The project is being implemented in several valleys of the high altitude Himalayan belt in India, viz, Nubra, Changthang and Central Leh in the Ladakh region, Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh, Chamoli and Uttarkashi in Uttaranchal and North Sikkim and Tawang in NE India.

Education & Information for Women

Basic Literacy for Women ~ The project is located in the district of Lahaul & Spiti in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Western Indian Himalayas. It is aimed at making literate all age-groups of the women in the target region in the language that has greatest leverage potential in terms of the social status of the women in these closed communities, viz, the traditional language of the local texts and rituals. The intervention has also had certain unexpected benefits. The classes have helped provide a forum for discussion of social issues and enabled the women to become more vocal in this non-traditional forum. The wide participation of women from all classes have also helped break caste barriers. The project is also encouraging the women to take up the writing of literature in the form of short stories as well as the jobs of language teachers for local classes.

Awareness & Exposure ~ Women are given independent focus in every Pragya project. Every community meeting, awareness session and information dissemination session, workshop and seminar, has the involvement of women. Women have thus been provided inputs on conservation and cultivation of herbal species, heritage based livelihoods, cooperative endeavour, sustainable tourism, renewable energy for mountain regions, water management, culture preservation, and the like. They have been given exposure to cooperative functioning, processing of medicinal & aromatic plants, sustainable tourism & crafts enterprises, RE applications. Apart from the technical learning, the opportunity and the exposure has also had enormous impacts on the women, most of whom had never had such an opportunity before. This has also contributed to enhancement of their confidence and social status in their homes and communities. These women have also cascaded the training to more women in their villages.

Capacity Building for Empowerment

Skill Upgradation Training ~ Women from villages of Tawang, West Kameng, North and West Sikkim, and Lahaul & Spiti have been provided training for skill upgradation in weaving, including design, new weaving styles, quality & finishing. They have also been provided exposure to new, improved looms. Women from all districts that Pragya is working in have also been provided training in cultivation of medicinal & aromatic species, including demonstration training on improved propagation and cultivation methods.

Training in New Technologies ~ A critical issue for women is that of their distance from technology which in turn hampers their ability to access all economic opportunities; several technologies are also not adequately women friendly. Pragya lays emphasis on technical skill building among women on the one hand and women-friendly technology development, on the other, towards gender mainstreaming. Women craftspersons have been provided training on computer aided design for instance and looms that require lower levels of physical strength for operation are in the process of being designed.

Women’s SHGs and Institutional Membership ~ Women’s SHGs have been constituted in several mountain villages across the Himalayas and the groups provided training in the potential and role of SHGs. The existing Mahila Mandals are also been provided training on group activities and collaborative endeabour. This has resulted in enormous confidence building among the women of the region and a feeling of empowerment as well as an openness to new ideas with respect to livelihoods, money management, etc. The project has also provided the women with a constructive social outlet and leisure opportunity for the highly overburdened women. Apart from this, it is ensured that all community institutions being facilitated by Pragya, like the Community Conservation Councils, have an adequate representation of women. Thus women are being encouraged to participate more fully and equally in community decision-making.

Women’s Enterprise

Craft Enterprise Groups ~ The objective of this intervention is the creation of traditional arts & crafts based livelihood opportunities for the women of the target region. Enterprises are being promoted based on the beautiful embroidered and woven crafts of the region which have a strong attraction for the tourists that visit the region. Expert craftswomen as well as those desirous of taking up the selected crafts have been constituted into crafts enterprise groups. These crafts enterprise groups have been provided some infrastructure and incubator services, viz, input materials for the particular crafts, improved designs and distribution channels and promotion of the produced crafts, infusion of new technologies, creation of Self Help Groups, provision of micro-credit, etc., towards developing them as viable enterprises. The groups are also being facilitated for developing appropriate structures and formalisation, including registration. This has helped bring in a greater degree of organisation to a till then individual, household activity. The members of the groups are being provided training in group management, finance management, entrepreneurship and leadership skills, marketing principles, etc., with the objective of making the groups self-sufficient within a few years. They have also been provided exposure to other women operated enterprises in other parts of the country. Crafts showrooms have also been established in the area which showcase and help sell the crafts produced by the women. Apart from revenues, this has helped enhance the marketing and finance management capacity of the women. The women have developed a sense of enterprise, a big step from their traditional role of producers or mere wage labourers.

Music & Dance Troupes ~ Another traditional arts based enterprise that is being facilitated is that of folk music & dance. All women music & dance troupes have been constituted in Lahaul & Spiti and are being facilitated to design performances and events for visitors. They are supported with all required material like costumes, instruments, accessories, etc., and also provided opportunities to perform. Trainings on stage management, choreography etc. are being provided in order to professionalize these troupes. The impacts for the women involved in these troupes have been similar to that on those involved in the crafts SHGs, in terms of confidence building, social status enhancement, incomes, skill development, etc. The music & dance enterprises have also helped provide the women with a mode for self-expression and creativity, which has in turn brought them an enormous sense of fulfilment, claim the women.

Aromatic Plants Enterprises ~ The Pragya intervention on Women’s Aroma Enterprises is aimed at the establishment of the cultivation and processing of aromatic plants as a sustainable women’s group enterprise in the Himalayas towards enhancing the local incomes and livelihood opportunities and improving the status of women. Several women are being facilitated to cultivate aromatic plants in their home gardens. The women growers are being provided training in scientific practices of aromatic plants cultivation and also provided exposure to several large-scale growers and processors of MAPs in other parts of the country. Several Mahila Mandals (women’s councils) of the region have undertaken this activity. Women’s aromatic plants growers SHGs have also been established to enable upscaling and value addition.

Up Ahead . . .

The project aims to work on enhancing the girl child’s access to, retention rate of and performance in formal education, through the creation of women’s group managed supplementary & remedial education, rural libraries and transportation facilities, as well as scholarships for girl children.

Women’s Resource Centres will be established for enhancing reach of information and facilitating services for women in remote, rural areas. These WRCs will generate women’s awareness and access to information through educational campaigns; they will also provide vocational and professional skill inputs towards enhancing women’s employability in high quality jobs in the formal, organised sector, and disseminate information on opportunities in the same.

The aromatic plants growers will be facilitated to upscale and small-scale processing & packaging centres will be established for production of incense, insecticides, spieces, and the like.

All women’s enterprise groups, viz, crafts, music & dance and aromatic plants, will be facilitated with market linkages and trainings on enterprise building.