ENSS / Astha Sansthan

Location: Asia

Supporting women who are discriminated against in India

In the Netherlands widows and divorcees are comforted or simply left in peace. But in the Indian state of Rajasthan women are discriminated against, affronted and mistreated if their husbands die or break off the relationship. No longer having a husband is reason enough in this patriarchal region for a woman to be socially excluded.

This situation is, however, slowly beginning to change, thanks in part to Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS, or the 'Union of Strong Single Women'), founded in 2000. With the help of members of this organisation, low-income single women and widows can fend for themselves. ‘They show their communities that although they have lost their husbands, they have not lost their human dignity,’ says Ginny Shrivastava, director of Hivos partner Astha Sansthan.

Astha Sansthan has a great deal of experience with supporting marginalized groups in Rajasthan. Hivos supports ENSS through Astha Sansthan, which founded and leads the women’s movement. ‘We started by telling single women about their rights, the Indian laws against discrimination and the opportunities for improving their situations themselves,’ Shrivastava says. ‘Now the leaders and members of ENSS spread the story across Rajasthan themselves: how to claim their rights to land and property, for instance, or how to break with the traditions in their caste or community. We also train them in that – and they, in turn, train others.’

ENSS now has a ‘frontline committee’ at the neighbourhood or city level in almost every district of Rajasthan. These committees supply solutions to the local problems of widows and divorced or abandoned women. Shrivastava: ‘They publicly speak out against social wrongs and lobby with the government for structural changes and legal amendments.’ Astha Sansthan is preparing ENSS to become an independent organisation within a few years.

‘We provide them with the opportunity to take control over their own lives,’ contends Shrivastava. ‘The necessity to survive and raise their children among all this hostility has made strong women out of them. They do not lack willpower. For instance, increasingly many widows refuse to be absent at their children’s weddings. They have the belief that their presence would bring bad luck – or that they are guilty of their husbands’ deaths. This kind of protest also causes their environment to question the way in which they are regarded and treated.

ABOUT THIS PARTNER (IN ENGLISH)

Astha Sansthan is a registered society (1986) that works in Rajasthan. It has used a two-pronged strategy of organising people and training them (issue-based training and leadership training) very effectively to increase the influence that people have over development processes within their communities. Astha combines its efforts to build people's organisations and develop local leadership capabilities with projects and programmes which improve the socio-economic conditions of the poor and the disadvantaged.

Astha Sansthan has supported Association of Women Alone (ASWA) since ASWA emerged as a membership-based self-help organisation of widows and single women in January 2000. ASWA is one of the many people's organisations that ASTHA has helped to emerge in Rajasthan. The Rajasthan-wide ASWA now has a membership of about 26300, all low-income rural and urban women who are widowed or separated. This membership is spread across 28 of Rajasthan's 33 districts. The steady growth of the constituency is indicative of the slow, measured approach that ASWA/Astha takes to ensure as much of effective implementation as possible.

ASWA's key activities include mobilizing and organising widows and single women, leadership development, lobby and advocacy. ASWA has effectively lobbied with the state government of Rajasthan to increase the widow pension from Rs 250 per month (in 1999) to the present Rs 400 per month to all widows in Rajasthan. In line with their approach towards fighting all kinds of discrimination they have been tackling property rights cases, changing caste and community customs and stopping physical and mental atrocities against single and widowed women.

ASWA has also played a pivotal role in triggering similar movements in other states like Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra in India.

Astha Sansthan has 63 staff members of whom 19 are women. Astha Sansthan's has a process of revolving leadership and at present is headed by a man. The former coordinating director (a woman) is now contributing all her time to working and strengthening ASWA. Astha's seven-member Executive Body has two women. In ASWA eleven members are elected every three years to form the Executive Committee and this group provides leadership for both the mass-based membership Association, as well as for the registered Society. There are 4 office bearers (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer). All office bearers are women.

Hivos supports Astha Sansthan/ASWA for their holistic and overall objective of social transformation through strategies of organising, collectivizing women to hold the state accountable is in line with the GWD sector policy.

Type of organisation

Network

Sector

Gender, Women and Development

Country

India

Founded

1986

Hivos partner since

1987

Website

More information

» About this partner (in English)

» About this partner's projects (in English)

CONTACT

ENSS / Astha Sansthan

PROJECTS

Description:
Astha/ASWA- Empowering Low-Income Widows & Separated Women through Organisation, Training & Action
DAC-sectors:	Strengthening civil society Human rights
Location:	Udaipur, Rajasthan
Beneficiary:	not relevant/other
activity	Single/Widow women will have better access to government resources and services
Direct outreach	3100 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
Indirect outreach	15500 - Policy level/ public opinion
activity	Stregthen leadership at Block level through trainings
Direct outreach	3000 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
Indirect outreach	15000 - Policy level/ institutional
activity	Expand contituency base to 31 Districts of Rajasthan, and in 132 Blocks and cities/towns in the state
Direct outreach	37000 - Beneficiaries: poor and/or marginalised women and men
Indirect outreach	185000 - Policy level/ public opinion
Contract total:	261.549
Contractperiod:	01-04-2009 until 31-03-2012
The emphasis over the next three years will be on expanding the strength and base of the constituency, not just in Rajasthan but also to other states in India with effective networking with civil society under the banner of National Forum for Single Women's Rights. ASWA will also during this period build its own capacity to manage its affairs independently, build effective and representative second-line leadership and raise funds independently. Activities will include: - Expanding Committee structures and ASWA's work to 31 Districts of Rajasthan, and in 132 Blocks and cities/towns in the state - Training 4700 women at Block level committees to assume leadership roles - Training 250 new women to move into second and first line leadership positions in the Association - Sustained advocacy activities on the issues of widow's pension, issuance of health cards, land rights, and other entitlements - Undertake one research study highlighting the position of single/widowed women in eight states in India - Undertake initiatives related to legal and other interventions on widow's land and property rights - Providing guidance and leadership to the National Forum for Single Women's rights and emerging networks of single/widowed women in at least eight states in India Astha Sansthan/ASWA anticipates that as a consequence of these activities, widowed and separated women in Rajasthan will - have better access to government resources and services. - face less harassment and persecution. - have a membership organization that is able to function independently. - have a new confident and articulate leadership. - have a membership organization with 37000 members. - Develop into a nation-wide movement Hivos supports Astha Sansthan/ASWA for its consistent and pioneering efforts to ensure better rights, better lives for women of ASWA and a better society based on values of justice, equality and humanism.