Women and Child Development in India

No nation can achieve a sustained, high and equitable growth without the development of its human resources. Women and children form nearly two –thirds of our population. Despite constitutional provisions, legislation, policies and schemes being in place, women achieving gender equality and all children being nurtured with due care and protection still remain a distant reality. Issues of malnutrition, illiteracy, health, sanitation, gender inequalities, bias against the girl child, lack of access to opportunities and increasing rate of crime are some of the basic issues which are of deep concern till now. The development of women and children is in the interest of the entire nation. In order to develop an effective women and child development strategy, it is necessary that women and children should be viewed as major potential contributors to the country’s growth. Their empowerment and development is essential for the nation’s socio-economic and political development.

Recognizing the need for women and child development, the Department of Women and hild Development (WCD) was set up in 1985 and was later upgraded into the Ministry of WCD in 2006. The Ministry ensures women’s empowerment as well as gender equality to the extent possible and children’s holistic development and growth by emphasizing on various welfare and development related policies. It also aspires to ensure safety and security to women at the workplace by ending all forms of discrimination, exploitation, harassment and violence by strictly implementing the relevant laws. By increasing their participation economically and socially and benefiting them with welfare schemes, women’s status and dignity would be ensured in parity with men. Similarly, it aspires to ensure zero tolerance to all kinds of exploitation of children including labour, sexual abuse and violence by providing legal and institutional support. The Ministry runs many programmes and most of them are run through non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). One of the special programmes launched for children by this Ministry is ‘Integrated Child Development Services’. ICDS provides a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check up, pre-school education to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. Primary education has been made mandatory for all children. The girl child has been given great importance through special programmes and the Ministry has also launched women empowerment schemes like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme’, ‘Women Helpline Scheme’, ‘One Stop Centre Scheme’ , ‘Rooh- Women Welfare’ etc. Women and children are the key to global security and prosperity. The government is keen to ensure a future where all women are empowered and all children receive a happy, secure life free from fear of violence, abuse, hunger and deprivation. The challenges ahead are immense but the future is bright.

Source: http://listofngo.blogspot.com/2016/04/women-and-child-development.html

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Woman and Child Development

Families will be healthy and incredibly evolved if our women are empowered. Lakshyam team perceives in scooping a world where every woman and girl can go to school, live free from violence, have the liberation to make discretion and choices of her own, and allying equally in enhancing economic condition of family. India has grown rapidly over the past two decades and has seen strong improvements on developments indicators. We stand at a point now where we need to plan for a promising future, building on our achievements and ensuring our demographic dividend is harnessed to its complete potential.

Lakshyam’s program ‘Rooh- Awakening Womens’ Soul’, meaning the spirit, is a strategically developed, that aims at strengthening a woman’s demeanour towards life itself. It is widely acknowledged that ensuring a strong for each child and investing in early childhood interventions-especially in the first 1000 days from conception to a child’s second birthday-will lead to a healthier nation. In India, 2.1 million children die before their fifth birthday. Half of these children die even before they are 28 days old, accounting for one-fourth global infant deaths. Of the 9.7 million child deaths worldwide annually, one-third occur in India. The statistics are equally shocking among neonates—children new born to a maximum age of 28 days old. While around 4 million children die within the first 28 days of life across the planet every year, India records around one million of these cases.

The reasons cited for the poor state of infant and child health in India are inadequate neonatal care, insufficient breastfeeding, malnutrition, low immunity and high incidence of communicable diseases.

Lakshyam believes in helping individuals live a life of dignity. To achieve this, our child and woman development programmes focus on generating sustainable livelihoods. This is done through by organising various workshops related to Block Printing, Menstrual Hygiene, Papad Making, Jewellery and Bag making. When we talked about woman development, for more than centuries this patriarchal culture has been carried forth, deeply rooted and now in this 21st century the era of globalization where development is dynamic. Indians are now seeking modern lifestyle, there is a social change with growing number of successful working women, and the patriarchal society is now being challenged. Most of the people have accepted this change that we can’t always be patriarchal and we need to be egalitarian. The few people, who cannot accept this change, rebuke it which ultimately is the cause of crimes against women.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global poll revealed this shocking fact in the year 2011 that India is fourth most dangerous place in the world for women. The 213 gender experts who ranked countries on their overall perception of danger, as well as by six key categories of risks – health, sexual violence, nonsexual violence, and harmful practices rooted in culture, tradition or religion, lack of access to economic resources and human trafficking. India was ranked fourth due to these major reasons: female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking.

To over-come woman and child development problems, it is necessary for our people to accept change; this can be achieved by designing an over-all education system. Our education system focuses on knowledge based subjects but the need of the hour is to inculcate good values and civic sense. We need to teach our children to be good humans, culturally and socially open to accept change in this globalized era.

Through our work we contribute to achieving the goal of economic and social equality for women in India.

NGO in India for Children Education

In India about 31 million children live without their parental care and with no education, these children who has been separated by their family temporarily or permanently need to take care with full protection. India is a developing country where education is the vital reason on developing in every field but seeing the present scenario where children are not getting education facility and proper care.

The statement “Children are the future of the Nation” fails here because less than half of India’s children between the age 6 to 14 go to school and 53% of girls at the age group between 5 to 11 are illiterate. In New Delhi, the capital of India one in every three child labourers in the age group of 7-14 is illiterate, said a study based on census data and close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names. To solve this problem ‘Lakshyam’ is working to provide education for their development.

An NGO in Delhi for children providing a specific direction for children towards education and consult for future direction. Lakshyam give children a conducive environment which provides them freedom to foster creativity and curiosity. They treat children with quality of education and guidance. NGO in India for children education is must as to care for those who can’t pay for their education and essential needs. Lakshyam has certain programs by which they entertain children in their requirement basis.

Lakshyam also organise campaign’s to distributes warm clothes for people who don’t have warm clothes to wear in this heavy winter. They help children to what they want to become in their future, Lakshyam recently helped a girl named Kali who wants to become police inspector as her parents didn’t support her, Lakshyam provided her education facility by providing admission in school to achieve her goal. Lakshyam has been popularly named as the best NGO for helping children toward educating them and helping in all prospective as we can. Lakshyam gives the base to the children who don’t have, from there it’s individual capability to convert that opportunity into bigger platform. Lakshyam pledged to right these wrongs and guarantee that the human privileges of these children are never again damaged. Fundamental Education is the human right of each person as set down in the International Human Rights Law by the United Nations. Butterfly-Child Welfare and Education program was set up to give far reaching help to ruined kids through a learning program concentrating on textual and handy information and identity advancement.

NGO’s IN DELHI FOR CHILDREN

When talking about NGO’s for children, the first question that should arise in our minds is why would a child need an NGO to safeguard his/her interests? Isn’t that the duty of his/her parents? What steps is the government taking in this direction? To understand why the establishment of NGO’s is so important for the nourishment and empowerment of children, we have to first focus on the problems and issues that these children face. Also, we have to focus on why their parents are unable to counter these issues that they require an organization to come forward and help them.

The primary issues with the underprivileged children in our country are lack of affordable healthcare, unawareness regarding the importance of hygiene and lack of proper education facilities.  All these problems being very closely knitted with other problems such as poverty, unemployment and illegal drug use have been deeply rooted in the blood stream of our country. The families which have been enslaved by the evils of poverty and unemployment from generations find it really difficult to provide their children with better healthcare and education making it a vicious circle wherein the have-nots keep struggling to make their ends meet eventually leading their children into the same situation where they were put by their parents.

Thus, in a situation like this an outside body is required that can break into this vicious circle of disparities continuing from years. Here comes in the role of the Government that functions in this direction with the help of various outside agencies such as NGO’s which are wholly and solely focused towards the empowerment of the underprivileged governed by a simpler constitution allowing the needy to directly avail benefits. A combined effort of various governments along with various NGO partners makes these tasks more efficient and effective as both the agencies keep each other in check not allowing anyone to trend away from the real issues. The NGO’s have a far more direct contact with the targeted underprivileged children than the government and thus, they understand their needs and problems more closely. An integrated effort of both the agencies allows them both to find better solutions and frame better policies for the future of these children and their families.

Talking about major NGO’s which are focused towards development and empowerment of children; Lakshyam, MAD, Sweccha, The YP foundation etc. have achieved tremendous milestones and successes in recent years. NGO’s like Lakshyam work on a step based approach starting with providing remedial education to children so that they see a brighter tomorrow than their parents and then moving towards exposing their mothers with professional training in stitching and tailoring to equip them with a platform where they can exhibit their products and earn money for themselves. They also focus on spreading awareness among the families of these children about how important hygiene and healthcare is trying to make sure that every new life is nurtured sensitively thus, lowering the infant mortality rates even further. These NGO’s in their numerous campaigns that are run along with the government also act upon the task of continuously advising and bringing forward the ground realities of the policies that are framed by the government. Other NGO’s like MAD and sweccha work towards enabling children living in orphanages and street shelters to explore their potentials and encourage them to do what they are best at. They also work to create awareness about human rights among young people. They aim to achieve a world where young people are enabled to influence policies in the areas of gender, sexuality, health, education, the arts & governance. All of these organizations expect its volunteers to dedicate their time, skill and interest in any branch of their own choice making the creative privileged youth of the nation to grow increasingly sensitive and enlightened towards the issues of these children allowing them to make a difference in their lives.

The nation is addressing its issues. The government is framing its policies. The outer agencies like NGO’s are actively working on the ground. They are also keeping the policies of the governments on a regular check. Work is being done but is it going to be enough? The answer is a clear NO. One extra thing that’s required is the active participation of all the citizens. When we see all of us making little efforts in our own individual capacities leading towards one common goal of a better and a healthier tomorrow of our children, a change is certain to come.

Women and Child Development: Making World a Better Place

Introduction

Women and child development has become the buzzword today with women working alongside men in all spheres and children are expected to get influence by their environment at different age level.  Women development can be defined as a process leading to enhancing women’s control over financial, human and intellectual resources. In any nation, women development can be assessed by their involvement in social, economic and social fields. Similarly, child’s development is the process of growth of child from dependency to increase independency. It is important that parents take every step necessary to ensure that their children grow up in environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met.

Issue

As is a widely known fact, the condition of women in India as well as the rest of the world personifies pitiful. We have a high rate of female feticide and at the same time the discrimination against girls in India has been going on since ages now. Even today, there are several sections of the Indian society where the girl child is treated as a burden. Leaving behind the educational and medical front, girls in India lag far behind in receiving affection as well. Also, being the second most populated country, India has a large number of youths crowning its resources. However, this resource is misused one as well.

There are various problems faced by women and children together – Undernourishment which means lack of sufficient calories in food leading to weakness, lower work efficiency etc., Malnutrition which means lack of sufficient ingredients such as vitamins, proteins etc. in the food leading to illness, less weight of child at birth, high rate of child mortality etc., Limited Education as the number of school going children is still far from satisfactory.

Development Programs by Government and NGO

For the social and economic development of women and children, Government and certain NGOs have launched various schemes and programs such as:

Support To Training-Cum-Employment Programme (STEP):

• The women are given training in sectors like agriculture, dairying, village and small industries.

Swa-Shakti Project:

• Swa-Shakti aims at increasing women’s access to resources for better quality of life by providing health and education services and imparting skills to women for income generating activities.

National Commission for Women:

• National Commission for Women protects constitutional and legal rights of women, recommends remedial measures, facilitates redressal of grievances and advises the Government on all matters affecting the welfare and development of women.

Rooh-Women Welfare Program:

• This is one of the programs initiated by LAKSHYAM NGO in New Delhi. Lakshyam’s program, ‘Rooh-Awakening Women Soul’, meaning the spirit, aims at strengthening women demeanor towards life itself. The program’s first step is to provide remedial education to children; second step is to provide an essential degree of exposure along with professional training and third is to equip the girls with popular platform to sell their skills. This program also targets developments in ways of financial issues by organizing various workshops that enable poor women to self- generate employment.  Health awareness campaigns are organized every now and then. This program is well known for the child and women development in India.

Butterfly – Child Welfare Program:

• Lakshyam NGO launched a similar program for children welfare named “Butterfly – Child Welfare and Education” that symbolizes freedom with wings of butterfly. This programs aims at imparting holistic education and well-round development and abolishing the term “underprivileged”. Students at Lakshyam are taught Hindi, Mathematics, English and Computer Sciences. It provides free of cost tutorials as well.

Conclusion

Efforts of Government and certain NGOs have enabled thousand of women to support their families. It has liberated women in the matter of social rights, respect and well-deserved affection. Also, at the same time the efforts have empowered innumerable children around the country. The quality of life of children is improving.

Why You Should Do a Volunteer Program in India

India’s social divisions are one of the most extreme in the entire world, thus opening many opportunities for volunteer programs in India. From the party village and mansions of Hauz Khas in Delhi, to the infamous and incredible Bollywood culture in Mumbai, the rich in India live a life better than that to that in the western world. Meanwhile on the other hand, the poor in India live in one of the most squalid ad destitute conditions known to man, making the level of poverty in India the highest in the entire world. This is why volunteer programs in India are so special, fulfilling and rewarding. You can simply never stop giving.

This blog outlines the reasons to volunteer in India, and what your expected outcome from a volunteer program in India should be.

The Indian people will break a great many stereotypes. Well, that was definitely the case for me at least. For somebody like me who was born and raised in England, I held a great many stereotypes about India regarding crime, transportation and the civility of the Indian people. But to be honest, although poverty is rife here in India, crime is relatively rare if you are careful of your belongings. The metro here in Delhi is actually better than the underground and overground in London! With fully air-conditioned cars, smooth rides and very efficient service, I was quite surprised to say the least. Finally, the Indians are surprisingly civilised and try to give a good image of India to foreigners such as myself. For somebody who is British, the Indian’s are pretty incredible at queuing up and waiting in line!

India is simply incredible. I could go on and on about what there is to do here in India. But simply for the sake of keeping this article short and sweet, if you are an adventurer and a shopper you will have the time of your life here in India.

Whatever you study or work as, you will learn a great deal from a volunteer program in India.

Volunteering for a country with such rife poverty will truly test your will. You must be open minded and ready to adapt and learn the language. You will carry out many activities to aid your cause, but you will definitely do one of the following if you do a volunteer program in India, and that is either teach or fundraise. From these you will learn how to design and market your own ideas and your fundraising campaign, you will develop IT skills, logistics and communication skills. Teaching is a powerful tool to cement your own knowledge of a subject and is valued by employers as excellent self-development experience.

My own personal experience in a volunteer program in India has been great. Working with LAKSHYAM really made me utilize my innovative skills to help me become an active contributor towards improving the quality of life of the disadvantaged in India.

Why Lakshyam is the best Volunteer Organization in India?

There are so many amazing NGOs that are doing some phenomenal work in India, these NGOs work hard in the field to bring about change in a hands-on approach. Different NGO’s work in different ways for their own causes to achieve one common goal, making this society a better place to live in. Few NGOs work for the education and rights of underprivileged children residing in slums, orphanages and shelter homes. Some NGOs work to eliminate hunger & malnutrition. Some NGOs work to improve the conditions of senior citizens in India. Some NGOs work for improving the conditions of animals. Some NGOs work altogether for the betterment of environment and plants.

I had recently volunteered at a NGO, LAKSHYAM. Since its inception in 2004, LAKSHYAM has established itself for the welfare of the society, and mankind at large along with the best Volunteer Organization in India. Engaged in a number of social welfare activities like child welfare, health, education and women empowerment, Lakshyam has rigorously aimed at implementing effective and innovative solutions to improve quality of life of the not-so-privileged communities. Lakshyam’s ‘Butterfly Program’ provides Remedial Education Centers for students, in order to fill the gap in the government education system. Lakshyam ‘Toy Library’ aims at delivering toys and books from the privileged kids to the not-so-privileged ones. Till now, over 2,00,000 toys and books have been distributed across India. Lakshyam’s ‘Rooh Program’ tirelessly strives to educate the women of India and empower them with the confidence to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Following are the various objectives Lakshyam aims at:

• To help rural women learn easily employable skills
• To grant a financially independent status to rural women
• To help women protect themselves from domestic violence
• To help women attain the independent stance and say in the household by means of financial independence
• To give children a conducive and progressive environment for their development without any short comings
• To provide free-of-cost remedial education to children and give a fair access to education to all
• To help children choose the right career path and ensure the availability of fair opportunities to all
• To see rural India grow with its ethnicity and pristine beauty
• To create a cycle of giving back. Where talent, in stead of flowing towards urban cities, gives back to its home
• To save drowning neighborhoods from the plight of poverty
• Promote education and fill in the gaps created by money
• To attract well-educated teachers and provide standard education to children dwelling in rural areas

I had volunteered at Lakshyam’s Ghaziabad centre. The centre has children with age group ranging from 4 to 12. All these children belong to not so financially developed families. Also these children lacked primary education. But here at Lakshyam, these children are provided with all the necessities comprising of lots of stationery, books, clothes and uniforms. I had an amazing experience spending time with students. Teaching them various subjects like English, Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Computers and Hindi was completely a unique experience for me. The children were very sweet and cooperative. And they had the zeal to learn new and interesting things. And I was amazed to see how some girls had remarkable dancing skills.

Overall I feel blessed to have worked with LAKSHYAM. It is always good to do something for the well being of our nation. I hope to stay in touch with this organization and do my bit whenever required.