Towards empowerment of women and children

SPEWC, a district-level statutory body, launched

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Integrated Child Protection Scheme also launched

Collector highlights need to focus on trafficking

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— Photo: A.V.G. Prasad

West Godavari ZP Chairperson M. Seshu Babu and Collector A. Vani Prasad honouring streetchildren with a bouquet at the launch of the SPEWC in Eluru on Friday.

ELURU: The Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children (SPEWC) was launched here on Friday as a district-level statutory body to address issues concerning women and children and to strive for their empowerment. It would function as an arm of the State-level body – Andhra Pradesh Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women.

Objective

An Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), another forum to focus on the plight of children, was also launched on the same platform.

K. Raghava Rao, Project Director, Women and Child Welfare Department, who is member-convener of the district-level body, said the society would strive to promote gender equity, provide vulnerable women and children access to quality services and opportunities for building an equitable society through convergence and partnership.

It would also work in sync with various governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations and international development agencies for effective implementation of the programmes and services meant for the welfare of children and women.

Domestic violence

Collector A. Vani Prasad would act as Chairperson and Superintendent of Police C. Ravi Varma as vice-chairperson of the society.

Speaking at a function in this connection, the Collector said the emergence of the SPEWC and the ICPS had become necessitated in the wake of increasing incidence of domestic violence.

Some 10,000 cases of dowry harassment are reported in the State every year. The incidence of infanticide and foeticide is on the higher side. The female dropout rate is on the rise and the number of cases of women and girls subjected to trafficking is growing. The Collector highlighted the need for society to focus on trafficking in women and children and usurious activities of micro finance activities, subjecting SHG women to exploitation and harassment in the district.

M.M. Bhagawath, DIG of Police, Eluru range, called for an integrated approach with all stakeholders to handle the complex problems of trafficking and child abuse, and said it could be possible only through bodies like the SPEWC.

Citing an instance wherein Narsapur Revenue Divisional Officer S. Venkatamaiah had closed down a brothel in Bhimavaram for six months by exercising his powers under the Immoral Trafficking Act, the DIG called upon the revenue officers to act in a similar manner in their capacity as executive magistrates and cooperate with the police in combating the proliferating incidence of women trafficking in the district. SP C. Ravi Varma also spoke.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/29/stories/2010052955500300.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu

Showing the way for women empowerment

Mukti Datta, Managing Director of Panchachuli Womens Weavers, Almora, in Coimbatore.

COIMBATORE,India: It is a story of women who wove success with courage and determination. An initiative that started as an effort for better livelihood by reviving a lost art has earned world-wide recognition for the fabrics, Pashmina shawls, stoles, scarves, and home furnishing that the women weave.

Mukti Datta, Managing Director of Panchachuli Women Weavers, who was here on Friday to speak at the TIDES Leadership Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, spoke to The Hindu on the challenges, growth and success of the Panchachuli Women Weavers.

In the late 1990s, in the rural areas of Almora in the Kumaon Himalayas, a group of women who did not have access to technology or education to improve their lot came together, learnt the basics of hand weaving and started making products for the rural market, initially with the local lamb’s wool.

In the early days, the funding was private and so there was scope for creativity and mistakes too.

“The basic training took two years. Refining it took another year and we started making jholas with strips of fabric,” she says.

Now, Panchachuli Women Weavers has two entities: Panchachuli Women Weavers, the company that has about 750 women as its shareholders, and the Panchachuli Women’s Cooperatives that give inputs for training, design and marketing.

Totally, about 1,500 women are involved in the programme in hand spinning, hand weaving, administration, finance, vegetable dye processing, making Pashmina blankets, shawls, etc.

Apart from the domestic market, about 50 per cent of the products made by these women is exported.

The women have also travelled to Bhutan and Nepal and are likely to visit Morocco soon for exchange programmes. Through these they are able to learn and exchange weaving techniques and designs with weavers in mountain regions in other countries.

The products are hand-made. While some of the classic designs are in-house, National Institute of Fashion Technology students are involved in the dproduction of the collections. “We are now working on winter collection for 2011-2012.” Once the women learn the basics, they are creative and experimenting. “They are proud that they are artisans,” Ms. Datta says. They even compete with each other in spinning or weaving better.

“It has shown the path for women in remote areas.” The Panchachuli programme is replicable.

It only needs determination and proper leadership, she says.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/15/stories/2010031550930200.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu