The Women of Kazra – A Perceptible Change
No different from any of the other villages of Godda district, the unique experience of Kazra village in bringing a three-generation-old conflict to a resolution has made it very special.
I t was one of the worst land disputes between two families that the area has witnessed. It remained unresolved for over 50 years, and despite all attempts at arriving at a settlement, it became increasingly bitter over the years. The longer it dragged, the more was the value of the land and the more persistent the families became to hold on to their demands, incurring huge expenses in the process. Every means, including the panchayat and the gram sabha by the elders and the socially respected people of the village, was employed to bring the warring descendants to a meeting ground. Even a court battle that lasted almost four decades did not deliver justice to the families involved.
The long and complex saga involving anger, humiliation, hatred and ego clashes had very little hope of being resolved, especially at the village level. But it was resolved… and that too by none other than the local SHG! It is against the backdrop of making seemingly impossible things possible that we describe the changes that took place in the village of Kazra.
Kazra is one of the villages where PRADAN, an NGO working in the field of empowering villagers through livelihood generation activities, began its work in the 1990s. The setting up of SHGs was still a new concept in rural development. On 21 March 1996, two SHGs were set up in the area. Both the groups preferred the name Ganga, therefore, they named themselves Ganga A and Ganga B. The villagers themselves have had no difficulties in identifying their groups and the members have developed a strong bond with each other. Original members such as Hemanti Devi, Dulari Devi and Parmila Devi have continued to work in the groups and have now become block-level SHG leaders and represent their SHGs/clusters, in both the federation and block-level agriculture samitis. They work hard tirelessly and take advantage of all the opportunities they come across.