Stories of Pain and Suffering

Realizing that SHGs are not merely credit-and-savings entities but have immense potential to be instruments of development and change is a huge discovery in the writer’s professional journey.Promoting SHGs for credit and savings and livelihoods is one important way of empowering village women; what is equally important is for women to be able to express and share their pain and struggle in their lives. Providing for safe spaces where the women can do so is a big opportunity for healing and resolution.

'AND HER LIFE STORY BEGINS'… I THOUGHT AS I LOOKED at the newborn baby girl in Sadar Hospital in Araria. Sujita didi had called me early in the morning. “Didi beti janmi he. Aap ayiye dekhne ke liye. (Didi, a girl has been born…come and see!).” She insisted that I suggest a name for her and I named her Bhavna.

I t has almost become routine to be woken in the mornings by phone calls from the didis, asking me to visit their village. Every day, I ride on my scooty and follow the beautiful zig-zag road leading to my destination Masuria, a riverside village. This village is one of the three villages of Gerki panchayat in Araria district, and has 1,200 households. The majority of the households are Kulhaiya Muslims, and a few belong to the Barhi and the Tiyar communities as well.

I have been visiting this village since 2015, and the women here are very close to my heart…I play with them, sing, dance, share food, laugh, fight and cry with them, which makes me feel like one of them. I always discover a new aspect of their world. Unwittingly, I, somehow, have become a witness to their stories of pain and struggle, as well as of joy and happiness. I hear and see the tragedy in their lives; their unspoken pain breaks my heart and I just want to shout out to the world, “Look at these women, see their pain, see their tragedy”.