Sudhanshu Joshi

Village Lohata is located about 15 Kilometers from the city of Benares or Varanasi. The city itself is best described by American writer Mark Twain 'Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together’. Varanasi is the cultural center because of the river Ganges, a seat of religious significance for Hindus, a centre of learning with a rich tradition of scholarship with five Universities, the birth place of the Benares Gharana exponents of Hindustani classical music, known for its handloom and silk weaving skills and intricate ‘Zari’ or Brocade embroidery, represents in itself the best of the composite culture of India.

Varanasi is famous for its weaving community of Muslim Julahas or Weavers and their hand weaving skills are embellished everyday in myths, legends and folklore. Lohata village has a population of 55000 comprising of families that have for many generations been involved with hand weaving Benarasi silk sarees. ‘The craft is now dying primarily because of the sale of fake Banarasi sarees made in power looms and also because of the sale of cheap imports' as per Dr Rajni Kant working with the community. ‘There wages and net income have declined. In absolute terms, it is now half of what it was five years ago. Payments to weavers are often not made immediately and given through a post-dated check. Most of the weavers are now wageworkers, working for a master weaver or a trader and are totally cut-off from the market. The design function has also gone from their hands to the master weavers or local designers employed by the traders. The import of silk fabric has increased during the last decade, which has adversely impacted the industry’.

This has left the Muslim Julaha or weavers at crossroads in almost a decade. Julahas being traditional weavers have not been able to find any other source of livelihood. The issue of weavers facing hunger has rattled the floor of Parliament many times. The effect of all this is also visible on the education of the girls from the community. While the overall enrollment of girls has increased over the years, the dropout rate of girls from the marginalized and rural sections, especially at the upper primary level onwards, is extremely high. The Muslim and the Dalit girl child are particularly vulnerable in this regard. Besides poverty, non availability of toilet facilities, lack of mobility and issues of security were found to be the additional key barriers to Muslim girls attending school.

Human Welfare Association is an organization working around Varanasi focusing on out of school child laborers particularly from the hard to reach communities facing exclusion in Primary Schools. They initiated a Project Promoting Elementary Schooling (PES) in Eastern Uttar Pradesh from July 2005 with the support of Dachser, Germany, Terra des Homes, Germany. The project is aimed at the children from the Julaha Muslim (minority) communities.

The area is served by five registered Madrasas. These Madrasas attract more than 2500 children. One amongst them, ‘Madarasa Faizul-Uloom’ alone attracts more than 1500 children up to Middle School. These Madrasas have almost 60% of children from the Muslim Julaha or Weaving community. The Muslim community is also shy of sending their daughters far to the school. It feels that the Madrasas located in the village are far more convenient.  Human Welfare Association recognized this and initiated Education Centres upgrading the facilities and offering vocational training and scholarship programme to inspire parents and draw the girls out of their homes and give them the exposure and experience of modern education all within the four walls of the Madrasas. ‘The idea is not to disrupt the comfort level of the parents. They feel a strong sense of security for their daughters with limited mobility in the precincts of the immediate neighbourhood’ comments Dr Rajni Kant.

Human Welfare Association together with UNICEF and Panchayati Raj Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh provided a package of services to draw the Muslim girls to the Madarasas and to synchronise the school syllabus with the one followed by the Government run and assisted schools. The Madrasas were earlier teaching only Urdu and Arabic. They introduced basic education curriculum of the State which includes subjects like Maths, Science, English and Social Sciences. Teachers and Management of the Madrasas were trained by subject matter specialists to focus on teaching techniques, quality and on management of educational institutions. The management of the Madrasas was encouraged to register as Educational Institutions so that they can become entitled to receive aid from the State. They introduced the School Hygiene and Sanitation Programme providing toilet and urinal facilities in the Madarasas along with training of the teachers and management committee. Construction of toilet facilities has resulted in an increase of 20% in school attendance by the Muslim girls from the community. They also promoted a child rights forum to promote school sanitation and hygiene education.

The organization also started vocational training in the Madrasas for adolescent girls in hand embroidery, tailoring, cutting, stitching, painting, Zari/Zardozi, mehndi courses, craft making and beautician training. This was done to attract the girls in the age of 14-18 years to the school and also to leverage the interest of the girls in the age group of 6-14 years so that they know eventually they can also benefit with these courses. Parents were also interested in these vocational programmes being offered in the Madrasas as the dwindling income from the traditional work of Benarasi Sarees was not enough to provide some measure of food security to the family. 

300 girls have been provided Rupees 500 or $ 11 scholarship per month attending 6-10th grades with the support of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, in partnership with the Sri Sivasubramniya Nadar Educational and Charitable Trust founded by Shiv Nadar, Chairman, HCL Technologies as his private initiative. These are called ‘Vidya Gyan Scholarships’ for Muslim and Dalit girls in three districts of Uttar Pradesh. HWA is responsible for the implementation of the Scholarship Programme in Lohata area of Varanasi district. All these girls are being helped separately with additional tutoring to improve upon their English, Maths and Science skills so that they can improve their achievement levels. They have additionally provided resources for 110 girls to receive computer education for period of one year. They have also started a community library to facilitate and improve the reading skills of the girls in the Madrasas.

Seema Bano, daughter of Ali Ahmed is a resident of Rahimpur, Lohata. They are four brothers and three sisters. ‘I like to study but because of the scarcity of money we were not able to study. I learnt Urdu up to Class 5th level. Today I am learning English, Social Sciences, Math and Science’. She used to do Aari or specialized hand embroidery work with her father in the weaving of the Silk Sarees instead of going to school. She did not go to the Primary School, ‘Abba did not like it, the teachers were all Men, Madrasa here in our neighbourhood is conveniently located. This is possible also because now I am receiving scholarship since appearing in a test. I feel confident that I can go to work outside in a shop, in an office or to a call center. I am also learning computer, I can work any where’.

Neha Parveen is the daughter of Wali-ullah. She is resident of Dhanipur, Lohata. She has three bothers and sisters at home and could not have attended the school if there was no scholarship programme. ‘I could not have studied because of poverty. I was helping my father at home in the hand weaving of Silk Sarees, earning Rupees 20 (equal of around 40 cents) per day implanting decorative Tikki’s or tiny pieces on the Sarees’. Then she appeared for the scholarship test offered by the Human Welfare Association. Now she is able to go cycling. ‘I do all the work of the house going in my cycle all over the place and I am a big help to my Abbu, besides doing my studies. I play soccer and cricket in school and want to become a Doctor.

‘I did not go to study. I did not like to study. We are two brothers and two sisters. I used to help my father Amin and mother Rehana Bano doing Tikki’s or tiny decorative pieces on Silk Sarees. All my friends in the village were doing the same work. Now I am in Class 3rd. I think I can achieve anything in life now’, informs Gulafsa Bano.