Women on Wings’ latest milestone is a total of 207,500 new jobs for women in rural India. Ruma Devi, Durga Yadav and Kajodi Devi, three last mile beneficiaries from Rajasthan, shared how having a job and income changed their lives at Women on Wings’ ‘Silent Auction’ on November 10 in New Delhi.
Empowered rural women engines of change and progress
Durga Yadav is team leader at Sadhna, a women’s enterprise in Udaipur: “When I got married and moved to my husband’s house, it lacked basic amenities like a toilet. My husband was a daily wage worker and couldn’t afford it. Today, not only me but my family too, take pride in saying that it was because I worked outside we were able to afford basic necessities. Seeing us, many families in the vicinity now also motivate their women to go out and work if they want to.”
Ruma Devi is an applique patchwork artisan from Barmer, and president of Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan (GVCS): “In the beginning we went to every doorstep in the village urging people to send women from their family out to work and earn. We also made them understand that it was not only about earning money, but about self-respect too. It was tough but today GVCS provides employment to as much as 11,000 women from 75 villages in and around Barmer.
622,500 children in school
A job and an income provide women in rural India with greater self-sufficiency, purchasing power and a better social position. But these 207,500 jobs have a far larger impact: it also means two meals a day and better livelihoods for 207,500 Indian families. As an extra result, 622,500 children are in (a better) school thanks to the fact their mothers have a job with an income.
The growth in the number of jobs is the result of partnerships with 29 business partners in India. Women on Wings experts share their time and knowledge pro bono with these social enterprises to support them in expanding their businesses so they sell more products and thus create more employment for women.
@picture from left to right Ruma Devi, Durga Yadav and Kajodi Devi
