(visit www.jamkhed.org for more information)
One of the most important organizations to have evolved is the Mahila Vikas Mandal (MM) or Women's Development Group, which have been founded in all project villages. One of the greatest social injustices found in the villages today and in the past is the low status of women. The primary objective of the Women's Clubs is to continually bring about public awareness of the issues facing women and to bring about social changes, especially those which will improve the lot of the women and children.
ne of the most important organizations to have evolved is the Mahila Vikas Mandal (MM) or Women's Development Group, which have been founded in all project villages. One of the greatest social injustices found in the villages today and in the past is the low status of women. The primary objective of the Women's Clubs is to continually bring about public awareness of the issues facing women and to bring about social changes, especially those which will improve the lot of the women and children.
In each village, women from different caste and religious groups come together to share health knowledge and improve their socio-economic status. The women are given training and assistance in operating various economic programs to improve their families and communities. This has a profound and long-lasting impact on the health of the people in each village. In a number of villages, the Women's Clubs are more active than Farmer's clubs s the prime movers on such things as nutrition, health and hygiene, safe drinking water, kitchen gardens, afforestation, micro-credit, and income generation. Increasingly, emphasis has been placed on women's empowerment and raising the level of self-esteem, especially among girls. Family planning and the promotion of adequate birth spacing still remain among the priority areas of CRHP. These women work closely with the VHWs whose task is to convey all relevant health and other knowledge gained at the CRHP training centre to groups such as the MMs, so as to reach out to the community as a whole.
Throughout the project villages a process of organizing self-help groups (SHGs) has been ongoing and is becoming more popular as women are realizing the value of pooling resources and sharing in the profits. Pitfalls such as corruption, which sometimes plague similar economic groups, are virtually non-existent in the project villages. This is largely due to the value-based approach emphasized by CRHP as well as the integrated concept of community development that ties all these groups and stakeholders together. Because the SHGs are rooted in the Mahila Mandals the members have already undergone the extensive training described above. Being value-based this training has strengthened women to work as a team with a common goal of improving and developing their families and their community. There are currently 146 active SHGs with over 1,500 members and this number is growing. The SHGs have savings and loan programs to improve the socioeconomic situations of families, especially the poor and marginalized, and activities directed at the problems of domestic violence, alcoholism, and other negative influences within the villages. The SHGs are providing economic stability and empowering women in various spheres of life.
In addition there are 15 farmers' and 5 adolescent SHGs that have successfully been organized in different villages.
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