All tressed up, nowhere to go Kavita Suri | The Statesman | August 01, 2006
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=124841 FATIMA Bi is walking non-stop for five hours. Clad in a salwar and kurti, with braids spilling out of her Tazakstani cap, she has no difficulty carrying her infant on her back, tied with a piece of cloth. For the stout, tough and beautiful women of the Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe, this is routine. >From her childhood, Fatima Bi has seen her mother and other women of the clan carry their offsprings in this manner. Along with the horses, flocks of sheep, goats and hunting dogs ~ which protect their animals from thieves and wild animals ~ women and children of this tribe come down from the higher reaches to Zalangam, Kokernag in south Kashmir. As Fatima Bi stops at the village grocer's for a puff of bidi, one can catch up with her and others of her lot. For many months in a year, they lead a nomadic life. During summer, the journey is upward from the foothills of the Himalayan ranges of Jammu and Kashmir to the higher reaches and in winter it is downwards. In early spring and winter, the Gujjar-Bakerwals shift from Poonch- Rajouri and Kupwara, Baramulla and Anantnag areas to the Margs ~ lush green, high pastures ~ and the Dhokes in the high altitudes of the Pir Panjal range. Most of them go to Lolad, Gurez and Sona Marg on the eastern side. "We keep horses for riding and transportation, sheep and goats for their wool, milk and meat. The surplus animals and their products are sold. In exchange, we buy maize, rice and grocery from the villagers," says Fatima, adding that they travel with all they possess. Fatima Bi does not complain about her lifestyle as she is used to it. But what about their education? "Almost 99 per cent of the women and girl children are uneducated. The number is in their thousands," she admits. Most Gujjar-Bakerwal girls don't know what school's like as they are constantly on the move. The smiling Gujjar women, as also their counterparts from 12 tribes of the state, are illiterate. This, despite the schemes initiated by the Central and state governments for the uplift and welfare of womenfolk. In a survey conducted by the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, Jammu and Kashmir, when some sections of society have attained 100 per cent literacy, the percentage for Gujjar women is just 5.5. The Ladakh tribal region, considered to be the most backward, is better off with 12.09 per cent literacy among women. "The nomadic Gujjar women are exploited, suppressed and victimised. These women are superstitious and though they work hard, they do not get their due respect and position in tribal society. Owing to child marriages and social bindings, just 18 per cent of the Gujjar girls are in a position to get admission at the primary-school level. Circumstances compel them to drop out of school," Mr Javaid Rahi, secretary of the foundation, said. According to the survey, nineteen girl students from the Ladakh tribes are doing their post-graduation in Jammu university. In comparison, despite the five per cent reservation, just one girl student from the Gujjar tribe is doing her MA in English and another girl from her tribe has taken admission in the law course. "Of the 12 lakh Gujjar women, just five girls are doing their MA in Jammu University. Not a single Gujjar girl has enrolled with the Kashmir University," Mr Rahi said. Central-sponsored schemes such as the Balika Simridhi Yojna, Sawastiki and Indira Mahila Yojna haven't helped the Gujjar women. Mr Rahi says the status of Gujjar women is worse than the women from the Beda, Bot, Balti, Garra, Mon, Brokpa, Purigipa, Gaddi and Sippis tribes of the state. Gujjar women are known for their courage and will power. Zooni, an old woman, had mobilised a women's force in her village to fight against Pakistani invaders in 1947. With rifle in one hand and a stick in another, they fired at invaders as their cattle grazed in the jungles. Mali Bi worked shoulder to shoulder with the Indian Armed Forces in the Rajouri-Poonch sector in the 1971 war with Pakistan. She was conferred the Padma Shree in recognition of her services. "Yet nothing is done for their welfare," Mr Shamsheer Hakla Poonchi, a Gujjar leader of Bandichechian, Poonch, said. The poverty-stricken Gujjar-Bakerwals have been ignored by successive governments both at the Centre and the state and their voices are inaudible, he rues. Militancy has compounded their problems. They are lagging behind other tribes. Girls who were going to school have been forced to drop out. The government had opened at least 300 mobile schools for this nomadic community. Owing to militancy, at least 150 schools had to be closed down or made stationary as teachers refused to go to the higher reaches for fear of militants. These mobile schools are hardly of any help. "Mobile primary schools for nomads was a wonderful idea, initially. But all these schools were single-teacher schools," a state education department official said on condition of anonymity, adding that as militants frequented the higher reaches, these mobile school teachers refused to move with the schools. Some schools even run without a teacher! Students' hostels for Gujjar-Bakerwal students, particularly in Anantnag, Pulwama, Kupwara and Doda areas, have been occupied by the security forces since 1991. The government has opened Gujjar-Bakerwal hostels at the district level with free boarding and lodging facilities up to Class XII, besides reservation in employment and vocational institutions. But they are still backward educationally or otherwise because all such efforts are half-hearted. (The author, The Statesman's Special Representative in Jammu and Kashmir, is also a peace scholar with Women In Security, Conflict Management and Peace [WISCOMP]) -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
