What’s in a name: Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda

Crazy Girls Gang! How crazy is that? At a meeting with a group of Kishore Balika Sanghams (KBS) or Adolescent Girls Committees from across the project in December 2023, the leader of the first group introduced their KBS as “We are the Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda”. We were both surprised and curious as this was a far cry from the names that the groups had given themselves earlier. Names like Mother Theresa, Rani Laxmi Bai, Savitribai Phule and PV Sindhu - all iconic women who had stood for service, nationalist fervour, education or those who had excelled in sports. But now, from village after village, the groups introduced themselves as ‘Rowdy Girls’, ‘Attitude Queens’, ‘Rising Stars’ and so on, leaving us wanting to know more about this change in mood amongst the adolescent girls in the programme. Where did this energy and attitude come from?

When questioned about these names the responses of the various groups were illustrative. The ‘Rowdy Girls’ group said “Why must boys be labelled as rowdies? We are equal to them and we want to outperform boys”. In the same vein, the ‘Attitude Queens’ explained that girls are generally silent and are not taken seriously. If they had to fight for their rights they needed to have a superior “attitude” like queens.  This was much like other groups that call themselves ‘Princess’, and ‘Veera Vanitha (Empowered Women)’. The KBS that calls itself ‘Rising Stars’ tells us that they have aspirations for education, whereas names like ‘Amulya (precious)’, ‘Ambedkar’ and ‘Lotus’ are all giving a message to society that there is no stopping girls. The ‘Youth Self Committee’ are making a point that girls need to be self-confident and rely only on themselves. Similarly, the ‘Crazy Girls Gang of Thanda’ are iconoclasts in their own way. A thanda is a tribal settlement and all these girls belong to tribal communities that have traditionally been marginalised and excluded from mainstream society. They want to convey that they are inferior to none, they are active and their spirit is limitless. And so, of course, there is also a group that calls itself ‘Freedom’ – they are aiming to respond to injustice and achieve freedom.

These names signify a clear shift in mood and self-perception among the adolescent girls. To understand how this has happened, one has to look at the development of the KBS’s in every village included in the project as well as the supporting activities that are a part of the adolescent girls’ Ika Chaalu programme. The KBS consists of girls aged 11-18 and includes girls both in and out of schools. The groups meet at regular intervals – generally once a month - the field mobilizers are always present and provide them with information and training on gender rights, existing laws and the policies of the State. They are introduced to local bodies like the police, village panchayats, Childline and other relevant institutions. They are sensitised to issues of structural inequities and patriarchal norms and are provided with the tools to address them at every step so that they can move forward towards gender equality and education.

The KBS is also a safe space where the girls share experiences of discrimination at home, in the community and in schools and come up with ideas for how they can make small shifts in the attitude of family members, teachers and the community on gender equality. They are encouraged to draw a map of their village, identifying streets, temples, Anganwadi centres, post offices, schools, gram panchayats, ration shops and other resources available in the village. This is also an occasion for discussing their lack of mobility within the village and marking places that they see as safe and unsafe. Gaining strength from each other, they start venturing out into public spaces that they had never been to before and thus claim their freedom of movement.

Those completing class 10 and secondary school education start mapping/exploring opportunities for higher education and the courses they could opt for. They also take on the task of identifying school dropouts and girls who attend schools irregularly, and start motivating them to get re-enrolled in schools. With time, the girls in the groups have gained the courage to report on issues such as sexual harassment, early marriage, problems in schools, lack of transportation for going to school to Gram Panchayats and Child Rights Protection Forums and seek their support in solving these issues.

During the Pandemic and accompanying lockdowns the KBS’s shifted online. WhatsApp groups became a vehicle for the girls to keep in touch with each other and with the field mobilizers. The lockdown was a difficult time for most families, with lack of work, and shortages of cash and food (See Corona Stories and Why Can’t they Include the History). Girls who were earlier going to school were sent to work in exploitative conditions and some parents started arranging marriages for their daughters. The WhatsApp groups allowed them to share their problems and alert the mobilizers, who could then take action, if there was talk of their own or some other girls’ marriage being arranged.

The girls emerged from the lockdowns with an acute awareness of how easily the hard-won gains of the project in changing gender norms could be reversed and with a realization that it was up to them to not let this happen. With this resolve and renewed confidence, the girls met the Sarpanches (elected heads of local government) to convince them of their need for a dedicated space where they could conduct meetings, start a library, subscribe to a newspaper, buy books for general reading, have a reading room and plan for campaigns on girls’ issues (See Gram Panchayats as Allies).  Some groups conducted local surveys on employment, job opportunities and the educational status of women versus men. In addition, they organized public functions on Independence Day, Republic Day and participated in flag hoisting – activities that were usually undertaken only by boys. There were also groups that conducted programmes along with boys and joined them in sports and games.

On their own initiative, the groups have taken collective action and submitted petitions to authorities for redressal of their grievances, they have held protest demonstrations about the lack of buses to transport them to secondary schools, about the state of toilets and lack of drinking water in schools, the appointment of school teachers, and for stopping sexual harassment on the streets and child marriage. They  have spoken  fearlessly to the police department when taking up specific issues of violence, child marriage and sexual harassment and abuse. They have achieved a measure of success in all these actions. These interactions with functionaries have given them confidence in public speaking, leadership, and interaction with the media.

More recently, the members of the KBSs have decided to consolidate their groups at the State level calling themselves Telangana Aadapillala Samanatva Samakhya  ( TASS – Telangana Adolescent Girls Federation for Gender Equality). Their plan is to become a state-wide movement so they can share their learning on gender and education rights in non-project areas. This is an exciting development and we will track the progress of this movement that has developed organically in future blogs.

What’s in a name indeed? What appears a bit “crazy” at first glance is in fact a reflection of the newfound confidence with which the girls are imbued. It is a loud and clear message that they will do everything in their power to be on par with boys and to be treated as their equals by their families, teachers and the community. These names are the next step on their journey of seeking gender justice and equality.