HE women of Darjeeling, the picturesque hill station of West Bengal—well known for its spectacular view of the Kanchenjunga, the picture-perfect heritage railway and sprawling tea plantations — lead hard lives. Sunita Thapa (55) explains: “Most men in the town and surrounding villages have no regular employment. They work as coolies, loaders and rickshaw drivers. Women work as domestic help in homes. There are few other avenues of employment. There is a growing incidence of male alcoholism, and associated domestic violence.”
Thapa should know. She has worked for 33 years with Hayden Hall, perhaps the only women’s group in Darjeeling. What started 39 years ago as a student initiative in response to a natural disaster, today has a clear agenda for women’s empowerment — whether it is providing income generation opportunities or taking care of their health care needs.
Noreen Dunne (60), who has been with Hayden Hall since its inception, recalls: “Hayden Hall began in 1968-69. There were terrible landslides and a fire. We students plunged into relief and rehabilitation work, inspired by Father Burns, a Jesuit priest, who taught English literature at North Point (St. Joseph’s College).”
While disbursing food aid and working on low-income housing, Dunne and her fellow-students got to see, first-hand, the problems faced by the poor women and girls of the region.
Radha Karky (57) gave up her ambition of joining the Indian Administrative Service to work with underprivileged women. Now, as the administrative head of Hayden Hall, she has been responsible for introducing managerial systems into the organisation. “Hayden Hall has departments like weaving, childcare, pre-school, housing, health and micro-credit. We grew organically, from one activity to the other, always in response to the needs of women,” she reveals. Today, there are 38 full-time staffers with this non-profit outfit.
Helping women to become economically self-sufficient has positive benefits for the community. So Hayden Hall-run programmes— such as the micro-credit scheme that disburses loans through self-help groups for housing, income generation and education, the health service for remote villages, and the weavers’ initiative for single mothers and abandoned women — are vital for the prosperity of many a household.
Within the premises of the organisation, a two-building complex located in the heart of town, 31 women weavers, 19 knitters and two seamstresses gather every morning. Between them, they weave sling bags, purses, jackets and shawls on small wooden looms, and knit mufflers and cardigans. The exquisite products are then put on sale at the centre itself.
Maya Chhetri (55), the weaving instructor, recalls: “I really needed work many years ago, as I was left with my small children. I had learned to weave as a young girl. Somehow, I joined Hayden Hall, and ever since then my life has looked up.”
According to Alice Peong (35), the production supervisor, all the weavers, knitters and seamstresses at Hayden Hall belong to poor homes. Most are also the sole breadwinners in their families. They are paid on a monthly basis, each one’s income being proportionate to the amount she has produced during the month.
Hayden Hall has provided the facilities of a crèche and pre-school within the spacious complex. At present, there are 67 children, from infants to three-year-olds, at the crèche, while the pre-school accommodates 63 children in the three to five years age group. Weavers and other women working on the premises bring their babies and toddlers with them, knowing they will be well looked after.
Chandra Chettri (60), crèche supervisor, explains: “The mothers are busy working at home, and outside as well. They really needed a crèche. Otherwise the children would have been neglected. We love these children!”
Children in the crèche are active and cheerful, as they play, chatter together, or rest. In the pre-school section, children get to learn rudimentary maths and pick up language skills in the surroundings that are stimulating and colourful. As a boost to their education, Hayden Hall also grants scholarships to children selected from poor families. The scholarship is sufficient to ensure that they are sent to school, right up to the secondary level.
Probably the largest and the most ambitious of Hayden Hall’s initiatives is the Mother and Child Health (MCH) programme, which began in 1982-83 and is now headed by Sister Anne (58), who is a nun. Says she: “I find this work very challenging and would like to do it for as long as I have the strength. I joined 18 years ago. I learnt this work from my colleagues, Sunita Thapa, Laxmi Chhetri, Durga Pradhan and others, who were already seasoned paramedical health workers. They are the backbone of this village health programme.”
Fortyfive paramedics work closely with the government health machinery in villages to provide quality health care that is vital for the local women. The paramedics are local women. They are selected on the basis of their motivation and leadership skills, and provided pre-service as well as in-service health training. As a result of their good work, there have been significant reductions in maternal mortality and child malnutrition levels in the region.
In 1997 Hayden Hall also began its micro-credit scheme, which disburses loans to women through self-help groups (SHGs) that have nearly 3,000 women participants. “The majority of loans,” says Khagen Subba, the coordinator of the micro-credit scheme, “are for housing, income generation and education. Except for dire emergencies, women are careful about returning the loans in time.”
Politics sometimes intrudes into the peaceful environs of Hayden Hall. The recent Gorkhaland agitation had an impact on the Hayden Hall members, too. Says Karky: “I support the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. It is only logical. The majority of the people here are Nepali Gorkhas. So it is a question of identity.” Local women, many closely associated with Hayden Hall, are active members of the movement. Having worked at the grassroots, they bring their experience to bear on the political agitation, and have helped to keep the agitation as grounded and peaceful as possible.
Hayden Hall symbolises, in many ways, the hope that people from varied backgrounds can still work together, struggle peacefully for their rights and advance steadily towards their personal goals.
— WFS
