WOMAN OF THE YEAR/ Viji Srinivasan: Mother, Goddess, God

[Guest guest]

The Week of Kochi, Kerala has named its "Woman of the Year." Many

Shakti Sadhana members may find her story to be a refreshing and

inspiring relief from the dry theorizing and scriptural hornblowing

that too often pass for "real" spirituality:

 

*** VIJI SRINIVASAN gave up a life of luxury to work for the

empowerment of oppressed women in villages in Bihar and Jharkhand.

For them, she is much more than a social worker. ... For many tribal

women [who] are not only learning to read and write, but are also

honing their [marketable] skills, ... Viji is mother or an angel, or

even a Mother Goddess. ***

 

WOMAN OF THE YEAR: VIJI SRINIVASAN

By Ajay Uprety

 

Making it to a prestigious institution from a village which has no

power, clean drinking water or educational institutions is the stuff

of fairy tales or feel-good films. Archana Kumari is living that

fairy tale. The 20-year-old, plucked from Bihar's Ramnagar village

and groomed to clear the NIFT entrance test, now dreams of putting

her state on global fashion maps.

 

Dusty, nondescript villages in Bihar and Jharkhand no longer need be

cremation grounds for talent. Big dreams are possible for the small-

town girl thanks to fairy godmother Viji Srinivasan. "Had I remained

in my village, my life would have ended sewing domestic clothes,"

says Archana. "Viji has helped me put colours not only in my

designer clothes, but also in my life." Viji spotted the talent in

the shy, inarticulate girl, arranged English lessons so that she

could take the entrance test of National Institute of Fashion

Technology, and paid her fees.

 

It is not only Archana's life that Viji has fashioned for the

better. A hard battle against female foeticide and infanticide is

gaining some ground, specially trained farm hands and fisherwomen

are learning to reclaim their worth, and tribal women in veils speak

English and market their craft in London and San Francisco. This

pleasant incongruity has happened because of Viji, who has since

1988, worked towards the empowerment of marginalised and vulnerable

women in Bihar and Jharkhand's backward villages.

 

Ironically, as a young girl born into an affluent family from

Chennai, Viji was not even aware of the implications of poverty and

exploitation. Her grandfather V.T. Krishnamachari was the first

deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India and her father

was a general manager in the Indian Railways. The villages she saw

from the first class compartments of trains seemed romantic to her.

 

"In my childhood, I believed that the life was very beautiful and

romantic," says Viji. "Hunger and poverty were quite alien to me."

Her first date with this alien world is etched in her mind: April 5,

1962. She had a master's degree in sociology, was married and had a

child, and was contemplating the typical option of a lecturer's job.

 

Her brother-in-law mentioned a community welfare programme for

pavement dwellers in Chennai who had been suddenly uprooted by the

administration and literally driven to the outskirts of the city

with four bamboo sticks and some cloth to erect dwellings. Their sad

plight, juxtaposed against a hardiness native to the poor, jolted

her out of her romanticism. "I realised that reality was bitter when

I saw how poor they were," she says. "And yet the women were so

cheerful."

 

She had meant to work on the project for six weeks, but stayed for

six months. She was 24 then and the work marked the beginning of the

long and arduous journey that was to be her destiny. Over the years,

she has transformed the lives of more than one lakh poor women and

girl children in Bihar and Jharkhand. And she has remorselessly shed

her middle class skin—walking barefoot, sleeping on the floor and

sharing a basic meal—in the course of her work.

 

Stirred by what she learned as a programme officer at The Ford

Foundation in New Delhi in the early 1980s, she moved to Patna—with

her husband, a freelance photographer—to set up her NGO, Adithi,

which stands for agriculture, dairy, industries, tree plantation,

handicrafts and integration of women, in June 1988. "In Muzaffarpur

district, the upper castes, the Rajputs, the Bhumihars, and then the

Yadavs lorded over everyone," says Viji. "While interacting with

people here, I learned about the plight and exploitation of women,

and gruesome incidents of female infanticide."

 

Viji saw the pragmatism in the age-old adage that money is power and

went about creating empowerment through training women in making a

living. "My experience has taught me that one who holds the purse

holds power," says the energetic 66-year-old. "My emphasis has

always been to launch income-generating schemes for women."

 

SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.the-

week.com/24dec19/currentevents_article10.htm

 

SOURCE: The Week, Kochi, Kerala, India. All copyrights reserved with

Malayala Manorama Group, Malayala Manorama Publications.

URL: http://www.the-week.com/24dec19/index.htm