As said, the unity is the biggest power of the people because it creates a sense of togetherness that gives the courage to stand against any situation and if it is the case of community, especially women it serves much better and turns impossible into possible.

The above phase is well reflected in the lives of tribal women of Kirkela Gram Panchayat, district of Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, who united themselves and fought against injustice.  When the whole globe was fighting against COVID 19, these women were fighting for their rights and social entitlement.

Around 150 women of three federations of Kirkela Gram Panchayat are a member of 12 SHGs formed by ASHA (Association in Surguja for Human Advancement), one of the partners of Caritas India in Ambikapur district, Chhattisgarh. ASHA the partner organisation being trained by Caritas India on four key strategies pillars i.e. empowering animation, dialogue, volunteering and sharing community, executed the approach on these women SHGs. Initially, the partner organization made efforts to gather them for a meeting but as time passed by, they gradually owned up the process. They started meeting regularly at village and Panchayat level, discussing, dialoguing and volunteering for various village level development work and soon these 12 SHGs turned into the federation.

Since then these women federation have been very active at Gram Panchayat level in raising village issues and getting involved in the dialogues with Gram Sabha and government departments and officers. As a result, a couple of village issues have been solved through their interference.

During COVID 19, when people were struggling to have a square of the meal due to the loss of their livelihood and lack of money to purchase. The Government was devising various plan to mitigate the suffering of marginalized and underprivileged across India, one among them was the provision of free ration at Public service centre (PDS).

But unfortunately, the underprivileged are always overridden by the powerful ones when it comes to implementation of any government schemes, especially in rural India.

The tribal people of Kirkela Gram Panchayat were also one among them who had to face the same. The PDS officer took the advantage of the ignorance of tribal people and did not distribute the ration as per the allotted quota.

However, this issue was brought into the knowledge of federation women during their meeting. They all gathered together and explored into the issues through accessing the distribution list of the beneficiaries from the internet and found that beneficiaries were given less ration not as per the allotted quantity. These women filed a complaint to Gram Panchayat against PDS officer but unfortunately, no action was taken immediately.

Ms. Sunita Lakra from Badal Federation says, Noting the passive reaction from gram Panchayat against PDS officer, we decided to fight against this injustice and decided to meet district collector of Surguja district.’ Thus, women of three federations called for the panchayat level federation meeting and drafted a letter with the support of ASHA team in the name of District Collector against PDS officer.

Hence, some of the leaders of the federation went to Surguja district with ASHA team and submitted the letter to District Collector. Immediately investigation was summoned by DM and PDS officer was found guilty. As a result, he was suspended.  On this account, one of the Federation leaders Ms. Binda Ekka says, the truth cannot be hidden and finally, our people got justice, she also thanked ASHA and Caritas India for empowering us enough to fight for our rights.