The women’s movement in India represents diverse social segments, with women from Dalit, tribal, working, lower, middle and high classes, etc., contributing to its strength. What lends a distinctive configuration to the movement is the fact that despite the seemingly disparate social locations of its representatives, the movement per se has shown remarkable affinity to the cause of women. One of the important achievements of the movement has been the creation of a common space, which, among other things, has made it possible to pave the way for joint platforms. However, that such common forums or platforms have not been effective is disappointing.

Over the last two decades, women have shown phenomenal mobility. They are no longer the invisible mass relegated to the backyard of society. In fact, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand — including in the tribal areas — present a changed scenario, with women making their presence felt in all walks of society such as the police, the army, in banking, education and in sports. There is an unmistakable rise in their social status: they are no longer the social pariahs living off the earnings of their male guardians.

However, little has changed in certain aspects of newly created Jharkhand state. The vision of a better life with more educational opportunities for the young and the welfare schemes for the tribal community have only turned into a nightmare for a majority of people. The people of Jharkhand are helpless witnesses to the plunder of their natural resources such as water, land and forests. The initial zeal spawned by the vision of a state of their own has been offset by a sense of gloom as people see their sources of livelihood being destroyed.

Jharkhand is known to be a rich state in terms of natural resources. It is fast emerging as a destination for multinational companies who have appropriated people’s cultivable land. The process has spelled doom for the tribal population. 

The situation of wages is also depressing. People get either a paltry sum of 40 to 50 rupees by way of salary or they are offered substandard food for the work, leaving them with no choice but to seek livelihood in cities. But there too they end up being at the mercy of contractors, who operate through the so-called placement centres.

Statistics show that contractors have taken about two lakh people, including young girls and women, to big urban centres such as Delhi. Contractors stalk the countryside, talking the simple and gullible girls into accepting the deal which invariably leads to bonded labour or even worse. The false promises of money, good clothes and great life often trick these girls into accepting the offer of the contractors. Today almost every city in the country has Jharkhand girls living in horrifying conditions. Most of these girls end up being domestic help in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Goa.

When these girls get jobs as domestic help in rich families, they realise how they have been deceived. The difference in the culture destabilises the girls. They find it difficult to bridge the gap between the life of poverty they have left behind and the world of opulence in the cities. They feel lost in the world of riches and material comforts. While the contractors, who bring the girls to cities, get handsome money, the hapless girls are doomed to miserable lives.

The 10 or 12-year-old girl, who has never been to a city and has no idea of how urban people go about their daily chores, feels miserable when she can not differentiate between a hot water bag, a petticoat or blouse. What ensues in such a situation is highly stressful for the girl child. The employers often get irritated and start resorting to coercive means to get things done.

Seema Kujur, a domestic help, says, “My employer would thrash me so severely that I could not eat anything for days together. I had nothing to comfort myself in the chilly month of December when my employer locked me in a room.” Seema was tortured for over four years. She shudders when she recalls the trauma. “There was not a single day when I did not get beaten by my employer and his family members. All of them were equally cruel. They would just find an excuse to thrash me any time they wanted.”

Seema’s plight is indicative of what tribal women experience as domestic help in big cities. Seema says that four hundred rupees are all she got after four years of service. What happened to her salary is anybody’s guess. It was the middleman who got away with the lion’s share of her salary sending only a trifle amount to the parents of the girl back in village. When contacted, Seema’s parents revealed that the middle man had given them only Rs 2,000.

Physical beating is just one type of violence that women serving as domestic help undergo. Sexual harassment is far more common. However, social norms do not allow the victims to express their grievances. The incidents of sexual harassment leave a deep scar on the victims. Unfortunately, seldom can women take a stand against the oppressors. The rapist or the oppressor is never found guilty; on the other hand, the women who have been sexually harassed are ostracised. Justice still eludes Shushma Badaik, victim of a high-profile police officer’s sexual harassment. The accused officer, Natrajan, has been saying that Shushma is mentally ill and the police have resorted to legal maneuvering to save the accused. It is always the victim who bears the brunt of the crime perpetrated on her.

According to a report published in Prabhat Khabar (22 August 2006) Renuka Chowdhury, the minister for women and child development, raised the issue in Rajya Sabha emphasising the need to enact a law to bring relief to the victims. The minister said that the proposed law would strengthen the existing laws relating to empowerment and awareness processes.

The government may have brought in ambitious schemes such as Sarva shikha abhiyan and Hum sab school chale but there has been little change in women’s life as exploitation has not ceased.

There has been much talk about welfare and rehabilitation schemes for the unfortunate tribal girls; however, the plans have not moved beyond the files. The government claims to have spent crores of rupees on the welfare of these girls but the ground realities remain as bleak as ever. Women deserve a better deal in professions such as teaching, nursing and other emerging sectors of economy. Unfortunately, there exists a mindset that discourages people from seeing women as wage earners. A woman, more often than not, has only a subsidiary role to play in the family income. Only the male member of the family is seen as the natural head of the household. The woman member, thus, is constrained to take up only the fringe activities.

The division of labour in our patriarchal structure operates in such a way that a woman’s contribution is not visible. Even the state does not acknowledge the significance of work they do in the everyday life. Only work performed outside the household is considered ‘productive’ work. This reduces domestic work to non-productive work. Women, therefore, have not been recognised as earning hands in any Census survey.

There is urgent need to recognise women as productive units of society. Perhaps, the way to curb displacement and human trafficking will emerge from such an understanding.