Women Empowerment

Age old oppressive notions giving way to awakening and empowerment.

Target :
Organize and empower women of traditional fisherfolk and coir-workers communities in 85 villages, numbering about 40,000.

Features
•95% women of fisherfolk community and 80% women of coir-workers community are unemployed.
•Totally depending on men for living and bear negative social image.
•Exploited by money lenders, who charge 36% to 120% interest on loans.
•Victims of social evils like dowry system and alcoholism.

Mode of Operation
•Organizing under Micro Cooperatives called Self Help Groups (SHGs) and empower through various training and exposure programmes.
•Promoting micro-credit supported enterprises both to find employment and to earn an income.
•Sensitization of womanhood for gender equity.
•Positioning women as authentic agents of family and community development.

In an area where 95% women have no employment, the emergence of Micro Cooperatives of women brought in rays of new hope and enthusiasm. Women in these villages were a neglected lot, destined to remain in the backyards of social life bearing an unequal status with men. The main reasons for this situation were lack of education (both formal and non-formal) and lack of employment to have a source of income. The awareness building programmes of Samhathi made them aware of the socio-economic and political factors that caused the backwardness in their lives and family at large. This made them capable to identify the factors against which they had to fight to bring light to their lives. The small savings helped them to free themselves from the exploitation of local money lenders. For generations they were depending on the local money lenders for their financial needs and the money lenders have been exploiting this illiterate lot by charging interests ranging from 36% to 120%. Most of the women in our Cooperatives are free from these parasites. Having freed from the money lenders the cooperatives are now availing loan facilities of Samhathi's People's Bank and other financial institutions to start various income generation activities. Thus a number of them are already having their own source of income to supplement their family income. Samhathi helps them in getting the financial support, trainings in various trades, setting up small production units and in marketing their products both within and outside India. Result is that they are proving themselves powerful enough to play vital roles in the progress of their community. They are no more shadows of men but human beings with own status and dignity. They are not just dependant beings, but equal partners. By keeping up this momentum and tempo, we are sure these simple village women would play significant role in leading the exploited and backward communities to the shores of self-reliance and development. The cooperation from various government departments, organizations and the most valuable support from Samhathi-Europe play important back up roles in this historic process.