While celebrating Women’s History Month this March, it is important that even as we reflect on the rapid strides of progress we have made as a society in addressing the challenges women face, we must acknowledge the ground realities that exist despite collective efforts across society.
Women have to deal with the intersectionality of issues of caste and class discriminations, disability and gender discrimination. Where simply being a woman adds to the burden, when one is already facing social ills, in a patriarchal society.
While some challenges require major social upheavals to be tackled, empowering women to be self-sufficient, educated, and aware of their rights and choices goes a long way in improving their lives overall. This is the approach we use at Apnalaya when working on vulnerabilities faced by women in urban slum communities.
But first, what are these vulnerabilities? There are numerous possibilities.
It could be a lack of support from their partners and family members, where women’s dreams are put on the back burner for what is considered the betterment of the family.
Where women are pushed in to childbirth and rearing before their bodies and minds are able to cope with such a tumultuous time, where a lack of knowledge and necessary support can lead to unfortunate albeit completely avoidable misfortunes.
As costs of living rise, more and more women find themselves as part of the workforce, contributing to the family income. Here too, a lack of knowledge can lead to exploitation or underachieved potential. In times of domestic adversity, women are often the first to sacrifice their fledgling careers.
For working women, unequal distribution of household chores remains a very prevalent issue. They might continue with their work and career but only until they also take on the entire burden within the house as well.
Most times, it is also the burden of poverty that families have to carry when they migrate from their homes to the labyrinth of urban slums, where the continuum of poverty never really breaks. Switching to survival mode from a much slower-paced life to the chaos of a city/urban life strains the women who often do not even get the time to adapt to newer realities. This cross-section of issues often becomes a self-perpetuating cycle hard to break out of for women.
How do we solve these myriads of interconnected problems? Apnalaya delves into these challenges faced by women in urban poor communities and finds solutions together with the women from the community, for them to be sustainable and self-sufficient.
Our work through the decades in Mumbai slums has taken us through various milestones like creating health centres, supporting education initiatives, creating livelihood opportunities and required support systems for women, strengthening existing government systems with engaging multiple stakeholders, and building a community that is aware of its rights and able to resolve the issues of community sustainably.
One of our most important and successful interventions is the collectivising of women and creating systems of support. In many cases, where the net of social security is missing, our endeavour is to help women get access to fundamentals like identification documents that make them eligible for government schemes (like the Arogya Sakhi initiative under our maternal health programme) or finding solutions for basic amenities such as safe and functional toilets, as well as working on access to reliable healthcare for women and adolescent girls.
We do this through a multi-stakeholder approach where we work with women in urban slums at different levels, thus creating a robust network of groups within and beyond communities. For instance, the self-help groups of women enable women to take steps towards their financial freedom. In order to ensure women are able to engage in financial activities, women entrepreneurs are trained to start providing reliable childcare within communities. Not just that, healthcare, especially maternal health is given importance with the help of women champions from the communities, who go through the training and become a beacon of hope for women in their families and neighbourhood as well.
While March is the month when there is a much-needed focus on women’s’ issues globally, we at Apnalaya believe that empowering women is the key towards unlocking a better and more equal society, which is a year-round effort. We hope and believe that all our collective efforts snowball into bigger results, ensuring the women in urban slum communities are able to reach their full potential.
