By John Dalton | Project Leader and team
It takes time for Village self-help groups in Arunthathiyar communities (the most discriminated against caste) to obtain different benefits and to transform their villages. VST partners are willing to take the time - please help us to develop more villages such as Kothaluthu, a small village inhabited by Arunthathiyars and dominant caste people.
Two women’s self-help groups were set up in Kothaluthu fifteen years ago when Arunthathiyar people suffered from all kinds of discrimination, bad housing and proper roads, no drinking water, drainage, street lights or a burial ground. Working together the women realized that they could change their lives.
Thanks to the self-help groups the women no longer depend on money lenders who charge exorbitant interest. Now each member saves money, some of which goes into a general fund, and among themselves they decide who may take a loan. Many have invested in education, they can boast that newly this year one boy is studying medicine, three children are studying engineering and four have started other further education courses. Villagers have also increased their income by obtaining bank loans through the groups for cattle rearing, cultivating and selling vegetables and other small businesses.
Members now participate in the local village electorate meetings and petition for their basic needs. Thanks to their consistent nagging they have acquired 13 new houses, and 8 houses were repaired by the government. Recently they have forced the district administration to intervene and retrieved a cremation ground encroached by the other caste people; now their dead are given their last rights properly. They are currently demanding a compound wall to be built around the ground and a proper bridge on the approach road.
The Arunthathiyars of Kothaluthu now feel a certain self-respect. They no longer need to remove their sandals in the upper caste streets. They no longer get called uncouth names from the other castes and are not obliged to go around villages banging on a drum proclaiming deaths, removing dead animals and other humiliating tasks they were required to do in the past.
In the first 6 months of the project, Arunthathiyar villages in three development blocks were selected on the basis of need. There are 25 women’s self help groups, and four have been newly started. Some potential members have not joined since they have outstanding loans which the groups have decided makes them ineligible. A policy on this is being developed since it is a major constraint. Another 11 groups are in the process of formation.
Fifteen children’s groups have been formed in villages with women’s groups and another six in villages without, as an experimental strategy to start with the children and then form the woman’s group. Data of children studying 8th to 12 grade was updated and there has been a reduction in children discontinuing schooling. 13 children having completed 12th grade went on to study higher education through our sponsorship.
A major study on discrimination against Arunthathiyar adults and children has been completed and the results will appear in the next report. The Arunthathiyar forum is looking at ways to bring forward action on cases of atrocity which are at different stages – cases yet to be registered, those registered without charge sheet and cases in court. One case was settled out of court.
By Ned Tinne | volunteer
By Tony Huckle | Secretary
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