kanakmma's story. . . I had three children to provide for and eked out a living by selling fruits. I had to borrow from a moneylender just to keep the family afloat and was caught in a vicious debt trap. In spite of these problems, I started saving little amounts in the local self-help group initiated by RLHP and took a loan of Rs. 5,000/- to improve my business. The trade flourished; I was able to repay the loan taken from the moneylender as well as the self-help group loan. Recently, I took a further loan of Rs. 10,000/- to start a fruit stall in Chamarajanagar. I am now the proud owner of a house and I got my daughter married.
"Names changed to protect identity"

 

 
 
PROGRAMME
Empowerment of Women

RLHP is committed to the rights and empowerment of women: their right to equality, economic, social and political independence and to ensure that they are protected from gender discrimination, exploitation and abuse.

   
Women, especially those from poorer sections of the society the world over, are more prone to abuse and harassment because of their illiteracy and ignorance. The exploitation of women in slums is much more pronounced.
 
Dwani Women Federation
The empowerment of women is one of the key objectives of RLHP. Dwani Women's Federation is a federation of the local women's sanghas in the slums and was registered in 1992-93. It now has a membership of nearly 10,000 women.
Dwani is an active body that advocates the rights of slum women and supports their struggles for basic facilities. It also takes a lead role in resolving family disputes through counselling, developmental activities and the education of children. With its interventions, early marriages have been reduced from 90% to 10%. Many families have been reunited. Girl children are now educated.
 
Domestic Workers' Forum
In India, the domestic workers are generally treated as second class workers. There are more than 1000 domestic workers in slums who are exploited by the employers because they are unskilled. Dwani took up this issue to strengthen their empowerment. In this regard, RLHP conducted several Home management and home nursing training for more than 150 past three years. There have been remarkable changes among these women. The attitude towards domestic work has changed. They respect their work now with more dignity.
 
With learned skills, the women exercise their bargaining power to demand better wages and working conditions. In response to the need to build collective bargaining power and strengthen domestic workers' empowerment, Domestic workers' Forum was created and is helping many women. Thanks to the Government of Karnataka. The domestic work has now been included under the Organised sector with better wages.
Self-help and income generation groups
The self-help group programme, as one of Dwani's activities, supported by RLHP aims to improve the economic conditions of women by encouraging savings, providing credit for small enterprises, raising the family income and reducing the need for women to borrow money from moneylenders at high interest rates. At present 3160 women from the slum areas that RLHP work with are involved in the programme through 158 self help groups. The women have formed the Kirana Federation in order to make the programme sustainable and forge linkages with banks.
 
                 
The total savings by all the SHGs till 2005 amounted to Rs. 19,12,280, whilst total loans till the same period were Rs. 43,82,000. Above 2300 women have successfully used the scheme to start their own small businesses and increase their family income and status.
Funding: TdH (G) & Borda
 
 
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