The tribal community and the economically backward community in Jharkhand’s Khuchidih village had, for the first time, come together for an event. The occasion was a community-building and empowerment program.
The communities that could not entertain the idea of sitting besides each other were breaking their barriers and opening up.
“Both communities belong to different socioeconomic backgrounds. Bringing them together is a difficult task. But once they are brought together, a lot of wonderful things happen,” said Baby Kumari, a social worker working in the villages of Jharkhand with The Art of Living. Baby has been transforming the villages with the help of community-building and empowerment programs of The Art of Living, which transforms the perception of villagers, enabling them to think for their better future.
One of the wonderful things to happen with the coming together of communities in these villages like Khuchidih is a united fight against open-defecation and age-old superstitions.
“The villages where we are working are entrenched with superstitions, as dark as labeling women as witches. We have been able to change mindsets of a few. As a result, women from both communities have come together to rally against these superstitions and practices like open-defecation,” said Baby. She added that ordinary womenfolk have shown immense leadership capabilities while educating other villagers on such issues.
In another instance, the communities heartily united for cleanliness drives. “When both communities work together, they forget their differences,” observed Baby.
Bringing change with community empowerment programs
It all starts with community-building and empowerment programs conducted by Baby initially when she visits a village. Through the program’s powerful breathing techniques and wisdom, the villagers find faith in Baby who serves as a mentor to them. She lends a hand to solve the village’s internal issues and encourages them to eschew their narrow belief systems and embrace one another.
Mukesh Chandra Mahato, a yuvacharya with The Art of Living in Dhunaburu, one of the villages Baby works in, “In our village, a man started believing that the lady in his neighbourhood was a witch because of whom his daughter fell ill frequently. He would often verbally abuse his neighbor. When I got to know about the situation, I asked Baby ji to come at once. We told him that his belief is a superstition. That abusing someone would just get him bad reputation. We eventually changed his mind, for the good.”
While leading the open defecation-free campaign in the district, Baby’s work started showing results as 300 villagers participated in the initiative.
“In villages, even people who have toilets don’t use them. Through our campaign, we educated the villagers about the repercussions of not using toilets. We showed them examples wherein diseases had spread due to this issue,” asserted Baby.
The support of people assured Baby that people wanted change and wanted to change. “Village women would come to me and say they wanted to make the whole state open defecation-free,” beamed Baby.
A hero now, Baby was once fighting depression
Baby is a hero in these villages of Saraikela district. However, there was a time when she was struggling with depression.
“There is a very thin line between being extremely sad and being depressed. Yet, sometimes it becomes difficult to differentiate. I, too, thought that I was sad but then I realised that this feeling was consistent and it was more than being sad. It was actually depression and fighting it was becoming increasingly difficult,” shared Baby.
Coming out of a flashback, she spoke about her moment of transformation, “I was resurrected by my friend who told me to do The Art of Living’s Happiness Program. I readily agreed to do so. This course transformed me into a completely different person. Not only did my depression fade but I was also inspired to enroll for more of these courses.”
As time passed by, Baby gained inspiration from the founder of the program, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and decided to volunteer for the betterment of the society.
“I began my journey as a social worker by understanding the problems of the rural areas and very soon I was organizing programs and campaigns for the welfare of the rural masses,” she said.
Soon, her dedication made her the District Coordinator for Social Projects of Jharkhand. Her key role is to assist the Jharkhand Beacon Gram Panchayat Project - a partnership project between The Art of Living and the government that aims to create role model panchayats in the state. The goals of the project include making a panchayat 100% literate and doubling the income of the panchayats through vocational and corporate training.
In the future, she aims for a plantation drive of 5000 trees in each panchayat. She also wants to implement organic farming training in villages to double the farmer’s income. In addition to her new goals, she will continue making leaders out of the ordinary womenfolk of Jharkhand’s villages.
Written by Vanditaa Kothari
