Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations (IFUWA) Triennial report 2013-2016

The Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations (IFUWA) has 14 affiliates and 610 members.

A new team of office-bearers took charge in August 2014, led by Dr. Meena Muthiah as President and Dr. Vineeta Hoon as CIR, from the outgoing President Dr. Vinaybala Mehta and her team.

Prominent activities:

A new annual scholarship has been instituted by President Dr. Meena Muthiah (Kumararani of Chettinad Dr. Meena Muthiah award) to encourage and assist graduate women in their research work. This is in addition to the already existing 2 scholarships given by the Indian federation.

All the associations give annual scholarships to students of schools and colleges. International Women’s Day is celebrated across the country. Many of our members have significant achievements to their credit.

University Women’s Association of Madras, , Mumbai and Benagluru have their own buildings, from which they run working women’s hostels.

Some highlights of activities of our associations:

WGU, Mumbai:

Our Mumbai affiliate, Women Graduates Union, is celebrating its centenary year and has year-long programmes. Some of its recent activities are eye camp held in collaboration with the National Association for the Blind; book discussion as part of Centenary Year Special Programme; talk and presentation on Chiropractic by Dr. Ismat Kanga as part of the Centenary Year Celebrations; an enlightening and interactive programme on ‘Traffic Safety in Mumbai; and distribution of scholarships and a seminar on legal awareness in February 2016.

UWA, Madras:

Activities of the association include giving annual scholarships to deserving college students on International Women’s Day and increasing awareness on organ donation by encouraging students above 18 to pledge their organs. Awareness is created through programmes like quiz competitions, and promotional audios. They also conduct health camps for the public; and train voluntarily teachers of government, govt.-aided and municipal schools to converse and teach better in English (training the trainers)

UWA, Pune:

A seminar “- Let’s ban FGM” was held on 23rd April 2016. Former , Smt. Pratibha , was the chief guest. The programme was organised along with 28 other women NGOs to mark the beginning of a year-long awareness, research with data collection and action program.

The association disbursed scholarships to undergraduate and post-graduate students in October 2014. INR 6,35,000/- approximately was disbursed among 61 girl students. INR 5,40,000/- was received from Individual and corporate donors for the UWA, Pune scholarship program 2014-15.

The association has added 23 new members.

UWA, Thiruvananthapuram:

92 members were added to the association. The association conducted seminars on health problems of women; energy conservation; eradication of mosquitos; nutrition; and dance forms of India. It also conducted Yoga demonstration, traffic awareness class for school children, free consultation on law to women from weaker sections.

UWA,Dehradun:

UWA Dehradun with its aims and objectives towards women emancipation and education is running its adult literacy and vocational training programme since 1996. Currently two centers are functional. Many of its members have won international recognition.

UWA, Calcutta:

The association holds regular programmes through the year. Its important activities include disbursement of scholarships, celebration of Women’s Day, World Literacy Day and Human Rights Day. It organises seminars on important and relevant topics. A recent seminar organised by it was on “Women and Disability.”

UWA, Delhi:

It organised a one-day seminar-cum- interactive workshop "Entrepreneurship: The key to empowerment of women" in collaboration with Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute on March19, 2016 at SSMI, Punjabi Bagh. The seminar cum interactive workshop with around 50 participants had various interactive sessions with eminent speakers and women entrepreneurs.

UWA, Vadodara:

Besides conducting women-centric programmes and distributing scholarships, the association shows a keen interest in manufacturing and distributing sanitary napkins. Its president runs a unit to manufacture low-cost hygienic sanitary napkins.

UWA, Nagpur:

The association celebrated International Women’s Day by felicitating 180 PhD holders. In collaboration with another NGO, the association conducted a fashion show for cancer survivors in July. About 25 women cancer survivors participated in the event.

National seminars & workshops:

UWA, Madras, conducted a seminar on ‘Education and Employment Linkage’ on 14th February 2015.

UWA, Vadodara, conducted a full-day seminar on “Pathways of Development|: A woman’s Perspective” on August 22, 2015

WGU, Mumbai conducted a centenary seminar on “Women’s Empowerment through Law” on February 27, 2016.

UWA, Madras, conducted a seminar on “Violence against women” on July 16, 2016.

UWA, Pune, conducted the seminar “India- Let’s ban FGM” – Awareness, research and action program in April 2016.

Projects:

For the triennium 2014-17, IFUWA decided to have projects on the following three topics:

1) Legal Awareness 2) Manufacture and distribution of low-cost sanitary napkins 3) Training young women (students and teachers) on English speaking

It was also agreed to continue projects started by the federation in previous terms

In keeping with the broad themes, two projects on Legal Awareness were conducted by Project Convener Jyotika Kalra.

UWA, Madras, under the leadership of president Hemal Kanvinde, has a continuous project on training teachers in English speaking.

As already mentioned, UWA, Vadodara, under president Swati Bedekar, has a unit on manufacturing sanitary napkins.

BRPID:

A grant of 1900 Swiss francs was sanctioned by GWI for the project “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Education and Income-Generation Projects,” submitted by UWA, Delhi, on behalf of the Indian federation.

Team members on the project are president of UWA, Delhi, Suman Jain, Ms Anita Malhotra and Ms Alamelu.

Photos:

President of the Indian Federation of University Women's Associations Dr. Meena Muthiah presenting a Tanjore painting to Ms Nandita Singh,President, Women Graduates Union, on its centenary.

UWA, Dehradun, distributing scholarships

A workshop on legal awareness in progress