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Tag: Women Empowerment

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Education Girl Child Health Livelihood

Improving Education of Slum Children

Improving Education of Slum Children

Education is an opportunity through which society and its people are empowered. It is a tool for economic advancements. Education aids in the social, emotional, and psychological growth of individuals and hence, the community as a whole. However, not all have been able to reap the benefits of the existing education system.

Slum children’s education in India in this context remains a burning issue. A lot of factors combine together, in keeping more than half of India’s school-going children out of school.

Slum Children in India

According to the Census 2011, there are 13.7 million slum households across 63% of India’s towns. The residents of these households include migrants, half of them being among the poorest of the poor. More than eight million children under 6 years live in approximately 49,000 slums. There are 22.72 million children (age group 5-18) living in urban slums who are out of school.*

The migrant population in India is mostly illiterate and constantly on the move, in search of new livelihood opportunities.  Migrant children move with their parents and often lose out on age-appropriate educational opportunities. Often they engage in labor to escape poverty and support their parents.

Access to early childhood care, balanced nutrition, education, health, and recreational facilities are keys to the positive development of children.  However, in places where clean drinking water and two square meals are a struggle, slum children’s education, health and other contributing factors for development will always take a backseat.

Problems in Education of Slum Children

The Right to Education Act 2009 was expected to bring a huge surge of enrolment in urban and rural schools. However, after more than a decade there are millions of children who are out of school in India, most live in urban slums and remote rural areas. A higher proportion of girl children (3.23%)  are out of school than boys (2.77%).

Girls in slums and rural areas are out of school as they are engaged in domestic work or do not go to school to take care of the younger siblings. Boys drop out of school to supplement household incomes. Lack of healthcare facilities, absence of toilets in schools, and lack of proper nutrition also lead to an increase in drop-out rates.

Focusing on Girl Child and Women Education

The cycle of illiteracy will continue if proper steps are not taken in time to reduce drop-out rates, increase enrollment and encourage girl child education and slum children’s education. Mother is a child’s first teacher. When mothers remain uneducated they cannot fully comprehend the value of education for their children. Children of educated mothers have better access to education, proper nutrition, and timely healthcare needs like timely immunization against various diseases.

Health, Education, and Empowerment

Smile Foundation’s vision is to work as a catalyst in bringing sustainable change in the lives of non-privileged children, youth, and women, with a life-cycle approach to development.

The life-cycle approach of development starts with opening the doors of education for slum children, the underprivileged. Smile Foundation’s Mission Education focuses on bringing out-of-school children under the folds of education. So far, more than 3,00,000 children have directly benefitted from the programme.

Health Cannot Wait

Under its healthcare campaign, Health Cannot Wait, Smile Foundation’s mobile medical unit, Smile on Wheels addresses the problems of availability and accessibility of proper healthcare services for children and women, especially in urban slums and rural areas. Health camps are conducted for school-going children. The programme has so far provided free healthcare services to more than 1.5 Million children and families.

Training for Empowerment and Employment

Smile Foundation’s Swabhiman programme works extensively with adolescent girls, young and expecting mothers. Scholarships are also provided to bright young girls who perform exceptionally well in school. Healthcare services; ante-natal and post-natal care are provided to women. Adolescent girls are provided with sanitary napkins to break the stigma around periods and also to encourage attendance at school.

The STeP programme ensures young students from slums and rural areas who drop out of school receive skill training. This is done to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of skilled manpower in the fast emerging services and retail sectors of modern India. More than 75,000 youth have been trained through the e-learning programme and 47,000 have also been placed in over 400 brands. 71 percent of total beneficiaries were girls.

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Women Empowerment

Making Women Empowerment a Men’s Issue

women empowerment NGO
women empowerment NGO

When we hear the words ‘women empowerment’, what is the first thing that comes to our mind? It is when we help women in accessing equal opportunities as men. Whether it is education, health, employment, etc., women should have the same facilities available to them. There are many women empowerment ngo working to alleviate the problems of millions of women across the world.

The Unequal Struggle

Women, who make half the population of the world, struggle with inequality in different areas even today. According to a report, women constitute 24% less of the world’s parliamentarians. Only 5% of the mayors are women. This is the state of political representation of women in the world.

Not just that, women are also paid 24% less than men for similar work. There are still 18 countries in the world where men can decide if women should work. Another disturbing fact is that one in three women are likely to face violence during their lifetime.

These facts explain why women empowerment is an important issue to be discussed. Having said that, if we make this only an issue about women then that defeats the purpose. An important factor here is that men need to take equal responsibility for this culture of inequality. Since men, as seen from the facts above, are socially, politically, and economically in a stronger position, their contribution is extremely crucial for empowering women.

Why Women Empowerment Matter

Women empowerment has been recognized as an important tool of sustainable global development. The United Nations Population Fund, time and again, has emphasized the need for equality. In its Millennium Declaration, 2000, it focused on equality for women through various assertions. It stated:

“No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured.”

“To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.”

“To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.”

Programs aimed towards empowering women have a long-lasting impact for themselves, their families, and also for the nation at large. According to a statistic, as of 2011, every additional year of basic education increased girls’ future earnings by 10–20%, while every additional year of secondary education raised earnings by 15–25%. 

Also, there would be two-thirds fewer adolescent pregnancies and women would have fewer children overall if all females completed secondary education. Women with more education are much more likely to seek out prenatal care and trained delivery attendants, which lowers mother and newborn mortality. 

Mothers who have received education are better equipped to protect their young children from common illnesses like pneumonia and malaria, which could potentially save three million lives. For every $1 invested in programmes that help women engage in income-generating activities, $7 is returned. In a nutshell, empowerment of women creates a much larger impact than we can anticipate.

Women in India

Just like the rest of the world, India too has a problem of gender inequality. Women suffer because of discrimination on various fronts. Globally, females have greater survival rates at birth, are more likely to have healthy development, and are just as likely to attend preschool as boys, yet in India more girls die at birth rate than boys. Additionally, girls are more prone to drop out of school early.

Women also have to face discrimination because of social stigma related to menstruation. Therefore, women empowerment is a crucial area to work upon in a country like India. Indian society has seen reformation over the centuries and decades. In fact, some of the early reformers who fought for women were men.

One of the shining examples is Raja Ramnohun Roy who worked tirelessly for the abolition of Sati practice and succeeded. Thus, the importance of women empowerment in India has been a subject of discussion for centuries now. When India became independent, equality for all, irrespective of their gender or sex, became a fundamental right of all citizens.

Today, the country has various schemes that work in this direction. From the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padao’ campaign to Ujjawala Yojana, the Indian government has been continuously working towards betterment of women in the society. Many of these schemes also focus on the need for men to come forward and participate in this change. This is again important because making women empowerment a men’s issue can expedite the entire process of change.

NGOs and Women Empowerment

Then, there are non-government organisations too which are working in the same direction. The NGO for women empowerment in India has been doing exceptional work for women economic empowerment, social equality, and much more. One of the examples is the ‘Swabhiman’ program by Smile Foundation. The programmme works for women empowerment and was launched in the year 2005.

Since then, the goal has been to empower women through creative community initiatives, support them in their education and livelihoods, help them develop life skills, give them the confidence to seek medical attention and bring about lasting changes in the neighbourhood, and involve both men and boys in the effort to create a society where gender roles are equal.

In conclusion, we can understand why women empowerment is so important for the world. If half of the population is kept away from opportunities, it limits the growth that we can achieve. Imagine the overall positive impact if women were given equal opportunities as men.

Everyone would benefit from it and today we need a more sustainable development. Therefore, making women empowerment a men’s issue is important. This is because society needs to come together and find the social evils. This can only be achieved together and it is the need of the hour.

Categories
Women Empowerment

Women’s Entrepreneurship Training by Smile Foundation

Women’s Entrepreneurship Training by Smile Foundation

Swabhiman means self-respect in English. This women’s empowerment programme was initiated by Smile Foundation in 2005. The programme named Swabhiman by Smile Foundation is specifically aimed at marginalised and socially excluded women and adolescent girls through innovative community practices. The realization of both individual and collective self-esteem, by including men and the community, is a key objective of the programme. Thus, women’s entrepreneurship training is a key aspect of the programme as well. So far, the Swabhiman programme has successfully made a difference in the lives of over 560,000 women and girl children.

One programme, many projects: Surat Nagar, Gurgaon

Under the Swabhiman programme, various targeted projects on the ground are carried out regularly. One such project is the “Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls through Reproductive Health Education and Services” in Surat Nagar Phase 2 in Gurugram. The aim of the project is to empower women and girls by generating awareness and providing them access to quality reproductive and sexual health care. In addition, involvement of men and sensitizing them is an integral part of the project. The focus beneficiary groups included adolescent girls (10-19 years), women in the reproductive age (20-49 years), and men (20-49 years).

Women’s entrepreneurship training through Swabhiman

Another aspect of Swabhiman is women’s entrepreneurship training. As women producers take ownership of their businesses and manage their own profits, they improve their social connectivity and build confidence in business negotiations. An improvement in social status is another significant outcome of the business. As a result of generating significant income to meet household needs, these women also start receiving better treatment in their households and the larger community.

Ruby is a 25-year-old resident of Surat Nagar, Gurgaon. She was born in a remote village in West Bengal and shifted to Gurgaon after her marriage. wShe has studied only up to the 8th grade. For almost four years after she got married, Ruby was a full-time homemaker. She took care of all the household chores. However, a certain uncertainty hangs around her husband’s job at a local factory. In the current economic climate, one can never be sure when they might lose their job. All this made Ruby think about starting her own work and bringing in some income for the family.

Ruby’s Enterprise

Ruby always had an interest in fashion. This and a working knowledge of computers helped Ruby take the first steps towards setting up her business. She received skill training under the women’s entrepreneurship programme of Swabhiman. Along with learning how to stitch, Ruby also got enterprise development training.

After her training, Ruby opened a small boutique in her locality. She took a loan of Rs 1,00,000 from the bank. Initially, she had just one machine and she did all the stitching herself. Now, Ruby not only makes an income for her own family, but she also has 10 employees working at her enterprise! Throughout all this, her husband remained a pillar of support for her.

Use of Online Marketing

Entrepreneurship plays a major role in harnessing knowledge and converting it into a viable product or business through industrial innovation. This is an enviable achievement of Ruby’s boutique. With growing availability of technology and smart devices, Ruby has managed to take her business online. This has enabled her to expand her customer base and business.

Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs

Ruby believes that life and business do not have ‘problems’; she likes to call them challenges instead. Calling anything a challenge can inspire one to fight back harder and come up with innovative means to mitigate the challenge. Ruby likes to face challenges head on and dealing with them.

For her, the biggest challenge was not having a background in fashion. However, her sustained interest in the field, support from family, and the helpful interventions of entrepreneurship training allowed her to learn and adapt very fast. Like any entrepreneur, she went through a period of self-doubt initially. At one point, she even felt like giving up. Yet, she persevered, and ultimately succeeded.

Empowering through Women’s Entrepreneurship Training

Through her business venture, Ruby is contributing significantly to increased production quality, marketing effectiveness, and job creation. She has proactively encouraged women to take up employment in her enterprise. She ensures that they feel safe and there is a family-like atmosphere. In the male-dominated business of clothing and tailoring boutiques, the women who work with Ruby feel they are in good hands as she is a fair and helpful employer.

Ruby’s Achievements

Ruby has raked up quite a list of achievements for herself. Her net income per month is approximately Rs. 15000, after all the payments and loan deductions. With her meticulous and organized business skills, it is only going to grow further.

Taking a cue from Ruby’s initiative, other women in her community have also been inspired to start working, either by taking up a job or starting their own venture.

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