The Mahila Mandalee

The women’s section of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, the Mahila Mandalee, is a group of socially  conscious Hindu women that works towards addressing a range of issues faced by women and children

Mahila Mandalee (meaning women group or collection of women) was established January 8, 1974. It works in collaboration with the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha in the execution of its programmes and activities.
Among the Mandalee’s main programmes are the children’s literacy programmes, skills training for women, promotion of Indian cookery, Diwali children’s party, and programmes to improve the social, educational, cultural and religious awareness of Hindu women in Guyana.
In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, Dr Vindhya Persaud, chairperson of the women’s group, said prior to the Mandalee, many members, including the founding members, were part of the Maha Sabha Girls Club.
However, when the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha was formed in 1974, those persons opened the Mahila Mandalee.
“The founding members included Indranie Persaud, my mother, Chandra Gajraj (Chandra Rambarran at that time), Savitrii Balbahadur and other members.
When the Mandalee was set up it was envisaged, like the Sabha, that there would be branches across the country. There are some branches, but not as many as the Sabha, and what we are doing this year is encouraging all the mandirs to have Mahila Mandalee. Within the mandirs there are groups called Lakshmi Sabha, but we are encouraging them to call it Mahila Mandalee so that we can have a connection which already exists but it’s just a matter of formality,” the chairperson revealed.
Since its inception, the Mandalee has been very much involved in social work and working especially with women to develop and empower them, and also to contribute significantly to children’s education. The Mandalee in the early days focused on teaching women life skills like cookery, and many of them went on to open businesses or used it within their homes. There were cake decorating classes, Indian cookery classes, sewing and embroidery classes, and later on, typewriting classes. Dr Persaud noted that even before the Kendra – where classes are held presently – was built, this group had donated a number of sewing machines to outlying areas and established sewing classes.

In addition, the Mandalee was very instrumental in setting up a cottage industry in Parika. It was a pickling and condiment cottage industry where women, at the expense of the Mandalee, were sent to Carnegie School of Home Economics and trained in various courses. With the members’ expertise and the Canadian International Development Agency’s help, the group was able to set up an infrastructure where it was thought that the women could produce and sell these pickles, peppers, and other condiments. This happened for a while in Parika but unfortunately was discontinued.
However, the Mandalee has been actively involved in working with children for most of its life, and especially in the last 12 to 15 years it has been conducting a bursary programme, awarding money to specially selected students who have excelled in their Grade Six Assessment.
“This year we are holding our tea, fashion and food exhibition in the hope of expanding this programme and hopefully award more children. We also want to develop a literacy programme we started last year where women from the Mandalee, along with their children, volunteer once a week for one hour and teach children from various parts of the country, who come to the Sri Krishna Mandir, to read.
“We have about 30 children attending the class from various levels. We have our executives heading this project. We also hope to start the process of going to various mandirs across the country and initiating this same programme where children can be taught to read in their communities and women can volunteer to help these children. It is also our wish that we can work with women who have problems with literacy. That might be challenging because it’s difficult to get someone to say they can’t read and write, but we are hoping it will be a natural follow-on like what we are doing with the children.
“We know women will be more empowered if they can read and write. They will be able to manage their households much better and also learn about their rights and be able to interact with others comfortably,” Dr Persaud noted.
Part of the funds from the ‘Tea, Fashion and Food Exhibition’ will go towards purchasing reading books, and these will be distributed to various mandirs during the Mandalee’s literacy project.
Dr. Persaud said this will be done in a quiet and systematic way. The reason for this is to not publicize those who are timid because they are unable to read.
“We were also the first to start rangoli at the Kendra. We had a woman who visited the Kendra from India. She was very knowledgeable about mehendi, rangoli and pottery, and we had a number of classes with her. Many of the women who were part of those classes took what they learnt to their communities and so the skills are passing on to others,” the chairperson outlined.
Dr. Persaud added that the Mandalee has kept various seminars throughout the years, addressing social issues, and is presently working on holding a Hindu women seminar conference, where women from all around the country and maybe in the Caribbean would be invited to share their thoughts and views on how women can adapt to their new role as Hindu women in the changing world.
The Mandalee continues to be a vibrant group with various levels of expertise working together to help empower women. For more information visit the ‘Mahila Mandalee – Women’s section Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha’ on Facebook.