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A ray of hope for recognition on a global scale is there for Bihar's two illiterate Dalit women social activists working at the grassroots level. Both of them belong to Lakhnaur Khairi, a non-descript village in Madhubani district. Tiliya Devi in her mid-40s and America Devi in her mid-30s, the two Dalit women associated with the Jhanjharpur-based people's organisation ‘Lok Shakti Sangathan’, are among those on the preliminary list of nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which is to be given to 1,000 women from all over the world jointly. Tiliya Devi, a Mushar woman, fought opposition from all quarters, including in her home, for bringing about a change in the life of her downtrodden community. Along the way, she succeeded in rallying hundreds of women to fight for a better life and take on the might of the upper-caste people who had encroached upon the agricultural land belonging to them. She contested the panchayat elections and has been working as a panchayat samiti member since 2001. America Devi, another Mushar woman, began her career as a social activist about 15 years ago. She dared to take on the Bihar Government — first a minister who had taken over a village pond belonging to Dalits and then the government itself, which had denied Dalits employment opportunities. She not only won both the fights and even forced a re-examination of the government policy. Initially not many were willing to take seriously a few illiterate women protesting without the support of even their husbands, but America changed all that. In the neighbouring Jharkhand, ‘Ayo Aidari Trust’ has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Three tribal women — Munni Hembrom (36), Agnes Murmu (43) and Agatha Baskey (30) — have shown enormous grit and resourcefulness in setting up the organisation, which works for the empowerment of Santhal tribal women, to which they also belong. According to Juhi Jain, the programme coordinator in India, out of 1,000 women who are to be given the Nobel Peace Prize jointly, 157 will be from South Asia, the largest number from any region. There are 16 nominees from Bangladesh, nine from Nepal, 29 from Pakistan, 12 from Sri Lanka and 91 from India. Jain says the number of the nominees from India is the highest. These figures show the immense contribution of South Asian women to peace, justice, human rights and sustainable livelihoods. (Source: The Times of India)
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