A recent report by the World Bank indicates that female participation in the workforce in India has actually decreased over the past decade, with an estimated 20 million women ‘dropping out’ of the workforce between 2005 and 2012. This, even as serious efforts over the past several decades have pushed up female literacy and […]
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In the first week of November, I was in rural Uttar Pradesh, sitting down with a group of women, interviewing them about the loans they had taken through Rang De. I was accompanied by four staff members from our partner organisation, who were there to facilitate the conversation. Two of these staff members were […]
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“They only live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive” – Swami Vivekananda On 4th October, I joined the Rang De team on a Field Trip to meet a community of borrowers in Warangal, associated with the Sarvodaya Youth Organization (SYO). We were a group of 12 members and we reached […]
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Early this summer, I was on an arduous trek — made difficult only because it was after a hearty meal — to meet Pushpa Devi, one of our borrowers in Dehradun’s Lakhamandal. While we sat down at Pushpa’s house, I heard about her temperamental cow, quite aptly called Kali. Kali doesn’t allow anyone else but Pushpa to handle her — whether […]
Read MoreShades of Her — our campaign on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2018 At Rang De, over 93 % of our borrowers are women. One reason for this is the nature of self-help groups at the grassroots, which tend to be comprised entirely of women. Another reason is that in our experience, some of the grittiest, determined […]
Read MorePerumalla Vinodha (right) is one of thousands of ‘farm widows’ in India, a term that refers to women who are left behind when their farmer husbands commit suicide. PC: Ahinsa During a span of six months between June 2014 and January 2015, a period of intense agrarian crisis in India, over 536 farmers ended their lives […]
Read MoreAt Vidya Gaikwad’s house in Pusad town in Maharashtra, we find her busy instructing a group of young women who are seated on the floor, poring over embroidery patterns. Vidya smiles as we enter her house, where she lives with her in-laws, husband and two young children before continuing with the lesson. Pusad is a […]
Read MoreBy Lydia Paulraj Anita Hature operates a meal service out of her home in Pune’s HInjewadi suburb Pots of piping hot dal, bowls of sliced cucumber, dishes with freshly cooked sabzi and a number of steel tiffin carriers sit on a plastic table in Anita Hature’s kitchen. The food is neatly portioned into each compartment […]
Read MoreWith the help of our field partner VAMA, we have been able to offer crowdsourced microcredit to 3,459 individuals If you define poverty as the state when a mother has to wonder what to feed the child next day, you can find that in Datiya in Madhya Pradesh. In Kerala, Assam, Jharkand and Maharashtra, we […]
Read MoreThe women borrowers of Maharashtra with Sagras members. Almost as well-known as Pune’s red light district was the one in Pusad in rural Maharashtra. A team of three men decided to intervene and help these women escape this trade. Now, three out of five women previously working in the Pusad red light area lead new, independent […]
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