Stitch ing Sto ries from Bihar to Beeston ing Sto ries from Bihar to Beeston R e por t on F el low ship Pr ogr amme Sum mer 2004 and 2005 Homeworkers World wide, Leeds, UK, Oc to ber

Stitch ing Sto ries from Bihar to Beeston

Re port on Fel low ship Programme

Sum mer 2004 and 2005

Homeworkers World wide, Leeds, UK, Oc to ber 2005

Beeston tap es try, near ing com ple tion

Stitch ing Sto ries from Bihar to BeestonRe port on Fel low ship Programme — Sum mer 2004 and 2005

In Mem ory of Viji Srinivasan

The fel low ship programme in the sum mer of 2005 was over shad owed by a great sad ness as VijiSrinivasan, 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 poorwomen, par tic u larly through Adithi the or gani sa tion that she founded How ever, the women whocame to Leeds from In dia, would be the first to ac knowl edge, that with out her en cour age ment andsup 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 andca pac i ties of women. She talked di rectly to women wher ever she went, and ad dressed all the prob lemsthey 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 thismeant ru ral women and those from adivasi (in dig e nous) com mu ni ties and lower castes — and onthe 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. Allthose in volved will greatly miss Viji’s con tri bu tion and the en thu si asm and hu mour that she broughtto all our work.

Photo: Cour tesy Maja Medic

Stitch ing Sto ries

In tro duc tionIn 2004 and 2005, a Leeds-based or gani sa tion, Homeworkers World wide, hosted vis its byyoung women from South Asia, or gan ised by Adithi, based in Bihar, In dia. Their visit waspart 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 otheror gani sa tions, Read Foun da tion based in Tamil Nadu, In dia, and Homebased WorkerCon cern So ci ety, Ne pal re spec tively. In 2005, an other three women came to Leeds, all ofwhom work for Adithi in Bihar or Jharkhand: Purnima Rani, Nirmala Miranda and ManasiSamaddar. Of these three, Manasi only stayed for a few weeks whereas Purnima andNirmala 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 easof Bihar or Jharkhand, to have the chance to de velop their skills and ex pe ri ence work ingand 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, ithad a num ber of dif fer ent el e ments, in clud ing at tend ing a part-time com mu nity workcourse 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 estand 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 ofsum mer 2004, with the col lab o ra tion of Vera Me dia and other or gani sa tions, and be camethe main fo cus of the programme in 2005. This was the hand i craft work done by womenwho were part of Adithi, par tic u larly two kinds of tex tile work: sujini, a kind of run ningstitch em broi dery; and khatwa, ap pli que work done on silk.

From Bihar to BeestonGo 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 ofBihar 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 ingup South Bihar, and later granted the sta tus of an in de pend ent state in 2000. On any in dexof pov erty or in equal ity com par ing the dif fer ent states of In dia, they come out worst, ornearly the worst.

Jharkhand has a large num ber of adivasi (in dig e nous) com mu ni ties, in clud ing the

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Santhals, the com mu nity to which both Teresa and Nirmala be long. In gen eral, the wholeof the com mu nity is very poor, with many men mi grat ing in search of work. Women domuch 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 ingand har vests to work as wage la bour. Few vil lages have good roads or elec tric ity, let alonefunctioning schools or health centres.

Bihar is a much more fer tile state, with plenty of rain fall and good land, al though inmany ar eas floods cause prob lems for three months of the year. How ever, there is evengreater in equal ity in this state, with most poor fam i lies be ing land less. Many women areshare crop pers, work ing other peo ple’s land, re ceiv ing in re turn a por tion of the crop. As inJharkhand, girls and women lead a hard life, with high lev els of il lit er acy and many crimesare 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 ingmainly of red-brick hous ing, built over a hun dred years ago for the workforce of the many

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Santhal women and chil dren in Jharkhand

en gi neer ing and tex tile fac to ries in the area, long closed down. It is the poor est area ofLeeds which as a whole has now pros pered as a fi nan cial and com mer cial cen tre. In stead ofthe 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 ofrented prop erty, with many peo ple liv ing in the area for a short time. It now has set tledcom 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 EasternEurope 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 (£ 1is about 80 ru pees). It was cold and wet, and of course ev ery one spoke Eng lish, a ver sion ofEng 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 feelat 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 emails. 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 UKlearned about the lives and strug gles of women in Bihar and other parts of South Asia. Theway this mu tual un der stand ing de vel oped was through a num ber of con tacts at dif fer entlev 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 iesor 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 livelykhatwa (ap pli que) and sujini (em broi dery) work done by women in In dia. This re port willcon cen trate on the dif fer ent ways these were used, even though there were many dif fer entpeo 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 LivesKhatwa and sujini are folk arts, de vel oped by Adithi, on the ba sis of tra di tional sew ing skillsknown 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 theirtex 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, wallhang ings, or cush ion cov ers — show tra di tional myths or re li gious prac tices. But they alsode pict mod ern themes such as the strug gle to re store the en vi ron ment; cam paigns to raiseaware ness of HIV/AIDS; or lit er acy cam paigns, re flect ing many dif fer ent aspects ofAdithi’s organisation of women.

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When the women come to gether to cre ate their em broi dery, they have to de cide whatsto 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 toar 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 toan au di ence in in ner-city Leeds but through the skilled work of Purnima and Nirmala alsohelped cre ate a work ing re la tion ship be tween them and women in the area. As they sat andcre 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 andHome-based Work and the In te gra tion of Women — goes back to 1988 when it wasfounded by Viji Srinivasan.

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Women in Jharkhand can earn an in come from mak ing khatwa

Viji had trav elled ex ten sively in In dia, work ing es pe cially with or gani sa tions ded i catedto im prov ing the lives of women, from the 1970s on wards. In 1988, she de cided to de voteher life to work in Bihar, par tic u larly with ru ral women. Al though at that time, there weremany 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 nowreach 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 opedmany 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 turalfac 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, onvi o lence against women. From 1998 on wards, Adithi had a work ing part ner ship withHomeworkers 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 withag ri cul tural work. In Jharkhand, many have ac cess to some land, but of poor qual ity, anduse 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 thePunjab, leav ing the women to sup port them selves and their chil dren. A cash in come isneeded and re mit tances from the men may be un re li able. Hence women of ten take upsome form of work in the slack ag ri cul tural pe riod to earn cash needed for ex am ple, formed i cal ex penses, fam ily func tions such as wed dings or fu ner als or other ba sic needs. Thevast 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, whichare then sold on to lo cal in ter me di ar ies and widely used through out In dia as dis pos ableplates in ho tels and food stalls. Oth ers make mats from dried date palm leaves; rope fromlo cal plants; bam boo bas kets or spin a kind of silk known as tasar. In Bihar, women alsomake 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

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right to lease fishponds and farm fish there. There was an or gani sa tion of womenstreet-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 sivesav ings and credit programmes to free women from the huge rates of in ter est charged byinformal moneylenders.

But Viji thought that home-based work, al though ex ten sive, was still in vis i ble. Therewas 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 givethem 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 inLeeds. The idea of a fel low ship programme, for young women or gan is ers, was born out ofthese 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.

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Mak ing leafplates

Sum mer 2004Teresa, Gowsiga and Niru spent three months liv ing in Leeds from April to July, 2004. Atthis time Homeworkers World wide was run ning a programme of vis its and ex changes aspart of its gen eral map ping programme. As a re sult, in the course of the sum mer, thewomen had the chance not only to meet with lo cal or gani sa tions in Leeds but also or gan-isers from Latin Amer ica, East ern Eu rope and China. They also at tended a com mu nitywork course at the Leeds Met ro pol i tan Uni ver sity and found that they were work ing onmany com mon is sues in their own work in In dia and Ne pal, as youth and communityworkers in Leeds.

The programme in 2004 did not fo cus spe cif i cally on em broi dery or hand i craft workbut cov ered a broad range of is sues that the women were con cerned with. How ever, for allof 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 ofHomeworkers World wide and founder of Vera Me dia, an or gani sa tion with a base inBeeston 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 aboutgraphic 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 ofthe dif fer ent groups in In dia and Ne pal, as well as the hand i craft work of the women.

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Left to right: Kate Jehan, Gowsiga, Teresa and Niru in Leeds, 2004

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 washeld in a large hall in the cen tre and at tracted many vis i tors in the course of the two weekswhen 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 couldbe 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 ofdo ing all the pre pa ra tory work. At the open ing cer e mony, Teresa gave a short speech ofwel come and with the other women sang a Santhal song. Slides were shown of the work ofAdithi 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 daysof 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 ashort talk with slides and ex am ples of bam boo bas kets, silk co coons and other daily itemsfrom Jharkhand, the chil dren were split into three groups for em broi dery — mak ing theirown 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, whichdoes de sign and tex tile work with com mu nity groups. Teresa and Niru taught the chil drenSanthal and Nepali songs and dances and Gowsiga helped with the de vel op ment of thechil 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

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Mak ing sujini to gether in Bihar

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 thesim i lar ity be tween khatwa and sujini and the lo cal Ben gali stitch known as kantha. Also akind of run ning stitch, kantha is used to em broi der pic tures of ev ery day life, tra di tionalsto 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 formsof em broi dery and were in ter ested in de vel op ing more joint work in the fu ture. An otheridea came from staff at the lo cal li brary, which had re cently moved to a new build ing. Theysug 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 tionIn March 2005, this sec ond ex hi bi tion was held for two weeks in the new li brary, onDewsbury 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 cludesBeeston and Min is ter for In ter na tional De vel op ment opened the ex hi bi tion and VijiSrinivasan, 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 UKand or gani sa tions in India such as Adithi.

Sum mer Visit 2005The sum mer visit in 2005 was made pos si ble through an other set of con tacts de vel opedover 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 sujiniwork. In 2003, Joss had or gan ised a ma jor ex hi bi tion, in col lab o ra tion with the Oc to berGal 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 anum 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 ofQuilts, held in Birmingham in August.

Both Purnima and Nirmala, who came from Bihar and Jharkhand, are ex pe ri encedcrafts women in sujini and khatwa work re spec tively. Un like the pre vi ous year, the sum merfel low ship visit had as its main fo cus this se ries of ex hi bi tions and fairs. Be tween tak ing partin these, they stayed in Beeston in Leeds and did in ten sive Eng lish les sons, with somecomputer classes too.

Two lo cal em broi dery groups were or gan ised at com mu nity cen tres in Leeds, nearwhere the women were stay ing. One was held three times a week at the Hamara HealthyLiv ing Cen tre, a rel a tively new cen tre with a wide range of train ing and other ac tiv i ties. Asec ond was or gan ised with Asha Neigh bour hood Pro ject, a well-es tab lished lo cal women’s

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cen tre, set up orig i nally to sup port lo cal Bangladeshi women but now in clud ing manyother 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 theAdithi–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.

On the other hand, Asha drew on their in for mal net works and it was pos si ble to use theirchildcare 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. Abusy 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 ofpersonal study.

An im por tant fourth el e ment grew out of the em broi dery work and other lo cal con tactsin Beeston. As in In dia, as women sat to gether and worked jointly on the em broi dery, theytalked 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 malcon tact out side the fixed hours of the groups. Women came to the house where Purnimaand 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.

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Work ing on the Beeston tap es try

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 areasy 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 begiven the right to set tle in Leeds. Purnima and Nirmala were part of a del e ga tion that went

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Wait ing to see Hil ary Benn, MP, Purnima on left, Nirmala on the right, with the Messiouri fam ily

to see Hil ary Benn, the lo cal MP, to sup port the fam ily and to pres ent the fin ished khatwato 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 werean im por tant way of build ing on the links es tab lished with Homeworkers World wide, VeraMe dia and women from the lo cal com mu nity. As well as lo cal white women, oth ers werePa ki stani, Al ge rian, Sikh In dian and Chi nese. Nirmala is Chris tian; Purnima Hindu andoth ers Mus lim. For many, the com mon work on the em broi dery es tab lished a link thatcrossed language barriers.

Out of this there de vel oped an un der stand ing both of the lives and work of women inBihar and Jharkhand, and on the other hand, an un der stand ing of the is sues in the lo calcom 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 ofthe young men who had taken part in the bomb ings in Lon don in July were ei ther fromBeeston or had fam i lies there. Beeston be came the cen tre of a lot of neg a tive pub lic ity inthe 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.

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Women in Muzzafarpur, Bihar, at In ter na tional Women’s Day meet ing, 2005 (Photo: Cour tesy Maja Medic)

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 calcen tres, ac tiv i ties run dur ing the sum mer in the lo cal park and at tempts by lo cal schoolsand oth ers to reach out to the dif fer ent peo ple in the area. In the sum mer of 2005, af ter theLon don bomb ings, there were a num ber of ac tiv i ties which brought to gether peo ple in thearea 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, suchas do mes tic vi o lence and oth ers more spe cific to each area. South Asian women in Beestonwere 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 cusedon Mus lim fam i lies following the July bombings.

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Women in Jharkhand

Other prob lems which ap peared sur pris ing to the women from In dia were the chil drenwan 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 quentlydrink 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 ofEng land. Purnima in par tic u lar had many new ideas that she planned to in cor po rate intoher 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 alsothat they had bene fited from liv ing in a dif fer ent en vi ron ment where they felt re spectedand valued.

In spite of all the prob lems in the Beeston, there are many pos si bil i ties for de vel op ingwork with peo ple in the area, par tic u larly women. The joint khatwa and sujini work was agood 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 sisfor un der stand ing each other, across many bar ri ers of na tion al ity, lan guage, re li gion andback ground and de vel op ing fu ture programmes of action to work together for change.

Sum maryFor 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 ofthese 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 theyface 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 ispossible.

4. An op por tu nity to de velop their ca pac ity for lead er ship, not only at the lo cal level inIn dia, but in broader in ter na tional net works and cir cles, through work ing to getherwith 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 orus 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 thework 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 poorcom mu ni ties of very dif fer ent coun tries.

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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 asVera Me dia or Asha in Beeston or Joss Gra ham in London.

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AcknowedgementsHomeworkers 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 asuc 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 2000-2005.Ishani Chandrasekara, Kate Jehan and Vic tor Soreng who worked on the fel low ship

programmes in 2004 and 2005. Pro fes sor Ruth Pearson and stu dents from the Cen tre ofDe vel op ment Stud ies, Uni ver sity of Leeds, who helped in the sum mer of 2004.

Mar ian Charlton and Yvonne Small who gave so much sup port in 2004 on the com-munity 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, forhost 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 Roadli brary, Leeds 11.

Hannah McDowell, Viki Banks and Karoline Kemp who have all worked on theprogramme 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 in2005 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.

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De tail of Beeston tap es try shown by those who worked on it

Copy right: © Homeworkers World wide, 2005

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The Asha-Adithi tap es try