Women's Empowerment in Indian Villages
A Project of ARD(Australia)Inc and Lok Shakti Shikshan Kendra, Paraiya, Gaya (Bihar)
Reproductive and Child Health
Women's Empowerment in Indian Villages (WEIV) delivers attitudinal changes in health and well-being. WEIV imparts practical information concerning all aspects of Reproductive and Child Health. WEIV staff mobilise the community to access Government programs and ensure the Government delivers these programs.
The Reproductive Health programme addresses contraceptive awareness, pre-natal guidance, maternal health and well-being. The programme empowers young married couples to delay and space their pregnancies, equips unmarried adolescents with appropriate information regarding sexual health and marriageable age, and brings about improved demand and access to reproductive health services to the community.
Literacy Centres
Women's Empowerment in Indian Villages (WEIV) has established eight Literacy Centres for adolescent girls aged 12 to 18 years. These girls have been taken out of the education system to help work on the land, or in other ways support their family. They come from the poorest families and no fees are charged.
Classes are held from 10am till 2pm, enabling the girls to complete their daily domestic and agricultural chores.
The girls attend for three years to gain skills in basic Hindi/English/Arithmetic. Hindi is the main learning medium. The ability to read and write in Hindi greatly increases their personal capacity and their value within their family.
"Give education to your children. Instil ambitions in them ..... Don't be in a hurry to marry: marriage is a liability. You should not impose it upon your children unless financially they are able to meet the liabilities arising from them ..... Above all let each girl who marries stand up to her husband, claim to be her husband's friend and equal, and refuse to be his slave."
WEIV Videos
Watch videos that detail the many aspects of the Women's Empowerment in Indian Villages programme.
* To empower a single woman is to empower the whole society.
Women's empowerment initiatives are the focus of WEIV's working strategy. WEIV works with a rights based perspective to transform the lives of women through a focus on gender equality and justice.
Organisation Overview
WEIV works in the field of community development through women's empowerment. We are working to create a society where women are treated with absolute justice, equality and fraternity and in turn, ensure justice to all the citizens.
Vision:
A society without poverty, illiteracy, sickness, child labour or gender and social inequality.
Mission:
To empower women within the community by making them aware of their basic rights and providing basic education, health security, leading to gender and social equality and livelihood security.
Strategy and Programmes
Women's empowerment initiatives are the focus of WEIV's working strategy. WEIV strives to work with a rights based perspective to transform the lives of women, with a working focus on gender equality and health.
Social empowerment forms an integral component in the programmes delivered by WEIV. Issues relating to Reproductive and Child Health, Literacy, Basic Human Rights, Domestic Violence, Right To Information and Child Rights are addressed.
Social Awareness
Awareness of Reproductive and Child Health:
The aim is to bring about attitudinal changes in health and well-being by imparting practical information concerning all aspects of Reproductive and Child Health. WEIV staff mobilise the community to access Government programs and are on the ground to ensure the Government delivers these programs.
Awareness of International Women's Empowerment Initiatives:
WEIV provides awareness about women's empowerment to the target villages. To date women who are involved in WEIV have become more vocal, capable of taking their own decisions and have thus become socially empowered.
Sustainable Development Goals
Women's Empowerment in Indian Villages programmes are fully aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
Significant strides were made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. But more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues. By focusing on providing more efficient funding of health systems, improved sanitation and hygiene, and increased access to physicians, significant progress can be made in helping to save the lives of millions.
In 2018 an estimated 6.2 million children and adolescents under the age of 15 years died, mostly from preventable causes. Of these deaths, 5.3 million occurred in the first 5 years, with almost half of these in the first month of life.
Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty. Over the past decade, major progress was made towards increasing access to education and school enrolment rates at all levels, particularly for girls.
Nevertheless, about 260 million children were still out of school in 2018 — nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group. And more than half of all children and adolescents worldwide are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics.
Some 750 million adults – two thirds of them women – remained illiterate in 2016. Half of the global illiterate population lives in South Asia, and a quarter live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
There has been progress over the last decades: More girls are going to school, fewer girls are forced into early marriage, more women are serving in parliament and positions of leadership, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality.
Despite these gains, many challenges remain: discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership, and 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 report experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period.