Description & Outcome |
This “Gender Equity and Women Empowerment” project facilitated women’s empowerment through building their economic independence.
The key strategies of the project were the formation of:
• Women ‘Sanghas’
• Self Help Groups (SHGs).
The Sanghas facilitated the education of women on available opportunities, empowering them with raised confidence and self esteem. Other Sangha activities included periodic ‘shramadhana’ (community service) programs motivating the villagers to participate in activities leading to village cleanliness. The Sanghas also conducted community education programs especially reaching out to women and adolescents. Topics dealt with included promotion of girl-child education, health and hygiene awareness, education on ill effects of alcoholism, eradication of child labour and environment preservation. HIV/AIDS and sexual health awareness programs comprising condom education, demonstration and distribution, education on STDs, Reproductive Tract Infections and personal hygiene were also often conducted by the Women Sanghas at the Gram Panchayat and Taluka Panchayat’s meetings.
The SHGs used an internal lending facility to disburse loans for income generating economic activities to more than 300 women members. These were used for starting small economic activities related to cattle rearing, grocery shops, petty shops, cloth shops, tailoring, auto-rickshaws, agriculture and saw mill operations.
The project reached out to over 2145 women in 35 villages of Kunigal taluka and led to the formation of 50 SHGs. A creditable outcome was that all the 300 loans disbursed by the SHGs were repaid without a single default even on the interest instalments!
|