Empowering the women of Shakti Dayini, India

La Belle Expe had the pleasure of meeting the Adarsh Shiksha Samiti in Udaipur, Rajasthan -India on 27th July and 29th July.

Adarsh Shiksha Samiti is a non-profit organization formed by a group of volunteers in the Salumber block of Udaipur District. The main target group of the organization is the rural resource less poor, mainly the deprived sections of the community, particularly the women and youth living below the poverty line. The organization promises to fulfill the mandate of working towards the promotion of:

• Gender equity, Disability, and social justice for the vulnerable

• Ability to effectively articulate their needs and gain access as well as control over their own resources.

We had the opportunity to meet the Founder Mr. Narayan Sen, who has been contributing to the society since the 1990s. He helped us to understand how the organization has been working on various causes with the help of the national government, domestic NGOs and international organizations. Mr Narayan explained how the organization has reached 160 villages in South Rajasthan. They have worked on following deep root causes:

• Spreading awareness on various Govt. schemes and helping rural people onboard to benefit from those projects

• Upskilling single/divorced/widow women to be financially independent and provide psychological counseling to gain self-confidence in this male dominated society.

• Educating the underprivileged children (4-14 years of age) in self owned schools

• Created 3-5 months skill courses in sewing, jewelry making, mobile repairing, plumbing etc for the uneducated adults (above 16 years of age)

• Initiated a helpline to provide psychological and legal counseling to women suffering from eve teasing, domestic violence or any other type of abuse.

Among all the projects that the organization is working on, we chose to work with the ShaktiDayini (Power Giver) Project - A center for women in crisis. We were able to arrange 3 sewing machines along with 6 scissors for the women associated with the ShaktiDayini project. These machines will be distributed to the training centers run by organizations for upskilling and towards financial independence of abused women.

We also had the opportunity to visit the Sambal - (a support and care hostel) of the Ministry of Women and Child Care, Government of India and the Social Justice and Empowerment Department of the state government. This hostel provides free stay, food, legal + psychological counseling, upskilling opportunities and education for children of abused women. We tried to understand the logistics of the hostel - number of beds = 50, currently occupied beds = 14, upskilling activities = sewing, jewelry making etc, staff members = 12. Women, after feeling confident enough, leave the hostel and try to set up a more independent life. We donated one of the sewing machines to the hostel to be of use in training for women in need.

Dans le bureau de l'association