Encountering Gender Experience in the villages of
Gumla
Dressing of boys and
girls hardly matter. Once, they start to go school, they are dressed up in a
way to make clear distinction of boy and girl. Till then, their hair style,
voice, appearance etc. are same even in play school they seat together. So,
there is no difference between boy and girl. They study “G for girl” and “B for
boy” in the school with photographs. I think then they started to identify
themselves as boy and girl. As they grow with this education system by
learning, Maa ghar ki kaam karti hai
and Papa bahar kaam karte hai;
Written by Parth Sarthi
Society is
constituted of two, are male and female called gender. That means male and female
are categorized. We used to believe that these terms are born with specified
task that has to perform around their life span. By the time, new term in
respect to gender were identified as transgender of third sex or gay. Now a
days, gender has became hot topic to discuss everywhere in the world from work
place to four wall of house. Our feminist, social scientist and thinkers of
gender has beautifully shown the picture of gender and its related issue. They
are able to identify the area of gender issues at different level and this has
introduced the new school of thought regarding gender.
Sometimes, it’s
look very unusual to me that people from gender studies mainly talk about women
and its related issue. Is it all about gender? I wonder if taking about women
for balancing the society or after the time it will dominate the society like
present.
Let’s do not discuss about it. By the way, it is an interesting topic to look
upon. Here, I am going to discuss about my field experience related to gender. I
will be discussing on gendering sex, division of labour, mobility, rights,
institutional role, productive and reproductive role etc. The discussion I am
going to do is about my experience on gender of the villages of Gumla district,
Jharkhand.
Identification of
sex
Now, let’s talk
from the birth of the child. When child takes first birth in the family as boy
or girl, they celebrate for being parent but after two-three girl children,
they hope to get a boy child because he has to own his father’s property and
also an emotional building of having both the sex (Male and female). I am
saying that because the person who does not have daughter wants at least one.
Now, the tag of son and daughter is put over them in the basis of biological
sex, they get naturally. There parenting till schooling start has same
treatment to both the sex. Dressing of boys and girls hardly matter. Once, they
start to go school, they are dressed up in a way to make clear distinction of
boy and girl. Till then, their hair style, voice, appearance etc. are same even
in play school they seat together. So, there is no difference between boy and
girl. They study “G for girl” and “B for boy” in the school with photographs. I
think then they started to identify themselves as boy and girl. As they grow
with this education system by learning, Maa
ghar ki kaam karti hai and Papa bahar
kaam karte hai; they stared to participate accordingly and starts
gendering. Girl helps mother in her guidance and boy helps his father and
started to learn their work place. By the course of time, they are recognized
to perform specified work. Their hair style, appearance, voice, dressing gets
change. In school also they differentiate themselves by sitting in a dual set
up. According to kamla Bhasin, There are natural and social or cultural
difference between men and women. But, I think, the only difference between
male and female is natural one, which is biological or physical construction of
the body, which is called sex. In village Muraitoli, there is no discrimination
between boys and girls in terms of education. They are sent to school, private
as well as public depends on their financial condition. According to them, they
want to educate more their daughter because she will go to others home as
bride. If she will educated, get good groom but if boy do not read, there is a
land he can work on it. There is a norm in the society that female will go to
male home after marriage. It is very difficult for me to historicize how is it
happening? This is one of the reason that female are not entitled to land. If
she divorces, she can come to his father home and spent his life. This happened
in tribal community only. Dowry is not taken or given in terms of money in the
village.
Work division
The role of both
sex have divided their work themselves as I discussed above since their
socialization process. They are specified for particular work like cooking is
only done by female, male rarely participate. It does not mean that they do not
know how to cook. I observed in ceremony like marriage female hardly cook, but
male cook collectively. If we observe the daily routine of both the sex, it is
identifiable that women do work inside the home as well as outside while men do
mostly agricultural work and sometimes join hand in work of their wives. There
is wage difference is seen in the village. Male are paid more than female in
lieu of their work. But, interesting thing is that their nature of doing job is
similar. Here, gender discrimination can be seen vividly. Here, it is assumed by
the society that females do less work than male. I do not think so because
everyone gives his/her best as per nature of work. In this respect, I believe
in completion of work. These wage difference is completely washed out by the
govt. scheme MGNREGA, which allows it beneficiaries to enjoy equal payment for
their work, sex does not matter.
Work like
ploughing is only done in the field alone by the male other than this female
participate in each work like sowing, irrigation, weeding, intercultural
operation, harvesting and post harvest management. This shows that the working
hour of women is more than the male member of the society in the village. To
look after their cattle and other livestock both sex come together. Mainly
female go to the forest by foot to collect fuel wood, sometimes, males go to
forest to help them by bye-cycle. The harvested product is taken to the market
by male but sold by their mutual understanding, mostly female decide the price
to sell their product. Shopping for whatever needs is done by female, no matter
she is young or old. During my village study, I found that mostly female are
the head of the household. They keep cash in home in their hand. In this
village, women are very frank to discuss with child, young, elder and older of
same sex or opposite sex. Female of the household mainly look after new born
baby, male hardly do this work. Their participation in village meeting (not
SHG) and church is found more than male. In these places, women and men sit in
different row, they do not sit together by saying to maintain social norm. From
the above discussion, it can be said that male only participate in productive
work but female plays both productive as well as reproductive role in the
society. It seems obvious that female has got gifted nature of reproductive
organ of enjoying motherhood that male unfortunately does not have. But, both
plays a vital role to bear a baby, absence of one cannot lead to reproduction.
Male and female both decides of stopping to bear child as there are many
evidence in this tribal village. There are families who have only daughter or
only son but they do not bother. This also shows negligible level of
discrimination between sexes. One day I
was in village market and show a old man was selling germinated gram besides
haria (local liquor) shops, says that “beta chahta hai ki kab mera baap mare ki
mujhe zamin milega lekin beti chati hai ki kab mera baap ayega” while
other person said to him that you have young sons so need not do such work.
This line of old man shows the state of mind of him.
There are also cases in the village, where
female decided not to marry and living in her father’s home comfortably.
Mobility
As I experienced
in tribal village that male and female are of all age group are open to move
around the village no matter day or evening or night. Male roams around the
village after they came from their work as female also do after completing
their work till 9-10 o’ clock in the village. There is no restriction for them
by their parents. I have spend lots of time with them (boys and girls) while
chatting in night. Male and female both go outside the block or district for
study. There are more than cases found during my village study in the village
that more than female than male stay in city and continue their higher
education. They come back home after month to get rice, fuel wood and other
ingredients by using public crowded bus. Male goes out from the village in
search of employment or earning money but female goes out mainly for study; for
example nurse training etc. In this manner, if male of the family go out from
the village, female look after their agricultural field. I noticed that there
is no restriction for both the sexes regarding mobility.
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I was discussing
to a lady of 35 years old lady in the village. She is married and has three
daughters. Her daughters live in district together and study. Her husband also
lives in Gumla and comes in the end of month. He is mechanic. This lady lives
in village with her adopted daughter (she brought her when her mother died
after giving her birth, his mother was lady’s sister) who also goes to school.
She looks after her field and cultivates crop. She described that all her four
daughters want to be professions like nurse, teacher, computer operator and youngest
want to be nun. She proudly says that I will allow them marry after their dream
gets fulfill and her husband has same thought.
In another case,
there is a family of non-tribe. They are five family members. Elder daughter of
the family is married after graduation and doing job now. Two brother of the
family is still studying; one is doing computer course and another is doing
Intermediate of Science (I.Sc). What I mean through these cases is that gender
discrimination in terms of education and mobility is minimal in such villages
whether tribal community or non-tribal community.
Decision making
In terms of
decision making, both male and female of the family decides what to do or what
not to do. I found that most of the time, female contributes more while taking
decision making but it also depends on the nature of work to make decision. If
it is household related decision like purchasing utensil, clothes of children
and females, etc than decision is taken by female only but the decision related
to farm like ploughing, sowing, harvesting, purchasing seeds, marketing,
purchasing household asset (t.v., radio, cycle, land etc), schooling of
children, health care, family planning etc are taken mutually. Many of women
said that they purchase the clothing of their husband, even underwear. I have
seen said husband/male say for money for their pocket money to their wives.
Most of the male are control by their wives in this village. In this whole
picture of decision making, somehow decision is being made by mutually or by
women and the cases where male are being controlled. I am wondering that this
society is gender just or what? This is the micro picture of household. While
asking to female SHG member in regard to decision making, they replied that
earlier also we used to take decision in similar fashion. Further, they added
that since I have been married, they use to work in this way only. Drinking
habit is more prevalent among male in this area, age does not matter. Boys
start to drink from their high schooling but female drinks in their old age.
Drinking liquor is not guided by the sex in the village anyone can drink.
Participation in
institution
Participation of
both male and female in religious institution (Church) for prayer can be seen
in Sunday as we discussed earlier about their sitting arrangement. It is
important to look the management committee composition of the church. Panch is governing body of the church.
Office bearer are elected by the villagers belong to church. One of these
members is called Padri. They keep the record of population of their community,
birth registration, marriage registration, death registration and member per
family. They also have to settle dispute among the community. They are most
honored person of this community. There is no women is selected for panch. So,
this committee is dominated by male.
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Tola sabha is another institution in the
village Muraitoli. There are 12 member
(9 female and 3 male) from the village is elected by the villagers including
president, treasurer and secretary. Office bearers of tola sabha are three SHG
members. Among 12 member, 9 are female and only three are male. It is necessary
to attend tola sabha meeting for every villager but they do not. Generally,
female participates more than male member, in spite of rule of attending male
and female member both from the family. I had attended last tola sabha meeting
of 31st Jan where we were 36 aggregate members including 24 female
and 12 male.
I observed during
the discussion that female were equally participated than male. There view and
idea were respected by all.
Self Help Group
(SHG)
The SHG group
promoted by PRADAN have united women of the village and brought them into
common ground. It has not only empowered them economically but provided them
voice by coming up in the structure of federation. They are planning for
themselves. They are able to recognize their common problem; say for
alcoholism, and do action over it. The capability of management has been
inculcated in them through organizing them into groups like tola sabha, cluster
and federation at different level. Through these organization, they are able to
recognize their power within and around through the help of other women. This
change has really changed the overall life of women in this changing world.
It is very clear to me that female SHG
formation is the result of assumption that female are voiceless, economically
disabled and other negative word. That means men are understood as all the good
opposite words than females were assumed. The two categories were divided by
assuming one is superior to other which is not the balanced side that I already
discussed in the starting part.
*************
Parth Sarthi.
Executive-Trainee (Rural Development Professional), Tata Steel Rural
Development Society, Jamshedpur
E mail: imcool.parthsarthi@gmail.com
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