5.4 Chandani’s challenges
Looking at some people sometimes we think that God has cheated them by birth. One of those people is Chandani Basnet – she cannot even stand up properly because of polio. Chandani was born in the impoverished village of Pode, Dharmashtali 9 VDC, on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, 23 years ago.
Pode’s villagers work for others in their fields. Their brick and mud houses have started to crack and they do not have a proper drinking water supply system. There are many other problems in the village as well. From the time she started school, Chandani has been thinking of ways to relieve the problems of her village. However, incapable of having a better life herself, it was difficult for her to work for the welfare of the village, which made her unhappy.
The fact of having a physically impaired body and a financially weak family frustrated her. Her family broke apart when her father married another woman. Because the two wives could not stand each other, her father lives with his younger wife and Chandani with her mother.
She was chosen for the Navajyoti training because of her physical impairment. She considered herself lucky to leave behind the chaos of her house for six months and participate in the training. However, she had an awkward feeling about it because she didn’t know what the training would be like and how her fellow trainees would react to her impairment. She was worried about the Rs 7,000 she would have to raise to pay as fees but when Mahila ko Haat agreed to sponsor her, that problem was solved. After the training began, she realized that its objective was to empower and bring out the leadership qualities of women who were suffering in darkness.
Chandani says, “The leadership development class impressed me a lot because I was always interested in it. I had to stand as a leader in my village. I got lots of strength from this training and now I feel that I can change the face of my village.”
Asked what her major achievement was after the training, she replies, “I no longer feel that I am impaired. I have developed courage and enthusiasm for life. I got a chance to live a life like any normal individual after the training.”
On returning home, Chandani could not at first decide what to do. But because there was no savings and credit group in her village, she formed one, involving 20 Dalit and non-Dalit women. They collected money from members every month and put it under the responsibility of the treasurer, Laxmi Basnet. Chandani had a lot of hope after the group was formed. She had plans of investing the funds according to the needs of the members.
However, she did not realize that there was disagreement between the members. They had quietly started leaving the group, shattering her dreams. At first, the villagers had praised her initiative but the failure of the group made her unhappy. Chandani’s ambition of contributing to the development of the village failed midway.
“I should have informed Navajyoti or Mahila ko Haat when the group started breaking up,” she says now, realizing her mistake. When the group was asked the reason for the disagreement, they said it was because all of their money was collected and held by one person! As Chandani could not control the members, she returned their money to them. Since then, she has not able to restart the group and is very worried about what the future holds for her backward village.
Chandani thought constantly of ways to revive the savings and credit group. Then she realized that everyone had started investing in a cooperative recently established in the village. She says, “Though the group I started failed to survive, I think it was from me that my fellow villagers learned the importance of saving in a group. I am happy that I was at least able to contribute this much to my village.”
When she realized the cooperative had also been established for the welfare of her village – although it was done by someone else – Chandani too started saving with it. Today, she is happy that the cooperative is a success after her own effort failed.
Looking at some people sometimes we think that God has cheated them by birth. One of those people is Chandani Basnet – she cannot even stand up properly because of polio. Chandani was born in the impoverished village of Pode, Dharmashtali 9 VDC, on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, 23 years ago.
Pode’s villagers work for others in their fields. Their brick and mud houses have started to crack and they do not have a proper drinking water supply system. There are many other problems in the village as well. From the time she started school, Chandani has been thinking of ways to relieve the problems of her village. However, incapable of having a better life herself, it was difficult for her to work for the welfare of the village, which made her unhappy.
The fact of having a physically impaired body and a financially weak family frustrated her. Her family broke apart when her father married another woman. Because the two wives could not stand each other, her father lives with his younger wife and Chandani with her mother.
She was chosen for the Navajyoti training because of her physical impairment. She considered herself lucky to leave behind the chaos of her house for six months and participate in the training. However, she had an awkward feeling about it because she didn’t know what the training would be like and how her fellow trainees would react to her impairment. She was worried about the Rs 7,000 she would have to raise to pay as fees but when Mahila ko Haat agreed to sponsor her, that problem was solved. After the training began, she realized that its objective was to empower and bring out the leadership qualities of women who were suffering in darkness.
Chandani says, “The leadership development class impressed me a lot because I was always interested in it. I had to stand as a leader in my village. I got lots of strength from this training and now I feel that I can change the face of my village.”
Asked what her major achievement was after the training, she replies, “I no longer feel that I am impaired. I have developed courage and enthusiasm for life. I got a chance to live a life like any normal individual after the training.”
On returning home, Chandani could not at first decide what to do. But because there was no savings and credit group in her village, she formed one, involving 20 Dalit and non-Dalit women. They collected money from members every month and put it under the responsibility of the treasurer, Laxmi Basnet. Chandani had a lot of hope after the group was formed. She had plans of investing the funds according to the needs of the members.
However, she did not realize that there was disagreement between the members. They had quietly started leaving the group, shattering her dreams. At first, the villagers had praised her initiative but the failure of the group made her unhappy. Chandani’s ambition of contributing to the development of the village failed midway.
“I should have informed Navajyoti or Mahila ko Haat when the group started breaking up,” she says now, realizing her mistake. When the group was asked the reason for the disagreement, they said it was because all of their money was collected and held by one person! As Chandani could not control the members, she returned their money to them. Since then, she has not able to restart the group and is very worried about what the future holds for her backward village.
Chandani thought constantly of ways to revive the savings and credit group. Then she realized that everyone had started investing in a cooperative recently established in the village. She says, “Though the group I started failed to survive, I think it was from me that my fellow villagers learned the importance of saving in a group. I am happy that I was at least able to contribute this much to my village.”
When she realized the cooperative had also been established for the welfare of her village – although it was done by someone else – Chandani too started saving with it. Today, she is happy that the cooperative is a success after her own effort failed.
Chandani thinks her village could do even better if someone from Navajyoti or Mahila ko Haat came to talk to the villagers. Though she has not yet been able to change the face of the village as she expected, she has started leading life like any normal person. Her lesson from life: “It is not easy to spread awareness in a backward society but one should never accept defeat in difficult circumstances.” And she hasn’t.