WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP AND RIGHTS
|
Rani Mandal, ekes out a livelihood for her family working in several people’s homes as a part-time domestic help. Her husband Bapi is presently unemployed and is a member of the Men’s Group that Parichiti has started in Shaheed Smriti and slum in southern Kolkata. Rani has noticed a change in Bapi in the last few months “He takes care of our children from preparing their tiffin to taking them to the school. Now he spends more time with the children and looks after their education. I can now work freely and comfortably as I know that my husband will take care of my children in my absence also.” Rani is happy now since Bapi also helps in other household chores including cutting vegetables and fetching water.
While CHSJ has been working on the issue of gender equality since its inception, the focus earlier was on men and boys only. This year CHSJ introduced a new theme in its work around strengthening women’s leadership and rights and this was done through a new unit called Parichiti based out of Kolkata. While Parichiti’s primary work was with women domestic workers, it also initiated a project in 12 slums in South Kolkata in collaboration with SAHAYOG, Lucknow to explore whether working with men in the community, including husbands of domestic workers led to any reduction of domestic violence. The intervention is working with over 500 domestic workers and 300 men to see whether a ‘gender synchronous’ helps building greater community solidarity and reduce gender based violence. The story above shows that within a year the project has started showing results. The lessons from this project could go a long way in building support for increasing women’s work participation which at 26% is among the lowest in the world. Parichiti is also building leadership capacities among women domestic workers (WDW) and strengthening advocacy for better working conditions and worker’s rights for WDWs. |
“He takes care of
our children from preparing their tiffin to taking them to the school. Now he spends more time with the children and looks after their education. I can now work freely and comfortably as I know that my husband will take care of my children in my absence also.” 
|