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Clinton visits

Naila village

to learn plight

of rural women

NAILA VILLAGE (India): President Bill Clinton, taking a break from high-stakes diplomacy, struck out into the Indian hinterland on Thursday to learn about the plight of rural women.

Clinton, on a six-day tour of South Asia, visited the village of Naila in the north Indian state of Rajasthan to learn about projects to improve the economic and social conditions for rural women.

Later, he would visit Ranthambhore national park to see a preserve for India's endangered tiger population.

In Naila, women sang a song of their plight as they greeted him in a courtyard at the village town council. They placed a long flowered "Mala" or garland around his neck and showered him with red and yellow flower petals.

"Awake women of my land. It's time we empowered ourselves," they sang in Hindi.

With flower petals still sticking to his hair, Clinton sat inside a room with a circle of 15 women dressed in traditional brightly coloured silk dresses, with their heads covered.

The women, from Naila and surrounding villages in the north India desert state were heads of groups set up to help women, who a few years ago were restricted to their homes, not allowed to speak to men and required to wear a veil.

Among their initiatives was a women's run cooperative which collects and sells milk to a dairy directly, cutting out the middleman.

The Dhoblai cooperative has provided work for women, a godsend particularly for widows who are traditionally treated badly in rural India.

The women now advocate equal pay for equal work, better schooling for girls, higher status for women, and the prevention of child marriage and domestic violence against them.

Asked by Clinton whether any of the men in their villages supported what they were doing, they nodded. "When we started the programme men did not support us. This was about 15 years ago. Today, a number of them do," said Maya Meena, 35.

Clinton usually makes at least one such village trip on his foreign tours in the developing world, often at the urging of his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But the precedent for such presidential visits in India is not good.-Reuters