International Women’s Day | Support Women Empowerment projects | March 08, 2021
Gender equality has been an important sustainable development goal for many countries and organizations for many years now. It is due to relentless efforts of many leaders, activist, feminist authors, journalist, artist, social workers etc. who initiated conversations, highlighted role of women in the society, household and workplace, through their work. Thus, we have come so far in achieving global women empowerment mass movement and #ChoosetoChallenge campaign on this day!
There are millions and more women to thank who inspire us everyday, here are the names of women who are rebuilding societies;
Dr. Jane Goodall, scientist, conservationist, and humanitarian
Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer
Oprah Winfrey was the first black female billionaire and became a generous philanthropist
KK Shailaja, Kerala's health minister, gave a sense of confidence to the people of the State when it was affected by COVID
Melinda Gates, Philanthropist and businesswoman
While we celebrate achievements of women, let’s also take bold steps to empower women who lack the means to overcome social status and inequalities. Below mentioned are statistics from UN Women and World Vision that have identified vulnerable women across the world facing injustice, inequality and lack of humanitarian rights,
Over 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men
An estimated nearly 40 percent of women in wage employment do not have access to social protection.
Women farmers have significantly less access to, control over, and ownership of land and other productive assets compared to their male counterparts
Girls are almost 2.5 times more likely to be out of school in conflict-affected countries than their counterparts in conflict-free countries
1 in 5 women and girls aged 15-49, reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner within 12 months
Women make up 80% of all refugees and displaced people
Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18
Together, let's pledge to address the issues and uplift the women facing inequality and injustice globally. Like other thematic areas, gender equality and women empowerment are complex subject matters, because family, culture, tradition and religion have a lot of influence on the role of women in different societies. It is therefore important to understand these influences and find innovative ways to tackle these challenges pertaining to women equality and empowerment. Some of the trends and projects in this thematic area that have emerged are -
- Gender sensitization,
- Girl child education, women's financial literacy,
- Safe office/working environment, equal pay,
- Policies that uplift and safeguard women (POSH) and girl child,
- Eradicating girl-child marriage,
- Focus on women’s health via - policies, education and awareness,
- Women’s livelihood programs,
- Awareness about gender stereotypes and roles
Therefore, we take this opportunity to share projects from our very driven non-profit implementers that are part of truCSR, focused on promoting Women empowerment and welfare through the following initiatives and reach.
1. Low-Cost Asani Sanitary Napkin for Women, by Women: Gram Vikas Trust
Women from rural areas mostly do not use sanitary napkins due lack of awareness, non-availability at village level, high-cost of marketed napkins and also shame to buy it from male shopkeepers when available. To overcome these all reasons and to make women and girls use sanitary pad for better menstrual hygiene, Gram Vikas trust started Asani sanitary napkin- for women and handmade by women program. In Asani program high quality low-cost sanitary napkin prepared by a group of women and also sale by women at village level. This makes sanitary napkins both accessible and affordable to women in this region and also eliminates the shame involved during purchase from male shopkeepers. This program encourages women empowerment and to dream beyond. Gram Vikas Trust’s goal is to provide basic menstrual awareness and easy accessibility of low cost high quality sanitary napkin at village level.
2. Holistic Empowerment of rural women: Sri Aurobindo Society
Sri Aurobindo Society is an international non–profit NGO, for a very long time, women have generally been kept aside from the process of development. Women have neither been considered for the benefits of development nor for leading the decisions and strategies for development. This illogical misbalance has taken an aggravated dimension in the rural and backward communities where it needs to have focused reparation measures. Sri Aurobindo Society runs a program “SARVAM” to empower women with self-confidence, exposure and independence.
The significant components of the program are as follows,
Self-awareness and Leadership Training
Digital Financial Literacy
Entitlements Awareness
Entrepreneurship
Health and Hygiene
Vulnerable and Marginalized
3. Enabling Empowerment and Participation of Women in Local Governance: Gopabandhu Seva Parishad
Enabling Empowerment and Participation of Women in Local Governance - Through the project, Gopabandhu Seva Parishad intends to address the gap in women’s representation in the political sphere. With effective measures of attitudinal changes in both men and women this is achievable. Education, then becomes the most crucial aspect of this process for both sound social and political awareness for all persons. Dissemination of information regarding their rights as well as duties is essential for Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) and in a way that is informative and empowering for practical roles in a society. In addition, EWRs across different Panchayats will be encouraged to form associations in order to strengthen women’s political empowerment and give them the correct platform for growth. The essential goal is bringing transformation and a fair representation in the lives of people through informed leaders at the grassroots
4. Skill development training program for women and youth: Mata Balak Utkarsha Pratishthan Sangola
MBUP is a non-profit organization working for transformation of rural society in drought prone Sangola taluka in Solapur District of Maharashtra, India. In order to uplift the social and economic status of the people, the program was designed to provide miscellaneous skill training program. This transformational movement was seeded in 1978 by women, of women, for rural women and their children.
The skill development program for women and youth comprises of training for tailoring and fashion designing, beauty therapist (basic and advance), Tally ERP 9, short term training like bag making, spices making, fruit processing etc. The aim of the program is to achieve as under,
To promote employment-oriented skill Development training to the women and youth
To use these groups as a platform for generating awareness on social issues
To encourage self-employment by acting support agency for providing necessary help
To certify them in order to strengthen training placements opportunities for the trained girls and ladies
5. Establishing Support for Pregnant Minors and Rape Survivors - Community Development Centre
Girls belonging to the Balaghat District of Madhya Pradesh have been facing unavailability of food and nutrition, extreme hunger, exposure to diseases, sexual abuse, etc. Many of these girls have been victims of rape, and minor pregnancy. Due to their troubled families, they are unable to get guidance and have to take care of themselves from a very young age. The project intends to aid and abet girls from these backgrounds and provide them with the supplements they require.
The funds raised through this project will go into the work that will be done in terms of building the scope of social security for the underage girls, their specific medical support, food, nutrition, and clothing, regular counseling, and skill-based training for one year.
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