Empower deserted women and widows in rural India

Friends, through this project, we have consistently introduced women who have stood upto challenges of life. Stories of women, gritty and unyielding in the face of hardships - monetary and social; Who ultimately could carve out a niche for one self and their children.

And all this with the support donated by you.

Today, also we have a woman, Mangala Deshmukh who has fought to keep her place in a man's world. A widow, she runs a business of readymade garments and through small loans, makes a decent profit to run her home.

But today we want to also share with you that the impact of economic self-reliance is not limited to just getting enough money to buy food, clothes or books for education.

The economic independence empowers the women and makes her realize the potential that she possess and that her new-found abilities can be used for solving many other challenges that one comes across in life.

Riding on the vehicle of self-confidence and self-realization, Mangala exhorts other women of her village to save money and join Self-Help groups to better their condition. She asks them to get organized and collectively fight for community upliftment.
Under her leadership, they have successfully tackled local issues which were threatening to spiral into big fights.

Like when, a young couple belonging to different castes wanted to marry, but were boycotted by their community for breaking social norms. The women gave their full support and also helped the couple to set their new house with needful things. Today, the parents are also reconciled and happy to include the couple, in their family.

Or when, a  woman suffering from leprosy was shunned and thrown away by her husband once they discovered her disease. But Mangala, once she got information about the curability of the disease brought the woman home, nursed her and took care of her, paid for her medicines and cured her completely. Then she made the husband understand about her disease and brought about their reconciliation. Today the  woman is living happily with her husband and children.  

Mangala undertook various trainings organized by Chetana-Vikas to understand development issues and made her organized women's groups to regularly attend "Gramsabhas" - meetings held for solving issues of the village. The women became vocal about their just demands, made the governing body sanction many schemes like importantly for improving hygiene and sanitation. Today, there are  smokeless stoves and toilets in every home of the village.

Their village was a completely dependent on private money lenders and banks. But through Mangala and her women, all of them became Self-Help group members and today all their work is done through their own savings. The villagers do not need to go to the Bank for their needs.

Apart from that Mangala is an active member, teacher of the 'out of school' learning centre for children of her village. She also regularly organizes trainings & other camps for benefit of the village, to bring in awareness about different and new issues for women, men and youth of village. 

In this way, her economic self-reliance, turned Mangala into a socially conscious and politically empowered active individual. Plus opportunities honed her leadership skills and also made her 'organized group of women' empowered and self-reliant in their own ways.

So, a lamp lights another lamp, showing the light and leading the way.

This would have been difficult to achieve if she had to keep on fending for herself and live a subsistence life, constantly wondering how to  pass another day without worries.

So, please realize that small help from you actually triggers a much bigger change than what it was given for.

So, please add your friends and relatives in your endeavor. Direct them to

<http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empower-deserted-women-and-widows-in-rural-india/,>.  

And also the FB Link.

<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chetana-Vikas/162861643736214.>

Thanking you very much !

Warmly,

Niranjana