Protect girls from violence in school

I met Abhayanavita at a network meeting recently. Of course I asked her about the livelihood project in Amravati which you have kindly donated towards. Abhayanavita is 39 years old and did her Master in Social Work in 2010. She originates from a similar community like the one which the Bahujan Hitay Amravati project is working with. So she knows very well from her own experience how difficult it is to live in a slum area, go to school, graduate and eventually get a job. 

She shared with me: "The livelihood training is a great benefit for the women. They normally are entirely depending on men. Without any access to money and no entitlements they have to virtually beg for everything they need. Often women experience domestic violence, they get beaten or abused. So every little step towards economic independence is also a step towards dignity. 

And we found, that working for their psychological wellbeing is as important as the actual skills training. So we also do trainings with the women to improve their confidence. It's even like changing their mind-sets. Women learn with us that it’s not ok for their husbands to beat them. And even in the face of abuses by men from dominant castes they don’t need to give in. They don’t need to accept discrimination. It’s a revelation for many women. And this changes their perspectives of themselves and their lives completely. It gives them the confidence they need to successfully pursue livelihood training and to set up a small business.

Recently we discussed among the team and found out, that we should develop our approach even further. We’ve started to offer the most accessible trainings for the women of these slums. However, our trainings are mostly for quite stereotype women specific livelihoods. It’s good to start here but we’ve come to see that we need to look beyond. How can we broaden out the vocational training, do more placement support for job opportunities? So that more women move on to non-gendered work which is of course better paid and offers more security. At least for the better educated young women this is an opportunity and we’ll do more in this direction in future. Thank you for supporting us in this!”

Jagita is from a marginalised nomadic community. Her family are very poor and rely on begging to survive. She is 21 years old but has never been to school. Her name had been enrolled in the school, but the importance of education was not understood by her family so she did not attend. Instead, Jagita grew up begging because her parents saw her as a good source of income.

At 13 years old, her parent’s forced her to marry. She started having children and took on all domestic responsibilities. Their main source of income came from begging.

Jagita got involved with the project a year ago when a project leader visited her community. Jagita was noticed as a confident, clever woman who was clearly motivated to change her life. Through this, she got involved in a local women’s group where women from different communities gather to discuss local women's issues.

Her involvement in this group taught Jagita valuable organisation skills. Due to Jagita’s initiative, 13 women in her community have had training in sowing so that they can have the opportunity to work with dignity. This is something that they never thought they could experience in their lives.

Jagita still faces a huge challenge in her home life. Her husband does not like all the changes in Jagita. However, after completing the training, Jagita has managed to start earning some money sowing. Her self-esteem has grown and she feels pride in what she does.

Although Jagita still faces huge challenges in her daily life, her involvement with the project has empowered her to make changes in her life. She is now a group leader and can help other women in her community. She feels like she has value as a human being and that there is new hope for the future.