Thanks to an innovative Mahila Samakhya mission in the State, women are slowly coming out of their purdah and taking active part in the spread of education and social reform.

The proof of the growing N with the spread of education comes through in the monthly broadsheet newsletters many of the Samakhya units are bringing out regularly.

For example, the women of Nagal-Rampur-Maniharin-Batiyakheri blocks in Saharanpur district bring out Muh Boli (Word of Mouth), a newsletter which not only seeks to educate women on their rights and the need for education, but also dwells on issues like health and small savings.

"The pradhan (headman) of our village, who works in the court, denied any knowledge of the pension scheme for widows under which they get Rs 5,000 and a house. Of what use is a pradhan whodoes not help poor women?" asks a news item in one of the Muh Boli issues.

Similarly, Mahila Dakiya, another newsletter brought out by the women of Rampuri in Chattrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar district (earlier known as Banda district), tells people about the ills of partaking pan masala and gutkha."It is so harmful that if one pouch of it is poured into half a glass of water and a blade or iron item kept in it, it will melt overnight. If one consumes gutkha, one will suffer from cancer. If these pouches can melt iron, why not human bodies?" says a small piece titled Khul jaye band akal ka tala in Mahila Dakiya.

The Mahila Samakhya mission, currently on in 10 districts, "is a strategy to get women together as groups and discuss issues concerning them without any outside interference", says Vrinda Swarup, in-charge of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) in Uttar Pradesh.

"Once they start discussing matters concerning them, invariably the issue of education comes up after some time as theyrealise many of the ills facing them could be solved if they were educated," she says.

In a village in Sahuji Maharaj district, the women first discussed water shortage in their area and ultimately found they could have solved many of their problems had they known how to read and write.

The women in the area went for basic education and now they are running the water supply scheme there with the help of the state water board and the United Nations Children's Welfare Fund (UNICEF), says the State's principal secretary for education, V K Mittal.

The mission, which is partly Dutch-funded, is being centrally financed in four districts - Banda, Tehri, Saharanpur and Varanasi - while in Allahabad, Etawah, Sitapur, Gorakhpur, Naini and Pauri Garhwal, the money comes from the DPEP scheme. "Under the scheme, every 10 clusters of women has one sahayogini or facilitator, while each village has one sangh or main forum in which the women, usually from the most backward sections, are encouraged to participate," saysSwarup.