Over 1000 women of Indore city were empowered through training to become transformational leaders. This includes their legal training, communication skills training as well as training like mechanics and driving.
Transformational role of women through bike mechanic training and livelihoods.
For the first time in India, the dream of giving women a new identity as a bike mechanic was woven by the Samaan Society and tried to make it come true. The main objective behind this was to change the patriarchal system of work division on the basis of gender. As a result, the gender stereotype was broken in the matter of employment of women.
Today in Indore, women are seen as mechanic. Due to this program, women challenged the patriarchal system by exercising their right to choose employment. Despite all the opposition, they acquired the skill of a mechanic and made new identity by adopting this employment.
This programme was started in April 2018 to link women with bike mechanic profession by training them in it. Under this, in the year 2018-19 to 2020-21 total 250 women were trained 68 of them were employed as Bike Mechanic at different service centres of Indore city. Probably for the first time in Madhya Pradesh women are working as mechanics.
Specialised training module has been prepared for the training of bike mechanic. This module covers all the work including servicing, repair, brake, engine, wiring of bikes. The special feature of this module is that in it, a simple language style was created with the viewpoint of women and interesting training methods have been included in it. All the subjects related to bike repairs and maintenance, were divided into 12 chapters in it. In preparing this module, the help of professional mechanics, professors of IIT Indore and professors of Holkar Science College, Indore, was taken.
YANTRIKA
Women have been trained as mechanics in Indore with the aim of furthering the process of social change by linking women with non-traditional livelihoods. As evident, the bike mechanic work has been dominated by men so far over skill and employment. All the garage repairing bikes are operated solely by men and their men are mechanics. In Indore, for the first time, a garage operated by women mechanic have been started.
Women from the weaker sections of the society have not only faced the crisis of livelihood and employment, but they also have to face the constraints of the patriarchal social system. In this situation, the need was felt for such a women’s livelihood program, which connects women to technology-based employment and helps them to move towards socio-economic justice. Samaan Society is working in this direction for the last three years. Under the program presented in this series, an attempt was made to connect women with the employment of bike mechanics.
Women have been trained as mechanics in Indore with the aim of furthering the process of social change by linking women with non-traditional livelihoods. As evident, the bike mechanic work has been dominated by men so far over skill and employment. All the garage repairing bikes are operated solely by men and their men are mechanics. In Indore, for the first time, a garage operated by a women mechanic has been started by the Samaan Society.
This initiative is not only unique in Indore, but there is no women mechanic garage anywhere in India till the time of writing this report. Thus, it is a step towards breaking gender stereotypes along with the livelihood of women mechanics.
The special result of the Women Mechanic Program is that women have emerged as better entrepreneurs through this. Efforts have been made by Samaan Society to unite women mechanics and enable them as entrepreneurs. Under this, professional skills were developed among women mechanics by the organization and their own company was established. Women mechanics are included in the board of directors of this company formed in the name of ‘Samaan Yantriak Association’ and ‘Yantrika Service Center’ is operated by women mechanics through this company.
The special thing is that this program has become sustainable due to the Samaan’s vision of making women capable as entrepreneurs and trained women mechanics are now taking it forward.
These days, on the roads of Indore, women do not travel only as passenger, but they are seen as professional drivers. The women here are seen driving in heavy vehicles ranging from e-rickshaws to cabs, loading vehicles, municipal corporation vehicles, hotel vehicles to I-Bus. The roads here bear witness to the fact that now the profession of driving is not limited to men only, but now women are also joining it prominently. This change on the roads of Indore has come due to the efforts of Samaan Society.
Through this programme, 387 women have established their new identity. At first, they used to work in household sweeping-mopping, cooking, sewing, now people call them respectfully as Driver Madame. These women have got jobs as drivers in hotels, companies, and taxies in Indore city. many women are working as driver in the mini trucks of Indore.
Two to fourfold increase in income
After taking up driving profession several unemployed women have gained employment, at the same time there has been two to fourfold increase in income of the women working as domestic workers, labours in factories and doing sewing work etc.
Earlier, where women could earn from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6000, the income of these women drivers has now reached Rs 000 to Rs 15000 per month. These women are spending their increased income on the nutrition and education of children. These women are spending their increased income on the nutrition and education of children.
As a result of the Women with Wheels program run by the Samaan Society, women are seen here driving from cabs and buses to e-rickshaws as well. After getting driving training from the Samaan Society, many women move towards self-employment and buy e-rickshaws to take the passengers to their destinations. In this work, They earn 500 to 1000 rupees every day.
“My husband too is a driver but it was very difficult to run the household on his salary only. I too caught a complicated skin infection. Husband also used to be ill often, so he had to take leave from work many times. In this situation the economic condition of the household worsened. It had become difficult to feed the family of five people, including three children. Meanwhile, the workers of the Samaan Society organized a meeting in our neighborhood, in which women were told about the driving training. Upon hearing them, I thought why shouldn’t, I start this profession by taking training in driving. When asked for permission by husband, he first refused and said that the employment of driving is not for women. But he accepted on my insistence. I started training in the institution. The special matter is that people of the Samaan society listen to all our problems and try to solve them. Earlier I used to get treatment for my skin infection by a quack at my locality. They advised me to get treatment from a specialist doctor. With that treatment, I have been completely cured. After the driving training the institution got me placed as a driver in Neocorp Company. Here I used to get 9000 per month. Later I chose a job with higher salary. As of today I’m working on 11000 Rs per month as driver“.
Efforts are being made at various levels to provide access to justice to the women victims of violence, which are as follows: –
Violence against women at home is not only inhuman elsewhere, but it is also very challenging to violence free society. Because most people consider domestic violence to be a personal matter of the family. In this condition, the woman suffering from violence in the house becomes completely isolated. Because the relatives of the locality, neighbourhood do not help women considering these incidents as their personal matter.While her parents are also away from him. In this situation, Samaan Society is preparing women leaders in different settlements. These women leaders help the concerned women in case of violence against women in their locality.
It has been observed that many people in the community have to undergo various legal procedures. At the same time, they also need legal knowledge to obtain their rights. Of these the number of women and children is high. So, the legal clinic has been started for women by the organization. Under this, legal advice is given to women, and in case of necessity, free support is also given through advocate in the court. Also, in order that the suffering women get the justice, the organisation capacitates them in the context of judicial process.
The main points related to this program are as follows :
Lawyers Initiative for Women Rights:
Under this program a panel of sensitive advocates was prepared in the Indore city. There are many advocates in this panel, which provide free legal assistance to the victims.
The Kanoon Sakhi group would talk to the women sufferers of the violence in their locality and as a group they would also talk to the men of the family ie perpetrators of the violence. In this process, many times change has been seen even in the men doing violence. Where there is no change and the violence continues regularly, in that case the course of legal action is adopted. Generally, women do not have access to a Protection Officer or other Judicial Forum in cases of domestic violence. They do not know about them. Hence, the women of the KanooniSakhi group not only inform the victim, but they also accompany her to the police station, the Protection Officer’s office, the court, etc. This keeps the courage of the women victim of violence and their collective strength also makes the administrative process easier. As a beginning, the society started this work in five settlements in Indore city and in each settlement, 5-5 women were given leadership as Kanoon Sakhi. In their leadership 15-20 women of their settlement joined them. In this way, a group of about 400 women emerged which help the victims of the issue of domestic violence.