Enable The Diffrently Able To Face Challenges
In pursuance of her belief that the best leader is
the person from the stakeholder community, Nirnaya extends
fellowships to two differently able young women who
in turn organize and mobilize similar women in their
areas.
 Janaki,
a speech and hearing challenged woman started work in
three villages of Thiparthi mandal in Nalgonda district
and having brought the women in these villages to a
level she felt was comfortable for them, Janaki went
on to identify three more villages where similar initiatives
were needed. She has achieved what is really difficult
for differently able women who have poverty, geographic
remoteness, poor transportation, and absence of basic
needs, low education levels and illiteracy. The differently
able women in three villages have formed themselves
into groups, started savings and opened bank accounts.
Nirnaya extended the three groups revolving funds in
order to help them prove to their families, their village,
the bank and local government their ability to run a
suitable income generating enterprise.
Janaki feels that there ought to be forums for differently
able women and newsletters for the differently able,
by the differently able. She sees the need for every
section of society to be aware of their needs and to
consciously try to make their lives easier.
Zubeida, a physically challenged young woman from
Sangareddy, Medak district has experienced a lot of
exploitation herself and feels that all differently
able women are among the most exploited and marginalized.
Her mission is to help these women get self-confidence
that they are normal and get society to respect them
in the same way. She works in three works in Sangareddy
and is popular among the differently able men and women
as a person who can achieve anything for them.
|
Dharithri Development Society (DDS) |
A Registered women’s organization working in 21 villages
of Zaheerabad and Nyalkal of Medak District, started
with Nirnaya supporting the key person, Ms. Metlakunta
Susheelamma with a fellowship for one year. The organization
expanded into a team of 5 persons and received Nirnaya
support for five years. The activity in the beginning
was only motivating and organizing the Dalit community
women into Self Help Groups in order to access Government
grants, subsidies and bank loans. Subsequently its scope
has expanded to include various other activities like
literacy for women, access to health care through medical
camps, leadership training for the Community Based Women
Group’s (CBWG), empowerment of differently enabled women,
mass programs for International Women’s Day, World Human
Rights Day, International Day for Disabled and motivation
of girl children to attend school.
A learning center for the mentally challenged children
in Orissa, it has with a two year support from Nirnaya
been able to access long term financial support from
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Mumbai.
| Development of the Rural Oppressed People’s Service Society (DROPSS) |
Vinnarasi
Mallika had registered an organization but it remained
dormant till 2002. Nirnaya extended a fellowship to
Mallika in year 2000 and since then it has been a climb
upward both for the community women among whom DROPSS
works and the organization itself. DROPSS works in 8
slums in Karaikudi, Sivagangai district, Tamilnadu. In
a society where the caste you are born into decides
your whole life, DROPSS works with about 1800 women
from the most discriminated sections of dalits - the
scavenging community women. The team has not only to
address its focus group but also the group members' families, the community
as a whole, other communities, local government, media,
political parties and professionals if it is to reach
its goal of accessing the fundamental rights of the
focus group.
The team’s persistence has reaped benefits
for the women who have acquired skills beyond their
dreams. Seven of the women have learnt driving and two
of them have been sanctioned subsidized loans for three
wheeled autorickshas by the local government. Tamilarasi,
one of the drivers says, the struggle is now to secure
a separate parking lot for us since we are not allowed
to share the parking lot of the upper caste men drivers.
We are the first in the district to drive autorickshas
and rank among the top 5 in the state of Tamilnadu.
Breaking this male domain by ‘low caste’ women is an
insult that the ‘respectable’ locals of Karaikudi are
not taking kindly to and the target is DROPSS. The latter
is continuing undeterred by the threats with the support
of the community women who are confident that the only
way is to achieve what is their right. Kaliammal one
of the community women leaders was able to mobilize
an entire village community to break an 80 year old
restriction imposed by the ‘upper caste’ on the dalit
because of which the latter neither had access to drinking
water nor a pathway to the cremation ground.
In response
to the tsunami disaster, DROPSS has taken up the task
of helping young women between 18 – 25 years of age
in 10 villages of Cuddalore district to piece together
their lives as they are bereft of both parents and all
assets. |
