NGO Working for Women Empowerment and Child Development

NGO should strengthen women by giving them identity as informal workers by trying to work on the rights of women workers and use nonviolent manifestation methods. It should also work to improve sex workers, with the aim of fighting HIV and AIDS and ending human trafficking which include the production of sanitary napkins, which provide space for women to make and sell their art and instil vital language skills. They should defend gender justice, equality and respect for human rights and work in areas such as budget allocations for gender and women's security in conflict areas.

For the child development many NGOs in India are doing a great job helping disadvantaged children with education and for social change. Child development include initiatives to improve the condition of underprivileged children and to make sure that proper education reaches to more children in every new academic year.

What Lakshyam is doing for Women Empowerment and Child Development?

Lakshyam is an NGO dedicated to disadvantaged and repressed communities, especially women and children. Since the last eight years, Lakshyam has been working towards child development and the empowerment of women in seven states of India. Established for the welfare of humanity and society in general, the non-profit organization has participated in a series of social welfare activities. Further are the programme run by Lakshyam for Women Empowerment and Child Development

Rooh is a program that focuses on creating an environment conducive to women from underprivileged communities. Provide training in skills development and teach the art of sewing, cutting, sewing and embroidering women, thus creating opportunities to increase income. The focus on problems that affect women's lives, such as health and hygiene education, child care and basic civic sense, is provided to women in the community to help them lead a dignified and confidential life.

The Lakshyam toy library is one of the main programs of Lakshyam that distributes toys and books from privileged children to the not so privileged. The toy boxes are installed in several private schools in Delhi and each child donates a toy and / or book that is then delivered to the 8 related NGOs in 7 states. The Lakshyam Toys Library Centers have been opened in rural districts of states such as Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Butterfly program was designed, considering the two integral components of a healthy child, Development and Participation. The Education Center based in Basti, adopted by Lakshyam, JJ Basti in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, provides an education that encompasses textual knowledge and the development of personality, together with special attention to workshops on cleanliness, hygiene, discipline, extracurricular activities and positive life habits that are carried out to help children to join society in general with a wider and deeper capacity.

Workshops by Lakshyam on Women Empowerment and Child Development

Health and nutrition awareness - The habits of cleanliness, nutrition and hygiene are demonstrated through stories and tables. Consultations are answered, and easy advice is given to inculcate new habits in daily life.

Breastfeeding awareness session -Women in the community learn about the recommendations of WHO and UNICEF to feed a baby or young child in a healthy way.

Micro-nutrient - Iodine deficiency awareness session - Lakshyam periodically holds an awareness session on iodine deficiency for women in the community. The session includes demonstrations to test salt for iodine content at the domestic level. The focus at the event is to focus on self-equipment techniques to safeguard one's health.

Eye camp - In collaboration with the Sant Parmanand Hospital, Lakshyam regularly organizes a health care campaign throughout Delhi that focuses on eye controls. Patients suffering from eye problems and discomfort are examined. In addition to the check-ups, patients are also given free medications and suggestions for eye care by doctors. Free cataract operations are also performed for serious cases; Last year, there were nine patients who recovered their sight after the camp.

Dental camp - Lakshyam offers free dental services to improve children's dental health. After the dental camps last year, several children were operated on for severe cases of dental problems.

Anti-drug campaign - Lakshyam recently organized an anti-drug campaign in Ranchi to achieve stability for disadvantaged children in extreme circumstances due to drug abuse. 30 children in Ranchi were found affected by drug abuse and were taken to the hospital to provide medical assistance. They needed special attention to get their lives back on track, mentally and physically. Lakshyam, along with his team of doctors, a skin specialist, a dental surgeon and a cardiac surgeon, worked with children in the three main affected areas that are most affected during drug abuse.

Women and Child Development: Making World a Better Place

Introduction

Women and child development has become the buzzword today with women working alongside men in all spheres and children are expected to get influence by their environment at different age level.  Women development can be defined as a process leading to enhancing women’s control over financial, human and intellectual resources. In any nation, women development can be assessed by their involvement in social, economic and social fields. Similarly, child’s development is the process of growth of child from dependency to increase independency. It is important that parents take every step necessary to ensure that their children grow up in environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met.

Issue

As is a widely known fact, the condition of women in India as well as the rest of the world personifies pitiful. We have a high rate of female feticide and at the same time the discrimination against girls in India has been going on since ages now. Even today, there are several sections of the Indian society where the girl child is treated as a burden. Leaving behind the educational and medical front, girls in India lag far behind in receiving affection as well. Also, being the second most populated country, India has a large number of youths crowning its resources. However, this resource is misused one as well.

There are various problems faced by women and children together – Undernourishment which means lack of sufficient calories in food leading to weakness, lower work efficiency etc., Malnutrition which means lack of sufficient ingredients such as vitamins, proteins etc. in the food leading to illness, less weight of child at birth, high rate of child mortality etc., Limited Education as the number of school going children is still far from satisfactory.

Development Programs by Government and NGO

For the social and economic development of women and children, Government and certain NGOs have launched various schemes and programs such as:

1.    Support To Training-Cum-Employment Programme (STEP):

The women are given training in sectors like agriculture, dairying, village and small industries.

2.    Swa-Shakti Project:

Swa-Shakti aims at increasing women’s access to resources for better quality of life by providing health and education services and imparting skills to women for income generating activities.

3.    National Commission for Women:

National Commission for Women protects constitutional and legal rights of women, recommends remedial measures, facilitates redressal of grievances and advises the Government on all matters affecting the welfare and development of women.

4.    Rooh-Women Welfare Program:

This is one of the programs initiated by LAKSHYAM NGO in New Delhi. Lakshyam’s program, ‘Rooh-Awakening Women Soul’, meaning the spirit, aims at strengthening women demeanor towards life itself. The program’s first step is to provide remedial education to children; second step is to provide an essential degree of exposure along with professional training and third is to equip the girls with popular platform to sell their skills. This program also targets developments in ways of financial issues by organizing various workshops that enable poor women to self- generate employment.  Health awareness campaigns are organized every now and then.

5.    Butterfly – Child Welfare Program:

Lakshyam NGO launched a similar program for children welfare named “Butterfly – Child Welfare and Education” that symbolizes freedom with wings of butterfly. This programs aims at imparting holistic education and well-round development and abolishing the term “underprivileged”. Students at Lakshyam are taught Hindi, Mathematics, English and Computer Sciences. It provides free of cost tutorials as well.

NGO’s WORKING FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN INDIA

Women’s movements in India have been going on since pre-independence days. It has moved from demands of social reforms to equality in the post independence period. Sadly, even after independence women in India are still facing violation of their human rights and do not enjoy or get equal treatment as men. India is still a male dominating country. From rape and domestic violence to forced labor and denial of educational and employment opportunities, the struggle for rights and empowerment is a disheartening one for Indian women.

As per Census 2011, the population of India is 1210.19 million comprising 586.47 million (48.5%) females. Females have a share of 48.1% in the urban population and of 48.6% in the rural population. The sex ratio is 943 as per the census of 2011. The literacy rate of females is 64.63%.  In the adult category the literacy rate is reduced to 59.3% compared to 78.8% for males.  Thus education for women has always been a problem over the years. Also, about 68% of the girls drop out from school even before they reach 8 grade.

Education is one aspect of economic development. Involvement of women in the workforce also enhances the economic development of the country. According to the census of 2011, the workforce participation rate shows that 25.51% were females and 53.26% males.

The crime against women is growing day by day at an alarming rate. In order to empower women government has come up with several laws and policies to safeguard and empower women in the society. A National Commission for Women was also set up in 1992 with the same objective to empower women and safeguard them.

In order to speed up the women empowerment process it is not on the government who is coming up with laws and polices but several NGO’s are working collaboratively to make the society a better place for women to live in. Some of the NGO’s include CREA, CARE India, Snehalaya, Swayam and Lakshyam.

LAKSHYAM which came into existence in 2004 is a non-governmental organization, established itself for the welfare of the society, and mankind at large.  It is engaged in a number of social welfare activities like child welfare, health, education and women empowerment.

One such program is TOY LIBRARY where Lakshyam had set up its toy library with thousands of toys books from various schools in Delhi. These toys and books were put up in the toy boxes installed and were free for children to play with. As a result, children have access to toys and story books which were read by teachers to the students present at the centers. They longer had to long for toys and no longer missed a major part of their childhood.

The other program is BUTTERFLY - Child Welfare Program where children are taught Hindi, English, Math and Computer Sciences, in purview of methodically filling in the gaps in formal education. When a child who is not very well-versed with English or computer language suffers in government or private schools, Lakshyam’s remedial center provides free of cost tutorials. This program symbolizes freedom with the wings of a butterfly. The concept of ‘Butterfly’ is based upon imparting the two most crucial aspects of welfare, a holistic education and well-round development. This endeavor functions with a motive of completely demolishing the term “underprivileged”.

Lakshyam’s program ‘Rooh- Awakening Womens’ Soul’, meaning the spirit, is a strategically developed, three-tier project that aims at strengthening a woman’s character towards life itself.

The first step in this program begins from providing remedial education to children; where children from under privileged sections of the society are taught basic arithmetic and how to read and write. Second step is to provide an essential degree of exposure along with professional training in behaviour and counselling, Third step is equipping girls with an established platform to sell and showcase their skills.

Apart from this, the program also targets financial development by organizing various workshops by portraying marketable skills which these girls women possess in the form of handmade goods that enable poor women to self generate employment opportunities.

Renowned professional trainers personally conduct these workshops and training sessions. Few women also get an opportunity to work under them and not only get a source of income for themselves but also learn in better ways enhancing their skills and potential. Keeping in mind the saying Health is Wealth, health awareness campaigns for women are also organized every now and then. It includes creating awareness about importance of iodine in salt to causes of Breast Cancer to importance of personal hygiene

Lakshyam’s struggle has so far enabled thousands of women to realize their true potential and be a support to families and played a crucial role in the development of the country.