Centre for Women's Development Studies

The Library
25 Bhair Vir Singh Marg
Gole Market
110 001 New Delhi
India
Tel: +91 11 334 5530 or +91 11 336 5541
Fax: +91 11 334 6044
E-mail: cwdslib@alpha.nic.in or cwds@sscwds.ren.nic.in
CWDS is a research centre comprised of a group of professionals working for the realization of women's
equality and development in all spheres of life. The centre maintains a specialized library with a
collection on women and development in India, open to students, research scholars, gender consultants,
policy makers, journalists etc.

All India Coordinating Forum of the Adivasi/Indigenous Peoples (AICAIP)

K-14 (First Floor), Green Park Extension
110016 New Delhi
India
Tel: +91 11 616 3830 or +91 11 619 6640
Fax: +91 11 619 8042
E-mail: admin@tom.unv.ernet.in
AICAIP was established as a forum for Adivasi/indigenous people's movements all over India. Its
objective is to strengthen the process of building solidarity and alliances amongst struggle oriented
indigenous people's organizations. AICAIP aims to identify shared issues and problems, to generate
debate on these issues and to provide support to help deal with them. One of the five working groups
AICAIP has established is focused on Adivasi Women Issues. Neither AICAIP nor any of the organizations
it represents concentrates specifically on the dissemination of information. There is also no other Indian
indigenous people's organization with this focus. However, exchanging and providing information is part
of AICAIP's work.

The YWCA of India

10, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi. 110 001.
India
An umbrella organisation affiliated to the World YWCA with 65 local associations in India. The
organisation works for women's empowerment through a variety of programmes , the most important
of which are leadership training for women, advocacy work on all women's issues, and community
development work . The YWCA also runs 40 women's residences across the country providing housing
for working women as well as emergency shelter for women. The YWCA of India is also a part of a
network of 7 women's organistions based in Delhi and works together with them on common issues.
Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA)
Lilavatiben Lalbhai's Bungalow
Civil Camp Road, Shahibaug
380 004 Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Tel: +91 79 286 8856 or +91 79 286 6695 or 7865636
Fax: +91 79 286 6513
E-mail: chetna@adinet.ernet.in or Indu.Capoor@Warm.Net
CHETNA's mission is to contribute towards the empowerment of disadvantaged women and children to
enable them to gain control over their own, their families' and their communities' health. Its trainings
target supervisors, trainers, program managers and practitioners of NGOs and GOs. In order to provide a
good flow of information, a documentation and information centre has been created. Today CHETNA's
main efforts are aimed at documenting the lives of women and children in India and health issues. The
collection contains a special section of training manuals, information kits and modules. Languages:
English, Hindi, Gujarati.

Women's Studies Unit

Tata Institute of Social Sciences
P.O. Box 8313, Sion trombay Road
Deonar, Bombay 400008
India
The Women's Studies Unit attempts to sensitize students and policymakers about women and
development issues by teaching social work students and government employees, by producing
teaching materials, consulting various groups about women and development, and by conducting
research.

Maitreyi
7, Manjiki, Makarand Society
Veer Savarkar Marg, Mahim
Bombay 400016
India
Tel: 45 12 11/45 41 48
The major objective of Maitreyi is to develop a feminist perspective in understanding women's issues
and the women's movement, and to sensitize everyone about women's issues. Maitreyi sponsors and
indirectly supports the following activities: women's studies workshops, research, documentation,
support centers for women in distress, mobilization of women in villages to join Ladies Club, and
publication of books and annual reports.
Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT)
Women's University Library
1 Nathibai Thackersey Road
New Marine Lines
400 020 Mumbai
India
Tel: +91 022 207 2792
Fax: +91 022 201 8226
E-mail: sndtulib@bom3.vsnl.net.in
SNDT Women's University was established in 1916 as the first women's university in India. The
university library was established in 1955. It houses an information service on women's studies. The
women's information section of the library caters to researchers and professors as well as NGOs and
activists. The library maintains an indigenous database -SUCHAK- containing references to more than
100.000 titles. About 35.000 of these pertain specifically to women. In recent years the library has
acquired several instructional, bibliographical, and full text databases. Languages: Indian, English.

Akshara - A Women's Resource Centre

Neelambari 501, Road no. 86
Off Gokhale Road
Dadar West
400028 Bombay
India
Tel: +91 22 430 9676 or +91 22 431 6082
Fax: +91 22 431 9143
E-mail: admin@akshara.ilbom.ernet.in
Akshara began informally in 1987 as result of the women's movement and its campaigns in Bombay. It
started by producing low cost publications for women's organizations and activists. In 1995 Akshara
recieved funds to establish a library and reference centre for women. It now has library facilities, offers
gender training and workshops, and publishes educational and movement oriented materials.
Languages: English, Marathi.

Forum Against Oppression Of Women

29,Bhatia Bhavan, 1st floor
Babrekar Marg, Dadar, Bombay 400028.
Tel. 91-22-422-2436
Email: inforum@inbb.gn.apc.org
FAOW was formed in 1979 as a platform to respond to an extremely unjust judgement on a rape case.
Soon from a Forum Against Rape as it was earlier called, it changed its name to the present one to
encompass varied forms of women's oppression. FAOW is part of what in India is recognised as the
Autonomous Women's groups which has played a crucial role in this third phase of the women's
movement [late 70's onwards]. Today it is mainly a campaign group consisting of members from varied
background- students, housewives, professional women, lectureres etc. The members meet regularly
once in a week and every one puts their volantary time in the work that needs to be done. There are no
paid staff.

Majlis,
A-2/4, Golden Valley,
Kalina,
Mumbai (Bombay) - 400 098
India
Tel: 6180394, 6160252
Majlis is a legal and cultural resource centre working in the area of women and minority rights. The legal
centre of Majlis is a group of lawyers providing legal assistance to women. Majlis is also involved in
reasearch and documentation on issues concerning women.

India Women Scientist's Association (IWSA)

IWSA Plot No. 20, Sector 10-A Vashi
Navi Mumbai - 400 703
India
Tel: 91 22 766 18 06
Fax: 91 22 6204038 / 4138521.
Promote women's participation in Science. Membership open to all science graduates.

Sanhita Gender Resource Centre

89B Raja Basanta Roy Road
700 029 Calcutta
India
Tel: +91 33 466 2150 or +91 33 463 1430
Fax: +91 33 473 0687 or +91 33 473 5619
E-mail: sanhita@cal.vsnl.net.in
Sanhita, an initiative of women activists in West Bengal, was born out of a need for information activism
and networking among grassroots organizations working towards the empowerment of women. Sanhita
aims to increase women's access to information. Sanhita conducts gender trainings, publishes, provides
a referral service, and produces advocacy materials. Sanhita also collects, processes, and disseminates
information through action research programs and by means of a library and documentation centre.
The Asian foundation

For more than half a century, The Asia Foundation has been a leader in helping women to realize
their potential. We believe that investing in women fundamentally strengthens families and
societies. Our Women's Empowerment Program develops women's leadership, strengthens
women's organizations, increases women's rights and ensures their personal security, and creates
new political and economic opportunities for women across the Asia-Pacific region.

Women's Empowerment Program

Our operating premise is that improving social, economic, and political opportunities for women
improves societies as a whole. The Asia Foundation seeks to identify change agents, build
constituencies for reform around key issues affecting women’s status, and promote internal
efforts to identify and solve problems.

Our programs transfer tools, strategies, and lessons learned, foster synergies, and promote
cooperation within and across borders. Mobilizing women has proved powerful in order to
accelerate progress in each country, through facilitating networking, coordination, and
collaboration among women and women’s groups. Programs involve women at all stages, thus
ensuring that issues identified and strategies utilized are appropriate to each country or region’s
socio-cultural-political context. Providing linkages with like-minded allies in government and
civil society and with international networks and organizations creates greater support for their
efforts so that reform is promoted from within and from without. Programs are broad-spectrum
and flexible, empowering women themselves to challenge the multiple causes and consequences
of their subordination and discrimination, and are customized and targeted to specific country
contexts.

The Foundation has decades of experience in designing and implementing innovative programs
to improve women’s social, economic, and political opportunities and enhance women’s legal
and human rights. Extensive in-country and regional networks, long-term relationships, and more
than a decade of experience give the Foundation credibility, access, sources of innovation, and
the necessary tools to complete pilot projects and larger scale interventions that can influence
systems.

Timbaktu Collective

The Timbaktu Collective is a registered voluntary organisation .

It was initiated in 1990 by a small
group of activists with the idea of developing alternative models of sustainable
development in the drought prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India. 

Women's Issues
Anantapur district, where the Collective works,
has very few profitable livelihood opportunities.
This coupled with the breakdown of traditional
systems of agriculture, which used to provide
food security, has particularly affected the
women of this area. The transition to a cash
economy has raised the need for cash for
various purposes such as food, health care and
other domestic needs. The money earned by
the household is inevitably controlled by the
man of the house leaving the woman with little
independence to provide for her family as it
reduces her freedom to make financial
decisions. The money earned is often spent by
the men on things that are not crucial to the
maintenance of the household. This drives up
the thirst for loans.

Lack of options drives people (usually men) to

borrow from money lenders at very high rates
of interest, plunging the whole family into a
vicious debt cycle. The women have no
economic independence and the formal
banking system does not lend to them due to a
lack of trust or lack of security as most property
is owned by men.

Women involved in eco restoration

The response of the Collective
The Collective understands that the best way
to stop discrimination against women is to
make them aware of their situation and help
improve their economic status. As this gives
them self confidence they begin to refuse being
discriminated against.

The women's programme of the Collective

focuses on creating viable, relevant sustainable
alternative banking institutions for rural poor
women. These are owned and managed by
them, cater to their needs and respond to
issues they face. It provides them with the
liquidity and flexibility to make decisions or to
initiate income generating activities of their
own. As women take responsibility for the
welfare of families, the benefits flow to their
families as well. This is recognized by the rest
of the family.

The Collective has over the years initiated one

Mutually Aided Thrift Cooperative Society
(MATCS) in each of the three mandals it is
working in. They work like banks, but are
relevant to the needs of the women. In October
2003, the cooperatives were federated to form
the Mahasakthi Network. Since December
2006 they have become financially
independent and are owned and run by the
members. The Collective helps them to
conduct training programmes for their cadre
and members.

Women's thrift groups are formed in the

villages - there may be multiple groups in any
one village. Each member deposits anywhere
from Rs. 30 to Rs. 200 per month as savings.
Every member of every group is also a
member of the mandal level Mutually Aided
Thrift Cooperative Society (MATCS). Every
group has a system of regular meetings and
maintenance of records and this has enabled
them to form federations at the village level and
then at the Mandal level. The Mandal level
federations have been registered as MATCS.
Loaning systems, interests rates and all other
banking matters have been worked out, to the
last detail, by the members.

Extensive training programmes have been

organised for the cadre, the leaders of the
Women's groups and the Directors of the
Cooperatives in subjects such as Book
keeping, Literacy, Gender, Ecorestoration,
Watershed management, Panchayat Raj, etc.

A chart made by an MATC

  

Water Women: How Jyoti Nagar Turned On

 

The Tap
Filed under: Activism,Social Development,West Bengal,Women

The road roller operator working on repairing a damaged part of the road inside the Jyoti Nagar
slum on the outskirts of Kolkata decides to take an unofficial tea break. A frail woman standing
nearby steps up to the man and ensures that he gets him to work promptly. The woman is a
member of the local Community Development Society (CDS), which monitors all the
development work in the locality with a hawk’s eye.

“It’s a successful way to ensure that the beneficiaries living in the area themselves participate in
ensuring proper implementation of the various slum improvement projects,” says Seema Basak,
36, Town Project Officer, Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality (urban local body), under which the
Jyoti Nagar slum falls.

Forty municipalities outside the Kolkata Metropolitan area are involved in the CDS project under
which women living below the poverty line (BPL) in the slums are motivated to join the Society,
get trained and work for social development.

A group of 4,000 families gets one CDS, and members are elected from the Slum
Neighbourhood Committees formed at the local level. They work in close association with the
municipal officials. The CDS members are elected on area (ward) wise representation. The
Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality, with 35 wards for a population of 12,500, has 60 slums with
four CDSs.

“The success of this venture is obvious from intense community participation, especially from
local women. They have scripted the success stories in Jyoti Nagar and other shanty towns.
Every development work, including setting up of stand post water taps, constructing a pump
house, repairing drains and paving roads, undertaken in our slum is monitored by our CDS,” says
Promila Haldar, 62, CDS President.
Women of Jyoti Nagar at the stand post water tap. (Credit: Pritha Dutta Majumdar\WFS)

Jyoti Nagar resident, Jharna Haldar, 45, who queues up to wash clothes at the stand post
(community) water tap near her home in Jyoti Nagar from 6 am every day, says she is confident
that water will be available at the tap for an hour three times a day – at 6.30 am, 11.30 am and 5
pm.

“Earlier, it was a struggle to get water. Water for drinking or for household use was a scarcity for
the 650 families residing here. We thank the women of our locality who worked hard to get this
water project implemented,” says Champa Rango, 43, standing behind Jharna in the queue to fill
her bucket.
SAMPARC Orphanage at
Shel-Pimpalgaon, Near
Chakan, Pune.
Our services are aimed to bring substantial difference in the lives of poor these women.

Women Empowerment Programme

Women’s Empowerment Program

We serve wide range of Women Empowerment Program that focus on enhancing the
talent and skill of the poor and shy women’s. We offer various programs to improve
the economical, social and political conditions of these women’s. Our services are
aimed to bring substantial difference in the lives of poor these women. 

WomensCounselingCenter

The women’s counseling

centre has been working
very hard to resolve and
make the women aware
of
their basic rights. At the
SAMPARC Counseling
centre cases mainly
related to dowry, torture
due to
alcoholism, by in-laws,
property disputes and
physical & psychological
harassment or abuse, by
husband & relatives of
husband. The counseling
centre aims to counsel
and try to solve the
problems of
the village women. Many
times the women keep on
suffering with no one to
hear their plight.
This year a total 67 cases
were registered under the
counseling centre, of
which 40 cases have been
solved successfully while
22 cases are in the
process and 5 cases are
registered in the court in
Wadgaon.
SAMPARC Counseling
centre conducted an
awareness program on
domestic violence, role of
counseling centre
program in Pimploli,
Boraj, Patan, housing
society, Bhaje and Karla
in which around
460 women were present.
Adv. Smt Ranjana
Bhosale, Adv. Pushpa
Singhvi, Dr. Manda
Soman and Dr Satish
Patil are the
advisors and consultants
for the centre. The BDO
of Maval Taluka is also
SAMPARC Self Help
involved with
Group
SAMPARC in
the Lok Adalat.
SAMPARC Self Help Group –
Women’s Abhinav Sahakari
Patsanstha Maryadit, Bhaje is
the only
Patsanstha in Maval Taluka. This
is run by the women under the
support of SAMPARC
organization.
This society is having 580
shareholders from 40 villages of
Maval Taluka. Every 3 years,
Board of
Directors is being elected and
they run the Patsanstha as per
the rules of Astt. Registrar Co-
operative.

Samparc Shallow Well Project and Agricultural

Development Program
The Shallow Well Project supported by CAPART under which 5 wells
have been constructed turned out
to be a boon to 17 farmers in Gutka Village who can now cultivate 2
crops in a year which has not only
increased their income but has also stopped migration of the farmers.
The various agricultural training
 development programs conducted by SAMPARC at Bhambarde, Gutkha,
Adgaon Barpe, Tiskari Barpe,
Saltar, and Tailbail villages for these small marginal farmers which has
benefitted them and has
increased their income too. This year the farmers have cultivated onion,
tomatoes and wheat. It has
really improved their economy and generated employment in these
villages of Mulshi taluka, district
Pune. The project is linked with our agricultural training centre of
Bhambarde where 2 BSc (Agri)
graduates support the farmers. Under the basic agriculture training
program 23 students were enrolled
and the subjects were land development, optimum use of seeds and
pesticides, dairy and horticulture
development, etc. Among these, 4 students are working in Sahara Amby
valley horticulture project
while the rest are working in their fields.

Samparc Abhinav Housing Project

This year Rs. 10 lacs have been recovered from the house owners, and 50% installments are to be
regularised, and SAMPARC staff are working hard to regularise the installments. The problem with the
housing project is that the beneficiaries are not satisfied because there is no permanent water supply
for
the household of the society.
But one of the good projects started is the school for the community children in English medium. The
students have achieved 100% result for the academic year 2009-10. From the current academic year
2nd std class has also started. At present 92 students are enrolled in the school. Indoor games and
computer training is made available to the students. The teachers and parents committee has been
formed which is trying their best for the progress of the school.

Nanhi kali

We offer Nanhi kali Project, which is made to support various educational programmes for poor girl
childrens. Our aim is to change the attitude of remote village people to send their girl child to school
and plan her marriage after the age of 18 years. This project helps in increasing the overall Female
Literacy Rate across the country.