WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
Peaceful Society is one of the voluntary
organizations, established in Goa in the year 1984. It is based upon Gandhian ideology.
The women development was one of the core issues upon which Peaceful Society
concentrated with all seriousness. To put in a nutshell, following are the
efforts taken by Peaceful Society from the time of its establishment till date
in the field of women’s development and empowerment:
Women’s lives are dictated by the male dominated society. Peaceful society has made deliberate efforts to bring women out from their homes and provide a conducive atmosphere to discuss their own problems and co-operatively solve them. This effort has resulted in the formation of a Women’s Co–operative in Paiginim and led to revival of defunct Mahila Mandals in Pedne Taluka. The attention of all sections of the community has been focused on local health problems. Attitudes towards Government Schemes to some extent have been changed, with emphasis placed on local needs and self- reliance, as opposed to acceptance of handouts and inappropriate inputs. Women from all over Goa attended a conference held in Margao on Social Inequality with over 90 women sponsored by Peaceful Society. Over the past 10 years dozens of camps have been held to look at local problems and resources available from the Government as well as local community to solve the problems.
The fact that women have been consistently mobilised
in all our programmes have been crucial to the successes, for instance in
Cotigaon, the women ensured attendance at conference against the eviction of
the tribals. Though most of men had been persuaded not to attend by local
politicians, the women turned up as planned with food, thereby forcing the men
to eventually appear.
We have become a refuge as well as a source for
advice and support to many local women who have domestic and financial
difficulties and will continue to offer such support for women to achieve their
self – reliance.
A survey of Bandora Panchayat was made in the year 1985 and various programmes were launched to boost cottage industry. This move helped the needy and poor women of this area to become economically self-reliant.
Women’s Employment
A year- long assistance for needy women: The women with various skilled who received assistance from Peaceful Society had job only in the fair season and were left jobless in the monsoon. So, Peaceful Society took a novel initiative by opening other job avenues for such women. Here, these women were provided job of preparing food items having demand also in monsoon season. For over four years we have developed training and marketing scheme in processed foods with a range of products such as Jackfruit wafers, Shankderpalli and Papad at Bandora. Year round employment to a core group of 9 women, with additional labour inputs of 25 women at peak periods were generated with turn over rising from Rs.20,000/- to Rs. 1,35, 000/- annum. Due to rapid and unexpected inflation of the raw material prices (e.g. edible oils rose from Rs. 250/- to Rs. 600/- per tin in less than a year) and a number of inputs it became impossible to obtain these from the open market and the programme was suspended. A wealth of experience in running a successful village development has been gained, which is shared with other groups who are embarking on similar enterprises. We are now confident that we have the experiences to encourage and support women in establishing a business, with accounting, marketing and all the other associated business skills. On the request of Mahila Mandals of Parce, Agarwada, Paigini, Savaiverem and Madkai, Society, has imparted training in making the eatable items such as spices (Masala)
First training course began in Bandora in 1987,
since then we have so far conducted 18 courses of six months duration in
Bandora (7), Agarwada (1), Parcem(3), Korgaon ( 3), Mopa (1), Malpe (1), Tuye (
2), Pedne (1), Paiginim ( 1) and Madkai ( 1)
and have trained 613 girls and workers. The six months quality training
being course as well as Rs. 50/- to Rs,75/- as course contribution. By offering quality training without stipend, it is
those women who wish to learn that are attracted. Many do not become
professionally employed in tailoring, though they all are self reliant for
their own family needs. The course offers an opportunity for the women and girls
to meet on a regular basis and discuss a range of other issues. Demand for the
course in Bandora diminished when 7 other sewing courses were promoted in the
area (originally they were none).
Craft Promotion and Exhibition Sales has drawn in 50
local women who would otherwise remain isolated within their homes. They
produce a range of traditional embroidery and craft items, which Peaceful
Society arranges to, exhibit and sell. Annually 3-4 such exhibitions are
arranged generating a turnover of over Rs.20, 000/-, while in Paiginim women
have been operating such exhibitions independently.
A number of other ventures have been investigated in
the past and found to be inappropriate – e.g. Polyester Khadi and leaf plate
production.
The deposits given by the Peaceful Society to the
Banks have been used to generate loans for marginal and poor people in the area
to assist them in the formation of small industries and income generating
schemes. Till today 418 people have received more than 30 lakh rupees.
A special training camp was held in association with
I.C.A.R. Old Goa about production of mushrooms at home in the year 1995. This
camp was designed to encourage the women at home to artificially produce mushrooms
and thereby seek self-reliance.
A kitchen garden training camp was organized twice
to teach women the method of cultivating vegetables right in the home garden by
using the biodegradable waste materials as manure. This training camp was held
in the year 1995 and proved very useful for the women.
We have initiated Balwaris in 3 areas, which have
been unique in that: - (1) People have contributed to the up keep as well as
provided the place. (ii) The extent to which child development (irrespective of
caste and creed) has been emphasised, (iii) they have been locally managed and
controlled. Two Balwaris have now been taken over by local Government schemes.
A two-day camp of Taluka level women working in Balwaris was organised at
Madkai Centre to discuss local issues.
Peaceful Society took an important initiative to
care for the health of the people of adjoining areas by organizing Health
Camps and Health Talk. The first monthly health camp was organized
in the year 1987 for women and children. This monthly health camp is continuing
uninterruptedly till date. The forty plus aged women are specially checked here
for the age-related diseases and are also advised about precautionary measures.
Inspite of better per capita income compared to rest
of the country and better literacy rate, the health status of rural poor
children is still very bad. To improve the health of rural poor children, the
society has so far organised 28 health camps in Bandora, continuous in Madkai
village since 1990, 4 in Cotigao and 7 in Pedne area. Besides children’s health
problem, disease like T.B. were also detected and patients were referred to
Governmental health agency.
Those found to be
having T.B. are received medication and supplementary nutrition. The health
status, advices and treatment given to each chilled were carefully recorded by
the doctors and every camp has given
emphasis on follow up as well education to the mother to how best they can
maintain the health of children within their resources. In the health camps,
family health within limited resources
has been promoted. The health programme
is heavily reliant of the services of Dr. Poornima Santosh Usgaonkar who has
given her time and resources freely and Physicians like Dr. Audhoot Borkar, and
others. Preventive Health Care is also stressed and efforts have already been
made to clean up and protect from contamination drinking water wells in both Pedne
and Madkai. In Cotigao we succeeded in creating safe drinking water supply to 3
hamlets, and now thanks to the Government there is an excess of drinking water
available in all the villages. It was however the pressure from the villagers
themselves that has brought about this change.
While parenting a
child, health is an important factor and such contests help parents understand
it in a better way.
In
Goa, at least for a duration of eight months, solar cookers can be used for
cooking purposes. It is one of the cheapest and eco-friendly energy available
for man to cook food. In order to
educate women community about this novel energy available free of cost, a solar
cooker training camp was organized in the year 1995.
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smokeless chulha were installed in Yedda, Badde, and Avalim Wada of Cotigao
Gram Panchayat with the help of state
Rural Development Agency . (Government of Goa). This will not only
reduce firewood consumption, but is also intended to improve health of the
women.
In the year1995, a terrace gardening camp was held
in the Peaceful Society campus to teach the ways to cultivate vegetables used
for daily consumption in a family by using minimum space available. A practical
demonstration was done here to illustrate how biodegradable waste in the house
can be effectively harnessed as manure for such gardening.
A special initiative was taken by Society to plant
and preserve rare and valuable species of medicinal herbs in its campus from
the year 1997. In this respect, Peaceful Society took assistance from the
faculties of Botanical Department, Goa University.
In the Peaceful Society campus, many Higher
Secondary Schools and Colleges are conducting their annual NSS camps. From the
year 1990 to 2001, a total of 28 such camps have been successfully conducted in
the Peaceful Society campus. Besides these camps, a national camp was held for
80 girls from various states of India.
An initiative was taken by Peaceful Society to
detect the culprit behind the death of Chitra Navelkar, a dowry victim, at
Marcel in the year 1992.
Peaceful Society helped a girl who was brutally
raped by resorting to all lawful means.
She was also helped to get medical check-up to ascertain the brutality.
Peaceful Society is holding camps at various places
for awareness against the rising alcoholism and smoking and chewing tobacco
habits among the mass community.
Numerous workshops and
camps have been organised at various places in Goa. Particularly, Peacefully
Society played a pioneering role in launching Anti-Superstition Campaign in the
year 1994. A well-known social activist Shri Sham Manav was invited to Goa for
delivering lectures and also for conducting workshops. Thus Peaceful Society
conducted campaigns and workshops in its campus to voice against superstitions
and blind beliefs.
In order to seek the all round development of women,
a village women front was established in the year 1998. Due to this effort,
women got information about various welfare schemes made available by
Government for needy and poor women.
A women’s organization called as Sai Mahila Mandal was established
on 9th April 1999 with the help of Peaceful Society to assist the
women of that region.
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