SIFPSA Personality

In this issue, we bring you face with Shahjahan Begum, a rural woman who decided to take up community service as a village level volunteer with a SIFPSA supported project on reproductive and child health, implemented by Kamla Nehru Memorial Trust, a local NGO in Allahabad district. From being a demure, veiled housewife, to a woman who now walks tall as a gram pradhan, Shahjahan Begum's tale is one of grit, determined commitment to making a difference in the lives of the village women and contributing substantially towards SIFPSA's achievements.

Married for the past 22 years, Shahjahan Begum, a mother of five, aged 40, belongs to Daundupur village in Allahabad district. Hailing from a background where talking about family planning and reproductive health issues is a social taboo, Shahjahan Begum broke away from the village stereo type and took up the mantle of a community based distribution (CBD) worker in 1998. Reaching out to women to make them aware about family planning methods by undertaking arduous door-to-door home visits, Begum had to initially face a lot of opposition from people of her community. But her undying commitment to the cause finally brought her social acceptability. Her unrelenting efforts to initiate a dialogue with more and more women on reproductive health issues and to address their concerns and fears, gained her immense popularity. And within a short span of time, Shahjahan Begum was elected the gram pradhan or village headwoman of Daundupur village! For the past 6 years she has been playing a crucial role in helping women, mainly from the muslim community, access family planning services.

Sharing her experiences of working with the community, she confesses, "Initially there was a lot of resentment from people of my community, but thanks to my husband's constant encouragement and support from my organization, I decided not to give up. And slowly I was able to overcome the women's hesitation, by getting them to open up and talk about private and sensitive issues of family planning and reproductive health". Shahjahan Begum recounts with great pride an occasion when she helped save the life of a woman from her village. Her weather-beaten face softens, as she vividly narrates the incident when, late one night, she took Kulsum, who was bleeding excessively, to a nursing home and helped her get a hysterectomy. "To this day I am proud of having saved Kulsum's life. This has left an indelible mark on the village folks, who look up to me as someone who is always available in their time of need and treat me as their good samaritan."

Begum says her greatest achievement in life was, "Stepping out of home to take up community service among village women". Her eyes glow with pride when she recollects getting an award from the District Magistrate for being the best volunteer of the Kamala Nehru Project and being honoured for her work.

Today as the gram pradhan, her opportunity of making an impact on the life of the community is even bigger through various federally funded anti-poverty and rural development programmes. Begum represents a small, but growing number of courageous rural women who broke away from age old traditions and went on to become a SIFPSA village level volunteer and today as a village pradhan, is a community leader in her own right.