THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Ranchi, March 7: Acclaimed social activist and cooperator Dr Nandini Azad will lead an assembly of women at Jamtara in Santhal Pargana tomorrow to mark International Women’s Day.
Again, on March 12, she will address a women’s conference in Deogher to discuss women’s participation in the Panchayati raj system and various government programmes.
Anganwadi Sevikas, members of self-help groups (SHGs), and rural women will participate in these programmes jointly organised by the Independent Commission for People’s Rights and Development (ICPRD) and Kriti, an NGO. The women will also march to the collectorate.
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Dr Azad, who heads the ICPRD, said that despite significant progress, women still need to participate equally in the economy.
“So, we have lined up these programmes to achieve gender equality by ensuring that women and girls of all ages are provided equal opportunities to develop their potential and to learn, earn and grow in leadership potential,” she pointed out.
Independent Commission for People’s Rights and Development
Notably, the ICPRD has been engaged with Santhali women’s groups in Jharkhand since 1998 to strengthen, support, raise funds, and build their capacity.
Patriarchal society and burden of poverty
“Despite extreme challenges and difficult field conditions, ICPRD regularly travelled in remote districts to study the ground reality like patriarchal society, the burden of poverty, and exclusion due to the convergence of class, caste, and gender that fell on women,” Dr Azad, who is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at a meet organised by United Nations Commission on the status of women at Dong Hwa Campus credit union, Eastern Taiwan, on March 15, said.
Dr Azad, also President of the Indian Cooperative Network for Women and Working Women’s
Forum India further said that witch hunting, trafficking, child marriage and wife beating were also major problems.
“Scarce access to resources – land, credit, and training for women was stark. Exploitative money lenders were the only credit source available, infrastructure and communication facilities were poor, and literacy (even 5%) with low skills and awareness hampered them from availing rights,” she pointed out.
ICPRD identifies 30 Santhali villages
ICPRD, along with its partner organisations (RDTF, SAATHEE, Dridh Sankalp, and Prabala Seva Samastha), facilitated Santhali women’s identification of 30 villages in three districts—Dumka, Godda, and Jamtara—based on low literacy and lack of infrastructure like water, electricity, roads, schools, healthcare facilities, etc. Mobilisation, Group Building, and identification of the majority of groups are ongoing.
Microfinance movement
Collaborating with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to provide momentum to the microfinance movement in remote and unserved areas of Jharkhand. ICPRD initiated a project entitled “Capacity Building of Microcredit Programmes in Jharkhand” for poor women entrepreneurs. This aimed to create social entrepreneurs and microfinance advocates at the local levels in Deoghar and Dumka tribal districts.
She pointed out that ICPRD’s ideology is focused on the economic empowerment of poor tribal women as key catalysts for developing formal financial institutional mechanisms in remote areas of Jharkhand considered ‘high risk’ and “extremist areas” in microfinance parlance (about 9000 catalysts had been provided capacity building through innovative MF products).