From Aspiration to Empowerment: Impact of Women's Collectives 2 from Aspiration to Empowerment: Impact of Women's Collectives
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From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives 2 From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO 03 KEY MESSAGE Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Food Processing Industries, Government of India 04 MESSAGE Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Hon’ble Minister of State, MoRD, GoI 05 FOREWORD Shri. Nagendra Nath Sinha Secretary, Department of Rural Development, MoRD, GoI 06 PREFACE Smt. Alka Upadhyaya Additional Secretary, Department of Rural Development, MoRD, GoI 07 MESSAGE Smt. Nita Kejrewal Joint Secretary (DAY NRLM), Department fo Rural Development, MoRD, GoI 08 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 09 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 11 INTRODUCTION 14 CASE STUDIES 1. Andhra Pradesh 13. Meghalaya 2. Arunachal Pradesh 14. Nagaland 3. Assam 15. Odisha 4. Bihar 16. Puducherry 5. Chhattisgarh 17. Rajasthan 6. Gujarat 18. Sikkim 7. Jammu and Kashmir 19. Tamil Nadu 8. Jharkhand 20. Telangana 9. Karnataka 21. Tripura 10. Kerala 22. Uttar Pradesh 11. Maharashtra 23. West Bengal 12. Manipur 91 CONCLUSION 8 From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY- NRLM) and the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE) at LEAD have partnered to prepare this compendium to celebrate the success of women’s journey in addressing a range of social issues through the platform of social action committees set up across village organisations. DAY-NRLM would like to extend gratitude to the State Rural Livelihoods Mission from 23 states, for their support in preparing the case studies of the village organization social action committees (VO-SACs). State Program Managers (SPMs) from these States have provided continuous support in compilation of the document. They include Adap Golo (Arunachal Pradesh); Janaki HVS (Andhra Pradesh); Anindita Deka (Assam); Koel Das (Bihar); Jagjit Minj (Chhattisgarh); Rajendra Patel (Gujarat); Shoeb Afra (Jammu and Kashmir); Nilesh Singh (Jharkhand); Belle Gowda (Karnataka); Sujitha T (Kerala); Binota L (Manipur); Vaishali Thakur (Maharashtra); Ruth Hnamte (Mizoram); Memorial K (Meghalaya); Keni Richa (Nagaland); Khriezovonuo Lhoungu (Nagaland); Bhabana Mohanty (Odisha); Neeru Naruka (Rajasthan); Archana Rai (Sikkim); Kumar (Tamil Nadu), Ravi Pureti (Telengana); Kanika Debbarma (Tripura); Parul Sinha (Uttar Pradesh); Savithry Puviarasan (Puducherry) and Shalini Gupta (West Bengal). We would like to extend our special thanks to Ms. Seema Bhaskaran in leading the process of preparing the compendium. We would also like to thank all the National Resource Persons who have been engaged in preparing the case studies based on field responses. This volume would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of rural women from the VO-SACs who has been constantly challenging the barriers they face to lead a dignified living-individually as well as collectively. We express our appreciation for these women from the following VO-SACs: Arunachal Pradesh - Dapong PLF; Assam- Trinyani; AP - Pileru; Bihar - Lalpari Sagar; Chhattisgarh- Samriddhi; Gujarat - Asha Gram Sakhi Sangh; Jharkhand- Kombakera Ajeevika Mahila Gram Sangathan; Kerala- Vazhayoor ADS; Karnataka- Holealuru GPLF; Jammu and Kashmir- Bhatyar VO; Maharashtra - Parite; Meghalaya- Jarambong; Manipur – Lamyanbi VLF, Kurani; Nagaland - Pfuchamo; Odisha - Godabhanga; Puducherry - Thonda manethan; Rajasthan- Deepak; Sikkim - Yangthang; Tamil Nadu - Veeravanur PLF; Telengana - Ramnagar VO; Tripura - Bhagvati GP Gandachare; UP - Saksham Prerana Gram Sangathan; West Bengal - Baro Atiabari - I Sangha Samabay. Technical Lead: P. Usha Rani, Soumya Kapoor Mehta Editorial Support: Atiya Anis, Preeti Bawa Authors: Aasha Ramesh, Kalamani Arumugam, P. Prashanthi, Moumita Sarkar, Kanika Jha Kingra, Gauri Goyal, Seema Bhaskaran Design: Sakthivel Arumugam, Allan Anthony Alfred M Photo credits: SRLMs from 23 States From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives 9 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ADS Area Development Societies ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist AWW Anaganwadi Worker BDO Block Development Officer CBO Community Based Organisation CDPO Child Development Project Officer CLF Cluster Level Federation CMFCC Community Managed Family Counselling Centre CRP Community Resource Person CRP-CM Community Resource Person - Community Mobiliser CDS Community Development Services DLSA District Legal Services Authority DMMU District Mission Management Unit DWCD Department for Women and Child Development FCC Family Counselling Centre FIR First Information Report GFC Gender Facilitation Centre GPLF Gram Panchayat Level Federation GPP Gender Point Person GPU Gram Panchayat Unit JSLPS Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society 10 From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives KSRLPS Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society MGNREGA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarentee Act MMS Mandala Mahila Samakhya MSAC Mandal Social Action Committee NCRB National Crime Records Bureau NFHS National Family Health Survey NGO Non- Governmental Organisation NRLM National Rural Livelihoods Mission PDS Public Distribution System PLF Panchayat Level Federation SAC Social Action Committee SC Scheduled Caste SERP Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty SHG Self Help Group SRLM State Rural Livelihood Mission SSC Sangha Service Center SVEP Start-up Village Entrepreneur Programme TMMU Tamil Nadu Mission Management Unit VCDC Village Council Development Committee VLF Village Level Federation VLF EC Village Level Federation Executive Committee VO Village Organisation WLL Women Land Literacy ZS Zilla Samakhya ZSAC Zilla Social Action Committee From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives 11 # INTRODUCTION 12 From aspiration to empowerment: Impact of women's collectives In India, DAY-NRLM is the largest government programme working exclusively with rural women, yet there remains the need to move from ‘working with women ‘to working with a ‘gender equality and rights approach’. Rural women face numerous structural and institutional constraints in realising their right to livelihoods, resources, decent work and social protection. NRLM believes that gender mainstreaming should feature in its framework, systems, institutions and processes to achieve sustainable social, economic and political goals that have direct and indirect impact on the quality of life in a community. Gender mainstreaming can be adopted through a multiple-track strategy that combines both integrating gender in its operations, and a more targeted approach. The gender integration approach focuses on shaping policies and programmes in all verticals of NRLM with a gender lens. For example, how can financial inclusion of women be promoted through promoting their individual ownership of bank accounts, or offering them customised financial products that address gender specific vulnerabilities? How can women’s economic identity, independent to that of men, be strengthened? Can women’s control over economic resources be advanced through promoting ownership of assets in their name or women led or women owned enterprises? Or by imparting them skills, market information and technical know-how? Can women’s food security and nutrition levels, and those of their children be improved through promotion of nutrition sensitive agriculture and kitchen gardens? The other approach is a more targeted one, wherein NRLM through differentiated strategies, focuses on the most vulnerable – elderly women, those with disabilities, marginalised women including those belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe groups, trans-genders, Devdasis, those with HIV, single/widowed/divorced women, survivors of violence, trafficked women and so on. The idea is to recognise the extreme vulnerabilities faced by these groups, and ensure targeted use of funds such as the Vulnerability Reduction Fund (VRF) to address their needs. To facilitate gendered social action at the grassroot level and as part of its gender operational strategy, the NRLM has also established several institutional platforms at the village level, which self-help group members can approach in times of need. Prime among them, is the Social Action Committee (SAC), which is to be formed in each village, at the Village Organisation (VO) level, with 3 to 5 Self-Help Group (SHG) leaders as its members. This is supported by a Gender Forum (a more informal body with SHG members) which is to support and guide the SAC. Together, the Gender Forum and the VO-SAC are to prepare a Gender Action Plan to resolve critical gender issues in the village, that may range from, say, prevention of child marriage, to containing alcoholism, strategies to increase participation of women in the Gram Sabha, ownership of women over assets etc. The VO-SACs and Gender Forums are also to set aside some funding from the VRF, monitor progress on actions and report on them to the higher Cluster Level Federation which aggregates agendas for all Village Organisations under them. The Social Action Committee in particular develops a social agenda and gender pledge based on the gender action plan; facilitates the Gender Pledge in every meeting of the VO; facilitates discussion on the social agenda and issues in all meetings of VO; and maintains records of discussions in the meetings, issues received and action taken at the VO level. Since 2018, more From aspiration