Understanding the central role of women in any idea of social transformation Empowering women has been an indispensable part of our thinking and planning process. We are not only carrying our programme focusing on women but also ensuring a gendered perspective in our entire programme. Working with the marginalized women also means working on the children’s education, nutrition and health and socio-economic health of the family, which results into over all growth of the society.

Our Gender Resource centre (StriShakti Kendra) caters to all the need of the women. As a part of our activity we have been organizing a series of awareness sessions with women of the marginalized section about their legal rights and entitlements. In case of problems like domestic abuse and discrimination and violence at work place we also avail them the legal counseling. One of the most challenging aspects of women emancipation is economic emancipation. Keeping this challenge in mind we have continuously focused on providing livelihood opportunities to women by organizing them in Self Help Group and providing them required training as well as ensuring backward and forward linkages. We also organize skill training for the destitute women to ensure their economic independence. While organizing these self- help groups we realized that most of them are either illiterate or neo-literate. Understanding that this can prove to be a major hurdle in breaking the socio-economic borders we have been organizing classes to empower them by making them literate in real terms. As most of these women are in the age group of 20-35, the most fertile age for any women, we have provided them with medical consultation for all the concerns related to this age i.e. family planning, pre and post natal care, nutrition, menstrual hygiene, anemia etc. This focus on empowering women is leitmotif of our programmes and that is why in each and every programme of ours, menstrual hygiene is a major thrust area.

This gender resource centre also works as a forum to ensure that the women should not only be aware of all the government schemes meant from them but should also be able to avail these benefit.

As a part of our concerted effort on gender, particular after the Nirbhaya’s case, we have also being a partner in Awaaj Uthao campaign in Delhi, to empower girls and women about their rights as well as making the larger society aware about the rights of girls and women.

In continuation of our effort, supported by Tata Power, we have organized more than 500 women in SHG and is not only being trained in all aspect of SHG functioning but also being exposed to a series of capacity building events, workshops and training.