Empower Women to Alleviate Poverty

“If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. When women are empowered they will improve their living conditions and this will be reflected in their families and the economy thus helping their community and country” (Mrs Clinton, 4th United Nations Conference, China) It’s the duty of all of us to ensure that women get empowered, socially, economically, academically, politically and in all possible spheres. Empower doesn’t mean giving them the opportunity. It is about enabling them to make their choices as they desired. Empowerment calls for equitable space for women without disparity. Right to education should be inclusive of women and education as a tool should give the desirable space women prefer as her choice of life. Collective and participatory decision making at all levels, ensuring equitable rights irrespective of gender is required to ensure sustainable development.

Empower Women through SHGs

Self Help Group acts as a tool for women’s development. It helps women to overcome the social oppression on their own. The financial inclusion framework and conducive bank linkages have helped women attaining financial independence from the shadow of male dominant societal setup. Women not only acted as financial consumers, but also proved themselves as trustworthy partners in the nation building process. The acumen of women in socioeconomic, cultural and political fronts has blossomed because of the spread of SHG movement.

They haven’t only shouldered their family responsibility, but have contributed at large due to the social exposures they have attained in SHGs. Many families have ensured education of their children.Thanks to the financial support available at will from SHGs. The volume of savings being generated by women SHGs to the tune of Rs. 16,000 crore has demonstrated their desire to grow wealthy to help themselves. They have been accessing bank funds to the tune of Rs.39, 000 crore, having a member loan outstanding of Rs.62, 000 crore is a remarkable achievement considering NPA is only 6.5%. SHGs have not only laid the seeds for development, it has facilitated the transformation of women empowerment more silently creating women entrepreneurs and leaders.

Empower Women through Agriculture

3Agriculture plays an important role in Indian economy. India is considered as land of Small and Marginal farmers. Small and Marginal farmers occupy 85 per cent of total farmers in India. They are involved in agriculture production, national food security and poverty reduction. Of the 70 percent of the people in rural pockets, 60 percent make their income through agriculture.

Women play a crucial role in their family livelihoods and are also the backbone of the rural economy. Mahatma Gandhiji told that development of India lies in rural development. Women occupy 65.5 percent in agriculture and allied activities viz. sowing, transplanting, weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, soil management and also allied economic activities like livestock rearing, fish rearing, vermi-compost preparation, organic manure preparation and value added activities on millets and farm products.

But day to day life, the small and marginal farmers face lot of problems in agriculture production like technology transfer and awareness on various programmes. In Agriculture sector, women are also contributing more to the rural economy, but they don’t get the due recognition from the society. They worked hard in the field compared to men, yet they don’t get equitable wages. Illiteracy, lack of technical knowledge in agriculture production, marketing, farm mechanization and technology based value addition and lack of awareness of collective action, credit linkage, accessing Government schemes and lack of gender balanced policies for farm sector have been a bane to set it right. Hence, women centred initiatives are to be taken to increase the literacy rate and to give technical training and demonstration on the enhancement of crop productivity, value addition of Milk and milk products, etc. This could help a large number of women to make sustainable farming which will alleviate them from poverty gradually.

Empower Women through Health Access

The wellness of women is altogether determined by the economic situation of the family. Women toil themselves at home and at work, giving less priority to their personal well being. Yet the happiness of the family revolves around the well being of the women at home as she takes care of the physical and psychological well being of the members of the family.

A few years back, the facts attributing to the women related wellness indicators were heartening. Constant efforts are being done by the union government and the respective state governments. Yet the progress is not uniform and the gaps are wide spread which needs to be bridged. Here the role of NGOs, development organisations, corporates, volunteers are critical to make the world a better place for women. Changing health landscape seeks collective action of the different stakeholders to work concurrently. Participation of women in the health related policy aspects could help address the gaps in implementation. Ensuring access to the poor is vital to make greater strides in attaining universal health care for all.

Empower Women through Ensuring Educational Access

“Men who learning gain have eyes, men say;< br /> Blockheads’ faces pairs of sores display.”

- Thirukural (Tamil text consisting of couplets dealing with the everyday virtues)

Couplet Explanation: The learned are said to have eyes, but the unlearned have (merely) two sores on their face.

The education is important to human life without it, life is void. 16 Unleashing the Women Power There is a common saying that “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation”. Such is the power of women education. The women literacy rate in India is 65.46% as of 2011. The wide gap in the access to education for women narrates the need for concrete actions to address the issue.

Education to women helps to ensure economic development, health & wellness, informed decision making, participate in social actions, and strengthening grassroots democracy. It acts as a tool for women empowerment, making women independent, productive, participative and active socially and culturally.

Higher education in India is undergoing considerable change. With over 600 million people in India under 25 years old, the system is under tremendous pressure to expand. India’s young population has a huge appetite for education and, as the growth in the size of the middle classes escalates. The UN population division report rightly puts it as, “What we need to ensure is that the women are not left behind in this social transformation, especially the women and girls from poor families”.

Grooming Leadership to Empower Women

We admire and celebrate women in leadership and governance. For example. People adore Indra Gandhi, Arunthathi battacharya and Indira Nooyi for achieving great heights in their leadership roles. Yet the percentage of women leaders is negligible considering world population has approximately 50 per cent women. In fortune 500 companies, only 5.4 percent of the women occupy the leadership role 18 Unleashing the Women Power and only 19 percent of the women in parliament are women members. This reflects the prevailing scenario of male dominance in governance and leadership roles.

Leadership is so important because it is the source of power, can influence public policies which affect human and institutional interactions, and economic and social development. As the power centres are male dominated, they determine the needs of the discriminated half of the society.

A woman in governance plays the important role in social transformation because women engaged in governance have concern for women’s perspectives and also the motherhood nature leads to good governance by and large. This could facilitate and bring the reform in bringing the desired equality and equity. Women participation in political space alone could help bringing the transformational change in empowering women.

How you can help fellow human being

• Donated blood helps save lives every day, and since blood can only be stored for limited amounts of time, there is always a need for more. You have the potential to save three lives every time you donate blood. As an eye, organ and tissue donor, you have the opportunity to save and enhance the lives of more than 50 individuals.
• Cooking, eating together or just sharing food are still some of the most powerful ways that humans connect with each other. Contact local homeless shelters to find out what their food needs are and help the vulnerable poor in your area.
• By donating to a classroom or school, you can make an impact on some of the most vulnerable people in your community — children. They are also some of the most promising and hopeful people!
• Being someone’s mentor is a fantastic opportunity — not just for them, but for you, too! Working with someone as their mentor allows you to hone your best skills, develop talent in your industry or art and even create a legacy. Anyone can be a mentor, because we are all great at something; moreover, as a mentor you get to help younger, less experienced people in your field who may have had less support and resources.
• Looking for a small but meaningful way to make an impact? Try paying it forward. Do a good deed or unsolicited favor for someone you know, or even a total stranger. There are countless ways you can do something small that means the world to the person on the receiving end, and when you do, you inspire them to keep that good feeling going and pay it forward.
• Being a volunteer lets you choose how to make an impact in your community doing something you care about or supporting a cause that matters to you. There is almost no limit to the ways you can volunteer.
• A patient teacher can make a tremendous impact on a student’s life, and can even mean the difference between success and failure, or acceptance to schools and waiting until next year. If you have the skill and time, consider teaching / guiding a student in your area.

Join us in nurturing the value of giving

Realising the gestures of mutuality exist in the community in various forms from its more than three decades of grassroots work, DHAN has poised to further this value among the Collective Institutions promoted by it. DHAN’s experience over these years shows that while initial interest of the poor communities may have been sparked by the idea of economic gain,with the growth and maturity, they realise that the SHGs and federations are means to address other issues and values in their lives and the society at large.

Enabling poor communities to spearhead their own development is a central philosophy of DHAN Foundation. The primacy is on building social capital, which cherishes the values of self-help and mutuality on the basis of which co-operation for the public good becomes possible. Self-governance and self-management are the propelling forces that transform this social capital into sustainable institutions. Communities can exercise their autonomy only when they gain financial capabilities to run their institutions on their own without dependence on external resources for operating their governance and management functions. This can increase people’s sense of control over issues affecting their lives.

Apart from contributing towards their own development in the form of savings and share in the cost of rehabilitation of water resources, they also contribute towards collective wellbeing of their fellow human beings in number of ways. Their natural inclinations to help others are tuned by the Peoples’ Movements of Kalanjiam (Women), Vayalagam (Farmers) and Neidhal (Coastal Communities). These poor communities are committed to these maneuvers not only for visible reasons, but as an external manifestation of what each of them already holds to be significant and meaningful in life.

How Can You Support?

• Participate in the event to show your solidarity by way of GIVING FORWARD.
• Support in the efforts towards promoting GIVING FORWARD by sponsoring the Event and the Cause
• Share this information to your friends, who can contribute in GIVING FORWARD.
• Volunteer to join us in furthering this initiative

About DHAN Foundation

DHAN Foundation is a Development NGO that nurtures professionalism in development work. Driven by the philosophy of “Giving Back to the society”, around 800 professionals drawn from various disciplines such as agriculture, engineering, management and finance are working at the grassroots with the poor communities. These professionals along with local volunteers are engaged in building localised community organisations by organising and enabling the un-organised poor to work with government and banks to claim their entitlements in a cooperative way. DHAN has so far reached over 1.65 million poor families, spread over 78 districts in 14 Indian States. Community banking for poverty eradication and promoting farm based livelihoods through conservation and development of water resources are the major themes of DHAN. Rainfed farming development, democratizing Panchayats, ICT for poverty reduction, coastal conservation and livelihoods are the programmes currently being scaled-up by DHAN. Climate change adaptation, migration, youth and development are the new themes currently being piloted by it. DHAN works with the state and central governments for effecting changes in their policies in favour of the poor by reflecting on their policies in the fields of water conservation, microfinance and livelihoods.