Twenty five years after Latur was jolted by an earthquake that left a trail of destruction, several thousand women affected by the tragedy are recognised as transformational leaders
Over 26 years ago, on September 30, 1993, Latur district in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra was jolted by an earthquake that left a trail of mass destruction. It ravaged hundreds of villages and uprooted multitudes of people.
Today, several thousand women among those severely affected by the tragedy are recognised as transformational leaders. How these semi-literate and impoverished women converted adversity into opportunity and finally prosperity is a saga of grit and tenacity. The glue that bonded them and provided the necessary impetus towards leading a revolution was a passionate and indefatigable social entrepreneur, Prema Gopalan. Schooled and trained in disaster management, she began reconstruction and rehabilitation work among these women and in 1998 formally launched Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) (self-education for empowerment) with a larger and long-term mission of self-empowerment and self-learning.
The crisis and the consequent social mobilisation for reconstruction of houses gave people the opportunity and impetus for large, community-centered efforts and started creating models for building community resilience. SSP started out as a not-for-profit, helping bridge the gap between the community and the Government following the temblor. It worked to enable women from the community to monitor the relief effort and act as intermediaries by giving feedback to the Government on the progress of building work, selection of beneficiaries and what was needed on the ground.
Prema realised the potential of these rural women and believed they could grow into planners in local development and governance. Building on their capacities, she steered them through a broad-based development strategy of economic and social empowerment. It helped her conceptualise the broad vision for SSP.
The objective of SSP is to promote inclusive and sustainable community development among low income women in climate-threatened areas by building robust ecosystems that could enable them to access skills training, financial and digital literacy and technology and marketing platforms. They have become equipped to navigate the challenges posed by climate change, natural disasters, agriculture, health and sanitation. They also have the negotiating skills to deal with Government agencies and local self-Government bodies.
Women are at the centre of SSP’s work, creating the tools, services, and networks they need to break through complex and entrenched situations of poverty and the caprices of the climate. The purpose of its partnerships — spanning entrepreneurship, health, agriculture, technology and financial services — is to create sustainable solutions that can be broadly implemented to improve the lives of women living in poor, rural communities.
Prema believes that rural women should be acknowledged for who they really are — a new generation of dynamic entrepreneurs, job-creators and economy drivers, committed to bringing a change in their communities. She has steered thousands of women in the most vulnerable communities in drought and flood-affected villages by partnering them with global and local businesses to set up sustainable last-mile social enterprises in clean energy, sanitation, basic health services, nutrition and safe agriculture. They have transitioned from self-employment to diversify their ventures, aggregate into value chains and mentor thousands of others to get on the path of entrepreneurship
Prema is a recipient of Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2018 of the Schwab Foundation and the SSP has received a large number of global and national awards including the Equator Prize, 2017 from UNDP and UNFCCC Momentum for Change Award, 2016 for Communities and Climate Change.
One of the key issues that Prema and her team are targetting is climate change and have identified six impact areas. They are linked to agriculture, water and energy resources, food security, health, climate-related natural disasters and climate-induced migration.
“Women can reverse climate change impact for the poor by leading from the front,” says Prema. Among the impoverished, women face the brunt of risks associated with climate change since they are primary managers of energy, water, food and essential services. Hence clean energy products dominate social businesses of these women. Prema’s team is enabling thousands of women to succeed in remote markets by selling everything — from solar chargers for mobile phones to more efficient cooking stoves — that can lift a rural household out of extreme poverty. The businesses are leveraging the last-mile rural women’s entrepreneurship network for awareness generation on clean energy technologies and access to products and services.
The SSP model comprises four ventures: A resilience fund for women-led businesses; a fraternity of 5,000 self-help groups networked through federations; a rural school of entrepreneurship and leadership for women which provides business, financial and marketing skills; and a market aggregator that provides warehousing, branding, marketing and distribution services to last-mile business women. The consortium nurtures the value chains and entrepreneurial ecosystems that women need to succeed in remote and opaque markets.
Rural women are the human face of poverty and development. They toil on their farms but lack access to land titles and are therefore, not recognised as farmers. This, in turn, denies them access to finance to updated their farm, training technology and markets. SSP’s women entrepreneurs are taking their communities forward, reshaping the local economy, securing food self-sufficiency, driving local initiatives for increasing incomes, creating jobs, building access to key assets in times of crisis and creating a lasting impact. As a result, they are no longer perceived as beneficiaries; instead they have emerged as partners.
There has also been a failure of agricultural strategy over the last decade, as food crops have gradually been abandoned in favour of cash crops such as sugar cane, which is more profitable but is highly water-intensive. In such a scenario, sustainable and diversified agriculture is the only solution to stop the deepening of India’s agrarian crisis, especially since the impacts of climate change are now visible. Water insecurity lies at the core of the crisis. Shifting to organic farming (which increases soil fertility) to grow drought-resistant varieties that provide additional incomes and household nutritional security while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity, is a viable option.
One of the most revolutionary contributions of SSP is in bringing about this shift to sustainable farming and protection of water and natural resources. Men are losing interest in farming but women continue to work the land. The SSP has empowered women farmers in climate-resilient agricultural practices. These women are now active decision-makers on core issues like growing crops, conserving natural resource and increasing biodiversity. In this arid zone, these women collectives have made farming breakthroughs possible. Through the years, SSP has created large-scale programmes aimed at development centered on women’s participation and leadership. SSP has also built a support system of village-level networks of entrepreneurs known as sakhis (friends). An innovative intervention is in rural health care. SSP selects and trains women who are landless but have basic education, are interested in health care and community service. These Arogya Sakhis are community members who receive basic training and live and work in the communities they serve.
“These women conduct a series of preventive tests using mobile health devices, capture the data by using a tablet and upload the results on the cloud server developed by our technology partner,” says Prema. The data is then shared with a doctor, who analyses it and provides a report and prescriptions over the cloud. The Sakhis then guide the patients on the treatment and precautions to be taken. Wherever needed, they are referred to hospitals for further treatment.
The Government, too, has learnt from these initiatives and public health programmes are modelled round them. The community health workers, including the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife, are indeed the foundation of our public health care system and have played a central role in its success, thereby reducing maternal and child mortality. ASHAs are central to India’s strategy to improve maternal and child health and are selected by the village they serve.
(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’s National Committee on Financial Literacy and Inclusion for Women.)
