acculturising with the choklas

Some time ago, last month, I was asked by Swati from Seva Mandir, to help out with some planning for a workshop with a group of representatives from several tribal (Bhil) jati panchayats (also known as choklas) from Gogunda, through Chali, all the way up to Godhaghati (stretching out north of Udaipur)... these people are the traditional leaders of their communities and have the responsibility for overseeing all manner of decisions related to social functions - marriages, deaths, births, customs, norms and various other kinds of family, tribe and other disputes and matters. the basic idea behind the workshop, as I understood it, was that there was a prevailing sense that these groups had some stake in various unfair practices against women - and that this needed to be explored so that changes could be made to help improve the position of women.

The workshop preparation a real last minute kind of a thing and although I was quite enthusiastic, I realised that I really didn't know a great deal about who these people were... So I talked to Swati and tried to get a sense of the purpose: is the focus on trying to get the jati panchayat people to change their practices or is it do find out what is happening and what they think about it (i.e. knowing where they stand)? Obviously, as usual, the answer was that both of these points were important. I brainstormed some workshop plans, doodled up a little, shared them with Swati and some other staff, modified it all and got ready to get rolling. The basic idea was that we would divide into manageable groups and focus on a series of issues:
re-marriages or nata pratha;bride price or dapa pratha (like dowry but the woman's family receives the money); women's exclusion from the jajam (the community's carpet upon which official decisions are taken); various customs in which women have to bear a heavy financial burden;Real stories would be invited from the various jati panchayat leaders related to each of the issues. Sitting in a circle, these would then be with a particular focus on how they impacted women and children, what the role of the Jati Panchayat was in this process and what could be done about it.

I don't want to get right into the depths of all the impacts and stories but, instead, I would like to share some of the most striking features of my discussion that day with the jati panchayat people:

• The Jati Panchayat representatives consider themselves as people who are are responsible for doing seva (service) in their communities - which is not the way that they usually get presented in the 'development' discourse. Their notion of seva seems worthy of further exploration and investigation - no doubt that it would yield something rich.

• Trying to get people to tell stories in which they make themselves complicit came across as being a rather counterproductive or non-sensical strategy.Following a discussion process based on this created less of an opportunity for building trust, mutual understanding and a better sense of how we could work together than deciding to let the discussion flow in a more open way and probing areas that were of personal interest to me and gave the Jati Panchayat people a chance to talk about their own concerns and how they feel, etc.

• The Jati Panchayat people, essentially, feel that much of the change ('development') that is taking place is leading to a breakdown in their social structure, their community values and their hold on the community. This has a direct effect on their sense of identity and, my sense, is that it leaves them feeling threatened, defensive and marginalised. Not surprising then that they appear resistant to change! Any change to their culture simply seems like a threat to their identity. Given the overwhelmingly negative nature of change (from their perspective), it is not surprising that they demonstrate reactions around the idea of changing women's roles in their communities... Starting with their own concerns about what is going on (though not being such an obvious way of addressing our agenda) might end up being an even more effective means of getting to the same, ultimate outcomes.

• Some points raised by some participants in the context of education really bring home their concerns. The leaders were blaming a lack of shiksha (education) on the high rates of young men who run off (apparently quite frivolously) with second wives leaving the first one (often with a child) in a bit of a mess. I questioned this, wondering how the increase in school coverage could correlate with a lack of shiksha. The answer was thus: (1) not all shiksha in the school - both family and community are important places where shiksha happens; and (2) the shiksha provided in the schools encourages selfishness rather than a sense of community or collective responsibility. Wow! And to think that we tried to argue that these people don't know what quality education means!?!? It seems to me that we never really tried to understand their point of view. If we had, we might have made much faster progress over the last 40 years.

Ultimately, the experience left me with a feeling that these JPP could (or should) be one of Seva Mandir's most valuable partners if we could only learn to understand them and work with them! It also left me feeling that I would really like to get a proper chance to engage with them in more depth in the future.