Breaking Barriers: Rural Women's Visioning Reshapes Development
There is a picture that many of us have imagined, with different depths and breadth of reflections. The scenario involves bottom-up women's power, wishing to exercise itself, to be recognised and supported. This bottom-up power pushes against a top-down male-dominant exercise of authority, the flow of resources, and formal academic processes and knowledge. This is a universal and longstanding problem in India: women have the least power.
To counterbalance the male domination in existing power structures driving priorities and development in villages, the visioning program created to help women involved in Self-Help Groups (SHGs) has helped them identify aspirations for themselves, their families, and the village. Through these programs, they consolidate a concrete vision for their personal and collective futures and create a plan for how, as a collective, they can work to realise such vision. This plan consists of identifying areas where they can act independently, where they need to work with other stakeholders, from within or outside the village, and where they need full support from external stakeholders to realise their vision. The Visioning started with a pilot led by Transform Rural India and is now a regular program of the National Rural Livelihood Mission present in thousands of SHGs across India.
Choosing the Future They Want
When women create strategies, processes, business plans, and programs to achieve their visions, they become better equipped to articulate and defend their interests and priorities and act accordingly. Such a condition reflects a significant shift from the role they initially performed as leaders within SHGs when they served as channels for messages crafted by decision-makers within other local and state-level institutions. These messages, of course, did not always reflect women's priorities. Through Visioning exercises, women increasingly perceive themselves as an independent or empowered agent with a bank account, ways to earn income, a greater agency in the family, and some say in their village. Such was Munni Devi Kunti’s journey, a JEEViKA Self Help Group member from Bhadwari Tola village, She transformed her life through a goat-rearing training under Project Unnati. From relying on her husband's income to becoming a confident provider for her family, to having her success recognised by Union Minister Shri Giriraj Singh, it was a steep but rewarding journey. Women like her can find ways to exercise their expertise in the locality through various forums and advocate for improvements in their livelihoods, health, education, rights, and entitlement, among other areas they consider relevant for their development and that of their family and village.
While each woman will have their point of view, there are patterns of challenges they all experience as they step into these negotiations. Below are three summarised patterns that have been observed over the last four years from rural India, all intensified when SHG leaders negotiate with women in leadership positions of other local bodies.
Experience Challenge
Women in rural villages have not been historically exposed to the political landscape that shapes rural livelihoods, including its policies, polity, politics, programs, and priorities. Hence, little experience exists about “what things get done, why, how, and by whom.” Such an experience gap can influence their ability to position themselves and defend their interests as they undertake negotiations with other leaders.
Representative Challenges
Arjina Khannam, a member of the Maa Fatema Self-Help Group in Assam, is driven by her aspiration to promote eco-sustainable businesses, particularly in Bamboo Crafts. Recognising the immense potential of bamboo products for sustainability, she actively participates in their production and sale. However, despite the emergence of SHG representation, there are challenges in negotiating with leaders of elective bodies. While some areas witness smooth negotiations, others face persistent struggles in gaining decision-making power and acceptance of women's interests and demands.
Political Challenges
When there is a conflict of interest between the leadership at different governing levels, leaders and their institutions start to see each other as opponents, especially if a woman is leading the higher governance level and presents high political aspirations for her political career.
Now what?
Any development program must see these governing dynamics and individual experiences in the locality, assumed as a block, as the context within which all development stakeholders intersect. Each governing body has its analysis of problems, ideas for potential solutions, understanding of the value that must be created, and what kind of support they can get and provide; a new process must be created for conversions around understanding common challenges and achieving shared goals.
What if there was a collaborative process between the three local bodies? What if they develop the institutional capacity to achieve shared goals without giving up their identity and agency? Would such a process expand their ability to succeed in their programs and create new programs to support shared goals for the betterment of the village?
Such a collaboration demands a shared visioning strategy, a process for working together, a safe space to voice their views, negotiate conflict, and achieve resolution, and a way of celebrating the success and contribution of various bodies in their own way. All in a collective manner. So, if one family achieves their goal, and more than one department has contributed together with SHG and the GP, then the collaborative process must be designed so they can all receive feedback.
Now is the time to challenge our assumptions that good governance is about efficiently delivering programs designed by a few to the many; it is time to explore new governance models that help many negotiate and exercise their power wisely and in the interest of all people and the government that properly represents them. It is time for a Leap, and India is ready for it.
