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What We Do
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| Working With Women :: Muslim & Dalit Women
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BIRD is an organisation working
for the inclusion of Muslim and
Dalit women in the community.
With a lack of existing data on
the numbers of Muslims and
Dalits in Odisha, we inititated
a survey and created a database
of 400 Muslims & 165 Dalit
households in 8 villages and 8
bastis in 6 districts of Odisha.
Aaina, in collaboration with
BIRD is extending support to
Muslim women.
Vocational schools :
Using Census data, the Sachar
Committee report as well as our
own database we found the level
of education among Mulim and
Dalits was far too low,
especially among girls and
women. As a result we started
vocational schools in the
community, which supply free
education and guidance to school
going children, as well as
supporting dropout and
illiterate women to receive
education.
By running 6 such centres BIRD
has been able to provide free
tuitions & education to 35
girls, 73 dropouts & women
respectively in 6 districts.
Reaching out to Muslim
children through Madrasas :
We have adopted a few Madrasas
where the Holy Koran is read &
interpreted from a women’s
perspective. This has become an
important medium in clearing
misconceptions shrouding Islam
and in moulding the perception
of the next generation.
Skill based training :
In order to support poor and
illiterate community members to
earning a living, we have been
running skill based training in
to produce a variety of
products. We also provide
exposure and a platform to
market their products through
organising exhibitions and
marketing in 8 CBOs in 6
districts. This year we have
involved 24 women in exposure
and provided 66 girls & women
training on Leadership &
Adolescence, MPL, Laws on women.
Health Camps :
Through our database we found
the old adage “Health is Wealth”
very true, because many of our
respondents spend much of their
earnings on medicines. Moreover
the zeal to live and learn is
lost if your health is
suffering. We found women were
the worst sufferers as they
carried the whole burden of the
household work as well as
bearing and rearing children.
In this regard we organised 6
health camps on Hearing &
Anaemia and provided free
medical checkups and medicine to
405 women & children in 3
districts.
The number of anaemic women and
children almost halved as a
result, from 405 to 215, after
the iron tablets were provided
and their health monitored for
two months.
Capacity Building workshops :
Through our work and research we
discovered that Govt.
entitlements are being claimed
only by a small percentage of
those that are entitled to them,
due to lack of awareness. So in
this regard we organised 5
Capacity Building workshops on
NREGA, Sachar and Laws related
to women in 4 districts. Through
advocacy we have succeeded in
providing 5 categories of Govt.
entitlements to 42 people in 5
districts.
Social, Physical & Mental
Study of the Marginalized :
Though researchers believe that
the ‘real’ power in 21st century
is to be able to change another
person’s state of mind, to date
little or no research has been
done on the social, physical &
mental study of the
marginalized. Hence, we at BIRD
in association with university
students have commenced a
research project into the
socio-economic condition as well
as the status of public
Distribution Schemes and Govt.
entitlements among the
marginalized.
Street Play & Informative
Materials :
To raise awareness among
marginalized women who are
trapped between ignorance on one
side and poverty & patriarchy on
the other, we have developed a
‘puppet team’ with children from
the community who perform street
plays addressing various
community related problems. We
have also developed various IEC
materials, aimed at our target
audience who are literate, to
inform and educate them about
their rights and the process to
exercise those rights.
Our ongoing effort to empower
and enlighten the marginalized
is in its third year. Although
we come up against many
challenges, it is heartening and
motivating to know that we have
not only fixed problems but also
been able to build and promote
healthy practices in our
communities. |
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