Traditional Village of Uttarakhand: An in-depth study (Part- IV)

Author: Kiran Yadav and Dr. Neelam Bhardwaj

GBPUAT, Pantnagar

Note: The description given here is based on the actual study conducted in one of the remote villages of Districy Nainital. The second author is presently the Professor in Department of Agricultural Communication at GBPUAT, under whose guidance the study was conducted. The photographs were taken by the researcher during Transect Walk (one of the PRA exercise conducted at the time of investigation) with the hill women.

Status of women

          Women are in the centre of the family. Though the role of women is very important and crucial in hill economy yet they are still the invisible workers and lead a tough life. Women are actively engaged in all the activities right from the house to the fields. The day of women begins before the sunrise and continues even after the sunset. Women wake up early in the morning and go to the field or forest for fuelwood and fodder collection. Fuelwood collection is the major time taking job of the women of Bhaluti as they are using non-commercial energy sources for cooking. On average hill women spend more than 4-5 hours a day in fuelwood collection and its management. During fuelwood collection they cover a distance of about 4-5 kilometres everyday, carrying a load of 8-10 kg on their heads, backs, and necks.

          Then they freshen up, clean the utensils and kitchen and start preparing meal for the family. They clean the house, take care of their animals by providing fodder, water and do milking and cleaning of the cattle shed. Outdoor work like grinding the wheat, buying the vegetables, oil and other household items are mostly performed by women. Some women prefer to do the fuel wood collection first and then go for other tasks.

          The men in the hills usually do not work either in the fields or in the households. Very few cases were observed where a man was working. Unemployed youth, retired old men, daily laborers after their daily work, and even the school/college going youth usually gather near the shops where they drink tea, read the newspaper, gossip and play cards. Many of them drink local wine in the evening.

     Interaction among women takes place during their work in the field and /or forest, kitchen, during washing clothes etc. sometimes they make courtesy visit to their neighbors. There is no strict parda (veil) system in the village. Women are free to move for marketing and other household activities but they have to cover their head with their saree as a token of respect to the elders.

    During the menstruation period, women are not allowed or they themselves do not enter into the kitchen or place of worship inside or outside the house. This is a social taboo. They sit at a distance and sleep on a blanket laid on the ground during this period. After three days they wash their hairs and take a complete bath. They wash their used blanket, bed sheet and clothes after five days. This is done outside the house and near a natural water stream. They do not touch the pickle or plants with fruits. It is said that, if touched, the fruits will become rotten. If someone in the family or any outside member touches the body by chance, he/she has to be sprinkled with Gangajal/cow's urine/water touched with gold ornament. Then only the person can enter inside the house. During these five days, either the husband or other women in the family does cooking. But the women can go for farm/forest for work. During these days women lead a tough life more so in winter. This practice is not common in urban or semi urban societies these days.

     The sources of entertainment for women are the social gatherings. Besides these television is other source of entertainment. Today the importance of girl's education has been realized by the villagers and girls are being sent to nearby schools and colleges. The principal of the primary school was of the view that due to the burden of household work many girls dropout from the school each year.

       The above features of the village show that village Bhaluti reflects the picture of a traditional Kumauni village in which people follow the rituals and customs. People of this village are engaged in their work and help each other whenever required. Bhaluti is the biggest village among the villages of gramsabha Jeolikote. There were total seventy two families living in the village. Out of these seventy two families, fifty nine families were using non-commercial energy sources for cooking and other household activities. The only source of communication for women was social gatherings like marriages, pooja, katha, naamkaran etc. The women were generally illiterate and they were not aware of the available technologies. Each woman spends between six to seven hours everyday in fuelwood and fodder collection. This involves an uphill climb of five to six kilometer with constant danger from falls. Women spend about four to five hours everyday in cooking. But it was observed that they were unaware of the health hazards caused due to smoke and fuelwood collection. So in order to educate them about indoor air pollution and associated health hazards Low Cost Communication Aids were prepared and used to impart knowledge regarding indoor air pollution which showed significant gain in knowledge of the respondents. They also found that the Low Cost Communication Aids used for the present study were found to be very interesting and easy to understand for women under study.