A village where women are employed and men are unemployed.

Yes the title says it right. Have you ever heard of a city where women are employed and men are not? Women are smart and men simply drink, eat and sleep? 

Today was an eventful day. There were a series of events which lead to my discovery of some of the startling facts of Anegundi, the small sleepy village bound by four main roads and divided by small bylanes.

I had already heard about Banana fibre workshop and still what I heard was just the names “Banana Fibre Workshop in Anegundi” and “Shama Pawar”.

While we were just wandering near the Chariot which was starting point for us of Anegundi, We came across a white small cubical, and when we walked a bit more towards it, there it was “LIBRARY”. The room was filled with books as usually a library is and for us it was ‘books but no books’ as all of them were in Kanadda. As we entered inside, there was a thin man in check shirt and pant sitting on a desk of librarian. As we asked him can we get some books on history of hampi or Anegundi, he replied why don’t you people learn Kanadda, it will be very helpful for you.  Being in Karnataka, everybody should know Kanadda. There he started from how he knew seven languages and he has been working as a librarian since so many years. Finally he stopped when we reached section where English books were kept. Library was very peaceful as nobody was there and from one window you could see small village houses and chicken living everywhere. I came across this book on history of Anegundi. This book had all the information about Anegundi about how Kishkinda Trust came into play and how Shama Pawar entered and how one of the architecture school from Mumbai had come and other schools and colleges have come and have reformed Anegundi in a way and way how Anegundi has transformed and who all played a role in its progress. After reading about shama Pawar and Banana Fibre workshop, I felt like visiting the workshop as the book stated that the workshop has brought a lot of transformations to the village.

So by one point in mind I left the Library. Asking our way to factory by people, I met a  woman. Geeta her name, she lived right in front of Banana Fibre Factory. When I just casually asked her how much has she studied, to my surprise she had studied her B.A. and she has also worked in press for 2 years. Astonishing it was to find a lady with a BA degree living in such a small village. On being asked why she not works now, she says that “mere ko kaam karne ki zarurat nahi mera pati to pandit hai aur mahine ka 13000 kamata hai. Yes for sure she does not need to work, 13000 per month is enough for a house in Anegundi to survive. But more astonishing was her reply when asked why doesn’t she work in banana fibre factory. She said that she doesn’t want to work as mostly Muslims, backward and those people who are in need of money work there and she was a Brahmin. So then I realised that this peaceful place is not very far away from a typical society and its divisions which in turn means no peace or maybe peace in terms of divisions? Although she did believe that Shama has brought a lot of changes in Anegundi especially for ladies, but still she feels that there are better opportunities in city and hence she wants to move to city.

Next I met Vamsi Krishna, with his  “ degree in hotel management, branding and tourism from UK”, he has been visiting Hampi since last 10 years and he even has worked with the ladies of Banana fibre factory. Hailing from Andhra, he finds Anegundi very peaceful, away from noises of city. He was clad in a traditional attire, short kurta, pants and a side bag. It seemed as if he is amongst one of villagers only but with his own attraction. It was beautiful how this man had completely become an insider in spite of being a complete outsider. Peace did matter a lot! He had earned 3000 when he worked in factory and today he bought stuff worth 3000. He told me many “inside things” of village. He told me that there is one more Banana fibre workshop which is privately run by Meera. He told me that brothers of Royal Family still live here and he also suggested us to talk to Mr. Ramdevaraya.

Next I met Hasina and Raziya in Banana fibre factory. They have been working here since 1997. Inspired by Shama they work very hard. Both of them were muslims They say ”Shama madam humko bolta hai hai ki tumko bahut kaam karna hai aur paisakamana hai. Lately many ladies from their community have been engaged here too. They all earn 100 rupees per day and they come from far villages too. They say ”Madam aaye to sab acha ho gya”. Surely Shama Pawar is like a god to them.

In the Banana Fibre workshop there were a lot of materials made of ropes of Banana fibre such as table mat, door mats, boxes, purses Pencil case, Tea coaster, Water bottle case, Bin and many others, endless list it is.

The next we met a lady on road who took us to her guest house:

Hailing from Bellary, this woman owns a guest house named Saroavara home stay in small sleepy village of Anegundi. Her sons doing engineering, she finds Anegundi having nothing for higher studies of children and no employment either in here. “Sara men khata peeta aur sota hai, women ke lie to Shama ne acha kar dia, women bahut smart hai yahan ka par men ko kuch dhandha nahi hai, koi factory aajaye to acha ho jaey yha”. She feels bad for men wasting their time here.

This lady showed us way to Meera’s workshop where we met Shehnaaz Parveen:

Husband died last year, she did not seem sad on that. “Waste husband hone se kya fayda, isse acha no husband” Clearly she points out at males being unemployed and wasted in Anegundi. “Gents ko yha kuch kaam nahi hai, sab peeta hai bas, ladies ko to factory ki vajah se improvement hai, ye factory ni hua to yha rehna mushkil hai.”

She has 3 daughters and she works 10 to 5 at banana fibre factory for them, to make both the ends meet she works even after timings are over sometimes, she also sells chapatis to women of her locality. With 2000-3000 rupees per month as income, she is surely proud to have been able to pay her daughter’s fee and did not seem to depend on anyone for money.

These facts were really astonishing that women have work here and men do not have anything to do. Later in the day we went to Shama’s cottage where things are sold and we found few women working there and when talking to them, even they declared this fact that men do not have work here. One more thng I realised while talking to people was Muslims work in factories and Hindu women make the ropes out fibre at homes and in this way there is whole connecion in the whole village for Banana fibre products.

Untill I talked to people I had no idea that Banana Fibre factory means so much to them and today I came across two very surprising issues:

• ·         Men in Anegundi do not have work while women have a lot of work
• ·         Muslim ladies work in factory and Hindu ladies work at home for making raw materials.

So my next task becomes validation of these points and finding out reasons for these issues.