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Godfrey Phillips Bravery National Awards: Dr. Jaya Arunachalam Decorated with Social Lifetime Achievement Award
SME WORLD Bureau
Jan 2011
Jan 2011
Page 1 of 2
Dr. Jaya Arunachalam, President, Working Women's Forum India (WWF), was honoured with Social Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her services to support and empower poor women by instilling entrepreneurial skills among them at a glittering ceremony in Delhi recently.
Dr. Arunachalam initiated the Forum in 1978 to develop the total human resource potential of very poor women workers in the informal sector. WWF members are the working women of India, especially those who live in the country's slums and villages and rely for their livelihoods on the "informal" economy. Most of these women are among the poorest, disadvantaged and marginalized and have been oppressed, victimized or discriminated against on the basis of class, caste and gender.
WWF (India) is today an activist commitment to facilitate women in extreme poverty, in terms of organized platform, access to credit, education, healthcare, training/orientation towards promoting social and financial independence to fight poverty, matching the objectives of millennium development goals of the United Nations. Taking responsibilities to organize these poor women around their own households, markets, communities and neighbourhoods, the forum initiated its maiden endeavour with only 800 women, is now a social movement of 12,38,955 women in three southern states of India spread over 3685 villages and 2293 slums. The forum's success lies in its innovative attempt to integrate the poor women at all levels in its institutional framework, using them as an effective delivery mechanism to reach other poor women extensively.
Indian Co-operative Network for Women, as an effective credit wing of WWF enhances the social/financial independence of poor women, provides low interest loan encouraging their entrepreneurship. The credit programme of ICNW, with its 14 branches, reaches out to a whopping 5,07,187 poor entrepreneurs effecting nearly 1921 million rupees accomplishing about 98.91% recovery rate in the urban slums/rural areas.
National Union of Working Women, WWF's trade union wing facilitates poor working women in their struggles to fight for labour, land, housing rights and their children. Equally union's concern is to fight other human rights issues like female feticides, female infanticides, child prostitution and child labour that affect the poor on a daily basis.
Further, WWF's Reproductive Health Care programme builds a strong network of cadres in slum/village neighbourhood who constantly raise the consciousness of the poor women on their reproductive rights (including HIV/AIDS). Crucial to the programme was the enhancement of the decision-making power of women on their reproductive rights, with reference to number of children and contraceptive choices. The programme impacted nearly 16,18,842 families (1.5 million) accomplishing 72% couple protection rate in the poorest communities, providing employment to 960 grassroot health cadres spread out to 720 slums and 340 villages.
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