Expert View

July 8, 2005
Bharti Foundation-CII honour women empowerment

NEW DELHI -- Three special guests at the recent CII national conference were not from the industry. They were women from rural India who made a remarkable impact on their society.

Bharti Foundation, set up by the Bharti group, a leading private sector concern in telecom in the country with over a 10 million subscriber base, along with CII are honouring 'Women Exemplars' who have made an impact on society. The three awardees this year were: Poonam Sinsinbar from Neb Sarai in Haryana, Kavita Santosh Shinde from Maharashtra and Tejo Devi from Jharkhand. All three had to battle severe social and gender disabilities to change the society in which they lived. As to why the telecom company became interested in such social causes beyond the corporate framework, please see Bharti president Anil Nayar interview with Convergence Plus alongside.

Poonam, a victim of a failed first marriage took up educating the slum community children under the NGO Nav Shrishti. At the same time, she also educated herself to pass the 12th standard and then graduation. After her second marriage, she shifted to Faridabad and set up a school for slum children with tiny contribution from the local slum community itself. She pioneered education among the slum children, enabling children, especially girls to be earners as well as learners by inculcating skills to them and motivated many girls to come out and help the community.

Kavita, coming from a poor family, had to struggle to get educated. Once educated, she worked to improve the condition of adolescent girls in her village against considerable opposition from the richer members and some members of the gram panchayat. Using local cultural context, she succeeded in providing health education programmes and helped change her home environment. She has now become a role model.

Tejo Devi, from a poor family in Dumka district of Jharkhand, made a mark as a leader of self-help group among women despite her own poor socio-economic condition and family burdens. She was able to integrate her own instinct for marketing with a production organisation to enable village self-help groups to develop products. One of her groups' products, a colorful quilt made from old sarees with traditional designs is now selling in London and Canada. Tejo Devi is working on a vision to make her village Rajasimariya, a model environment with education for all and a substantial savings with each self-help group. Each member is now a confident entrepreneur.