Empowerment - Our philosophy
Empowering individuals is not just the individual’s growth but, it entails the growth of the family and the community. Community development focusing on sustainable development of different actors within the village has been our motto. Basis this philosophy many such empowerment initiatives were conceived in Srujanavani. Most initiative of empowerment were associated with financial empowerment, and skill empowerment.
At the broadest level, working with the women Self-Help groups for creating alternate livelihoods, empowering the unemployed youth in the rural settings towards skill enhancing initiatives, and more importantly working with the farmer community towards sustainable practices of farming. Some of the targeted initiatives that are aimed at the empowering individuals are as follows.
- 1. Tailoring Initiative for Women
- 2. Digital literacy classes for unemployed youth
Tailoring Learning Centre
Women empowerment has always been one of the core concerns of Srujanavani. We started Tailoring Learning Centre in our Skill Development Centre (SDC) at Vaddadhi to provide a livelihood to young women. The centre has trained women in producing clothes for women and children. Women trained at our centre and shown significant returns and made remarkable changes to their lives. They have engaged themselves to stitch cloth masks and earn their livelihood during this pandemic.
Around 500 women learned tailoring techniques, and about 100 women have started to develop their businesses. Given the demand from women, extended advanced training on the new fashions.
Digital literacy training
Children need to become digitally literate to understand and use technology for enhanced learning. We established a free computer learning centre at our SDC to enable rural students to understand learning techniques through computers. Engaging the youth in productive activities can reap a multitude of benefits.
Srujanavani has attempted to provide digital literacy training to youth, particularly those who completed their undergraduate education with the collaboration of Jan Shikshana Samsthan.
Agriculture Extension Service Centre
Rural Development has always been a nerve centre for Srujanavani. Our association with the rural communities prompted the need for support in Agricultural Services. The Agriculture Extension Service Centre (AESC) helps the farmer community get farm machinery at subsidized prices. The program created a steady impact in the farmer community to utilize technology in agriculture.
Every year around 800 farmers belonging to 3 Mandals make use of the facilities available. This year the machinery was engaged for 1000 working hours during the entire harvest process. Statistics inform that a 25% reduction is amounting to Rs 5000/- per farmer.