These 5 NGOs are working towards uplifting rural women across India

While women have made significant strides in political, social, economic, and health spheres, there is still a long way for complete empowerment and autonomy.

In India, many philanthropists and organisations are working towards empowering women and making the mission a reality. SocialStory lists a few such NGOs working towards women e.

Sakriya

In 2017, Anitha Rao, a former air hostess, decided to lay the foundation for her NGO, Sakriya. Aligned with her vision, the NGO’s name Sakriya has two meanings – ‘active participation’ and ‘good deed’.

Through Sakriya, she reaches out to underprivileged women and children in Bengaluru and remote villages across Karnataka. Anitha conducts awareness campaigns on menstrual hygiene and regularly distributes sanitary kits paid for from her own pocket. So far, she has covered Bengaluru, Kolar, Belur, Vijayapura, Narsapura, among others.

Apart from this, she also conducts menstrual health and personal growth sessions for corporates. Altogether, she has conducted over 120 awareness campaigns and events benefitting more than 10,000 women across cities and villages.

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Lakshyam

Raashi Anand, a social entrepreneur and Founder of NGO Lakshyam, advocates for women's empowerment through skill development as well as education for children. The NGO has been working in slum dwellings and communities that house daily wage earners – who have been among the worst affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.

Since COVID-19, Lakshyam has been working with the women who lost their livelihood by helping them handcraft cloth bags to earn a living. The NGO has trained more than 8,000 women to date in making cloth bags and producing phenyl out of cow urine to sell in the market.

Amidst the pandemic, as the need for masks surged in the market, the women started making washable cotton masks. For every mask and bag they made, the NGO paid them Rs 5-8 apiece, subsequently helping them earn a living during the lockdowns.

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Naari

Started in 2020 by Anushka, a law graduate, NGO Naari (now registered as Anushka Red Badge of Courage Foundation) has been working towards educating rural women about menstruation.

Through her NGO, Anushka has strived to amplify conversations around how women in some parts of the world are financially incapable to afford menstrual products, threw light on the problem of period poverty in India, and continued to provide sanitary napkins to underprivileged women as well as expedite responsiveness towards this concern in urban India. As of now, her team has served over 9,000 women in Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The NGO, which has an office in Jamshedpur which also stores sanitary pads which the women can come and collect.

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Anannke Foundation

Dr Malini Saba established Anannke Foundation (previously known as Saba Family Foundation) to provide medical and healthcare facilities to underprivileged women and children. The aim was to bridge the divide between the haves and have nots by improving the health and wealth of the marginalised communities around the world.

The organisation has two arms – Samskaara and Upcaara.

Samskaara provides education to underprivileged girls around the world. It also provides scholarship programmes for school-going girls and funds their college preparations.

Upcaara is a non-profit arm of the NGO which helps women, especially older women, and provide them proper access to necessary healthcare. It also provides access to human rights for at-risk women.

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Navajeevan Mahila Pragati Kendra

The Navajeevan Mahila Pragati Kendra (NJMPK) was started to give underprivileged women a voice. Through campaign awareness, women were informed about how to get water for their homes, apply for a loan, and open a bank account.

When the underprivileged women – mostly domestic workers, vegetable vendors, daily wage earners and those at construction sites – expressed their daily worries and problems of not being able to care for their children while at work, NJMPK, supported by Rotary Bengaluru Lakeside, established Bengaluru’s first creche for the children of these women in 2001.

Today, it established over eight creches in and around Bengaluru – which lets daily wagers and domestic workers take up jobs without worrying about their children.