Women Empowerment | Positive Bunch

Girl hostels by Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram

Making sure every face smiles By Tapsi Maitra

The glorious and rich traditions, prosper and lush green forests, simple culture and unique identity are priceless legacy of Vanvasi areas of the country. The Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram has been working to preserve and promote this legacy through various activities since six decades. Education and hostel are complimentary to each other. It is the oldest and the most effective project of the Kalyan Ashram. Thousands of Vanvasi boys and girls are studying in different hostels being run in different parts of the country. The experiment of hostel proved to be very useful in the education of Vanvasi girls.

There are over 200 hostels run by Kalyan Ashram in the country. About 40 of them are exclusively for girls. Thousands of students are getting different kinds of education through these hostels. The first hostel for girls was opened in Jashpur Nagar in 1975 so that girls can contribute in nation building after getting proper education. The girls staying in the hostels of Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Gumla (Jharkhand) and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) are getting education till post graduation.

Some hostels also have arrangements for education till 12th class. Majority of the hostels provide education till 8th or 10th standard. All the girls are from Vanvasi communities. The number of girls in four to five hostels is 55 to 60 while majority of the hostels have 30 to 35 girls. All the hostels have a fixed daily routine which teach the girls some new thing everyday.

They get good samskars through morning prayer, physical activities, shakha, aarati, etc. The cultural activities presented on each Saturday expose and promote their hidden talent. There are special activities like Geeta paath, Ramayana paath, historical stories, different competitions, etc on Sundays so that they get different kinds of samskars.

The girls in Raipur and Rudrapur hostels are from north-eastern states. The girls who have interest in music are imparted the training of classical music. The training of many kinds of handicrafts is provided in the hostel of Rudrapur. The professors from Pantnagar University impart them this training. There is arrangement to impart • the training of cutting-tailoring, embroidery, knitting in several hostels. By and large every girl is tried to impart the training which she likes.

There are arrangements of coaching in every hostel. For physical development they are imparted the training of yoga, judo-karate, etc. There are good teams of kabaddi and kho-kho in several hostels. The training of traditional sport of Vanvasis i.e arrow and bow is also imparted to them. Apart from getting this kind of education many of the girls have become good activist of Kalyan Ashram. They actively participate in many organisational activities and also provide effective leadership to the people in their respective areas. In this way they are contributing in nation building also.

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Small beginning turns into a big campaign

How a small initiative turns into a big campaign can be witnessed in Basantpur (Siwan, Bihar) where a lady Alleha Bano started the work of making the women self-reliant. She started this work in 1990.

She got the training of cutting-tailoring in 1998 from KoLicata. Drawing inspiration from her teachers she decided to fruther impart this training free of cost to economically deprived and needy women of her village. She purchased a sewing machine in 1990 and started imparting the training in Sohilpatti Market of Basantpur block. Gradually, the number of machines and the trainees increased.

Till now more than 1300 women have already learnt cutting-tailoring from this centre. Presently, 26 women are getting the training. Alleha Bano is being assisted by her 12th pass daughter Razia. After every six month, batch of 26 girls or women starts getting the training.

In the beginning, Alleha Bano was hesitant to start the work and many times she was discouraged by the people including her family members. But she continued her work. Now she is a respected woman in Basantpur block. She says the self-confidence that has developed among these women after becoming financially strong is worth seeing. The respect both in the family and the locality has increased many fold.

(via:Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Patna)