Gender Equity

We ensure participation of women in the Gram Sabha and encourage that women helm the positions like the president / secretary of the Forest Rights Committee During preparation of social and resource map, we have been ensuring active participation of women. During training programmes, we try to ensure at least one third of the participants should be women. We are trying to use our pre-existing networks in the community to sensitize the members on the importance of including women in community meetings and decision making processes. The importance of women’s participation in the decision making process is going on with both the men and women within the community. This inclusion of women will also bring social and economic benefits to the community.

To empower them financially and make them aware of their financial holdings, Vasundhara helped create market linkages for the sale of NTFPS by assisting to create over 250 Women-Led NTFP collectives, thereby supporting 5000 households across 7 districts in Odisha. Three apex federations of women’s collectives were also created to give support to village-level collectives. Vasundhara has identified leaders, trained them and organized them to function effectively. Vasundhara’s intervention has led to the creation of a strong collective social human capital base with highly motivated women leadership in two districts of Mayurbhanj and Nayagarh. Vasundhara has provided training to MFP gatherers to facilitate adoption of scientific gathering techniques. Training was provided to over 300 Board of Directors and front-line members participated in various training programmes.