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Currently, we are running a 2 years long project in Jodhpur called "Empowerment of women from the 'Harijan' (untouchable) Community".
Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan, rests in western India surrounded by the Thar Desert, nomadic tribes, and poverty. Widows, abandonened wives, and women of harijan (“untouchables”) caste are significantly affected by impoverishment, which combined with traditional gender roles, cultural and religious beliefs, and superstition prevents these women from earning an income and becoming financially self-sufficient.
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A solution:
Sambhali Trust, a grass root effort, empowers women through providing education and economic opportunities.
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Teaching women new skills (six months training) |
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Provide paid work with the help of Sambhali India and Durag Niwas Guesthouse |
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Provide safe and clean workshops |
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Provide basic human right education, health and hygiene education and information on the development in urban and rural areas |
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Individual bank accounts |
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Personality development |
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Build confidence and self esteem |
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Socializing skills |
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English lessons (basic) |
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Health and hygiene lessons for their families and communities |
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Anti domestic violence information and information on women laws |
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AIDS/HIV awareness program |
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Keeping Indian traditional skills alive by teaching others |
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Weekly schedule |
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Sunday: general knowledge, excursions (for example to the zoo, museums, educational movies) and other educational activities |
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Monday: basic English, Embroidery, other cultural activities |
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Tuesday: basic English, Tie and Dye, other cultural activities |
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Wednesday: Sewing, beading, Patch work and other stitching activities, basic English, learning traditional dancing or other cultural activities |
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Thursday: Block printing, basic English, or other c. a. |
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Friday: Screen printing, basic English, or other c. a. |
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Saturday: free day |
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News of Sambhali Trust spreads through word of mouth and the response has been overwhelming.
Current financial resources do not allow us to take more than 20 women and girls to enter the program each year. Each group, located in Jodhpur, receives six months of textile–production training from local Jodhpur artisans in block printing, screen-printing, tie and dye and embroidery, and we are in search of teachers who can find some time to teach our participants to make toys and handicraft from recycled materials.
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About the women and/or girls served by Sambhali Trust’s Project “Helping to empower women from the untouchable community”
Our women and girls, married and unmarried, come from one of the untouchable ’Dalit’ community of Jodhpur, the Harijans are also known as the "Children of God", as Ghandi called them.
The women and girls we work with have had some or no education at all and very little family support. We are trying to help those who have no words to speak for themselves, those who have never raised their voice when they were tortured physically and mentally. We are trying to encourage women and girls to come out of the family shell and not just dream for freedom, but actually fight for it. Our girls age from 8 to 38 years old have been the victims of abuse and subordination. They are often considered burden when unmarried, treated like servants when married, and only valued for their ability to give birth to boys. We encourage our girls to enjoy the freedom to speech, awareness of their basic law, to be independent financially, and to be educated and strong role models in their community.
Stories from Harijan women benefiting from our programs:
1. Independence
Meera one of our participants and mother of 2 children, suffered from years of abuse at the hands of her husband who would regularly stay at home drinking while Meera was forced to earn money for her family. One day after she received some money from the Sambhali project, she went home and prepared rice and Lentils for her family. Her husband, who demanded she give him money to buy mutton and alcohol instead, became enraged when she refused and began to beat her. Meera, who had been attending the empowerment classes regularly, knew that she had to defend herself and so fought him off before forcing him out of the house. Since that night, he has never bothered Meera or her two children again and she is very happy to be free of him and raising her 2 children. She has also been employed at the guesthouse and has become completely financially independent.
2. Self Esteem Development
In educating our participants and by making them aware about domestic violence, we have built self-esteem for our girls. For example, when the bankers came set up a bank account for each girl, the bank officers asked them for signatures and assuming that our girls didn’t know how to sign papers, provided ink to make thumb marks as signature instead. When our girls confidently took pens from the table and signed their name instead, the bankers, and all of us were very impressed.
3. Unity
If one of our girls fails to attend classes for more than several days because her family has withdrawn her from school or she has lost motivation to go, our community of girls and young women will personally go to her home together to check in on her. Together they encourage her to come back to school and remind her of the fact that she is not alone and her presence counts; that she has a community of support.
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