Jyoti Mahila Samakhya (JMS), Muzaffarpur, Bihar

The Jyoti Mahila Samakhya (JMS) is based out at Khadi Bhandar Road, Near Nai Taleem School, Muzaffarpur and was Registered in 2003 under the Societies Act 1860. JMS was federated into a district level member-based organisation after a decade long extensive mobilisation of the rural poor and socially marginalised women especially belonging to Dalit and Muslim communities, into village level collectives. Mobilisation of grassroots women around issues of gender-based violence, lack of access to rights and entitlements and basic services such as primary health care and education was the key objective of the Mahila Samkahya programme. 

The JMS was envisioned as a member-based platform to amplify issues and interests of the grassroots women as it was difficult for individual Sangha-s to make their voice heard beyond their own villages. The economies of scale were also one of the biggest concerns for the Sangha-s to come together at the district level as the need for knowledge building, training, networking and resource mobilisation could not have been done individually by the Sangha-s. Another concern that motivated the member Sangha-s was to provide their members a sense of solidarity, by being part of a larger group with membership from five blocks, all with very low literacy levels among women and girls. 

Governance Structure: The JMS is a membership-based organisation with village level Sangha-s as primaries. It has a two-tier governance structures, Sanghas at the village level and a General Body at the district level. There is a process of electing the General Body every 5 years in which all the member Sanghas participate through their nominees. Each Sangha nominates one representative to elect 52 members for the General Body, one for each Gram Panchayat covered by the JMS across five Blocks. The members of the General Body select a 14-member executive committee, which includes three office bearers. A transparent process is followed at each step. Generally, the General Body, executive committee and office bearers are elected unopposed. Thus, a bottom-up system of governance has been followed by the JMS. The General Body meets twice in a financial year, and has the power to recall or veto any decision taken by the executive committee. 

Target Group: Muzaffarpur is one of the most under developed districts in Bihar, as per Niti Ayogs’ ranking, a Government of India think tank on policies and programmes. The performance of the district on some of the crucial indicators such as health, education, financial inclusion has remained stagnated for decades. Similarly, with over 38% share of the scheduled castes and Muslims in the overall population (2011 Census) the district makes itself a perfect case for focused interventions. 

The five blocks where JMS has its operations (Mushari, Orai, Gai Ghat, Kurhani and Bochaha), are those with high concentration of socio economically marginalised communities who are Schedule Castes and Muslim. Over 40% of the membership in women’s collectives and adolescent groups belongs to Schedule Castes and Muslims. The remaining membership comes from backward castes. The proportion of women from upper caste is negligible, less than 2%. Another category of women and girls who are actively identified and included in the village level Mahila Sanghas and Kishori Manchs are single, aged, deserted, divorcee, widow and survivors of gender-based violence particularly domestic violence.