H4F — Nila — How it is a story of the empowerment of women?
One of our stories and first of ours and the one which catapulted us to go further is the one which I am gonna write on.
Nila, her name means Moonlight in Tamil, she is our light too as she is our food provider. We all look at the door by breakfast time if she is coming in with her jingling anklets. She had been our house manager for some time, the perks of living in Indian cities, you can outsource such things to them, and it has great employment opportunities for smart women like her. She multiplexes being the shopper, list maker, mender, small-time plumber if needed and of course, the warmth with which she provides us our food. She considers us her family and she is ours and so are her girls, whom we have seen from the time they had been toddlers or new born. Especially the second girl was born, when she was employed with us, I remember her contemplating with me if she should keep her kid or not. The dilemma of a mother from that stratum is if she would be able to provide for more than one kid. By then her partner was an abuser and compulsive drinker. So all the more the question of keeping Srinika was looming on her, and I am happy she allows that beautiful soul to be part of our lives. She is a diva, I hope she grows to be a supermodel, she already has all of that in her. She models her outfits and is insistent on her lip color and truckload of powder on her face. Now Vanilla has both Sreenika and Samantha, who is already a school kid and a visiting husband who comes over for his needs and money.
The story of women in that strata, whenever she used to enunciate her plight, I was only a listener and not a doer. One day wanted to do something and that's when this was presented in one of the dinner table discussions. Glad that Pranav Gupta took it up and did what he did for his second mom as he addressed her.
With @Hundred4Future she started systematically stoving away a small amount from her salary in an account which she could access only at the end of the year when both the girls needed school fees renewal and H4F pitches in with the crowdfunded half. This helps her to be at peace with the fact that be the least her kid's education is not affected in any circumstances. This concept of systematic saving for a cause is a new concept for this strata, and it requires a lot of nudging and refraining from them not to withdraw it for any other exigency. With guards like me and Pranav around it, although she was tempted a lot of times, she was persuaded otherwise. Now isn't it an empowerment story?
As a side note, the husband is forbidden from his assaulting visits with the right measures. Now after all of these in place, Nila is regaining ground, literally and figuratively. This saving pattern elevates mutual dignity, interdependence, and freedom of all members involved. Nila is now basking in her own glory, in her “venillavu”.
