In Ojhar, changes come to the new generation1
Throughout the tribal regions in the Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh, where the Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women has focused its efforts, jobs are scarce. The economy is for the most part based on family farming of corn, millet, lentils and peanuts. Water is a precious and limited resource, however, and the farms are not very productive.
 Dhedi, far left, stands with her parents and siblings in front of their house in the village of Ojhar, in the Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh. Left to right are Dhedi; Bhaila; Raila; Balwan; Khetla, her mother; Shudi; and Bhur Singh, her father. By tradition, the tribal women in this district do not have last names.
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Although their sturdy adobe and wood frame homes often have electricity, the Bhilai tribesmen in the district still carry bows and iron-tipped arrows, an anachronism that reflects the degree to which most Bhilai remain outside the mainstream of Indian society.
According to the 1981 census, only about 7 percent of the rural population in the district is literate. Of that figure, 10 percent of the males are literate while just 3 percent of the women can read and write. In one recent survey of 335 tribal women in the region, none could read or write.
In those villages where women trained by the Institute have returned there has been a positive impact. In Dhedi's home village of Ojhar, many villagers now proudly show how they have learned to daily clean and keep covered their family water pots. Corn, millet and peppers are stored in neat piles within the homes, and there is a new emphasis on cleanliness.
Last summer, the Bahá'ís of Ojhar formed a Local Spiritual Assembly, providing the community with a new administrative structure for self-development. A decision has been made to start a pre-school for the village's young children, and Dhedi and another village woman who received training from the Institute at Indore will be offered jobs as pre-school teachers.
Dhedi's parents said they were very happy that their daughter was able to go to the Institute and come back with a vocation. "She has learned a good work - how to sew clothes," said Bhur Singh, 50, Dhedi's father. "I'm quite happy with my daughter since the training."
Mr. Singh added that the other facets of Dhedi's training had begun to have a positive impact in Ojhar. "The villagers have now learned to boil the water to drink," Mr. Singh said. "And Dhedi is teaching other people in the village how to cut their clothes and how to sew them."
Dhedi's mother, Khetla, 50, added: "She learned cleanliness. Now she keeps the water pots covered."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Singh said they found it difficult to fully accept many of the changes their daughter was proposing, however. They predicted it would take some time before they were adopted by everyone in the village.
One by-product of the village's association with the Institute, for example, has been a decision by the young men on the Local Spiritual Assembly to stop drinking. In the past, most of the young men in the village spent idle hours drinking tapi, a home-brewed intoxicant made from date palm sap. The result was much fighting and wife abuse. Women trained at the Institute advocated an end to drinking on their return to the village.
"For the older generation, it will be very difficult for them to change," Mr. Singh said. "But this has really affected the younger generation and they will be able to follow this throughout their lives."