Providing Life Skills to 300 Girls living in Slums

On February 21 we went to a different kind of area to hold a health and gender fair in a village in Shahpur Taluka of Thane district adjacent to Mumbai. Many do not relies that the island of Mumbai and its extension are very close to a forest, even though leopards get in to factories, schools and residential areas. They do not encroach, it is humans who have encroached in to their areas as the city expands. Tribals traditionally live in forest areas. Many still do in Thane district where the area is accessed from Mumbai through a network of railway and buses. One reaches Shahpur by going to Asangaon by a local train and then take a bus to Shahpur, the biggest town in the Taluka. We hired a large vehicle to carry the fair material. The only interventions made to spread education here have been residential aashram shallas, primary schools originally started by Gandhians and now supported by the govt. Different tribes often live in the same area. Some are more advanced because of land ownership or earlier access to education through missionaries and social welfare groups. We went to Kharade, a pada,a tiny hamlet. We were invited by Snehal Naik, a social worker who had once worked with Vacha and though not a tribal herself she and her family had always lived in another tribal area. Girls and boys in 8 to 16 year age group came from 6 schools in a cluster of villages. 269 girls and 92 boys in all attended the fair. Stalls were organized accordingly. Vacha team carried all the decorations and games for the fair.

Nothing like a fair had happened there before this event. Not much of any other exciting learning activities either. Even older children wanted to play games meant of younger ones and all kept coming again and again for the activities.  Stalls included playing out what they wanted to be when they grew up by using several kinds of dresses professional wore, Snakes and Ladder to watch out for opportunities and pitfall, pins and balls in which they threw out any social evil they wanted. Girls usually wanted to eradicate gender based inequality and   sexual assault. Many boys also wanted to wipeout sexual harassment. However, in an introduction to a game of needle and thread and nails and hammer, the boys put thread through a needle and girls hammered nails through a piece of wood to practice reversed roles. There were many such games planned that related to nutrition (girls get less of meat and portion) and helped out in agricultural operations despite participating in all household chores but boys got time to go out and play. A lot of such things were perceived, often the first time. Naik and her colleagues has a lot of follow work cut out for them. Despite covering a distance of over 90 miles one way on very bad and dusty roads it was a very fulfilling experience for us and we hope to remain in touch with Snehal and the organizations she works with in tribal areas. This fair was on behalf of Karve Institute of Social Service, Pune. In case some of the readers are not aware of Karve was a pioneering leader supporting and imparting women’s education and also fighting ban on widow remarriage among upper castes in 19^th and early 20^th centuries.