it is done today-by pooling their talent and resources and

The first women who joined Banchte Shekha started changing their lives the same way it is done today-by pooling their talent and resources and saving money. Ten paisa, twenty paisa, one taka, ten taka. Enough to buy one chicken, two chickens, ten chickens. When their chickens kept dying, Gomes found a way for two of the women to attend a training program in poultry-raising. Then their project began to bring in a little money, and more women were attracted to the group.

Other income-generating projects began on a trial-and-error basis too-growing silkworms and raising fish, making nakshi kantha (traditional embroidered quilts) and jute crafts, keeping bees, fattening cows and goats.

Their projects weren't successful all of the time, but the women's progress was steady. As one woman learned a new skill, she would pass it on to other women. Soon there would be a whole group in a village earning and saving money. The women of a neighboring village would hear about it and want to participate too.

But the women of Banchte Shekha weren't always well received.

"There were people who did not want us because they did not want to see the women improve themselves," Gomes explains. "If women could create their own jobs, they would not need to be servants in wealthy people's homes. If they knew their rights, they couldn't be tricked or beaten. If they had money, they wouldn't need to go to the moneylenders."

"We had rocks and human excrement thrown at us," says Gomes. "They said that I was a characterless woman because I was not married. They called us prostitutes and claimed we were trying to destroy Muslim family life."

At one point a sixteen-page indictment was drawn up against Gomes, accusing her of being a bad influence on the community. She fought the charges successfully, but decided to take the magistrate's advice-he told her that she would be less vulnerable to such attacks if she had "a foundation under her feet."

In 1981, Gomes created that foundation by registering as a nongovernmental organization called Banchte Shekha. "The aim of Banchte Shekha," she says, "is not to rescue women, but to help them learn to live."

Poor women around Jessore were eager to do just that. By 1985, Banchte Shekha had attracted 5,000 members. That figure more than doubled by 1990, and today there are more than 20,000 members in about 700 village-based groups around Jessore.

In traditional Muslim families, a woman does not leave her home without the permission of her husband or mother-in-law. Unless it's absolutely necessary for survival, she does not work outside the home. She does not even go to the marketplace to shop. The marketplace is the province of men, and Muslim women are taught to avoid contact with men outside their families. So the activities of the Banchte Shekha members are changing generations of training and custom.

Banchte Shekha works with women in groups because the group provides support for women undertaking these changes and because, Gomes says, "the problems of the poor are so big they can't be handled either at the individual or family level."
Village groups are formed with the help of organizers-experienced Banchte Shekha members who go to villages where the women have expressed interest in the program.

"We have a good reputation now, so people want us to come," explains Gomes. "Women hear that relatives in another village are making money, and they want to do it too."