Problems are not stop sign; they are guidelines

In Single Women Issues campaign, we empower single women to become leaders rather than victims of exploitation so that they can act as agents of social change in their own communities across the Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Nanded districts of Marathwada. By fighting for the rights and dignity of Single Women from inside the community, the campaign is radically changing the mindsets and behaviour of community members towards single women and of single women towards themselves.

Here is one such story of change-

Nirmala Jadhav, resident of Sarani village of Kaij block of Beed district was married at the age of 17, immediately after her schooling. She stayed in joint family and at the age of 22, she was mother to two children. The main source of income for her family was agriculture. As days past, her husband got addicted to alcohol and hence Nirmala’s in-laws began troubling her, blaming her for being her husband’s reason for drinking problem. Nirmala got fed up of all this accusations, and decided to return to her parents house. Even at her parents house, she found it uncomfortable to live under the same roof as her brother and his wife. Thus, she decided to live separately, in order to avoid the taunts from the society. She rented a house and started working as a daily wage labour. In 2015, she was a part of a meeting organised by Ekal Mahila Sanghatana (CORO’s initiative). In that meeting, she was told about Single Women Issues campaign. She realized that this was a right place for her. Nirmala underwent training on women rights in her village. She realized that as a woman, she has equal property rights. Very next day, she approached a lawyer to file a case. Nirmala fought this case for five years. She received monthly compensation of Rs 6000/-. Nor did she win this battle, but the court also ordered registration of 2 acre land in her name. Nirmala believes, “I don’t have be dependent on anyone now, I have received rights for me and my children, and I am happy for it”

The campaign is multilevel rights based interventions to build robust organizational and individual leadership (in Marathwada) from within ‘single women’ to combat violence against women and their stigmatization. Individual and Collective leadership of single women, building robust organization of single women on their issues, improving status of single women (Social, Political, Economic etc.) and decreasing violence against women, Annihilation of Social Stigma against single women, decrease exploitation (social, Mental, Sexual, Economic etc)