Vocational Training for rural women in India brings unexpected dividends
This article appeared in the October-December 1990 issue of One Country.
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For 18-year-old Dhedi, born and raised in a remote tribal village about 200 kilometers west of this central Indian industrial city, learning how to operate a shiny black pedal-powered sewing machine was the fulfillment of a dream.
Learning to read and write at the same time was an unforeseen fringe benefit that, she now realizes, may prove just as valuable.
 In the remote tribal village of Ojhar, 18-year old Dhedi stands proudly in front of a new sewing machine, purchased with money she won in a literacy learners contest in September. Dhedi learned not only to sew, but also to read and write at the Indore Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women.
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"I've learned tailoring, but reading and writing is also important," said Dhedi, who came to the Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women here last May for a three-month training course that covered not only sewing, but literacy, hygiene and moral education. "When people come to me to get their clothes stitched, I can write their names and write the measurements."
Last September, Dhedi and another young and formerly illiterate trainee from the Institute won first prize in a song-writing competition sponsored by the International Task Force on Literacy in New Delhi. The two women wrote a song extolling the virtues of literacy and set it to a traditional tribal melody. Their competitors included newly literate people from 33 other such organizations in India.
"It is remarkable that these young women have become literate in three months," said J.S. Mathur, the District Collector of Jhabua, home district for many of the Institute's trainees. In India, the District Collector is the top government administrator at the district level."Most government organizations have not been able to accomplish this, even in programs lasting a year."
 The staff of the Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women, shown posing in front of the women's dormitory at the Institute's headquarters in Indore, India. Left to right in the first row are Sundai Bri; Sheelawanti Bai; Rajni Sharma; Bindu; Janek Palta McGilligan, the Institute's director, and Vijayalaxmi. In the second row stands Jimmy McGilligan, the Institute's coordinator and agricultural specialist.
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Although initially conceived as a free vocational training center for village women, the Institute's success at promoting literacy among its trainees reflects how a multi-faceted approach to rural education can produce significant results with a relatively small investment of time and money.
Moral Training A Key
The Institute has been effective, according to its director and others, because of its decision to focus on a specific underprivileged group - young women - and because its curriculum includes moral and spiritual training."Although literacy, vocational and health training are essential, we believe that one of the most important things we do at the Institute is to help these young women recognize their full potential as human beings," said Janek Palta McGilligan, director of the Institute. "This is where the element of moral education comes into play."
The Institute is run by the Bahá'í community of India, and operates on t= he principles central to their beliefs. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of work, the equality of the sexes, the elimination of prejudice, and the dignity of the individual.
"Through training in both practical work and moral principles, tribal women become better equipped to play a leadership role when they return to their villages," said Rashmi Prasad, coordinator of social and economic development for India's national Bahá'í governing council. "It enables them to undertake their own development programs and projects, and to maintain a degree of self-reliance and self-sufficiency."
 Instruction in sewing and tailoring are the Institute's principal offering in vocational education.
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Women who receive training at the Institute are encouraged to return to their communities and share what they have learned, whether reading and writing, health and hygiene techniques, or, even, how to make better decisions as a group.
The women are also encouraged to consult with local Bahá'í governing councils, known as Local Spiritual Assemblies, when they return to their villages. The connection to local Bahá'í communities provides the women with a ready-made network of support for their activities. In several villages in the Jhabua district, for example, Local Spiritual Assemblies are working with trainees from the Institute to establish pre-schools for village children.
"In India, as is well known, women are generally treated as second-class citizens," said Dr. Tahirih K. Vajdi, who helped to found the Institute and is a professor of economics at the University of Indore. "The woman is seen as someone to look after the home and bear children. But at the Institute, they receive a lot of love and attention, and come to understand the principle of the equality of men and women.
"We try to imbue them with self-confidence, so that they know they are very important as individuals, and that they can play an important role in improving their own homes and helping their villages to grow and develop," said Dr. Vajdi.
"We have found that, indeed, when these women return to their villages, they affect their entire communities," Dr. Vajdi added. "They bring back new ideas about health and hygiene. They promote the importance of educating children."
Since its founding in 1983, the Institute has provided training to more than 430 women. Although it operated on a shoestring for many years, recent grants from the Indian and the Canadian governments, as well as funds from the Bahá'í International Community, have recently enabled the Institute to construct a new dormitory with space for 20 trainees, an office and workshop building, and on-site housing for the Institute's director.
The Institute's operating budget of roughly US$19,000 per year comes from both the Bahá'í community of India and from the Indian government, largely through the Council for Advancement of People's Action in Rural Technology (CAPART), an agency of the Ministry of Rural Development.
A Typical Day
The daily schedule for the most recent group of trainees provides a glimpse of how training in the practical and the spiritual are integrated. For the 20 young women who completed the three-month program running from May to August, the day began at 6 a.m., with two hours of work in the Institute's model garden."These women are accustomed to starting their day in the fields, and we don't want them to lose sight of the importance of agriculture," said Jimmy McGilligan, who coordinates the agricultural training component at the Institute. "In the garden, we stress respect for the environment as well as improved techniques of irrigation and the growth of new and improved vegetables."
The women then return to the dormitory and prepare their own breakfast. "The girls plan their own meals and they eat tribal food while they are here," said Mrs. McGilligan. "We don't give them urban-type food. We don't want them to become reliant on foods that are not available in the villages."
From 9 to 11 a.m., the emphasis is on moral education and spiritual principles. This is followed by an hour on health and hygiene - a class which includes training in prenatal and postnatal care and the use of home remedies.
An hour of literacy training follows, with a break for lunch from 1 to 2 p.m. In the afternoon, the emphasis is on vocational training, which includes courses in sewing, weaving, crafts and home management. Instruction in the selection of locally available raw materials for such crafts and in the marketing of finished products is also provided.
"We try to spend an hour each day helping the women express their creativity through these crafts," said Mrs. McGillian. "For example, when they are learning to sew, we encourage them to incorporate traditional tribal designs and patterns into their work. It's important for them to see that they can create designs that are beautiful. This helps them develop confidence that they are human beings of equal status with all other human beings."
In workshop sessions, instruction is also provided on building and using smokeless stoves, which burn scarce fuel more efficiently, and using solar cookers. Although these technologies are not always available in tribal areas now, the Institute seeks to make the women aware of such possibilities for the future.
Throughout the day, the women make their own decisions about what to eat, about what to do in the evening, and on other aspects of dormitory life. These decisions are made as a group, following principles of Bahá'í consultation. Consultation is a technique for non-adversarial decision-making that seeks to include a wide diversity of ideas, information and individuals in community decision-making. It is the preferred technique for decision-making by local Bahá'í governing councils.
In the evening after dinner, the women sing or perform tribal dances or skits. "We encourage pride in their own culture," Mrs. McGilligan said, "so that the training here is a means to strengthen their heritage and not diminish it."