Women empowerment doesn’t end with education. In fact, it begins with practical knowledge. Jyoti, our community outreach programme aims at bringing awareness and development through seminars and workshops on subjects ranging from banking to managing garbage at home. The programme has enabled a community of confident and socially responsible women over the past 10 years.

The members go into the slums or vice versa, the ladies living there are called to be given pep talks on ‘Swach Bharat’ or cleanliness of their own environment. Packing dry and wet garbage in separate bags, no littering or spitting or using roads as toilets, are all ingrained into their mind set, to create a transformation. Menstrual hygiene is discussed, stressing on not using rags or leaves during periods. Proper birth control methods, the ‘right’ touch and ‘wrong’ touch for children, and believing in them when they confide, instead of ignoring them and turning a blind eye. These are valid problems and terrors which persist, specially in large cities with slums. The Mandal takes on this difficult challenge, despite the sly smiles and suppressed laughter they may evoke.
Because cleanliness starts at our grass roots, and the ladies who live there, should practice this in their own homes as well as when they come to work in ours.