Listen to the women

MUCH is being made of the lessons that the Gujarat Government should learn from the way the Maharashtra Government tackled the Latur earthquake of 1993. Here an estimated 10,000 people died, 52 villages were completely destroyed and another 1300 villages were partially destroyed in the districts of Latur and Osmanabad. Politicians, like the former Chief Minister, Mr. Sharad Pawar, are only too ready to take the credit for the resettlement programme in the area and offer their "expertise".

They conveniently forget, however, that the real lesson from Latur was not the Government's efficiency in dealing with the crisis but its willingness to give space to non-governmental organisations to evolve strategies that would make reconstruction part of the long-term development of the region. Indeed, the real lesson from Latur is the need to involve communities, particularly women, in the design of the reconstruction and repair effort and thereafter in the on-going needs of development in the community.

When news of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat fanned out across India on January 26, one of the first groups to volunteer to go and help were the women living in villages in Latur and Osmanabad districts. Although they have not gone there yet - as they have been advised that their more effective contribution will come after the first phase of emergency relief is over - they wanted to reach out to their sisters, particularly in Kutch district.

The evolution of women's involvement after the Latur earthquake is one of the most heartening outcomes of a terrible tragedy. The space for their participation emerged when the Government launched a programme of repair and strengthening of 200,000 houses damaged by the earthquake in 1300 villages of the two districts. These houses were made of traditional materials like stone. The Government was offering monetary help and also technical advice.

While the former was welcome, the latter was often misleading. Government junior engineers, who only had experience in one form of construction, failed to educate the communities about the real reasons their traditional houses had been partially damaged. They did not explain that the fault lay not with the material used, in this case locally available stone, but the nature of the construction whereby the roof was heavier than the walls. When the earth shook, the walls collapsed and brought the roof down on the heads of the people inside the rooms. What people needed to understand was how to build structures that can take horizontal stress; simple strengthening techniques that do not necessarily require cement and steel.

It is here that the women moved in to play such a crucial role. Initially, women were not consulted as construction is seen as a male domain. In the 52 villages which were completely destroyed, and which had to be built anew on another site, the houses were designed and built by men. But when they were ready, it is the women who had to go in and "settle" them. Almost uniformly across Latur and Osmanabad, barring a few exceptions, the women found the houses dysfunctional. There had been no planning for storage of water, for instance, in a drought-prone area, no place to store grain and food, no place to instal a wood or coal chula on which they prefer to do their cooking and no facility for cattle.

When it came to repair of houses, the men were tempted to follow the dominant norm of pulling down the old and building new reinforced concrete structures. The women understood the value of the old even as they saw the need to incorporate new strengthening techniques. Swayam Shikshan Prayog, the NGO involved in galvanising women's groups in the villages, found that the women played a role not just in finding more appropriate, and often cheaper, techniques for repair of their houses, but also acted as crucial bearers of information to other members of the community. They were also able to enforce a certain level of transparency as they monitored how the Government disbursed funds and how this money was spent.

More important, the process of involving women has resulted in the revival of 300 mahila mandals, traditional women's groups, that were set-up in villages decades back but which had become virtually defunct in the absence of any constructive activity. Today, seven years after the earthquake when the work of reconstruction and repair is over, these groups continue to function and participate at many levels of village development. Thus, an intervention triggered by a tragedy has resulted in a permanent resource that benefits the entire community. This has happened only because, as Prema Gopalan of SSP writes, "reconstruction was dove-tailed with the local area's needs and development."

The relevance of this approach is more than obvious in the context of Kutch. Here women play a vital role in contributing to family livelihoods. In some villages, even if the men are away - in some other city or even out of the country - the women generate considerable income through their own labour. They are construction workers and they produce incredibly beautiful handicrafts and fabric which are sold around the world. In some villages, the level of savings are so high that the banks there have reported some of the highest deposits. When I visited Sukhpar village just outside Bhuj, within days of the January 26 earthquake, I was told by people in the devastated village that they had enough money to buy up the whole of Rajkot! It was not an idle boast; people in this parched land work hard, save well and have learned how to survive crises.

It would be a double tragedy after the earthquake if well- intentioned groups, individuals and the Government went in to help reconstruct the region without first finding ways to tap local wisdom and resilience. The message from the women of Latur is clear - talk to the women, listen to them, then make your plans.

KALPANA SHARMA

E-mail the writer at ksharma@vsnl.com

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : It is God's will
Next     : Fault lines