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Poor Women and Local
Governance: Kutch Craft
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Forty-four
year old Mehtaben Tagdanji Gadhvi lives in a traditional
Bunga hut in the village of Sonalnagar, in the arid
border district of Kutch. Her family constructed their
home on their own, using straw, sticks and mud. Their
little home does not provide adequate shelter, and
has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times after
cyclones and other natural disasters. She currently
lives with her husband, one son and three of her six
daughters.
The
story of how Mehtaben came to live in Kutch is long
and full of hardship. She was born in the village
of Thalparkar, located in Pakistan. Her father was
an agricultural labourer and her mother tended to
the family’s few animals. |
Only one of her two brothers is educated, and she and her
three sisters received no education. In 1971, at the age of
eight, Mehtaben’s family fled their home. India and
Pakistan had gone to war yet again, and as Hindus they feared
for their safety if they remained. They migrated to the adjacent
Indian border state of Rajasthan, where the Government of
India had established a refugee relief programme.
Mehtaben
stayed in Rajasthan for a short period of time, after which
her family moved to the village of Tharad, in the neigbouring
state of Gujarat, where another refugee relief programme was
in place. At the age of 14, she was married to a man from
her new village. They settled down in a temporary shelter
with iron sheeting for a roof. Her husband worked as a casual
labourer, and as she was forbidden to leave the home, she
did not work at all. Six years after she had arrived in Tharad,
she and her husband migrated to Sonalnagar in search of a
better livelihood.
But
life in Sonalnagar was no easier than before. Her husband
was by this time too old and too ill to work. Mehtaben had
to sell her ornaments to provide him with medication. As the
sole earner of the family, she made Rs.14 per day through
casual labour. That meant her family – three daughters
and one son – could take only one meal every three days.
With help from fellow community members, they just managed
to survive.
The
turning point in Mehtaben’s life came with the devastating
earthquake of January 2001. This was the first time she
came in contact with SEWA, which was distributing relief
supplies in her village. She learnt about the organization’s
work with poor women in Kutch, specifically Kutch Craft,
its programme for utilizing the skills of local artisans
to create sustainable and secure livelihoods. Whatever livelihood
she and the women of her village had had before the earthquake
had been completed disrupted, and they desperately needed
work. She traveled to the nearby SEWA office and approached
the district coordinator. She asked her to start Kutch Craft
in her village. SEWA agreed and immediately after Mehtaben
and all the women of her village, including Mehtaben’s
three daughters, paid the Rs.5 membership fee and became
members of SEWA.
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