| Jagriti's
Bridging Worlds Workshop held January 7-9, 2003 in Hyderabad,
India was a unique and special opportunity for the women's
organizations who attended. This workshop gave each and
every participant an opportunity to meet |
 |
representatives from other women led, non governmental organizations
(NGOs) across the country, which otherwise would not have happened.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude
to Jagriti International. The very first day we met as strangers,
but during the course of the presentations we learned about
the similarities and dissimilarities of the work in which we
are actively involved and each one of us carried home newly
gained confidence through the workshop experience.
|
The workshop began not by self-introductions
but by introducing someone we didn't know, including the person's
likes and dislikes. It was so new for us that we showed others
our geographic place of work with the help of a map. This was
followed by a series of presentations about the work of the
groups.
One similarity was that all the women's groups work for marginalized
women, varying from fisherwomen and domestic workers to all
kinds of work involving women in the unorganized sector. Another
similarity was that organizations working for education had
helped to increase the percentage of girls enrolled in schools.
The women's groups were also instrumental in attaining the minimum
level of learning irrespective of whether they worked for non-formal
or formal education. The next major sector in common was working
with women self-help groups (SHG). These SHGs promote credit
and saving schemes and the women's organizations not only help
in availing loans from banks but they have also made the groups
independent. Thus these women led self help groups are now more
self-reliant. This economic empowerment has also let a few women
from these self help groups to become politically strong and
they are now elected as ward members in local elections.
|
| On the
women's rights front, besides providing free counseling,
legal aid etc. some of the organizations have directly
involved themselves in filing suits on behalf of victimized
women and have won cases for them. From the presentations
we also learned that some of the organizations |
| Emerging
leaders small group interaction |
|
|
have formed unions such as the Domestic
Workers Union and are now demanding that the state government
bring them under a separate board to make use of the welfare
schemes. Through the workshop I came to know that even grassroots
women achievers, thanks to the work of Guild of Women Achievers
(GOWA), can receive recognition and awards from the corporate
sector.
|
In short the presentations gave us an understanding
about the diverse work of the groups and how one thing
leads to another, such as economic independence leading
to political participation and how increasing literacy
levels allow women to better help their own familes. All
of the social engineering work of these women's organizations
has taken time, because a few of the NGO's began their
work from scratch.
|
| Bridging
Worlds Workshop Group Photo |
|
|
Three days
of singing, dancing, sharing food and laughter allowed
us to build bridges between ourselves. Through the creation
of a "Jagriti India E-Network" we hope to share ideas
and resources and to stay in touch with one another.
On the final day the bridging worlds volunteers were chosen
by the participants themselves in a more democratic way
through elections. Being an elected volunteer I realize
the enormous expectations and herculean responsibility
ahead.
|
|
|
