“The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.”
– Aung San Suu Kyi
Professor Shyamala Varadarajan (Shyamala Ji) life’s mission is to empower women to assert their rights without sacrificing family harmony. For example, Shyamala Ji encouraged Mehrunissa to collect her Mehar (bride money) for its intended purpose of personal financial security. She also supported 13 year old Rajia to convince her family to continue Rajia’s education instead of compelling her to marry. Now Rajia teaches and tailors to support not only herself but also her family.
A professor of botany, Shyamala Ji’s journey to promote gender equality began in 1982 when she moved from Chennai to Bijapur to join her husband, a professor in engineering. Shyamala Ji was struck by the gender imbalance she encountered in Bijapur. In 1983, Shyamala Ji and some friends organized camps to educate women about their legal, educational and property rights, and to counsel women on domestic violence related issues. As more and more people came forward to ask for information, Shyamala Ji created informal community-based response groups in each of the villages. These community-based response groups formed the foundation of Spurthi Mahila Mandal (“SMM”). SMM slowly expanded to offer other services such as health check-ups, livelihoods training, and educational opportunities.
Today, SMM operates with nine full-time and nine part-time staff members. SMM reaches more than 70 villages with 90 community-based response groups. SMM has linked its community-based response groups to government organizations, influential individuals and private institutions for livelihood, education, and health services. These response groups also help implement and monitor projects within the villages. Many response group members take part in educational monitoring boards, debate issues in the Gram Sabhas (village government), and proactively solve problems.
SMM has formed more than 130 self-help groups to assist with the economic empowerment of local women. The organization has also identified women with the motivation to start a business and linked them to government institutions and banks for training and seed money. SMM has also helped women obtain raw materials to run businesses and market their products. SMM has supported more than 60 businesses established by women, such as tailoring, embroidery, screen printing, chips making, telephone booth operation, ironing shop, and patty shops. The self-help groups also run group enterprises such as textile shops, readymade garment shops, and children’s clothing shops. Takkae village in the Bijapur area has a readymade garment making center with 18 women earning their livelihoods and 38 women in training. SMM both runs and does the marketing for the center.
More recently SMM has also begun to focus on adolescent girls empowerment – emphasizing health and education. The school dropout rate for girls in Bijapur spikes between the ages of 13 and 17. SMM sees adolescence as a transformative age for girls where proper guidance is necessary for healthy and positive mental development. SMM runs camps in 20 village schools to provide information and counseling on reproductive health, hygiene, and HIV/AIDS. SMM also mobilizes local resources via its community-based response groups to provide additional support for teenage girls.
Need for Project:
SMM currently has more than 90 community-based response groups in more than 70 villages. SMM plans to expand its network to 20 villages in the region of Bijapur, Karnataka. The goal in creating these new community-based response groups is to empower women to solve local issues themselves. In 2009, the organization focused on building awareness, providing basic leadership training, and supporting more than 60 women in businesses such as tailoring, embroidery and screen printing.
As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will assist in establishing community-based response groups in 20 villages. You will help empower the groups through trainings, awareness campaigns, and income-generating activities. Initially, you should build relationships with local women and understand their concerns through community immersion. This will require you to involve yourself in the daily lives of the women. You will also participate in current awareness programs to educate women about legal rights and general community information.
Next, you will identify interested women and assist to organize cohesive groups. You will be expected to educate the members of each group on local issues and the resources available to them. Improving group dynamics and cooperation will be an important part of this phase as strong intra-group bonds will make the women’s groups more effective and long-lasting.
The last phase of the project will be focused on making each group self-sustainable. You will help the groups self-organize microfinance programs, training sessions, health checkups, and other services based on the group’s needs. You should link the newly formed community-based response groups to organizations that can assist them with village development, and/or empowerment.
At the end of the project, you will gather feedback from the community and examine the project’s effectiveness, as well as recommend further improvements.
Target Community:
Your target community will be women between the ages of 18 and 40. Most of the families are landless farmers and subsistence farming offers little scope for earning a decent income. Women cut grass, pull weeds, water fields, feed and care for the animals, as well as and manage the house. Drought is a regular occurrence and families usually migrate in search of labor during times of drought.
Objectives:
• To establish new community-based response groups in adjacent villages
• To develop individual and group leadership via the community-based response groups
• To help organize trainings, health check-ups, and income-generating activities
Challenges:
• Coordinating meeting times in light of the women’s busy family and farming responsibilities
• Maintaining continuity of the groups in case of seasonal migration
• Teaching new skills to women who are not accustomed to formal classroom education
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case SMM – will be hosting two to four Fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 Fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps Fellows, your focus is to empower women through awareness on health, education and rights. Team members will focus on different areas including promoting adolescent health and building self-reliant groups.
You will live with a family in the village of Kannur. Simple vegetarian food will be provided by the family. You will do your own laundry and chores and will be expected to assist with family responsibilities. The nearest major town of Bijapur is 30km from the village. Buses and jeeps run for Bijapur from 6am to 6pm. International calling is available in the village. Internet facilities are not available in the village, but can be accessed at the SMM Bijapur head office. For local transportation, you may ride a bicycle and/or travel tandem on staff motorcycles when available.
The language spoken at SMM is Kannada. For this project, a basic knowledge of Kannada is required. If you do not have basic knowledge of Kannada, you can still apply if you can commit to learning the language before the start of your Fellowship year.
Please explain the qualifications that make you a strong candidate for this project - be sure to elaborate on any experiences working with women.
2.
The women in your community manage family and farming responsibilities throughout most of the day and find it difficult to make time for weekly meetings. How will you convince the women of the response groups to make time for weekly meetings? How will you convince them of the power of the collective to create change?
3.
Describe a time when you worked toward a goal knowing that you may not see it realized. How did you sustain your motivation in this situation? How did you detach yourself from the results and focus on the process?
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