Why focus on women?
Poverty is not gender-neutral; women enjoy less access to, and control over, land, credit, technology, education, healthcare and skilled work.
International Fund for Agricultural Development 'Rural Poverty Report 2000/2001 Fact Sheet - The Rural Poor’
Women are routinely discriminated against in India but have a vital role in not only changing their own futures but the futures of their families and the communities around them.
Rural women face multiple tasks on a daily basis to secure the lives of themselves and their families. Women typically play a critical role in the financial livelihood of their families, looking after any livestock or crops but also ensuring the domestic duties are completed. Yet women, once empowered by working together in self-help groups and micro-credit groups, have shown they can slowly but surely break free from age-old discrimination and total economic dependence, gain respect, voice their opinions, manage their own micro-enterprises and revitalise their villages.
If a woman is able to teach her family to boil water before drinking it, she can protect them against many water-borne diseases. If a woman is able to rear a goat that produces milk and kids she can not only provide a valuable source of nutrition for her family, but is able to pass on the offspring to other families in the community.
Please help us to make a difference today.
It is good to see women coming out and speak[ing]. Before it was a taboo. Now they are also taking their children for vaccination.
Bikash, school teacher - Reproductive/child health care programme, Uttar Pradesh
