West Champaran, Bihar
Women’s Development/Herbal Medicine

Somari Oraon is one of six children. She got married when she was 10 years old. Her in-laws abandoned her because she hadn’t brought any dowry. Soon, she got involved with a missionary organisation which was trying to create people’s awareness and health education. She ran into trouble with insecure local landlords who pressurised her family; and, in turn, her family pressurised her. Ger mother was the only one who stood up for her and argued that she needed to be educated so that she could support herself.

She ran away from home one night to a mission school 20 kms away and hid there for 10 days. She used to cook for the nuns an also took time out to study. The co-ordinator of the organisation, Father Thomas, took a liking to her and encouraged her in every way. Her family found her after 10 days, but she returned to Seva Sadan and continued her studies, earning her keep by cooking.

She would go along with her sisters to other villages where they taught sewing, weaving as well as the use of local herbs to cure diseases. She appeared for the 8^th Class examination when she was 18. At this point her father and sisters grew insecure and stopped teaching her.

A landlord in the neighbourhood had 9 bonded labourers working for him. When they approached the mission with their problems the mission initiated legal action against the landlord. As the landlord was powerful, many were afraid to act as witnesses, but Somari Oraon did and, at the behest of the landlord, spent 24 hours in jail.

In 1990, she approached ALOK (Antyoday Lok Karikram) to work for them and continued her studies side by side. She passed the 10^th Class Exam and sought admission to secondary school. By now, she was supporting her father and 4 sisters.

Despite setbacks in the form of severe health problems, she has been involved in education programmes for women. These include literacy, health education, legal literacy and women’s rights awareness. Somari has also helped women in developing handicraft skills – the goods made by the women will be marketed soon. Somari and her colleague Kanti are starting 10 schools for women. These schools will be run at times convenient for women – the aim will be to provide basic literacy and education relevant to their environment.

Somari has also begun to put down her knowledge of medicinal herbs and their uses on paper. These herbs are locally and plentifully available and can be easily prepared. They will definitely be a far better alternative to the strong, addictive allopathic drugs used and prescribed by local quacks.

Somari Oraon has formed 5 active women’s group at the village level and one meeting was attended by 200 tribal women – something completely unheard of .

She is the only woman in the district trained in carrying out water tests for contamination – even the district hospital does not have the requisite facilities.