Women Empowerment

One of the important learning while working on health and reproductive rights issue in communities was the criticality of viewing efforts at improving women’s health as closely entwined with larger issues of social and economic backwardness of women in traditionally male-dominated societies. Women in the rural areas of Haryana have little control over their lives with hardly any decision-making power in family matters. Dependency on male members of the family can be observed in almost every sphere of their lives. In part women’s low status in the family and lack of decision-making power can be ascribed to her almost complete economic and social dependency on men.

It is therefore important to dovetail economic and social empowerment interventions for women while encouraging male inclusion in women’s health concerns. Women empowerment has thus emerged as a strategic thrust area in Sukarya’s health efforts.

While strategizing on women empowerment to eventually improve women’s health, Sukarya is focusing on mobilizing women into self help groups and imparting training in skill development for income enhancement activities to help women become economically self-reliant.