Our main event on Saturday was the visit to the Hoskote Village. Hoskote Village was one of the many villages that struggled with providing an education to its people as well as the wellbeing of all the villagers. Thus, the Center for Social Action (CSA) from Christ University, decided to take the first steps to help form a more well rounded and equal environment in the village. CSA is a program that has a mission to encourage students to volunteer and help those all around the country that need it most. The formation of self-help groups began in 2003 when CSA traveled to Hoskote Village with a vision and goal to educate the villagers on early childhood care, nutrition, strengthening child education, community health and hygiene, community based organization and empowerment of women and livelihood development. The villagers, at first, rejected the members of CSA because they had thought they were there to convert them to Christianity, but after further discussion and explanation the people of Hoskote started to see the vision of a brighter future of their community as well.
Before CSA stepped in to help the village, the women and children had little freedom compared to the men. Women were not allowed to leave their homes because of strong patriarchal traditions. The women would stay home and watch their children as well as complete daily chores around the house. The physical labor done outside of the home was the men's job, such as gardening, providing food for the family, a city job, etc. The men in this division of labor were the sole income generators.With the women not allowed to even leave their homes the villagers did not see a reason for why the women should be educated. They believed it to be a waste of time to educate the women, but what they did not realize at that time was that education would be the key to having a more successful future for their family. So, with CSA's support Hoskote Village now has many self-help groups with over 600 members that are led by women who live in the community. The women from the self-help groups have been empowered and now make the choices for the village's problems to improve quality of life for all.
After 7 years of positive progress from the villagers, CSA pulled out of the village and left the women of the village in charge of the continuation of the self-help groups. CSA still keeps in contact with the villagers just in case they may need support again, but as of now the self-help groups demonstrate their self-sufficiency. Now, the children are going to school and receiving an education up to at least 10th grade. The older women of the villages were trained and educated in the little things, such as communicating in other languages to learning how to start a business. Also, with the idea of health there would be one specialist within the village, who doesn't technically have a medical degree but knows the procedures and steps in helping and curing a person. With this specialist's ability the villagers are then able to receive medical attention without having to pay with money they did not have.
One way that the women were able to obtain money for the community was having each person, every day, donate 1 rupee to the community fund. After awhile the rupees eventually added up which then gave the community a vast amount of choices of what they could do to make their living circumstances easier for themselves and their families. CSA also lent 24 lakhs, equivalent to 2,400,000 rupees, to the village to give them a head start on the mission. With that money the community started a business working with a man from the Netherlands. They make small wood pellet stoves in masses and receives orders of who wants to buy and how many. They keep track of the money coming in and out so they know where their money is going. With only 24 lakhs to start up such a big project they, to this day, now have around 94 lakhs which allows them to pay CSA back slowly the amount they lent to them. Another way they made money was through their beautiful textile work. With their work the villages make it possible for the textile industry to grow in general in India. With the rate of success so high for these villages, CSA also created scholarships for the children in the villages so they could go to Christ University with no extra cost. To this day, 15 people that go to Christ University are from these villages and they plan to go back to the villages after graduating to help give back by using the education they received to make the villages a better place to live in.
After hearing from the women they guided us to their villages to show us what they did on a daily basis as well as other ways of how they make money. We first saw their rose gardens. Our tour guide explained to us that the roses, once they bloomed, were picked then sent to be sold at the Bangalore markets. The roses were not fully bloomed when we saw them but it was still just as beautiful to see. Next, they showed us how they organized the silks they made. It was a repetitive job where you would wound the silk up onto a spool, so every time a silk string would end they would have to twist it together with another silk string so it would just be one long silk string on the spool. Afterwards, we went into the homes of some villagers and were able to ask a few questions about their daily lives as well as their thoughts on the self help groups. Lastly, we had a traditional meal at the village before heading back to Christ University.
After 7 years of positive progress from the villagers, CSA pulled out of the village and left the women of the village in charge of the continuation of the self-help groups. CSA still keeps in contact with the villagers just in case they may need support again, but as of now the self-help groups demonstrate their self-sufficiency. Now, the children are going to school and receiving an education up to at least 10th grade. The older women of the villages were trained and educated in the little things, such as communicating in other languages to learning how to start a business. Also, with the idea of health there would be one specialist within the village, who doesn't technically have a medical degree but knows the procedures and steps in helping and curing a person. With this specialist's ability the villagers are then able to receive medical attention without having to pay with money they did not have.
One way that the women were able to obtain money for the community was having each person, every day, donate 1 rupee to the community fund. After awhile the rupees eventually added up which then gave the community a vast amount of choices of what they could do to make their living circumstances easier for themselves and their families. CSA also lent 24 lakhs, equivalent to 2,400,000 rupees, to the village to give them a head start on the mission. With that money the community started a business working with a man from the Netherlands. They make small wood pellet stoves in masses and receives orders of who wants to buy and how many. They keep track of the money coming in and out so they know where their money is going. With only 24 lakhs to start up such a big project they, to this day, now have around 94 lakhs which allows them to pay CSA back slowly the amount they lent to them. Another way they made money was through their beautiful textile work. With their work the villages make it possible for the textile industry to grow in general in India. With the rate of success so high for these villages, CSA also created scholarships for the children in the villages so they could go to Christ University with no extra cost. To this day, 15 people that go to Christ University are from these villages and they plan to go back to the villages after graduating to help give back by using the education they received to make the villages a better place to live in.
After hearing from the women they guided us to their villages to show us what they did on a daily basis as well as other ways of how they make money. We first saw their rose gardens. Our tour guide explained to us that the roses, once they bloomed, were picked then sent to be sold at the Bangalore markets. The roses were not fully bloomed when we saw them but it was still just as beautiful to see. Next, they showed us how they organized the silks they made. It was a repetitive job where you would wound the silk up onto a spool, so every time a silk string would end they would have to twist it together with another silk string so it would just be one long silk string on the spool. Afterwards, we went into the homes of some villagers and were able to ask a few questions about their daily lives as well as their thoughts on the self help groups. Lastly, we had a traditional meal at the village before heading back to Christ University.
We also read an article by Newransky, Kayser, and Limbs that talked about how with self-help groups widows and abandoned women are developing self-efficacy. Through these groups the women are educated and supported from an NGO group that are able to provide the materials and cost expenses in order for them to become successful in providing for themselves.
These types of groups are happening all around the country and are actually of extreme help to these oppressed women. Everyone deserves an equal chance of becoming successful in life.
