A woman of substance who fought for her rights

Srikant Panda / Keonjhar

Pata Mahakud symbolizes a poor woman's great character and conviction to fight against corrupt officials and get back her due wages

This is a story about prevalence of rampant corruption at the grassroots in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It also tells about how a poor woman displayed great character and conviction to fight against corrupt officials and get back her due wages. She not only fought for justice, but finally came out with flying colours by outmaneuvering and exposing sick and corrupt people working in the system.

Dandasenapasi, a village under Dunga gram panchayat in Harichandanpur block, houses 55 tribal families, 52 non-tribal and 11 scheduled caste (SC) families. Mostly the residents of this village are daily labourers. They depend on farming to maintain their livelihood.

Praful Mahakud, a daily wage-earner, aged about 40, lives in this village with his family. He along with his wife and three children are part of his family. All of a sudden good luck making a u-turn leaving them in a wobbly situation as cruel fate snatched their peace and prosperity affecting Praful in a paralytic condition.

As his situation worsened, maintaining his family seemed to be a nightmare, putting his livelihood in jeopardy. His wife Pata Mahakud by stirring up her potential decided to step out in search of employment to support her family in the wake of prevailing situation, plunging into job market instantly in the livelihood programme of MGNREGA to sustain her family in the hour of crisis.

She engaged herself in digging of pond in Sasa village under MGNREGA. She worked continuously for getting a megre amount of Rs 2160 from 24 days of her engagement under the scheme. Unfortunately Pata Mahakud's wage was siphoned off by the contractor of the project.

Describing the incident as unfortunate, Pata said, "When I was absent at my house, one contractor took the post office pass book from my elder daughter and withdrew my wage amount of Rs 2160 without taking my signature from the post office. My elder daughter finally convinced me that the greedy contractor had withdrawn the whole amount without my consent," she added.

Then Pata taking the help of 'KIRDTI', an organization making a relentless effort for the social upliftment of such people in the region, complained before the post master of local post office. Pata knew there is a dual nexus between post master and contractor that paved the way in siphoning of her money. She again rushed to post master and discussed her grievances with him threatening to bring this case before police station and district magistrate.

Finally, lady luck smiled on her as the concerned post master returned her wage of Rs 2160 to Pata in her house. Pata now possesses enough courage and conviction to deal with any precarious situation as she faced earlier in her life showing a good precedent for those who struggle in this ho-hum livelihood programme.

Women as land owners in Bihar

Economic empowerment improves social status

Sopan Correspondent / Patna

Nearly 30,000 women are part of a silent revolution in Bihar wherein they have become the proud owners of land in the state where they had no say earlier. They belong to some of the poorest sections of society and the initiative of the state government has meant tremendous empowerment to them.

As per the figures, Bihar government has distributed over 14,000 acres of land among the poor and landless women in the last three years. An official said that the state government has distributed 14,722.22 acres of land in the last three years (2007 to 2010). For the first time, land ownership rights of the bhoodan lands were being given to women.

Last year, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced that the state government will provide land ownership rights to women from landless families. Several other women friendly schemes like reservation of 50 per cent for them in the three-tier panchayat system, providing cycles to the girl students of the senior classes in schools etc have gone down rather well with the women of the state in the recent past. They returned the favour by voting for the incumbent government in the Assembly elections with an overwhelming majority.

The government has also reserved 50 percent of teaching vacancies in government-run primary and secondary schools for women, giving them an edge and economic empowerment. In districts like Gaya, Nalanda, Arrah, Buxar, Madhubani etc the women owning around half acre of land each supplement their income from the farm produce.

The picture is similar almost everywhere in the state where the women supplement their family income from the land which the state has given to them and provide a new meaning to their life. And with the economic independence, however marginal, they are also seeing an improved social status, and are respected both by their families and their communities. Bihar Bhoodan Yagna Committee president Shubham Murti said distribution of bhoodan land among women had been made possible by the positive approach of the government. The land distribution programme is one of the Bihar government's many women empowerment initiatives. Officials say more such schemes are in the pipeline.