and not to let ignorance dominate us."

For Petch, Wanida embodied the act of breaking the silence of the poor, to try to persuade the public to understand the troubles of the poor.

"But she did not want the public, or the government, to give us money, to throw a few coins our way. What she wanted was understanding and a policy change to suit the needs of the poor," Petch added.

Bangkok Post