Read this book! The women described
within these pages demonstrate an extraordinary courage and
determination to not only survive, but to thrive. One of the ways
they shift oppression into small industry supporting struggling
communities is through the action of microcredit, a concept made
famous by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus. Sheila McLeod
Arnopoulos, who has won the GG literary award and is a former
journalism professor, based on trips between 2001 and 2008, spent 21
months in India meeting the grassroots women who put their
communities on the map with their brilliant use of the microcredit
system. She dedicates the book to the Dalits who showed her such
trailblazing courage. The book is organized into 26 chapters, each
with several charming photos telling the story of women facing
extraordinary adversity. Opening with the story of a young woman who
drove the bootlegger out of her rural community, (where moneylenders
were charging as much as 120% on interest) she and her collegues
established self-help groups to escape loan-sharking, enslavement and
dowry deaths, and accessing life-changing microcredit for their
projects. Enslavement, generally to the high-pesticide cotton
crop-picking industry, is extremely common for girls, as child labour
is poorly protected, (according to the 2001 census, there were 65
million child slaves across India). Rural women activists fought back
with a cotton seed collective, forming a federation of 35 villages
and determining there were at least 800 girls enslaved in their
region, many of them sick from pesticide-related illnesses. The group
is slowly making headway, producing profitable pesticide-free cotton
and prohibiting child labour on their crops. The book continues with
stories of literacy campaigns, including education for girls forced
to drop out in order to work in cotton. In each case, they directly
challenge tradition and unite to make a better future for themselves
in the process. In chapter 10, McLeod Arnopoulos visits the Navdanya
farm, and interviews the women in 2004 who are maintaining the
seedbank that grew into the familiar name and made Navdanya the
world-famous story of inspiration it is today. Also of note in the
book are the various examples of Muslim and Hindu women working
side-by-side, during an era of deadly conflict and strife. The author
comments that the streets of Amedebad reminded her of the October
crisis, with tanks in the streets because of sectarian violence.
Despite his, she locates SEWA, the Self-employed Women's Association,
who had organized themselves into cooperatives and unions, and then
started their own bank after existing banks refused to help them.
Through the bank, which allowed the members to pay off debts and take
out loans under very reasonable conditions, the women also accessed
accident and health insurance coverage for their members. The
membership was a mix of Muslim, Hindu and other groups, and offered
literacy programs and leadership programs. Arnopoulos writes,
“consisting of a blend of gutsy young college-educated women
organizers along with steadfast grassroots women leaders from slums
and villages, SEWA was responsible for the formation of a range of
unions covering incense stick-rollers, street vendors, home garment
workers, headlong workers, construction workers, paper-pickers,
bidi-rollers, and more. In addition, over 85 autonomous cooperatives
had been created for several occupational groups.” By reading of
these success stories, we can imagine the hope microcredit offers for
women in Canada, where many ghettos exist, such as those experienced
by women who may have trained for a speciality such as nontraditional
trades but have no support, no possible way to transport their
equipment to work, no way to demonstrate their skills to their market
and are overlooked for jobs younger applicants consistently fill. The
microloan system gives hope to those who have lived below the poverty
line their entire lives in so-called developing and first world
nations alike. Microcredit and the spirit behind microcredit systems
suggests a world where the poor may use their own volition to better
themselves, something that is surely a human right. To use our own
strengths to build a future based on our own basic skills, driven by
our own healthy human ambition and industriousness is a right we find
frequently an issue even in Canada, while in places such as India
where microcredit is used brilliantly by the women in this book, a
future hope in this life-and-death struggle is made a little more
fathomable to millions.
Arnopoulos, S. M. L. (2017). Saris on scooters: How microcredit is Changing Village India. Read How You Want.
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