For India’s Justice and Peace Commission, women are agents of peace and reconciliation in the Church and the world
Bangkok (AsiaNews) – I have spent most of the past 25 years of my religious life working in rural India, (where 70% of India’s population resides), and 68% of Church membership comes from. Hence, my reflections are bound to be coloured by the rural realities of India. Nevertheless, a woman is a woman. We are mothers; we are sisters; we are daughters; and we are wives. Across the world, and I believe no matter where we are, we are all potential peace makers created in God’s image but face the same basic problems of vulnerabilities.
With this premise, I have chosen the theme of my presentation as: “The role of women in Reconciliation and Peace building: Contributions, Challenges and the Way Forward
Women’s contribution
According to Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of the Anglican Church: “A woman is the epitome of peace. It is from her that peace flows and radiates to other members of the family.” We all know that woman is the first agent of socialization. Once the child is born, it is she who nurtures the child; women are natural teachers for peace education to their children. In playing their roles as parents, service providers, and teachers, they are ideal for instilling into their children such values as respect for others; the peaceful solution of conflicts and problems; sharing; partnerships; tolerance; a sense of justice; equity; and equality of the sexes, all of which are qualities of sustainable peace.
You may notice that in primary school, we rarely see a male teacher. This shows that the society acknowledges that it is a woman who can mould children better and the child too innately responds to a woman much better than a man. You will agree with me no matter at what age and what stage we are, in our problems, conflicts, tensions, and sickness, it is mother’s care that we remember and we long for. And no matter how grave our fault may be, it is a mother who stands by us in all circumstances and gives us immeasurable security.
We have examples of individual women like Malala Yusafzai and Mother Teresa, who have been great instruments of peace and reconciliation in society. Invariably, we get to see that in any society affected by natural calamities or human disasters, it is the Sisters’ congregations or women’s NGOs who rush in first and render innumerable hidden services. In the tribal dominated Kandhamal district of Orissa in India in 2008, there were riots against Christians, where 600 villages were affected, 100 people were killed, and 54000 people were rendered homeless. Forty-three new organizations started work in this area, engaged in running children’s hostels, orphanages, skill training initiatives, and CBO programs. Thirty-six of these organizations are women’s initiatives, to bring healing to the wounded in the area. I work in Khunti diocese of Jarkhand which is a very disturbed area. The place is infested with Maoist insurgent groups. Invariably there are conflicts between two Maoist groups and many suspects and informers are killed. Police too harass people and many innocent youth, branded as supporters of Maoists, are arrested. At this difficult time, our women courageously go to the police station to dialogue or protest, and have rescued many such innocent victims. One of the striking examples on how peace building and reconciliation efforts made by women have brought in socio-economic change in our nation is Self-Help Group (SHG) movement which is connected with income generation activities in rural areas. For the most part, this movement is dominated by women’s groups. It has been possible to abolish exploitative bonded labour in most states, and helped to free many families from the shackles of moneylenders. It has helped raise the economic and social status of very many rural families, and consequently thousands of families are able to live quality lives. It is estimated that there are eight million SHGs in India, with about 97 million members who are women.
In the Bible, we see it was Mary the mother of Jesus who in her sensitivity intervened and commanded her son Jesus, and save the newly wedded couple from an embarrassing situation at Cana. We are in Easter season after Jesus’ death, when in the vast emptiness and hopelessness experienced by the entire society, it was Mary who took the initiative to run to the tomb and was the first instrument of good news of Easter peace to the community and to the world.
Challenges
Women have indeed achieved and made a significant contribution to peace building and reconciliation, but there are a host of challenges that remain to be overcome for them to tap into their full potential, in order to become agents of sustainable and lasting peace and reconciliation.
1. Family
The mother who contributes most in moulding and shaping a child’s development and inculcates basic values in the child is the one whose opinion is hardly counted in family or community decisions. Women, whether educated or uneducated, work hard to provide for their family. In the morning and in the evening, they are busy managing house chores, and during the day they go either to work on their fields or as a domestic workers. In fact, 65 to 70 % of Dalit and tribal families are female-headed, due to either the husband’s desertion or his income being spent on alcohol etc. But what happens to her earnings? It is set aside for the family and is taken for granted. She owns absolutely nothing. She earns, but has no right to own. And because there is no ownership, she becomes dependent. She internalizes the fact that her survival depends on her family and so she learns to abide by whatever is demanded and commanded of her.
This has gone deep into woman’s conscious and her identity is either her husband or husband’s family. The mother transfers the same to her daughter and it is thus perpetuated in society. Leaving a few women aside, in most cases, she has no house in her name, no property in her name. In India, just 3.5 % women are reported to own land. She owns absolutely nothing. In short, a girl’s secondary status has gone deep into Indian sub-consciousness.
Often killed in the womb, the child sex ratio was 914 girls per 1000 boys in the 0-6 age band, according to the latest 2011 census in India. The girls is always referred to as some-one’s daughter; later some-one’s wife, and then some-one’s mother . . . Girls are deprived of many rights and facilities, because they are seen to belong to another family.
Another daunting challenge is the low literacy rate among women. From the policy perspective, we have very sound educational programmes in India, like the Right to Education and the mid-day meal programme. To achieve gender inclusion, girls’ education is provided free till high school level. We still need to have a conducive environment and effective mechanisms to implement these beautiful programmes and policies, which is a tremendous challenge in our country.
The 2011 census data clearly indicates, no matter how far a small elite group of women have gone in the field of education, the great mass of Indian women have still a long way to travel. Out of the total female population of 586 million, only 334 million are literate, i.e. a great majority, 35% of the female population are still abysmally backward; and 68% of the school dropouts among the children are girls.
This does not happen automatically, there are several factors like poverty, secondary status, and insecurity that hinder girls’ education.
I would like to discuss some of these briefly here.
2. Poverty
Abject poverty is still high and affects mainly women from the rural areas. Poverty is one of the primary factors that denies girls access to education. In poor families, especially among the labour class, a girl is considered a good source of free labour, to manage the domestic work at home while her parents are out in the field and her brothers go to school. In some cases young girls are made to work in the field during sowing and harvesting seasons so as to add to family income.
3. Trafficking
Among the tribal-dominated states like Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and other eastern States, poverty and oppression of women has resulted in trafficking, which has become a burning issue. Sending 10 to 12 year old girls for domestic work to metropolitan cities is now a common phenomenon. In some places, due to extreme poverty, parents willingly send their minor girls for domestic work to cities through agents with the great hope of becoming rich. These agents often cheat and exploit them. Our tribal Women’s Centre works closely with the district government on this issue. In the past 1 year, we have rescued 30 girls, all between the ages 12 to 21. Except for two, they were all blackmailed on their way to school and lured away by agents. Two were literally sold by their relatives. All these girls were rescued from very unpleasant situations.
Often in rural areas, a girl who has come of age is not sent to school because parents are frightened of the danger of abuse and security on the way. (Child marriage of girls is not an uncommon practice in the rural areas, and when you ask the reason for girls’ early marriage, the common response is, ‘how long should we look after her; it is not a friendly world for the girl who has come of age. In all this, her own desire, her potential, and her freedom are suppressed. Her whole life is manipulated by others for their own convenience. I really feel that every time a girl is not allowed to bloom, her potential is suppressed, or her right to education is denied, we disrespect God who made us in His image and wants us to be instruments of his lasting peace.
Besides this, women are increasingly becoming victims of domestic violence. In the present political scenario, you may be aware of the growing insecurity among the minorities in our country. Christian women become double victims of this violence. Just a few weeks ago, a 71-year-old nun was gang-raped in West Bengal. Like her, thousands of women are victims of rape, trauma, or physical injuries. Presently in India there are 9000 rape cases pending in the courts. Some of them are from the past 8 to 10 years. These are registered cases, but there are many which are not registered. Catholic women are very much part of this deplorable situation.
This tragic situation weakens the woman’s position to contribute fully to the peace-building and reconciliation mission of Jesus. Yet, she remains a wounded healer like Jesus. As Jesus heals people from the cross, and from the cross gave his profound message of forgiveness and reconciliation and gifted us with a peace that the world cannot give, in a same way, women who are wounded . . . hurt . . . discriminated against . . . and considered secondary – they are the channels that bring peace, and contribute so much in building communities and society . . . .
Way Forward
Research shows that women have tremendous potential to influence peace and reconciliation, if they are able to participate in decisions at family, community, local, national and international levels.
The basic definition of reconciliation is a process through which a society moves from a divided past to a shared future. As we have discussed earlier, women in their own right and in their own roles, have been instruments of sustainable peace; yet for us as women it is a `divided’ world where the church and the society hinder rightful status of partnership and equality for the reasons we discussed above.
Unless and until the power equations in our families, communities, society and church do not change, the community will always remain divided and sustainable peace will remain a dream. Woman’s power within needs to be awakened at every level, so that she can participate fully in the peace-building and reconciliation mission of Jesus.
Talking about the church, several pioneering efforts have been made by different groups across the world. Encyclicals have been promulgated to enlighten and guide us in understanding and working towards human dignity and the equality of men and women. In India, systematic efforts have been made to put structures and systems in place to empower women and promote gender equality; as an example, the parish council has an inclusive structure. While what has been done needs to be commended, we are keenly aware that much more needs to be done to invite full participation of women. I feel that the problem will not be resolved with only policies and structural changes, but needs much more a change in attitude. (The Indian church has developed a gender policy, but it will surely take time to percolate down to the grass roots. But, in the light of Gospel, I believe that we all need to make serious efforts to make this policy a reality.)
The vibrancy of the official Church depends much on the active participation and contributions of the members. Women constitute an integral part, and have equal membership in the church; and their contribution is immense. However, their participation and engagement in theological, administrative and spiritual ministries is minimum.
The church recognizes that in the secular world women are becoming more visible and assertive about their role and participation. However, the same is not recognized and reflected in the church. The official church needs to work more on this changing role of women and make efforts to increase the participation of women in theological, administrative, and psycho-spiritual ministries.
My humble submission is that for this to become a reality, the mind-set of men and women in the community, society and church has to be changed. The male domination arising from the ideology of patriarchal society and female subjugation internalised by women has to give way to a new relationship of complementarity and equality. This is possible only if we consider women as agents and not objects of empowerment.
Conclusion
I would like to end my presentation with an example of one from the thousands of women as wounded healers of peace and reconciliation: Saten is a woman of 28. She has completed only grade 6, is married and has three children. She is a member of the village Self-Help-Group. She has two sisters, who are also married. Her father owned 12 acres of land. According to the tribal custom, if there are only girls in the family and if they marry the property goes to their uncle and the girls cannot own anything. Saten’s husband is heavily alcoholic; so she now stays separately with her three children in Torpa. She earns her living by sewing clothes. She really has nothing as her own by way of material support. She is a happy woman always willing to help others. The other day I asked her, “Saten, you received nothing from your father’s side neither from your husband’s side; and I see you as a women of freedom and happiness. What is the secret of your happiness? She said, “Sister, I never miss my Sunday mass and the Eucharist gives me lots of inner strength. Mother Mary’s life is a great inspiration to me. God has made us so special. All the men whom Jesus trusted ran away, but Mother Mary had courage to stand by Jesus on the cross.” The same Saten, in her little speech on women’s day said, “Yedi es duniya mhilao ke takat ko pahachanogi our hum logoko milake kame karne lagiki to ye duniya bahut sundar hoge” (If the world recognizes the worth of women and works with them as partners for promoting peace and reconciliation, our world will be a beautiful place to live in).
((Shafique Khokhar contributed to this article)
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15/11/2005
