Gender Equality Day

Accelerating Employability and Equality

Experience of adapting in rural India, and developing a new project of my choice - Cora

The post-adaptation phase at ViKAAS Centre, Harike

The intensity things are lived with here in Harike speed up the adaptation process, making one feel an integrated part of the community in no time. There are still of course some aspects of life here that are almost impossible to adapt to, but that, one can learn to endure with a touch of patience. Take for example the thousand mosquito bites at night (which are then replaced by intruding flies during the day) - you will never adapt to these little guys, but you will gradually pay less and less attention to them. 

Once the adaptation phase comes to an end, the real Vikaas (meaning development in Hindi) work begins. The novelty of being one of the only foreigners in a rural village wears out pretty quickly and locals slowly start treating you like one of them – this means losing the luxury of being treated like some prestigious princess from a faraway land, but it also means gaining people’s trust and respect; vital if you are attempting to reshape long-standing dynamics and mentalities.

When I first arrived in Harike, I knew I would be designing and implementing a project in what they refer to as Women Empowerment. However, I was unsure as to how I, a women from Europe with its culture of equality and opportunity, could ever be able to empower women who knew the hardships of life more than I could possibly imagine and who had become thick-skinned to battle through the daily oppressions they faced. I had a vague idea of the various ways women were increasingly being empowered around the world (micro-finance projects, language and IT skills, practical skills development etc.) but I needed to find something that not only the women in the community would benefit from, but that I would also feel capable of carrying out. The first thing I had to decide was whether I would be working with adult women or concentrating more on girls and teenagers. Considering my stay in Harike was only three months I decided that whatever project I did would have a longer lasting effect on the younger generation. 

I wanted to design a project that encompassed as many aspects of EduCARE’s holistic SHEEE* approach as possible. I was adamant to start an innovative project that would eventually be community-led, run by the very same participants. The moment I became aware of the lack of opportunities for girls to practice team sports outside of school, I didn’t have to think any further - I was going to start the first Girls Sports Club in Harike! Sports is the perfect vehicle towards empowerment since it fosters confidence, self-worth, team-work and endless skills to improve the quality of life of a woman.

*SHEEE (Social, Health, Economy, Education and Environment)  

All the motivation, the dreams and aspirations were there and of course a bag filled with optimism (either genuine or forced). However, the less romantic side of me also knew that I had to be realistic and that it was very probable that my project would flop or not even take off.  To avoid disappointment in this unpredictable field of development, I told myself that as long as I tried my best I would be happy with the project results, regardless of whether they were a success or not.   I had already had two very positive GSC (Girls Sports Club) sessions at the local government school, but the success of the project was going to be judged the following week when the sessions were to be moved from government school to our Vikaas centre. The girls were not going to be forced to attend the sessions by teachers anymore and it was going to be entirely up to them whether they wanted to show up or not.  Aware of the difficulty in gathering a specific group of people, in a specific place at a specific time I spent the whole preceding week reminding the girls where and when to attend the session, never forgetting to transmit enthusiasm and motivation.

 The day of that initial session at our ViKAAS centre arrived and I was bouncing with excitement and utter dread - what if no one showed up? What if my selling skills were so terrible that I hadn’t even managed to convince a group of girls to attend a weekly sports session?  After spending two hours setting up the room and the workshop (we were going to discuss the importance of breathing correctly) I went outside the office and began pacing up and down, hoping that the afternoon would run smoothly.  I checked my phone and felt a wave of sadness when I saw that it was 16:10 and no one had shown up. “It’s fine if no one shows up” I told myself “it’s all part of the experience” but deep down I was gutted. As soon as I gloomily turned around to go back into the office I heard my name being shouted from behind. I turned around and about 10 overly excited girls started running in my direction. I am not exaggerating when I say that my heart was filled with extreme happiness when I saw that they were all wearing sports gear and all had a bottle of water in their hand (just as I had told them). I began the session with some breathing exercises and stretching and still, girls continued to show up. Twenty minutes into the session and I was in charge of a class of 20 girls, my project was working after all. The session was extremely successful, so much so that the number of girls was increased to 35 the following week. This made me realise that once you’ve gained community interest and collaboration, the hard part of a project is done.

Cora Craigmile 

Project Manager,

Girls Sports Club

Women Empowerment

Harike, India

Aug 2017

Whatever happened to my Womanhood (part I). Living in India: Expectations Vs. Reality

So I've said many times before coming to India that I knew about the cultural differences, particularly the ones concerning being a woman in India. In my specific case being a woman in rural Himachal Pradesh, India.

So about being a woman in Himachal Pradesh. I always felt really strong about my independence and autonomy. I was never good at being told what to do or what to say. Oké, even sometimes my temper is the boss of me. Anyways, I knew I would have to remain passive in more situations than I usually do. Ok. No issue! I thought: - if I live through this it will certainly improve my patient, my interpersonal/social skills, my understanding of what it can feel like being an Indian woman and my understanding of what my culture allows womanhood to be. So far I had a lot to gain.

And then it happened…the warnings started and I did not see them coming, specially since I was following the rules of conduct. The warnings about how dangerous it is for me to walk in my own neighborhood hit me hard. Specially coming from a friendly neighbor of ours. It happened three times in two months. Yeah, it was a bit past 7 p.m. So what it was already dark since 6p.m. because it's winter? I had just finished work and needed to buy some food. The worst was it came from a supposed friend. I mean, how could he not see how threatening and demeaning he was sounding. He gave me 2 of the 3 warnings. Both times I was with fellow male colleagues with whom he engaged in gleeful conversations and when the glee vanished he decided to address me to exclusively warn me about the danger I was running. It made me feel small, powerless, threatened and like I didn't own my own life. I didn't have the reaction of replying to him, but what to say?

I cannot help thinking that these warnings and rape culture are somehow intertwined, at least from where I see it. He did not warn the men that were with me. The warning was only for me, because I'm a woman. Despite our friendly neighbor naively yet truthfully warning me for my own good (I know this, cause today he told me about how I should buy a sweater (winter is coming) and beware of being overcharged) he was simultaneously contributing to carve the bars of the cage rape culture puts around all of us women in. He should not tell me to be aware of my steps on the way to buy groceries. Instead he should tell men to stop harassing people, women, girls whether it is day or night. However, how can I explain him all of this? He would not understand. Probably he would even get offended for me rejecting his good advice.

Oh well, I hope the demand for self-defense courses will soon rise among women in India. Women can and must defend themselves. It starts by rejecting a conformist position and stopping to accept this type of "advice" as justifiable. The warning can be based on true facts of existing violence. Nevertheless this violence will persist if we continue to emphasize the victim as the element that takes the blame instead of the aggressor.

When I mention learning self-defense I mean to learn how to defend yourself, not necessarily in a physical way, but in a way where you can recognize where you stand and what actually your position is about a particular matter. Learn about what in reality happens around you and what you can do to change and improve it.

Inês Ramos - Portugal

Women's Empowerment Project Manager, Rait (Himachal Pradesh)

Establishment of a Self Help Group

Establishment of a Self Help Group

by
Cecile Poulain, France

The women of the Naddi Self Help Group

One of the our micro-finance initiatives is aimed to create a Self Help Groups within the village communities.

A self help group is a socio-financial organization of villagers based on mutual support both in finances and other areas also. Each of its members save each week or month a small amount of money which is gathered in a common “box”. It thus encourages savings, and can provide its members with small loans at a reasonable interest rate for business purposes or in times of financial stress. 

The self help group of Naddi counts 14 members, all being young women from the community we work with and relatives from the area. They all contribute to the SHG giving 50 Rps on the 10th of each month. Each week they meet to discuss various issues in their community such as health and environmental issues. Many of them have expressed a desire to further their education and learn to read and write Hindi and/or English. They have then been able to support each other from within the group and some have stepped up to act as teachers for this purpose. They are really motivated and receptive, and enjoy coming to the group to ask constructive questions and learn more about various topics that interest them.

Enjoying different educational activities each week

This self-sustaining business model has the power to give them a total control and a structured mechanism to support each other and empower themselves. Through their own independence and open choice they decide to be SHG members, to save and to take loans and to pursue various livelihood opportunities that are of interest to them. They decide how they should use the money they earn and how it can serve health, environmental issues and their community. They are an autonomous group and as such independent from banks or MFI’s with high interests rate for lending. Thus, the main output of Naddi SHG is individual women empowerment, as well as social, human and financial community empowerment and sustainable community economy development.

Progression

A support and empowerment network for the village women

The SHG was created in June 2012 and since then meetings are conducted every two weeks. So far, we have had 3 main meetings: the first one to explain the principles of a SHG to the members, the second one to get the money collected, and the last one to choose the management committee and discuss the internal policy. The next two months will be devoted to the proper settlement of the group and for them to decide and develop their own business plans.

From October, till December, we aim to let the women to accumulate money. Nevertheless, we agreed on the fact that the money that they would add in the SHG bank shouldn’t come from a brother or father, but should be earned from their own additional income generating activity. This is the transversal link between the SHG and the other microfinance projects which help the women to earn their own money. As the SHG won’t deliver any loan during this phase, if women need money to start a business for example they can address their project directly to EduCARE India which can provide them a micro-finance loan (as has already happened for one member, Lata and the chicken coop). 

The SHG also involves a lot of fun activities like dancing!

Then, from January 2013, the women should be ready to start the internal group loaning process. They will also be able to register themselves as a SHG for mutual support and to be able to apply for grants and other external assistance from the government.

If everything goes well, they will become totally independent in 2013 and act as good role models for other community members to initiate more SHGs.

by
Cecile Poulain
France