Adivasi Girls as MNREGA Labourers (2017) and Shaheen Bagh Women (2019)

Bhaskar Majumder

It is not necessary that all the sentences with questions marks at the end are questions to be answered. It is also not necessary that all the ‘’real’’ questions are to be answered instantaneously. One such question allegedly was ‘’Where are the men’’? And, one such semi-question was, ‘’Are the women being paid (@ Rs. 500/- per person per day?)’’? Both the questions and allegations distributed publicly were serious, the latter for self-engagement mostly by women for livelihood security of the households that the women look after whether or not understood by their male counterparts and the first one for surveillance agency to find out. I feel humbled to respond to each one converting the questions/allegations into a frame of civility.

First, I shall quote from my robust study on MNREGA that covered six major states in India that I completed for the Government of India two-year back (2017). I found more of women workers visible in MNREGA works in Adivasi inhabited district Jhabua in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

I observed more of women workers (mostly Adivasis & SCs) for the following reasons (I quote here exactly what I wrote; the Report is in public domain):

1. Women were asking for work,
2. Male individuals took advantage of that,
3. It was household labour, so it could be contributed by any adult; women came forward as they had to look after the household, particularly children,
4. Men often were ill (within SCs),
5. Sarpanch/Sachib/Rojgar Sahayak (on behalf of state) found it easy to engage women who were more loyal and silent on the worksite,
6. Some of the women workers also learnt to put signature though they were illiterates facilitating Bank payment of wages,
7. Bhil (Adivasis) women were naturally empowered to come outside home and work,
8. These women were hard working – working eight hours under the sun during summer,
9. Girl children aged 15 to 17 also worked as MNREGA workers along with their mothers or women adult guardians,
10. Women remained in earth works in MNREGA happily,
11. Women workers fit in well with requirements of MNREGA – limited distance, low wage rate, work for few days, manual work, and group work.

The fact was not that the women were working for the male workers migrated. Men were ill and a few were unwilling to do manual work. The women were in MNREGA works during off-agriculture period and for a period that did not take away their tenure of work at destination (migration-led). Their household activities centred on cooking and cleaning that they continued to do supported by their daughters till they got married. 

Girls as Child/Proxy Labour in MNREGA
Village Ajab Borali, Panchayat: Anantkhiri; Block: Patlawad; District Jhabua, MP.
All the workers, excepting one male, were women engaged in road construction by raising the bottom layer through filling-in by clinkers. I observed around 26 workers most of them minor girls working as reported for past 15 days. The proposed road was around 400 meter leading to a concrete bridge to make it motorable. As I calculated, per two minutes one minor girl used to carry 15-20 kg of clinker on head to walk for 15 seconds to dump it on specified location. One may calculate what load one carried per eight working hours. These minor girls were aged 15 to 17 studying in class IX to XII. It was summer vacation, so they were engaged in MNREGA works. All the workers were Adivasis (Bhil). The workforce included one married lady nine-month pregnant in presence of her working husband – it was going to be her first child! They were working for they were indebted. Total outstanding loan was Rs. 20,000/- with silver jewellery mortgaged to the lender.

Village: Bhutkheri, Panchayat:  Bhutkheri, Block: Ranapur, Dist. Jhabua
I observed illiterate Adivasi girl workers engaged in MNREGA during May, 2017 who generally remain invisible (Names: Ramila 16, Sangita 15, Lila 17, Kabita 15, Mamta 17, Sagri 16, Manika 15, Janga 16, Niru 15).

All in this village were engaged in MNREGA works – never went to school. All were unmarried so far.

They lived happily in ignorance – they even did not know the name of their country they lived in. They knew only the name of their village. They knew MNREGA wage rate.
Let me now juxtapose Shaheen Bagh.

Shaheen Bagh
As I understand from my soft system since more than past one month is that the Indian system that evolved over past seven decades is not at all prepared to counter/withstand the sit-in protests of women. There may be several reasons for this but in my understanding women in India had not been taken seriously, as may be elsewhere that the history of voting rights show. For example, even the colonizing country of the longest tenure declined to confer voting rights to women up to 1928.

But in India’s civilization women were protected as Sita had been, or listened to as Draupadi ultimately had been. On the same or similar trajectory, women on Shaheen Bagh had not been driven out so far and one spiritual (sic) Guru has expressed his desire to listen to them (or delivering sermon to them). Listening to women is one aspect and searching for Rama or Bhima is another aspect. In case of the great Epic Mahabharata, the five husbands of Draupadi became helpless and Krishna had to come (though remained invisible) to save Draupadi from public indignity. So it is not always that the relevant men had to come forward – it is not necessary that these men are in comforts or hiding at home – when the home as perceived by women may be in danger. ‘Grihini Grimuchyate’ (the home-maker is called home); when she is on Shaheen Bagh, where is the home? But all these require serious studies.

It is of course a statement of the valiant ‘’where are the men’’ that also follows the Great Epic Mahabharata where Grandfather Bhisma declined to fight Shikhandi for reasons known to all the spiritual readers. But in my understanding Bhisma had no revenge in his mind for he had the pledge not to fight any woman! What can be more appreciable?

But then clubbing the second question/allegation of ‘’paid’’ sit-in is really painful for all the social scientists know how the women are discriminated against in the labour market and what pain it inflicts on the women workers who are widowed/separated/abandoned and whose husbands are ill/disappeared and all that. It will not be out of context to quote here from my research work for the-then Planning Commission (2004) on ‘’Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (Food for Work component)’’ where the women were not interested to get wages in cash and almost all argued for income in kind (food grains) for reasons explained in the Report that is in the public domain.

I have strong reasons to believe that the person who made such comment on women in Shaheen Bagh has not seen his locality even; forget the province, region, country and abroad. I decline to accept him as my student, of course not in the Eklavya frame. Shame on him in case he has made such an obnoxious comment!

Such comments may be sold – there are buyers. But that costs not only the women but the whole nation. The civilization pays for it. Let us take the pledge to stop it.      

Bhaskar Majumder, Professor of Economics, G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad - 211019

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Jan 28, 2020