Sampark

Sampark's mission is to help vulnerable and poor people, especially women, to gain direct control over and improve their lives. This is achieved through educational interventions primarily aimed at increasing people's income-earning ability Sampark prioritizes empowerment and builds women-owned and managed organizations. Sampark's mission is to work with some of the most vulnerable people, e.g. people who are deprived of their human rights: devadasis (Women who are dedicated to goddesses and not allowed to marry and eventually pushed into the sex trade, women are trafficked and pushed into the sex trade in Nepal, inter-state migrant workers who do not get their rights and e... read more Sampark's mission is to help vulnerable and poor people, especially women, to gain direct control over and improve their lives. This is achieved through educational interventions primarily aimed at increasing people's income-earning ability Sampark prioritizes empowerment and builds women-owned and managed organizations. Sampark's mission is to work with some of the most vulnerable people, e.g. people who are deprived of their human rights: devadasis (Women who are dedicated to goddesses and not allowed to marry and eventually pushed into the sex trade, women are trafficked and pushed into the sex trade in Nepal, inter-state migrant workers who do not get their rights and entitlements, and their children who are deprived of state-provided child care services and school education are the groups among which Sampark works. Sampark adopts a three-pronged strategy for promoting gender equality and social inclusion. It enables access to resources and services provided by the government, and by collective microfinance and enterprise promotion. It creates voice, influence, and agency by promoting people's own institutions such as women's Self Help Groups. These groups come together once a week to pool small savings which are then circulated as loans. Once savings discipline is established, small loans are provided through the NGO or through banks for enterprise start-up and growth. Sampark has so far established 1,500 Self Help Groups of women, six cooperatives in India and one cooperative and union in Nepal covering a total of 21,000 women. It has established the first union of construction workers in the state of Karnataka, has supported 20,000 migrant workers, of which 8,000 have been admitted into the state's Karnataka Construction and Other Workers' Welfare Board, creating access to the state's welfare schemes. Sampark has worked with at least 41,000 women and migrant workers, and over 7,000 children. It currently benefits directly 15,000 families, reaching 60,000 persons. The third strategy includes influencing policy and institutional norms, through which Sampark distills the advocacy agendas and raises these with the government so that they adopt policies that are sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable persons in society. For instance, Sampark has influenced the government to not only admit more and more migrant workers as members who can benefit their schemes, it has also supported the government with data to reach out to these workers at the time of COVID-19 when these workers are being excluded from state support. Sampark has always promoted local leaders among the community, which is evidenced by the establishment and strengthening of cooperatives and unions, led by the community, especially women. These cooperatives have won awards by the district administration and recognized by different ministries and provided with several grants for building their assets and businesses, e.g. lands and buildings for their cooperatives, businesses such as pulses milling, etc. Using these strategies, Sampark achieves its mission of mainstreaming the marginalized sections of society, where marginalization and deprivation could be through sexual exploitation, economic exploitation, or migration.