Stitch ing Sto ries from Bihar to Beeston

Transcription

1 Stitch ing Sto ries from Bihar to Beeston Report on Fellowship Programme Sum mer 2004 and 2005 Beeston tapestry, nearing completion Homeworkers World wide, Leeds, UK, Oc to ber 2005

2 Stitching Stories from Bihar to Beeston Re port on Fel low ship Programme Sum mer 2004 and 2005 In Mem ory of Viji Srinivasan Photo: Cour tesy Maja Medic The fel low ship programme in the sum mer of 2005 was over shad owed by a great sad ness as Viji Srinivasan, who in spired the programme, un ex pect edly died in June of this year. This is not the place to write about all the achieve ments of Viji over a life time s work with poor women, par tic u larly through Adithi the or gani sa tion that she founded How ever, the women who came to Leeds from In dia, would be the first to ac knowl edge, that with out her en cour age ment and sup port, they would never have come to England. Fun da men tal to Viji s way of think ing and to ev ery thing she did was a be lief in the strength and ca pac i ties of women. She talked di rectly to women wher ever she went, and ad dressed all the prob lems they faced in their lives, from ba sic live li hood is sues to the lack of power in the fam ily, com mu nity and na tion at large. She in sisted on giv ing pri or ity to the poor est women in the con text of In dia this meant ru ral women and those from adivasi (in dig e nous) com mu ni ties and lower castes and on the em pha sis be ing on build ing their own capacity to change their lives. This was the spirit which led to the de vel op ment of the fel low ship programme in the UK. All those in volved will greatly miss Viji s con tri bu tion and the en thu si asm and hu mour that she brought to all our work.

3 Stitch ing Sto ries Introduction In 2004 and 2005, a Leeds-based or gani sa tion, Homeworkers World wide, hosted vis its by young women from South Asia, or gan ised by Adithi, based in Bihar, In dia. Their visit was part of a fel low ship programme for train ing young women lead ers, par tic u larly those work - ing with home-based work ers, in spired by Viji Srinivasan, the founder of Adithi In the sum mer of 2004, three young women spent three months liv ing in Beeston, Leeds: Teresa Hansda, Gowsiga Kandhasamy and Dambar Bishwakarma (known as Niru). Teresa works for Adithi-Ayodare in Jharkhand while Gowsiga and Niru work with other or gani sa tions, Read Foun da tion based in Tamil Nadu, In dia, and Homebased Worker Con cern So ci ety, Ne pal re spec tively. In 2005, an other three women came to Leeds, all of whom work for Adithi in Bihar or Jharkhand: Purnima Rani, Nirmala Miranda and Manasi Samaddar. Of these three, Manasi only stayed for a few weeks whereas Purnima and Nirmala stayed for more than two months. Viji wanted young women or gan is ers and lead ers, most of whom come from ru ral ar eas of Bihar or Jharkhand, to have the chance to de velop their skills and ex pe ri ence work ing and liv ing, if only for a short time, in an other coun try. The fel low ship programme was developed with Homeworkers World wide, with whom Viji worked closely. Orig i nally, it had a num ber of dif fer ent el e ments, in clud ing at tend ing a part-time com mu nity work course at the Leeds Met ro pol i tan Uni ver sity; work ing in the HWW of fice in Leeds; gain - ing Eng lish lan guage and com puter skills and op por tu ni ties to visit lo cal places of in ter est and meet a variety of people and groups. This re port fo cuses on one el e ment of the programme which de vel oped in the course of sum mer 2004, with the col lab o ra tion of Vera Me dia and other or gani sa tions, and be came the main fo cus of the programme in This was the hand i craft work done by women who were part of Adithi, par tic u larly two kinds of tex tile work: sujini, a kind of run ning stitch em broi dery; and khatwa, ap pli que work done on silk. From Bihar to Beeston Go ing by first im pres sions, there could hardly be a greater con trast be tween the area where the women stayed, an in ner-city area of Leeds, known as Beeston, and the ru ral vil lages of Bihar and Jharkhand, home to many of the sujini and khatwa work ers, as well as to Nirmala, Teresa and Purnima. Bihar and Jharkhand were orig i nally one state in East ern In dia, with Jharkhand mak ing up South Bihar, and later granted the sta tus of an in de pend ent state in On any in dex of pov erty or in equal ity com par ing the dif fer ent states of In dia, they come out worst, or nearly the worst. Jharkhand has a large num ber of adivasi (in dig e nous) com mu ni ties, in clud ing the 3

4 Santhals, the com mu nity to which both Teresa and Nirmala be long. In gen eral, the whole of the com mu nity is very poor, with many men mi grat ing in search of work. Women do much of the ag ri cul tural work in very harsh con di tions, with se vere droughts and soil ero - sion re sult ing from years of de for es ta tion. When there is sim ply no al ter na tive, whole villages mi grate to the neigh bour ing state of West Ben gal at the time of the rice plant ing and har vests to work as wage la bour. Few vil lages have good roads or elec tric ity, let alone functioning schools or health centres. Bihar is a much more fer tile state, with plenty of rain fall and good land, al though in many ar eas floods cause prob lems for three months of the year. How ever, there is even greater in equal ity in this state, with most poor fam i lies be ing land less. Many women are share crop pers, work ing other peo ple s land, re ceiv ing in re turn a por tion of the crop. As in Jharkhand, girls and women lead a hard life, with high lev els of il lit er acy and many crimes are com mit ted against women, start ing with fe male in fan ti cide and child mar riages, through to other vi o lence against wives, daugh ters and older women, particularly widows. Beeston, on the other hand, is an in ner-city area in the North of Eng land, con sist ing mainly of red-brick hous ing, built over a hun dred years ago for the workforce of the many Santhal women and chil dren in Jharkhand 4

5 en gi neer ing and tex tile fac to ries in the area, long closed down. It is the poor est area of Leeds which as a whole has now pros pered as a fi nan cial and com mer cial cen tre. In stead of the old solid work ing class com mu nity, it is now an ex tremely mixed area. Some of the ter - raced houses make good fam ily homes for owner-oc cu pi ers, but there is also a high level of rented prop erty, with many peo ple liv ing in the area for a short time. It now has set tled com mu ni ties of Asian or i gin, par tic u larly from Ban gla desh and Pa ki stan and a more float - ing pop u la tion of asy lum-seek ers from many dif fer ent parts of the world including Eastern Europe and Africa. At first, it was dif fi cult for the women from In dia to un der stand Beeston. For them, everyone had a good house and no one was starv ing. The bus fare to the cen tre of Leeds ( 1.10) when trans lated into ru pees cost more than they could earn in two days work ( 1 is about 80 ru pees). It was cold and wet, and of course ev ery one spoke Eng lish, a ver sion of Eng lish that seemed like a dif fer ent lan guage to that which they had stud ied in In dia, es pe - cially when spo ken with a Yorkshire accent. How ever, over the two sum mers, the women made many friends and even be gan to feel at home in Beeston. All of them, to dif fer ent de grees, became more flu ent in Eng lish. Some had learned to use a com puter and send s. They had learned about dif fer ent or gani sa - tions and lives of peo ple in Eng land as well as some thing about other countries. Sim i larly, through dif fer ent ac tiv i ties and links, or gani sa tions and in di vid u als in the UK learned about the lives and strug gles of women in Bihar and other parts of South Asia. The way this mu tual un der stand ing de vel oped was through a num ber of con tacts at dif fer ent lev els in clud ing more for mal talks and slideshows given to meet ings; dis cus sions with stu - dents and a lot of in for mal con tact par tic u larly through shar ing meals and vis its to gal ler ies or ex hi bi tions, and other places of interest in the area. One of the most im por tant ways in which links were made was through the lively khatwa (ap pli que) and sujini (em broi dery) work done by women in In dia. This re port will con cen trate on the dif fer ent ways these were used, even though there were many dif fer ent peo ple in volved in the programme, not all of which was fo cused on the hand i craft work. Khatwa and Sujini Stitch ing their Lives Khatwa and sujini are folk arts, de vel oped by Adithi, on the ba sis of tra di tional sew ing skills known by women. Over a pe riod of ten years, or lon ger in the case of sujini, Adithi has sup - ported groups of women who can now earn a rel a tively good in come from the sales of their tex tiles. How ever, the way Adithi and the women have de vel oped this ac tiv ity, is not sim ply as an in come-gen er at ing ac tiv ity for women. Each khatwa or sujini, in ad di tion to be ing an in di - vid ual work of art, tells a story, usu ally re flect ing ei ther the re al ity of women s lives at pres - ent, or their dreams for the fu ture. Some times the tex tiles in the form of quilts, wall hang ings, or cush ion cov ers show tra di tional myths or re li gious prac tices. But they also de pict mod ern themes such as the strug gle to re store the en vi ron ment; cam paigns to raise aware ness of HIV/AIDS; or lit er acy cam paigns, re flect ing many dif fer ent aspects of Adithi s organisation of women. 5

6 Women in Jharkhand can earn an in come from mak ing khatwa When the women come to gether to cre ate their em broi dery, they have to de cide what sto ries they want to tell. As Purnima ex plained: Sit ting to gether and dis cuss ing their lives means shar ing their prob lems. Then they be gin to talk not just about the prob lems, but also about pos si ble so lu tions. In the sum mer of 2004, a Leeds-based or gani sa tion, Vera Me dia took the ini tia tive to ar range an ex hi bi tion of khatwa in a lo cal com mu nity cen tre. Fol low ing the suc cess of this, the fol low ing year, in March 2005, an other ex hi bi tion was or gan ised in the lo cal li brary and in the sum mer, when Purnima and Nirmala were in Beeston, they ran reg u lar groups in two lo cal cen tres to cre ate new tap es tries together with local women. In this way the khatwa and sujini not only brought the sto ries of ru ral women in In dia to an au di ence in in ner-city Leeds but through the skilled work of Purnima and Nirmala also helped cre ate a work ing re la tion ship be tween them and women in the area. As they sat and cre ated new tap es tries de pict ing life in Beeston, they also talked about their lives and prob - lems, cre at ing deeper friend ships and understanding. The Story of Adithi The story of Adithi Ag ri cul ture, Dairying, In dus tries, Tree-Plan ta tion, Hand i craft and Home-based Work and the In te gra tion of Women goes back to 1988 when it was founded by Viji Srinivasan. 6

7 Viji had trav elled ex ten sively in In dia, work ing es pe cially with or gani sa tions ded i cated to im prov ing the lives of women, from the 1970s on wards. In 1988, she de cided to de vote her life to work in Bihar, par tic u larly with ru ral women. Al though at that time, there were many new or gani sa tions be ing set up, few peo ple were pre pared to go to the ru ral ar eas, where there was the great est need, es pe cially in Bihar, widely con sid ered to be back ward and even a criminal state. As a re sult, Adithi was born and over the years de vel oped many programmes which now reach more than 100,000 ru ral women and girls in the two states of Bihar and Jharkhand. As its name im plies, for poor women eco nomic ac tiv i ties are the foun da tion for change. But Adithi stands for the em pow er ment of women in all as pects of their lives and de vel oped many programmes on so cial and po lit i cal issues as well. Viji sum ma rised the sit u a tion for women: In gen eral, at least 40 per cent of women in Bihar live in ex treme pov erty, not only due to eco nomic fac tors but also the per va sive in flu ence of so cial and cul tural fac tors and lack of po lit i cal rep re sen ta tion. The re sult is wide spread il lit er acy and de pri va tion with lit tle ac cess to ed u ca tion, ba sic health fa cil i ties, de cent shel ter or food se cu rity. Atroc i ties against women are wide spread and take many forms such as girl infanticide, dowry harassment and deaths. Viji had links with the UK and Leeds in par tic u lar go ing back many years. In the 1960s, she had done a course in com mu nity work at what be came Leeds Met ro pol i tan Uni ver sity. In the 1990s, she brought a del e ga tion of women to a con fer ence, or gan ised in Leeds, on vi o lence against women. From 1998 on wards, Adithi had a work ing part ner ship with Homeworkers World wide, the Leeds-based or gani sa tion work ing with home-based workers in different countries. In the ru ral ar eas of Bihar and Jharkhand, the vast ma jor ity of women are in volved with ag ri cul tural work. In Jharkhand, many have ac cess to some land, but of poor qual ity, and use this for sub sis tence farm ing part of the year. In Bihar, poor fam i lies are usu ally land less, and their farm ing is for richer fam i lies, usu ally higher caste, for which they re ceive a por - tion of the crop, generally one half. It is how ever dif fi cult for fam i lies to sup port them selves only from this kind of farm ing. Many men mi grate to the cit ies or to do waged ag ri cul tural work in richer ar eas such as the Punjab, leav ing the women to sup port them selves and their chil dren. A cash in come is needed and re mit tances from the men may be un re li able. Hence women of ten take up some form of work in the slack ag ri cul tural pe riod to earn cash needed for ex am ple, for med i cal ex penses, fam ily func tions such as wed dings or fu ner als or other ba sic needs. The vast ma jor ity of poor families are indebted to moneylenders. In Jharkhand, many women go the for ests and col lect leaves to make leafplates, which are then sold on to lo cal in ter me di ar ies and widely used through out In dia as dis pos able plates in ho tels and food stalls. Oth ers make mats from dried date palm leaves; rope from lo cal plants; bam boo bas kets or spin a kind of silk known as tasar. In Bihar, women also make mats and bas kets; oth ers make ban gles or sew clothes by hand or machine. In 1998, Adithi was al ready run ning ex ten sive programmes and cam paigns around other live li hood is sues for women. For ex am ple, they had cam paigned for women to have the 7

8 right to lease fishponds and farm fish there. There was an or gani sa tion of women street-ven dors, work ing to gether for a safe place to sell their prod ucts, free from po lice ha - rass ment, which had na tional and in ter na tional links. Adithi was also run ning ex ten sive sav ings and credit programmes to free women from the huge rates of in ter est charged by informal moneylenders. Making leafplates But Viji thought that home-based work, al though ex ten sive, was still in vis i ble. There was lit tle rec og ni tion of this form of em ploy ment and its im por tance for sur vival of fam i l - ies. She was happy there fore to col lab o rate with Homeworkers World wide and its map ping programme which aimed to sup port new or gani sa tions of home-based work ers and to give them greater visibility. From 2000 on wards, Viji and other mem bers of Adithi took part in a programme of in - ter na tional meet ings and ex changes, in the course of which they vis ited Leeds sev eral times and got to know the staff and trust ees of Homeworkers World wide and oth ers ac tive in Leeds. The idea of a fel low ship programme, for young women or gan is ers, was born out of these vis its and dis cus sions and was part of a programme for de vel op ing a strong lo cal lead - er ship in Bihar and Jharkhand. 8

9 Sum mer 2004 Teresa, Gowsiga and Niru spent three months liv ing in Leeds from April to July, At this time Homeworkers World wide was run ning a programme of vis its and ex changes as part of its gen eral map ping programme. As a re sult, in the course of the sum mer, the women had the chance not only to meet with lo cal or gani sa tions in Leeds but also or ganisers from Latin Amer ica, East ern Eu rope and China. They also at tended a com mu nity work course at the Leeds Met ro pol i tan Uni ver sity and found that they were work ing on many com mon is sues in their own work in In dia and Ne pal, as youth and community workers in Leeds. Left to right: Kate Jehan, Gowsiga, Teresa and Niru in Leeds, 2004 The programme in 2004 did not fo cus spe cif i cally on em broi dery or hand i craft work but cov ered a broad range of is sues that the women were con cerned with. How ever, for all of this time they were liv ing in Beeston; did their shop ping in the lo cal cor ner shops and began to un der stand some thing of the life of the people there. One of the women they met dur ing their stay was Al Garthwaite, a trustee of Homeworkers World wide and founder of Vera Me dia, an or gani sa tion with a base in Beeston as well as a city cen tre of fice. Vera Me dia is a women s part ner ship that make videos and car ries out a wide range of train ing programmes on me dia issues. In part ner ship with Catherine Mitch ell from Vera Me dia, the women learned about graphic de sign, the use of a dig i tal cam era and com puter to scan and put to gether pho to - graphs and other ma te ri als. To gether, they pro duced a set of post ers show ing the work of the dif fer ent groups in In dia and Ne pal, as well as the hand i craft work of the women. 9

10 Vera Me dia also took the ini tia tive to or gan ise an ex hi bi tion in a lo cal com mu nity centre, Build ing Blocks, in the Beeston area. The ex hi bi tion of khatwa wall hang ings was held in a large hall in the cen tre and at tracted many vis i tors in the course of the two weeks when it was open. All the khatwa on dis play were sold and many orders taken. The ex hi bi tion pro vided an op por tu nity for the women to see how such an event could be or gan ised and some of the pre pa ra tory work needed. Teresa had taken part in an ex hi bi - tion held the pre vi ous year in the Oc to ber Gal lery, in Lon don but had lit tle ex pe ri ence of do ing all the pre pa ra tory work. At the open ing cer e mony, Teresa gave a short speech of wel come and with the other women sang a Santhal song. Slides were shown of the work of Adithi in Bihar and Jharkhand. In ad di tion to the ex hi bi tion which was open most days, Vera Me dia or gan ised two days of work shops for lo cal pri mary school chil dren. Lo cal schools were in vited to send a class of chil dren, about 25 chil dren be tween eight and ten, to come and visit the ex hi bi tion. Af ter a short talk with slides and ex am ples of bam boo bas kets, silk co coons and other daily items from Jharkhand, the chil dren were split into three groups for em broi dery mak ing their own khatwa; sing ing and danc ing; and film ing the ac tiv i ties of the other children. The co or di na tion and ba sic or gani sa tion of these work shops was done by Vera Me dia, as well as the train ing on video work. Other in puts came from a lo cal or gani sa tion, which does de sign and tex tile work with com mu nity groups. Teresa and Niru taught the chil dren Santhal and Nepali songs and dances and Gowsiga helped with the de vel op ment of the chil dren s own khatwa. In the course of run ning these events, a num ber of new ideas emerged for fol low-up activities. The ex hi bi tion had at tracted a lot of lo cal in ter est in Beeston as well as vis i tors Mak ing sujini to gether in Bihar 10

11 from all over Leeds and fur ther afield. A group of women from Asha, a lo cal women s cen - tre, brought a group of Bangladeshi women to see the khatwa and they com mented on the sim i lar ity be tween khatwa and sujini and the lo cal Ben gali stitch known as kantha. Also a kind of run ning stitch, kantha is used to em broi der pic tures of ev ery day life, tra di tional sto ries and other de signs, and the idea of future joint work was raised. Sim i larly, other women talked about their fas ci na tion with cross-stitch and other forms of em broi dery and were in ter ested in de vel op ing more joint work in the fu ture. An other idea came from staff at the lo cal li brary, which had re cently moved to a new build ing. They sug gested hold ing an other ex hi bi tion at a later date to at tract peo ple into the new site. Li brary Ex hi bi tion In March 2005, this sec ond ex hi bi tion was held for two weeks in the new li brary, on Dewsbury Road in Beeston. This time, lo cal li brary staff took on much of the ad min is tra - tive work. Vera Me dia held sim i lar work shops for an other group of school children. An im por tant link was made when Hil ary Benn, MP for Cen tral Leeds which in cludes Beeston and Min is ter for In ter na tional De vel op ment opened the ex hi bi tion and Viji Srinivasan, from Adithi, gave a talk on the clos ing day. Both com mented on the im por tance of mak ing links and de vel op ing mu tual un der stand ing be tween com mu ni ties in the UK and or gani sa tions in India such as Adithi. Sum mer Visit 2005 The sum mer visit in 2005 was made pos si ble through an other set of con tacts de vel oped over the years by Viji Srinivasan. In Lon don, Joss Gra ham runs a busi ness, Ori en tal Tex - tiles which had started sell ing some ofadithi s prod ucts, par tic u larly the khatwa and sujini work. In 2003, Joss had or gan ised a ma jor ex hi bi tion, in col lab o ra tion with the Oc to ber Gal lery, at tended by Viji and sev eral craftspeople from Adithi. This at tracted a lot of at ten - tion from other galleries and curators. One of the re sults was that in 2005, women from Adithi were in vited to par tic i pate in a num ber of other events in the UK, in par tic u lar a ma jor ex hi bi tion or gan ised by Art in Action, near Ox ford and an other ex hi bi tion or gan ised by Apna Arts, a South Asian arts organisation in Nottingham. In ad di tion to these two ma jor ex hi bi tions, they were also able to take part in the Lon don and Nottingham melas and visit the In ter na tional Ex hi bi tion of Quilts, held in Birmingham in August. Both Purnima and Nirmala, who came from Bihar and Jharkhand, are ex pe ri enced crafts women in sujini and khatwa work re spec tively. Un like the pre vi ous year, the sum mer fel low ship visit had as its main fo cus this se ries of ex hi bi tions and fairs. Be tween tak ing part in these, they stayed in Beeston in Leeds and did in ten sive Eng lish les sons, with some computer classes too. Two lo cal em broi dery groups were or gan ised at com mu nity cen tres in Leeds, near where the women were stay ing. One was held three times a week at the Hamara Healthy Liv ing Cen tre, a rel a tively new cen tre with a wide range of train ing and other ac tiv i ties. A sec ond was or gan ised with Asha Neigh bour hood Pro ject, a well-es tab lished lo cal women s 11

12 cen tre, set up orig i nally to sup port lo cal Bangladeshi women but now in clud ing many other women in the local community. Both groups de signed their own tap es try, with the Hamara group tak ing on a large, am - bi tious de sign show ing the Beeston area and the Asha group a de sign il lus trat ing the Adithi Asha part ner ship. Both tap es tries used a mix ture of sujini and khatwa tech niques. The Hamara group was made pos si ble by Vera Me dia who have their lo cal base in this cen - tre and at tracted a di verse range of peo ple from per sonal con tacts and a leaf let dis tri bu tion. Work ing on the Beeston tap es try On the other hand, Asha drew on their in for mal net works and it was pos si ble to use their childcare fa cil i ties within their own building. This sec ond fel low ship programme then had a clear fo cus on the hand i craft work. A busy programme of events out side Leeds, or gan ised by Joss Gra ham and oth ers, was com - ple mented with reg u lar groups at lo cal cen tres in Beeston and an in ten sive programme of personal study. An im por tant fourth el e ment grew out of the em broi dery work and other lo cal con tacts in Beeston. As in In dia, as women sat to gether and worked jointly on the em broi dery, they talked and shared their ex pe ri ence of their lives, neigh bour hood, fam i lies and com mu nity. Out of this there de vel oped strong friend ship links and there was a lot of so cial, in for mal con tact out side the fixed hours of the groups. Women came to the house where Purnima and Nirmala were stay ing. They cooked to gether and in vited vis i tors to share their meals. They laughed and cried to gether. When it was time for Nirmala and Purnima to leave, many tears were shed. 12

13 As one Sikh lady com mented: It s nice to get out of the house. Be fore these In dian la dies came, no body came to visit me, and I rarely left my house. It s nice just to sit here and chat to gether. I ll miss the In dian la dies and these sew ing ses sions so much when they ve gone. I also want to show the quilt to my chil dren, as they won t be lieve how well I ve done with the sewing. One par tic u lar friend ship was formed with a fam ily liv ing in the same street who are asy lum-seek ers. An ad di tional khatwa was de signed and sewn, show ing the fam ily, their experience with the im mi gra tion judge and the com mu nity sup port for the fam ily to be given the right to set tle in Leeds. Purnima and Nirmala were part of a del e ga tion that went Wait ing to see Hil ary Benn, MP, Purnima on left, Nirmala on the right, with the Messiouri fam ily 13

14 to see Hil ary Benn, the lo cal MP, to sup port the fam ily and to pres ent the fin ished khatwa to him. Another Beeston resident said: It s just a good op por tu nity for a good chin-wag, and a nice way of meet ing peo ple in your com mu nity. It s also very ther a peu tic. These in for mal con tacts which cen tred on the house and com mu nity in Beeston were an im por tant way of build ing on the links es tab lished with Homeworkers World wide, Vera Me dia and women from the lo cal com mu nity. As well as lo cal white women, oth ers were Pa ki stani, Al ge rian, Sikh In dian and Chi nese. Nirmala is Chris tian; Purnima Hindu and oth ers Mus lim. For many, the com mon work on the em broi dery es tab lished a link that crossed language barriers. Women in Muzzafarpur, Bihar, at In ter na tional Women s Day meet ing, 2005 (Photo: Cour tesy Maja Medic) Out of this there de vel oped an un der stand ing both of the lives and work of women in Bihar and Jharkhand, and on the other hand, an un der stand ing of the is sues in the lo cal com mu nity par tic u larly for women. Nirmala and Purnima ar rived in Beeston just af ter it had been pub li cised that three of the young men who had taken part in the bomb ings in Lon don in July were ei ther from Beeston or had fam i lies there. Beeston be came the cen tre of a lot of neg a tive pub lic ity in the world s press which gen er ally de picted it as a run-down, squalid area of poor and de - pressed people. This pic ture how ever was only a su per fi cial view and more com plex and op ti mis tic pic - ture emerged from the women s ex pe ri ence over the next two months of their stay. 14

15 There are of course many prob lems in the area, in clud ing run-down di lap i dated hous - ing; poor ser vices; rac ism and un em ploy ment. But there were also many pos i tive moves be - ing made by com mu nity or gani sa tions, both ser vices and train ing pro vided by lo cal cen tres, ac tiv i ties run dur ing the sum mer in the lo cal park and at tempts by lo cal schools and oth ers to reach out to the dif fer ent peo ple in the area. In the sum mer of 2005, af ter the Lon don bomb ings, there were a num ber of ac tiv i ties which brought to gether peo ple in the area un der the ban ner Beeston United for Peace, including meetings and two marches. On first im pres sions, women in Beeston ap peared much better off, with solid houses, cars, wash ing ma chines and many mod ern gad gets when com pared with women in In dia. How ever, as they got to know each other, prob lems emerged some of them com mon, such as do mes tic vi o lence and oth ers more spe cific to each area. South Asian women in Beeston were some times more iso lated and felt they had no one to turn to when they had prob lems. There was rac ism in the area, com ing from par tic u lar house holds, and spe cif i cally fo cused on Mus lim fam i lies following the July bombings. Women in Jharkhand 15

16 Other prob lems which ap peared sur pris ing to the women from In dia were the chil dren wan der ing the streets at all times of day and night, some times not prop erly dressed and ap - par ently ne glected. Oth ers, par tic u larly white boys, seemed out of con trol, fre quently drink ing and smok ing from an early age and gen er ally caus ing a nui sance in the streets. Both Purnima and Nirmala, and the three women who had vis ited the pre vi ous year, thought that they had gained a lot from their stay in Beeston and vis its to other parts of Eng land. Purnima in par tic u lar had many new ideas that she planned to in cor po rate into her work with sujini groups when she re turned to her home and nor mal job with Adithi. They both felt that it had been a rare op por tu nity for them not just to gain spe cific skills, such as Eng lish lan guage, com puter work or new ideas for em broi dery and de sign, but also that they had bene fited from liv ing in a dif fer ent en vi ron ment where they felt re spected and valued. In spite of all the prob lems in the Beeston, there are many pos si bil i ties for de vel op ing work with peo ple in the area, par tic u larly women. The joint khatwa and sujini work was a good start ing point for many of these links which need fol low-up with fur ther ac tiv i ties. Above all, the sol i dar ity built be tween the women through the sum mer months was a ba sis for un der stand ing each other, across many bar ri ers of na tion al ity, lan guage, re li gion and back ground and de vel op ing fu ture programmes of action to work together for change. Sum mary For women from Adithi s ru ral or gani sa tions, the vis its pro vided: 1. Ways of pro mot ing and sell ing women s khatwa and sujini prod ucts. The sales of these can pro vide a rel a tively good in come which helps the women bring them - selves and their chil dren out of poverty. 2. Ideas for new prod ucts or tech niques that they can take back to In dia and use to de - velop new prod ucts with their own groups. 3. The pro mo tion of the sujini and khatwa, even with out any sales, is a way of de vel op - ing an un der stand ing of women s lives in Bihar and Jharkhand; the prob lems they face and the ways in which women there are work ing to gether to change their lives. Some of the tex tiles pro vide dreams of a dif fer ent fu ture a dif fer ent world is possible. 4. An op por tu nity to de velop their ca pac ity for lead er ship, not only at the lo cal level in In dia, but in broader in ter na tional net works and cir cles, through work ing to gether with an in ter na tional or gani sa tion, Homeworkers World wide and meet ing with or - gan is ers from other countries. 5. An op por tu nity to de velop their per sonal skills, par tic u larly in Eng lish lan guage, com puter skills and gen eral abil ity to com mu ni cate, whether through speak ing or us ing pic tures or other vi sual aids such as slides or videos. 6. An op por tu nity to feel that they them selves, their work and skills, as well as the work of their or gani sa tion, are val ued and ap pre ci ated in an other country. 7. An un der stand ing of the com mon points and dif fer ences be tween women in poor com mu ni ties of very dif fer ent coun tries. 16

17 For Homeworkers World wide and or gani sa tions in Leeds, the vis its pro vided: 1. A way of get ting to know women or gan is ers from In dia and the way women from Adithi work to gether to tackle the prob lems women face in their lives. 2. An op por tu nity to pro mote the lo cal and in ter na tional or gani sa tion of home-based work ers in Leeds and more gen er ally in the UK. 3. A way of mak ing links be tween or gan is ers in poor com mu ni ties, par tic u larly through women, in Leeds and in In dia to de velop some com mon programmes. 4. De vel op ing a net work of sup port for the work of Homeworkers World wide in the UK and in Leeds, and the ex pe ri ence of work ing in part ner ship with oth ers such as Vera Me dia or Asha in Beeston or Joss Gra ham in London. 17

18 Acknowedgements Homeworkers World wide would like to ac knowl edge the sup port and work of a great num - ber of or gani sa tions and in di vid u als who have worked to make the fel low ship programme a suc cess. In particular, Al Garthwaite and Catherine Mitch ell, Vera Me dia. De part ment for In ter na tional De vel op ment who have sup ported in ter na tional work with home-based work ers from Ishani Chandrasekara, Kate Jehan and Vic tor Soreng who worked on the fel low ship programmes in 2004 and Pro fes sor Ruth Pearson and stu dents from the Cen tre of De vel op ment Stud ies, Uni ver sity of Leeds, who helped in the sum mer of Mar ian Charlton and Yvonne Small who gave so much sup port in 2004 on the community work course at Leeds Met ro pol i tan Uni ver sity. Hamara Healthy Liv ing Cen tre and Asha Neigh bour hood Pro ject, Beeston, Leeds, for host ing the em broi dery groups. Leeds Li brary Ser vice for host ing and or gan is ing the ex hi bi tion at the Dewsbury Road li brary, Leeds 11. Hannah McDowell, Viki Banks and Karoline Kemp who have all worked on the programme of in ter na tional ex changes for Homeworkers World wide. Joss Gra ham and Jayne San der son of Ori en tal Tex tiles, who made the vis its pos si ble in 2005 through his links with Art in Ac tion and Apna Arts. All the lo cal peo ple in Beeston, Leeds, who wel comed the vis i tors in their com mu nity. De tail of Beeston tap es try shown by those who worked on it 18

19 Copy right: Homeworkers World wide, 2005 You are wel come to re pro duce any parts of this re port, on con di tion that the source is ac knowl edged. Pho tos: Homeworkers World wide un less oth er wise cred ited. Homeworkers World wide Of fice Dock Street Leeds LS10 1JF UK Tel: (0)

20 The Asha-Adithi tap es try