Udaan: Strengthening Roots, Spreading Wings

Harda enjoys agricultural prosperity and fares on the socio-economic indicators than the state average. However, strong patriarchal conventions have marginalised women of all communities. Only 20% of women from rural areas can receive education beyond the primary level. They earn 56% of income earned by their male counterparts for the same amount of work, and even less than half of them are involved in decisions related to their healthcare (NFHS 2015-16). Around 38% of marriages take place before the age of 18 in Madhya Pradesh.

Synergy has recognised that social and cultural norms about early marriage and pregnancies, gender roles, and behaviour, coupled with low income, resources, and opportunities are significant reasons for the underdevelopment of young women in the district. Infrastructural constraints exacerbate these issues as villages are remote and senior secondary schools and hospitals are located in the cities. Young women from rural and tribal communities find themselves face to face with conflicts of early marriage and household responsibilities as societal constructs give higher importance to a girl’s marriage than her education. While she contributes to the family’s income by working in the field or other family business, low decision making power and high economic violence ensures her monetary deprivation.

Women have internalised these social roles, attitudes and behaviours and they have become agents of patriarchal norms as they suppress their dreams and aspirations, believe that they are incapable, develop various fears and accept their family’s choices for them. These normalised attributes restrict them from developing their independent identity and realising their potential.

Udaan fellowship aims to empower young women (16-24 years old) from rural communities to take charge of their lives, develop aspirations, identify their potential, gain awareness about the social realities that restrict them from realizing their potential, and become role models for other young people by leading social and cultural change in their communities.

This will be achieved when they:

- Challenge internalised gender norms, roles, and behaviors

- Build a vision for themselves, their families and their communities

- Work towards that vision by developing strong leadership skills.

Udaan Fellowship follows a ‘Strengthening Roots, Spreading Wings’ approach to leadership development among young women. We believe that it is essential to strengthen the roots of the fellows by making them more aware about themselves - their individual and social identity, their strengths and weaknesses, their fears and aspirations, their rights and their social and cultural surroundings. This process helps them in coming out of their shells, knowing themselves better, questioning normalized gender attitudes and understanding the social nature of their problems. Fellows also identify different skills and areas that they wish to work upon for self-development during this process.

In the second part of the approach, fellows spread wings by increasing their area of influence, becoming role models for other young people in their communities and facilitating similar journeys for other young women. For this, fellows participate in conceptualization and implementation of a social action project in their communities.

This year the project will run in the remote forest villages inhabited by tribal population (primarily Gond and Korku tribes) with 20 young women.

In the past three years, we have worked with twenty-four fellows. The direct reach of the fellows has been 500 while they have reached 5000 people indirectly (including other young women, Government departments, and community members) through their community action projects.

Around 80% of the women who joined the programme were drop-outs from school. After starting the fellowship, all of them got enrolled and continued with their studies. They identified many issues that were restricting them from realizing their potential, and they took the leadership to bring about social change in their communities. Some of the issues that the fellows took up included menstruation taboos, child and early marriage/pregnancies, women's participation in sports, women's education and reduction of school dropouts, sexual violence, tribal identity. These were delivered through different mediums like sports (kabbadi and cricket), nukkad naatak, community meetings, setting up a library and resource center for children, etc.

The significant impact of the programme can be seen at the level of self-development among the fellows. All the fellows saw an increase in their mobility, decision-making ability, and confidence to keep their opinion in front of their families. Four fellows were able to convince their parents to delay their marriage until they build their own identities. At the structural level, fellows worked with the government departments (education and health) to ensure that the rights of tribal people are conformed to. Around ten young dropout women were able to access ST reserved seats in hostels and continue their education after the efforts of an Udaan fellow who advocated for the rights of tribal women. Moreover, the fellows undertook four joint campaigns to reclaim public spaces that exclude women and fight against the sexual violence that they face in the public areas.