The village Dhonashi is one of the most backward villages of Bandora Panchayat in Goa District. Out of the total population of 276 of the entire village women constitute 48.55% and 41.04% women are absolutely illiterate. The rate of women unemployment is relatively higher and their percentage comes to 26.11%. This unemployed rural force belongs to the middle and semi- middle socio- economic group and most of them are from backward classes.

Due to their illiteracy and ignorance most of their time is being wasted. Apart from the general education these women folks lack any (traditional) technical know how, to utilise the locally available resources. In these families only the male members are the earning members. 90% of the male members take alcohol and spend a good amount of their income for buying alcohol and spend a good amount of their income for buying alcohol. Besides maximum expenditure   is done for modernisation. Women and children in the house spend a large share of the rest of the amount in   purchasing luxury articles. As a result they are left with very little amount for their primary needs. Because of the high cost of living in Goa, people afford very scarce for their primary needs. Their ability to purchase the basic needs has need deteriorated due to the prevailing modernised culture. Lack of appropriate foods affect their health as result unexpected death rates are high in this area.

In is notable fact that in Goa area no sufficient women awareness programme is launched. As a result – sitting together keeping relations between families are sported in an informal sense. Interaction between women and women are zeopardised. Mothers try to accommodate their children in the prevailing modern civilization.  Ritual talks, character building, moral education, family feeling, story telling mother stops activities. As a result the position of women and their condition today have been so mechanical that they have completely forgotten the basic role of women as mothers and their respective role as a housewife to improve their house by extinguishing their family member from bad habits and reinforcing them for their good qualities.

In this critical fallen stand, the women wing of the peaceful society intend to launch   an educational –cum – economic based programmed within Goa society. One introduced economic programme within Goa society. One introduced economic programme would serve as a media for a continuous movement along with providing   them a justifiable balance income.

OBJECTIVES

 

1.       To raise the economic standard of the target families providing them employment.

2.       To provide their literacy standard.

3.       To generate their self –employed women programme.

4.       To provide necessary skill for utilising the locally available resources.

5.       To foster a women awareness programme for brightening their awareness.

6.       To impart education for the women for detaching their husband from the habit of drinking alcohol and creating a healthy family atmosphere.

7.       To utilise the local available resources and minimising the modern article.

8.       To impart health education like value of nutritious food, food preservation, value of filtered water, good impart of environment, cleanliness and sanitation.

9.       To inform the women about assistance available from Govt. for their development.

10.   To create a band of rural youth women for establishing a Peaceful Village Society

Target Village

For the first Dhonshi village 20 families (most down-trodden) would be selected from the worst suffering. In the subsequent year other families would be included. In selecting the target families the concept of most economical backwardness would be kept in view.

 

PROGRAMMES

A.     Informal Education for women.

For awakening centre would be opened by the peaceful society in Dhonshi village. An Instructor would be chosen from the same village. The content of the education would be related to the life style of the local language.

Appropriate motivation would be created to encourage the women to attend the centre. In each day the centre would be run for one hour per day. The time would be fixed depending upon their convenience. The relation between Instructor and participant should be of very informal type.

The course content would be very useful type. A pattern of those few may be given for example.

1. Common alphabets and number for read, write and numerical calculation for keeping        home account of income and expenditure.

2.       Child rearing practical and pattern of baby care.

3.       Type of nutritious food and their preservation.

4.       Effect of clean atmosphere.

5.       Effect of alcohol and type of diseases born by it.

6.       About the details of our state and country and the basic relation and duties of

Government and citizen

7.       Positive aspect of story telling to the children.

8.       Impact of utilization of village resource in sustaining economy.

9.       Idle of home management.

10.   Available Government assistance for family welfare programme through various schemes.

11.   Role of women in taking part in Government’s development programme etc.

12.   Positive effect of women’s association in each and every village.

13.   Bad impact of excessive use of luxurious modern item.

14.   Good effect saving.

Strategy

In the beginning stage on behalf of the peaceful\ society a centre would be started. The instructor would be selected and she would be trained and acquainted of this type of programme by visiting centres in and around the state. After her return from training she would arrange a general women meeting in the village and explain about the programme to be operated. Before selection of the learners/ participants to this programme, each of them should be thoroughly convinced about the urgency of this type of programme in the village and its expected results. The general term of the centre is 12 months.

 

b.  Employment Programme

Those women who would be the learners in the centre would be associated with some income-generating programme in the leisure time. Each woman should have to visit centre for contributing her labour in the income-generating programme.

The objective as explained earlier is to acquant the women to make productive of her time in adding some amount in her husband’s income. It is a type of supplementary income for the participating women in the programme.

On behalf of the peaceful society, it is proposed to start some employment programme utilising the locally available resources. Coconuts, bettlenut (Supari) in Bandora Panchayat are the main crops. Due to lack of technical know how its different parts of simple wastage, out of which many good handicraft things could have developed. Besides this, there are types of local fruits, which can be utilised for preparing sol-curty (a type of palatable liquid dish). The juice of mango and jack – fruit can be used for different type of dish. In this connection it is concretely through that the following items would be used for employment programme.

1.       Preparation of brooms out of coconut leaves.

2.       Preparation of different types of dish plates out of bettlenut tree’s cover (pouly).

3.       Processing of bettlenuts.

4.       Preparation of curry out the locally available jackfruits seeds.

5.       Preparation of papad and pickles.

 

Advantages

The advantages behind these programmes are that the raw materials are readily available plenty. Maximum of raw materials can be utilised for productive purpose. Village woman can be able to learn the indigenous utilise the wastage. The product can be a better substitute for the costly modern commodities. The village people would get different type of necessary articles in a relative low rate, thereby they can save a lot of price constant use of these raw product would bring back to their attitude from modern commodities for their village product.

 

Strategy

Deliberately the Peaceful Society decides to handle this woman programme instead of making this programme woman’s won because of the fact that the sentiment of village women in Goa is different than other part of India. For the first time since the programme is introduced to the woman, they have to be acquainted with the pros and cons of the programme. They should be thoroughly understood the basic objective of the programme. When they would be convinced about the objective, in the subsequent years this programme would be left in the control of women association. The first year would be served as a year of motivation and acquaintance about its management, marketability, productivity of the products.

The raw material would be collected in reasonable price from the families. It would be stored in the promises of Peaceful Society.

The women could be provided orientation for each item. The women co –ordinator of this programme (a trained women) would impart training and for a greater exposure, the women would be sent for one-month orientation, they would start preparing the products. The complishing products would be sent to market. A reasonable income should be provided to each participant in the programme.

Saving Habit

Due motivation would be created among the participants open a compulsory saving account either in back or in   post office and the details of a advantage of saving habit would be explained in their informal education centre

Since, the year 2001 is declared as “Women’s Empowerment Year”, Peaceful Society has decided to organize several month-wise programmes in Goa to educate the women community about their democratic rights and duties and also the welfare schemes available to them. These programmes were also designed in such a way that they will seek the over-all development of women by providing them adequate information about self-employment schemes. Another aim behind organizing these programmes was to unite the women to fight for their legitimate rights. Unfortunately after declaration of ‘Women’s Empowerment Year 2001’, there was not a single programme declared or organized during first six months by Government of Goa. It was only by Peaceful Society, after a period of six months, some of the programmes were chalked and worked out to rightfully celebrate the ‘Women’s Empowerment Year’. After the introductory programme launched by Peaceful Society, Government of Goa took an initiative to organise such awareness programmes for women on mass scale.

Peaceful Society formed a three-member committee comprising of Smt. Bharati Bandodkar (Programme Coordinator of Women’s Wing, Peaceful Society), Smt. Jyoti Kunkalkar and Dr. Pournima Usagaonkar to chalk out its year long programme.

The following programmes were planned month-wise and successfully organised to educate the women community as a part of celebration of  “Women’s Empowerment Year 2001. The venue of all these programmes was the campus of Peaceful Society, Kundai and the time was from 14.30 hrs. to 17.00 hrs.

Sr. No.	Subject	Resource Person	Total participants
1.	Law	1. Adv. Shubhalakshmi Nayak	94
2.	Banking	1. Smt. Pratima Dhond, Chair Person of Women’s Co-operative Bank	33
3.	Health	1. Dr. Purnima Usgaonkar 2. Dr. Lalana Bakhale 3. Dr. Manisha Naik	54
4.	Politics	1. Smt. Nirmala Sawant, Ex-Minister	59
5.	Education	1. Smt. Suman Pednekar, Ex-Director, Education Dept. 2. Smt. Sudha Amonkar, Ex-Principal	48
6.	Government Welfare Schemes for women	1. Smt. Sandhya Kamat, BDO 2. Smt. Meena Goltekar, BDO 3. Shri Ajit Panchawadkar, Mamlatdar	49
7.	Role of women in literature	1. Smt. Hema Nayak, Konkani Writer 2. Prof. Bhushan Bhave, Critic 3. Smt. Seeta Kakodkar	76
8.	Theatre and mass-media	1.Smt. Ujwala Kamat Tarkar 2. Smt. Jyoti Kunkalkar 3. Shri Shridhar Kamat Bambolkar [All theatre personalities]	62
9.	Marriages	1. Smt. Mangala Sane 2. Prof. Neeta Torane	32
10.	Entrepreneurship	1.Smt. Shakuntala Parab 2. Smt. Neesha Hegade	48
11.	Women’s Commission	Dr. Pramod Salgaokar, Chair Person, State Women’s Commission,	77

 

The inaugural programme was organized on 28th July 2001 in the campus of Peaceful Society. Shri Ravi Naik, the ex-Deputy Chief Minister holding also the portfolio of women and child development was the guest of honour for this programme. All the women participants along with Shri Ravi Naik lighted the lamps and took oath to strengthen the women empowerment movement in Goa. .

Shri Ravi Naik, in his enlightening speech, explained about the role and responsibility of women in building healthy society. Women being inspiration behind most of the successful men, Shri Naik rightly opined that, a woman should receive respect in society.   He appealed that there should not be any discrimination between a girl and a boy in providing opportunities required for their growth. For him, parents should always equally treat a girl child and respect her at par with a boy. Smt. Kamalini Paiginkar, Chairperson of the Margao municipality, in her address, stressed upon the importance of education to the girls in their over-all development. Smt. Dr. Pramod Salagaonkar, the Chairperson of Women’s Commission highlighted upon the atrocities faced by women. She also spoke in depth about the vital issues related to women community.

Shri Ravi Naik applauded this function, saying that it was specially meant to address women’s issues and declared there itself to organize such women’s programmes all over the state of Goa. In order to chalk out statewide programme, he called a meeting at his Government residence on 30th July 2001.

As a part of the Women’s Empowerment Year 2001 celebration by Government of Goa, the first women’s convention of two days was successfully organized at Usgao-Goa. With this, the total number of such women’s conventions reached to 85. The efforts were made to organize such conventions in all the talukas of Goa. The women from Goa who attended in large numbers during these conventions, were benefited from the valuable guidance by expert resource persons during these conventions. Peaceful Society also organised several such programmes successfully through out the year in its campus.  During every programme in Peaceful Society, a total of at least 50 to 60 women and girls from various fields (like school and college going students, teachers, village women and members of women groups) participated actively. In these programmes, women were guided on important subjects as described above by experts from respective disciplines.

FAMILY HEALTH    Click here for detail speech

By Dr. Mrs. Purnima NS Usgaonkar

 

EDUCATION:

Excerpt from the lecture delivered by Smt. Suman Pednekar,

EX- Director, Education Dept.

In her enlightening speech, she emphasized upon following important issues related to education.

• Education for girl child is comparatively a lesser problem in Goa due to its higher literacy rate.
• The problem of dropouts exists in case of girls going to Schools.

The main reasons for this:

Ø      Economical, i.e. poverty

Ø      Gender discrimination, where a girl is looked as inferior to a boy.

Ø      A girl is asked to take care of household chores, particularly nursing and taking care of younger brothers and sisters when parents go out to work.

Ø       Some times a girl is compelled to work and help sustain her family.

Ø      Inconvenience due to distant location of School.

Ø      The percentage of dropouts of girl children was more, i.e. 61% during the period of 1986 to 1987.  However, now it has come down to 40% and also there is a marginal difference of dropouts between boys and girls.

• SSC and HSSC results, today, prove amply well that there is satisfactory progress in the field of girl’s education. However, it is noticed that the girls failed during these examinations give-up their further education due to lack of interest and encouragement from their parents.
• After registering name of a girl child in the School, it is also necessary to pay proper attention and take proper care to retain an interest in the mind of this child for schooling.
• The incentives like free uniforms, text books, scholarships and rain coats for poor children attending Schools have helped in improving the percentage of School going children. Special efforts are also needed to provide more of such incentives to girl children in order to further improve the status and percentage of the girl children attending Schools.
• Efforts should be taken to provide cash incentives to girl children from economically backward section of the society for education from Primary to University level.
• Teachers also should encourage girl children to learn and develop themselves and the nation as a whole.
• ‘Parents and Teachers Associations’ and ‘School Complexes’ at Panchayat level can play a crucial role in increasing the standard of education of girl children to yet greater heights.
• There should be proper awareness in the society about the rights of women as enshrined in 73^rd and 74^th Amendment of the Indian Constitution.
• Progammes should be framed to build self-confidence among women.
• To seek an over-all progress of the Nation, the status of women has to be heightened by providing her all opportunities at par with that of men.

 

LEGAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN:

Excerpt from the information provided by Adv. Shubhalaxmi Nayak on the subject “Legal Rights of women”.

• All the fields, which were once open to only men, are now also open for women community to explore their potentiality.
• Women are now enjoying 33% reservation in politics.
• A woman can contest even in non-reserved ward. However, a man cannot contest from the ward reserved for exclusively woman contestant.
• While explaining the atrocities on women, she explained how the husbands take undue advantage of the illiterate women.
• She explained how the instances of dowry deaths and rape cases have increased in toady’s society and further emphasised upon role of every conscientious citizen to report Police about such cases if noted, in order to prevent them happening.
• Proper awareness should be created among common people about legalities involved in a marriage. They should be made aware that only after the second registration, the marriage is considered as legally approved.
•  Awareness should be created among the poor and rural women to safe guard their constitutional rights.

 

BANKING:

Since, economic self-reliance is considered as very important in over-all development of a woman, a workshop was also organised on the subject of Banking. Smt. Pratima Dhond, Chairman of Women’s Co-operative Bank, guided the women on the subject of Banking.

• Due to rising unemployment, a pressing need has arisen to search different means of self-employment. In this regard, women, in particular can start their own small cottage industries at home.
• She emphasised that women should be explained about the loan facilities available in the banks to help women run their own businesses and small-scale industries. Here, she also expressed a need to explain these women about the required formalities to obtain such loans.
• She emphasised upon the need to explain and familiarise women about bank transactions.

 

 

GOVERNMENT WELFARE SCHEMES FOR WOMEN:

A workshop on the subject of “Government welfare schemes for women” was guided by Smt. Sandhya Kamat and Smt. Meena Goltekar [both BDOs] and Shri Ajit Panchawadkar [Mamlatdar].

These officers explained about various schemes made available by Government for the all-round development of women and urged the women to avail these facilities to become economically self-reliant. They also explained the formalities to undergo in the Government Offices and the kind of certificates to be submitted for speedy clearance of the files. They also urged to spread the information about such schemes particularly to the women folk living in villages. There was an open discussion during this workshop and the women participants freely asked their queries and doubts to these Officers. In particular, the women were explained about the loan facilities made available by the EDC to start a small-scale business.

 

POLITICS:

Smt. Nirmala Sawant was the resource person to guide on the subject of ‘Politics’.

She explained about how cooperation and freedom from the family is required for a woman to play an effective and active role in politics. She narrated the democratic pattern of governance existing in India and the dissatisfaction and frustration people experience from the type of politics prevalent in today’s society. She explained the concept of ‘Gram Swaraj’ as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi. In the light of Gandhian philosophy, she also explained the role of Gram Panchayats in the development of the villages. She emphasised more upon the decentralisation of power from Gram Panchayats, Zilla Panchayats, State Assemblies to ultimate Central Government. She narrated from her own experiences how difficult it is for a woman to enter in politics and be a successful politician. She opined that a woman should enter into politics only after an age of forty years, i.e. after fulfilling all family responsibilities. At this age a woman also becomes mature enough to understood the strategies adopted by her political adversaries.

Following are the immediate advantages of these yearlong programmes:

• It was noted here that many of the marriages remain unregistered for lifetime. A list of 27 such marriages was prepared for further action.
• A total of 17 women insured their Lives by subscribing to Insurance Policies.
• As a result, one of the women got a job of Insurance Agent.
• B.D.O.s and Mamlatdars are coming forward to help the needy women by providing information about various Government Welfare Schemes.
• Shri Ravi Naik encouraged cottage industry by making available two premises to open shops at Ponda. The women from neighbouring villages of Ponda taluka are keeping various home made food items and embroidery works for sale here.

Peaceful Society has been active in the rural areas of Goa and hence it was natural that it took up issues of rural women on a priority basis.

In 1999, it established the GRAMIN MAHILA MANCH

·        The first Mahila Mandal to establish under this social action was the Sai Mahila Mandal, at Madgaon on 4^th April 1999.

A number of rural women come to Madgaon from Malbhat, Pednem and other villages in search of work and the industrial town was an appropriate place organise these women. Peaceful Society felt this need all the more urgent in view of the prevailing blind faith and rituals that ruled the lives of these women. As society marched towards the 21^st century these traditions affecting the advancement of women needed to combat. Besides there was no need for alternative income earning for the women.

The latter was perceived by the Mandal women at a gathering in Madgaon organised on 27^th April 1999, where they expressed their desire to undertake various self-employment schemes. They were still at the preliminary stages.

A month later, on 24^th May, they visited the Peaceful Society where they saw for themselves what a coming together could achieve. They took varied interests in the activities of the Society and were inquisitive about the natural farming being undertaken in the society premises.

On World Environment Day, that is, on 5^th June 1999, they planted saplings of medicinal plants and flowers near their own homes and elsewhere.

The mandal could not undertake any activity in July and August last year due to heavy rains, in September a folk dance competition was organised at Marcel.

Then on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2^nd, 1999, the women assisted to start small scale industry and were handed over a preliminary in kind, that is, the necessary material and thread. This would help them gain self-employment through manufacture and other local fabrics.

Peaceful Society In Collaboration With Save The Children Fund Of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Unemployed Women’s Programme

BACKGROUND OF FINAL REPORT

The Peaceful Society had started “Unemployed Women’s programme in July 1985, which was later known as Women’s Employment Programme (WEP), with the financial assistance from ‘Save the Children Fund of British Columbia, Vancouver”.  The project was totally committed to; provide economic support to the women through employment.  The Society had submitted its first interim comprehensive report in July 1986 to the Funding Partner Save the Children Fund of British Columbia (SCF-BC) after the completion of first year of this project.  The said emphasized the experiences of the society during this period supported by several photographs of the activities of this project.

The society had suggested some alteration and appropriation of the approved programmes, proposals and their budget.  The society has requested an extra grant of Rs. 20,000/- with an extended budget for the period of July 1986 to June 1987.  Previously the whole project comprised seven production units with a revolving fund of Rs. 29,000/- while in the alternative proposal the society had centred its efforts on four production units with the revolving fund of Rs. 29,000/-.

The SCF-BC had informed this Society by its letter dated August 28, 1986 of its willingness to provide the extra grant of Rs. 20,000/-.

IMPLEMENTING THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SAID PROGRAMME

The programme is basically founded on the production of different eatable and domestic items in order to provide employment to women.  The whole production unit totally depends on suitability of the weather conditions that is why the production must be discontinued during the rainy season which extents generally from June to 2^nd week of October.  Last year the Society had established the Papad production unit and had also planned to expand it.  The Society had decided to re-start the production immediately after the close of the rainy season.  Generally the rainy season ends around the third week of October.  But unfortunately last year (1986) Goa received less than half the normal year rainfall and consequently faced severe drought conditions in the long history of the territory.  There was absolutely no rain in September and besides the rain had started very late that is why the Society instead of last week of September.  Surprisingly the rains again asserted their in predictability and it continued to rain till the first half of November.  The papad made during September consequently became qualitatively poor and resulted in the accumulation of the unsold stocks worth Rs. 900/-.  The deterioration of the quality is attributed to another cause.  The availability of bright sunlight is not enough to dry but it is equally imperative that the inner layers of the soil should also be dry when raw papads are laid on the mats to get dry by exposure to the sunlight.  Any humidity in the inner layers of the soil is absorbed by papads promptly and deteriorations of their quality set’s in.  The abnormal rainfall ended almost in the third week of November and as it takes almost two weeks for the soil to dry we re-started the production in the second week of December.  But once again unfortunate events took place in the second week of December due to which the peaceful life of Goa was completely disturbed by linguistic agitation which turned into hostility, violence and riots and it took almost one and a half month to regain normalcy in this ordinarily peaceful state.  The Society had sent newspaper cuttings as documentary proof to the SCF-BC.  The production unit was re-started in full swing in February 1987 and efforts were made to regain the regain the previous marketing response.  But even after a month the demand failed to pick up and the unsold stocks started piling up causing us a great anxiety.  There were two main reasons for the sluggish demand for the papads in spite of their good quality.  Owing to the almost four months of absence of our papad in the market a new brand of papad come up with attractive packaging and a very fast supply system.  The producers of that had invested about Rs. 1.3 million to spread their product to the length and breadth of Goa.  The third reason was that a government agency had supported many women’s groups for making papad.  This resulted in many producers of  papad flooding the market at the same time and creating an unhealthy tough competition to secure market for their own product.  It was therefore not easy to increase the sale.  The papad production continued in the remaining months but gave marketing problems continued to confront us. However, in a short time of two months this year and in the last week of April we demand that the consumers and the sellers had arrived at the conclusion that the over all quality of our papad was superior to the other varieties in the market.  So the Society increased production of the papad to meet the higher demand in May, but once again unexpected rainfall had started.  Generally the pre-monsoon rainfall starts in the second week of May with only a few occasional showers but this time the pre-monsoon rainfall continued interrupted for 10 days. Once again we were forced to finally stop the production of papad in the last week of May.  The cycle of seasonal rainfall is unbalanced and it is adversely affecting the village industry.  It is really surprising that this year Goa is receiving a very good rainfall but the neighbouring states are experiencing acute drought conditions.  Last year the situation was entirely different and while Goa suffered drought the neighbouring states had received good rainfall.

In spite of all these unexpected events the Society is able to say with full confidence that the future of papad production is very bright till it continuous to be one of the favourite and common dishes in Indian food. In spite of all these painful experiences the society has planned vigorous steps in production, supply, and overall co-ordination and follow up in this unit.  In spite of this continuously dull situation the papad unit had provided 418 women’s days employment and produced 47070 no. of papad worth Rs. 9,414/- during September 1986 to May 1987.

JACKFRUIT UNIT

Besides the not so good but not bad either overall performance and achievement of the Papad Unit in the same period the Society had encouraging and marvellous achievement in the establishment of Jackfruit Unit.  During the last year while the Papad Unit was found running well the Jackfruit Unit had been just introduced and had produced only 27 kg. of  Jackfruit Wafers worth Rs 5000/-.  Last year there was the problem of marketing of wafers.  But this year although the production of wafers was started with some hesitation it was really a miracle that the demand soared high very soon.  Initially the wafer production was10 kgs., and it ended with 30 kgs., so the Society increased the capacity of the unit almost 5 times that of the last years.  This was indeed a very inspiring and encouraging achievement this year.  The increasing demand was mainly caused by improved quality of the wafers produced.  This year we are mature and experienced in the selection of appropriate Jackfruits, which are suitable for good quality wafers.  This unit had generated 106 days employment for women and had produced 90 kgs. Of wafers that is double the last year’s production.  This unit also closed almost one and a half month earlier due to early heavy rains, which increased in inner humidity of the Jackfruit and rendered them unsuitable in inner humidity of the Jackfruit and rendered them unsuitable for good quality wafers.  The Society has planned in a realistic way to double the existing production next year.

SWEET PAPAD FROM JACKFRUIT

This year the Society had introduced sweet papad and got very good experience and found that it has also very vast market potentiality in and outside Goa.  For the preparation of raw material for it equipment is required.  But the Society procured the equipment with same delay due to its non-availability in the market.  This equipment is not going to reduce the manual work.  Due to the receipt of this equipment and the early arrival of the rainfall the unit could not commence commercial production because Jackfruit sweet papad takes at least 15 times more time and bright sunlight to dry than any other variety of papad.  But this was not available due to early commencement of rains.

LEAF PLATE UNIT

Due to lack of managerial capacity and lack of time the Society had started this unit by giving financial assistance and marketing outlet to six women’s.  This approach had created a good result and these women are earning about had Rs. 150/- per month in their leisure work time.  Now the Society is planning to try them for the other varieties of the Leaf Plates, which are specially produced in Andhra Pradesh.  In the coming season we can increase the employment of women twice by the same approach.  Please take note about that this unit also needs bright sunlight and wet leaves are not suitable of this purpose.

DISH PLATE FROM BETEL NUT LEAVES

The available machine to make Dish Plates from betel nut leaves received from Mitra Bir Trust was defective and we sought for its replacement from its suppliers.  The Society after a long period of waiting arranged for its repairs and brought it to a unit working condition.  All this took into too long a time and in the mean time the rainfall had started.  The evaluation team of this project inspected this machine and the production can be started by November 1987 when dry leaves will be available.

SPICES UNIT

Now the Society has planned to add one more unit, which is the spices unit.  This unit was expected to start around end of May but due to the late delivery of the required equipment it can be started in October 1987.  This unit has a good marketing potential.

BRIEF HIGHLIGHTS OF PRODUCTION UNIT

1)      In spite of all inconvenient conditions to run and increase the capacity of the papad production unit ultimately the society succeeded to get rid of all the bad consequences and had provided man at work.

2)      Up to June 1986 only papad unit was established but Jackfruit wafers hit, leaves plate unit, are also established this year.

3)      After the completion of two years of this project the society is able to retain overall revolving fund amount and had spent on the labour and on the material which we consider as one of the positive and inspiring achievements of this project.

4)      The Society created a marvellous market for the Jackfruit unit, which is another achievement of the current year.

5)      The workers efforts to make this programme a success was very great and due to these sustainable women’s team has been built up and this programme will continue forever.

6)      The Society maintains all the relative registers like Production register, Stock register, Attendance Register, Sale Book, Bill Book, Cash Book, Ledger Book etc.

7)      The Society has taken all the care to do the necessary record work.  The Society has also filled the required documents at the appropriate state and Central Government offices.

8)      Welfare Measure:  The Society has concentrated its efforts on the Welfare Measure, which were indicated in the previous report and has paid minute attention to the employed women as to where they spend their money.  There are very encouraging changes in these women who was the income earned from the project for their livelihood and most necessary domestic things.  All the beneficiary women are operating their bank accounts and have formed a healthy habit of regular saving.

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS

a)      How Developmental policy is stressing its efforts to the development and establishment of Industrialization.  There is no clear demarcation in this developmental approach as to which production will be for the Village Industry and Cottage Industry sectors.  Now days the multinational and other indigenous large industry have introduced their products, which can be easily produced by the village and the cottage industry.  It is really a very tough period for the village and cottage industries to face the encroachment of the Himalayan task for village industries to compete with multinational and big industries.  The position of the village industries is almost like the have-note but their capabilities and potentialities endless.  They require professional out look and structure, which is not possible in a limited provision of budget and within a period two years.

b)      This project faced such limitations like suitability of climate and appropriate infrastructure.  If the society can solve these two problems within a short span of time than this whole project can be turned into a vast expansion.

c)      The society is trying to acquire land develop infrastructure for its overall functions in which the women employment programme will receive main attention.  It requires liberal support from resourceful institutions.  How one of its supporter institutions has promised funds to purchase land.  The society hopes that it can acquire a sufficient area of land within two to three months.  Then the question will arise about preliminary construction for which society has received the bonafide assurance of a small fund by which urgent requirement of work shed can be completed within a short period.  So the question of infrastructure for such activities is on the way of concrete solution.  In spite of this the society requires further support to this project in a big frame.  Many times the problem arose due to adverse climate and this can be almost minimized by the installation of an electrical oven that will help to continue the papad project during the rainy season as well.  And if the society can feed the market demand during the rainy reason also then nobody can interfere into its market span.

d)      After the last two years experience it is also necessary that the society should leave enough stock of raw materials which the cost of production can be reduced.  As raw materials are normally cheaper during certain periods of the year, this will help us to control our cost of production.

e)      For the production of any type of items and its sale in the market with the aim of generating employment specifically among the needy women in the village atmosphere the whole thing fully depends on a band of committed workers teams.  But commitment does not mean that they have professional skill are not sure that they are committed. All types of programmes committed for a new social order requires a team of professional colleagues.   The commitment normally comes from their experience of the work, and their involvement, relation and communication with the Society.  The present trend of materialism has created drought to get and cultivate committed colleagues.   Therefore a period of two years is insufficient to assess the success or failure of any such programme or to develop a confident team of colleagues.

f)       In view of all the above problems and their situations the Society had planned in a big frame to expand this project, which requires very specific support from the SCB-BC.  The society understands that it will not be possible for SCF-BC to provide the entire fund for expanded programme. Therefore the required infrastructure expenditure can be made by the SCF-BC for three years.  The expansion proposal is enclosed.

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:

A Forum To Meet

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.

Survey of Panchayats

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)

 Tailoring & Embroidery Training

In spite of few local problems, tailoring and Embroidery training courses have received good responses so far. After the experience of 1^st free training course of six months duration we introduced course free nominally to make trainee responsible and serious about the training.

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.

Training For Cultivation Of Mushrooms

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.

Training For Kitchen Garden

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.

Management Training For DWACRA Leader

A three days state level orientation camp was organised at Society’s campus for RDA (Rural Development Agency, Govt. Of Goa). supported DWACRA groups.  Twenty-four women group leaders took part in the camp. They shared their day-to-day problems in managing the team, procuring raw materials, marketing outlet for their product etc. Officer Incharge, Women Development Dept.  of RDA – Goa was the co-ordinator of the camp and she requested the society to extend support even in future for the benefit  of women groups.

Education And Health Awareness

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.

Health Camps

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.

Solar Cooker Training

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.

65 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.

Terrace Gardening Camp

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.

Preservation Of Medicinal Herbs

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.

NSS Camps

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.

Dowry Victims

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.

Atrocities On Women

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.

Anti-Alcoholism Camps

Peaceful Society is holding camps at various places for awareness against the rising alcoholism and smoking and chewing tobacco habits among the mass community.

Education And Motivation Programmes

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.

Village Women Front

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.

Sai Mahila Mandal

A women’s organization called as Sai Mahila Mandal was established on 9^th April 1999 with the help of Peaceful Society to assist the women of that region.