Eastern Rising

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago when a few women of the historic town of Tezpur, the cultural capital of Assam, came together to constitute what soon...

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago when a few women of the historic town of Tezpur, the cultural capital of Assam, came together to constitute what soon came to be known as the Tezpur District Mahila Samiti, they did not know how far their efforts would go.

Last week the TDMS leaders came to Guwahati to receive the Roshan Phukan award for service towards women, instituted in 2000 by the Eastern India Women8217;s Association. 8216;8216;This is one organisation that probably laid the foundation for a rural women8217;s movement in the entire country,8217;8217; said Renuka Devi Borkataki, president of the EIWA, who was a minister for education in the Morarji Desai government in 1977-79.

8216;8216;The primary objective of TDMS has been to empower women through the primary mahila samitis around issues of livelihood, health, legal aid and credit facilities and we spent the entire decades of 1980s and 1990s in providing high-quality training to hundreds of women across the Sonitpur district,8217;8217; said Meena Agarwala, president of the organization. Agarwala, who comes from the family of pioneer Assamese filmmaker and freedom fighter Jyotiprasad Agarwala, is 80 years old and still tours rural areas motivating grassroots workers of the organisation.

The group has also focused on imparting technical training in silk-worm rearing and silk-production, while legal literacy is one new activity that the TDMS took up in 1992 to make the women aware of the facilities that the new laws have provided to them. 8216;8216;It is amazing to find how hundreds of women flock to the legal literacy sessions in the 70 primary mahila samitis that we have across the district. The rural women want to learn more and more, because we also lay stress on education and general literacy,8217;8217; Agarwala said.

The TDMS in fact has an illustrious history, having played a major role in bringing out women in large numbers to take part in the freedom movement. 8216;8216;We had as our moving force and leading light Chandraprabha Saikiani, a woman who broke the shackles of conservatism and lit the first light of women8217;s liberation in remote Assam even before India gained independence,8217;8217; says Mita Goswami, who heads the legal cell which gets 15 to 20 cases every week.

Sonitpur in fact is also proud of having produced Kanaklata, one of the first women martyrs of the freedom movement. Incidentally, it was Mahatma Gandhi who had laid the foundation stone of the TDMS head office in 1938. Earlier, it was in Gandhi8217;s presence the first meeting took place that later gave shape to TDMS. An inspiring organisation as it is, a group of enterprising members of the TDMS has in the recent years also established the North East Network NEN that has spread its wings to the whole of Northeast and has led the campaign for protection of rights and elimination of discrimination against women.

8216;8216;It is always interesting to find that the women want to know and learn more and develop new skills, which includes account-keeping, acquiring marketing skills and now even networking through the internet,8217;8217; says Meena Agarwala, displaying the website that TDMS recently launched.