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.

Why volunteer is important for an NGO

Volunteering offers vital help to people in need, worthwhile causes, and the community, but the benefits can be even greater for you, the volunteer. Volunteering and helping others can help you reduce stress, combat depression, keep you mentally stimulated, and provide a sense of purpose. While it’s true that the more you volunteer, the more benefits you’ll experience, volunteering doesn’t have to involve a long-term commitment or take a huge amount of time out of your busy day. Giving in even simple ways can help others those in need and improve your health and happiness.

 

 

Why working for an NGO can be extremely rewarding

 

1. You make strategies for the country/world

While in schools and colleges you plan to change a few things here and there, in an NGO your plans can go much beyond. You plan and strategize to change the country, the world. Your targets are not 1 week or 2 weeks but spread across years and decades. Lakshyam is one of the best NGO in Delhi which provides the training facilities for volunteer, and we have the best volunteer programs in India.

2. Better networking:

This is the best networking you can possibly get. In the corporate world your networks are based on mutual benefit, but in NGO it’s for a common goal. In most other types of networking ,your Network is a list of your acquaintances but, in the NGO world it is a list of people who become your best buddies,your mentors ,people you respect and people who respect you.

3.Lesser Egos:

It has been observed that behavior of people change when they are in a situation where they are reminded of moral values and idealism, such as near Schools, in churches and in temples. This is exactly why when you meet truly dedicated people in an NGO you will see their Guards down, people become much more open, much more ready to change and much more inclined to listen to all points of view. Suddenly there can be order in the chaos of an NGO decision-making process.

4. It opens your mind:

Try working with any NGO and you will see what I mean, you gain a sense of perspective and start seeing the impact of small things. You realize what is more important

5. Leadership:

The chances of being a leader or learning leadership are much more in NGO sector than any other. It takes about 4-5 years to become a team lead in an IT field but in an NGO you could be doing that the moment you join. It all depends on what you are willing to do .It is not necessary to even join them full-time.

More importantly, you can learn the meaning of true leadership very early on such as

Ø  Post does not matter as much as the work/role

Ø  Difference between enforced leadership and earned leadership

Ø  Importance of NOT being a leader sometimes

Ø  How to be a good follower

Ø  How to motivate people

While I did point out various Pros of working with NGOs, I am not discounting the exposure and experience you get in the corporate sector. This article is simply to point out some of the very unique takeaways from NGO sector.

My personal belief is that your learning and personal growth can be accelerated by working for an ngo. Remember when you join an NGO, you are not just doing it for giving back to society, but are also gaining much more.

Top 5 volunteer Organisations in India

What else do they have in mind when they hear the word India? A prestigious land with cultures ranging from mountains to barrens, a beautiful and colorful country.  But since time immemorial, poverty and hardship have also tagged along. What if they tell you there is more to traveling than just discovering new places and striking dreams off your bucket list? There are many travelers who try to give it back in a whole way by reaching out to orphanages, rehabilitate the refugees and conserve the wildlife.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Hellen Keller.
There are organizations in India who enroll volunteers and who can work from office or can travel around to reach out to the interiors. In such organizations, you get the experience of work life, contribute towards building a better place and travel to fulfill your dreams.

The top 5 volunteer organizations in India are:

1.Khiddispore Red Light Area Community Programs in Kolkata:

This organization aims to give a better life to the sex workers of the area and takes care of their education and employment. The volunteers take English classes, teach communication and writing skills, enhance their crafts and create resource bank by selling the products.

2.Teach Tibetan  refugees in Dharamshala:

This organization aims at giving the Tibetan refugees a safe and secure home, rehabilitation and transition into Indian Community. They provide them with social services, courses and vocational training.

3.Lakshyam

Lakshyam has been battling since 2004. It expects to manufacture a safe and clean world for the underprivileged; giving them instruction, fundamental needs running from garments and nourishments to sheets and toys, human services programs and some more. It focuses on the ghetto territories of numerous states crosswise over India and furnish them with a steady, sound condition. It has three noteworthy projects among numerous others, to be specific, Lakshyam: Toy Library, Lakshyam's Butterfly Program and Lakshyam Rooh. Taking note of the smog filled air that we breathe in at the time of November-December in Delhi, or the gray air that we breathe in all the time, or the never ending fights for a timely supply of clean water; we should stop teaching the next generation tots that air and water are colorless. Funny, eh? Well it is not until you are in Delhi.

Lakshyam's Toy Library goes for circulating toys and books to the underprivileged kids gave by the ones who have it in wealth. Till now, Lakshyam has dispersed more than 2,00,000 toys and books the nation over. Putting up Facebook statuses, tweets and Instagram stories as a voice raised against the increasing unemployment; do you really expect Prakash Javadekar to take out time for you and read your stories? Or is life getting any easier as you continue to make fun of the unemployed B.tech graduates? Memes and stories won’t end anytime soon, but dreams and lives of thousands other unemployed youths get shattered while you scroll your feed.

Lakshyam's butterfly program gives healing training focuses to understudies, keeping in mind the end goal to fill the hole in the administration instruction framework. 

Lakshyam's Rooh program enthusiastically endeavors to instruct the ladies of India and enable them to believe in themselves and venture up the stone of quality and achievement.

Can Volunteer as:
i.    Media and interchanges
ii.    Administrative work and business improvement
iii.    Academics
iv.    Indoor and open sports
v.    Performing expressions
vi.    Data administration and research
vii.    Social business enterprise
viii.    Building and development
ix.    Co-curricular exercises

4.Ethical Volunteering:

There are currently heaps of approaches to get associated with global volunteering. You may take a hole year after school, or a profession brake from your activity, you may have been allowed to have a holiday or you may have resigned and be searching for new enterprises. Regardless of whether you have half a month or a couple of years there are currently heaps of associations that will enable you to locate a volunteer program.

5.Concern India Foundation:

Can organize arrangements in nearby NGOs for volunteers in fields, for example, instruction and network advancement; volunteers can likewise work with Concern India assisting with organization and raising money. Can organize arrangements in nearby NGOs for volunteers in fields, for example, instruction and network advancement; volunteers can likewise work with Concern India assisting with organization and raising money.

So however big your dreams are, however colorful your goals are and however places you want to visit, there is no bigger a happiness in lightening up a face and home with nothing more than your sheer lone work. Because as a volunteer, you can boast of yourself as the change that you want to bring.