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Society
Bhil Women Fight the Liquor Demons
by Rahul Banerjee
There is a general
perception that Adivasi women enjoy greater equality because tribal
society is less patriarchal. The reality, however, is very different.
Take the situation of Bhil tribal, Ramanbai, of Chandupura village in
Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district. She says, "I am suffering from piles
and the doctor at Sanawad has told me that I will have to get myself
operated. Yet, my husband is refusing to part with the money."
Kesarbai of the neighboring Okhla village also has problems. "I already
have three daughters and don't not want any more children, but my
husband is insistent on a son. When he gets drunk he does not listen to
any reason. If I resist him, he accuses me of being involved with
another man."
But spousal abuse is not Kesarbai's problem alone. In Kundia village
there was a woman who was beaten up by her husband and forced to spend
the night outside the house because her brothers had not looked after
him well enough when he went to their village for a visit.
Most tribal women in this belt complain that they neither have the power
to take decisions within the home nor do they have control over their
bodies. Matters are aggravated by social customs. Bhils have
traditionally regarded alcohol as "holy spirit". In fact, even babes in
arms are given alcohol. As for the gods, they too have to be propitiated
every now and then with drink. This gives the men - and sometimes even
women - the license to drink freely. Not surprisingly, alcoholism is
rife in these parts with the men going on drinking sprees and doing no
work for days on end. This only increases the burden of the women, who
have to work themselves to the bone in order to feed their families.
The Bhils, having once been a martial race, have a clear gender division
of labor, which is not easily transgressed. The men, even if they want
to help out at home, find it difficult to do domestic labor. They also
invariably object to their women taking part in organizational
activities out of the house that could improve their status and
employment opportunities.
Subhadra Khaperde, an activist, who had been working with the Adivasi
Shakti Sangathan to mobilize the Bhils in Khargone to fight the
oppression of the forest department staff and the 'sahukars'
(money-lenders), was moved by the plight of these women and felt that
something had to be done.
Initially, she organized a few reproductive health camps with
gynecologists coming in from Indore and providing advice and medical
care. The analysis of the data collected through such efforts told its
own story: Not only were the women here severely anemic, they suffered
from reproductive health problems of various kinds. Khaperde, who is
currently pursuing higher studies in the field of gender and health so
that she is formally trained to help bring about the emancipation of
Bhil women, decided to help the women to organize themselves and seek
solutions to these problems.
What followed was interesting. Hundreds of Adivasi women in their
colorful saris, ghagras, lugras (long colored pieces of cloth that the
women wear over their bodies) and doglis (blouses) seated themselves
under the shade of the two big mahua trees in Akya village in Khargone
one sunny afternoon. It was the first week of May 2006 and in the midst
of the marriage season and an Adivasi coming from outside may have
wondered why only women were congregated and why there was no drums
beating to signify a marriage ceremony. But this was not a marriage. It
was the meeting called to discuss the results that had emerged from the
health camps.
Here, Khaperde painstakingly explained with the help of colored charts,
what the data collected had revealed, and she did this in terms that the
women could understand. Then she went on to explain that all the
reproductive health problems that they were suffering from were because
of patriarchal pressures and that medication alone would not prove to be
a lasting solution.
After that, it was as if a dam had burst. Woman after woman got up and
said that they could do nothing, as the men would not listen to reason
and would impose themselves on them. They then gave their own analysis:
Unless the men were made to see reason, things would remain the same.
The biggest problem everybody agreed was that the men drank too much and
became unmanageable. In an earlier era, they had had to brew their own
liquor from the flowers of the mahua tree, which was a laborious and
time-consuming task and could be undertaken only occasionally. But now
things were changed with the easy availability of illicit liquor from
the two distilleries in the area.
The conclusion drawn was that without the men being involved, no change
was possible. Male activists of the Adivasi Shakti Sangathan began
conducting workshops exclusively with the men on the issues that the
women had raised. The group discussions ended with the conclusion that
the alcoholism of the men was the biggest problem that the women faced.
The men also admitted that it was proving to be a financial drain on
them and that something needed to be done.
That was when Rajaan, an activist from the community and one of the rare
teetotalers, put forward the suggestion that the illegal liquor shop in
Okhla village should be closed down. The bootlegger who ran this shop
was a notorious goon, as is usually the case. He was part of a liquor
mafia that ensured that the whole area was literally flowing with
alcohol with an illegal liquor godown in Pandutalav village providing
the supplies.
A mass meeting was then held in Okhla and the bootlegger's shop was
raided. Not only did the tribals confiscate his liquor, they sealed his
shop. After the success of this action, people of Bagli tehsil just
across the border in Dewas district, began demanding similar action in
their area.
The liquor mafia had appointed a local contractor to oversee the
operations in the area. He was known to be ruthless and had on one
occasion caught a man selling the liquor of another contractor and had
him arrested and beaten up a false charge. With this case in mind, a
mass meeting was also scheduled in Pandutalav.
When the contractor got word of this and he came down on the appointed
day with a jeep load of his henchmen. However, on seeing the thousands
of men and women congregated, he fled the area. The liquor store, with
stocks worth some Rs 200,000 was sealed and the keys handed over to the
police.
It is indeed ironical that despite a provision in the Fifth Schedule of
the Constitution that the state should proactively clamp down on the
sale of liquor in tribal areas, officials look the other way while
liquor contractors blatantly flout the law.
However, when women become organized, they can force the state to act.
In June 2007, Bhil women from the region took out a rally in Indore to
press for their demands. However, when the Commissioner in Indore turned
a deaf ear to their demands, Karotibai of Katkut village told him, "If
you are incapable of providing good government to us then we will form
our own government."
May 31, 2009
By arrangement with
WFS
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