Hemlata still remembers her wedding. A shaky nervous teenager of just 17 years, she could barely comprehend the events of the evening.
“I did not know back then whether to be sad or happy”, she says now.
Like in other places, in Dhekuna village of Narharpur block in Chhattisgarh, a married woman had many predestined roles. And child birth was an important one. In fact, from the perspective of a village community, a childless woman’s place was not even on the fringes of the society. When at the end of the third year of her marriage, Hemlata still could not conceive grumblings of ‘childlessness’ began to grow in family gatherings and cultural events.
The grumblings escalated over the years, especially inside her household. Her husband would beat her up for failing to bear the family a child.
“Baanj, Baanj” (Barren, Barren) was his choicest abuse. It went on for three years. Mentally broken and physically fatigued, she finally walked out of her husband’s house at the age of 25.
She went back to living with her parents. As a woman ‘without a man’, she felt the existential pressure of survival every day. She was a living corpse with the perpetual fear of being labeled by the society.
In the year 2011, she joined a Self Help Group (SHG) promoted by PRADAN in the village of Rajpur. It was for the first time in years that she felt a sense of acceptance and belonging in a social group. The women of the SHGs encouraged her to attend the training sessions organized at the block level by professionals of PRADAN. Despite her fear of being labeled as Baanj, she decided to take the first step. She quickly picked up skills around agriculture and nutrition, becoming an expert trainer.
Her father had given her 0.5 acres of land to start a new life. On this piece, she used all her skills to grow bumper crops of paddy and vegetable.
With every skill, with every crop and with every exposure, Hemlata broke one shackle after another. She evolved from being a barren woman, dependent on the largesse of others for survival to a fiercely independent woman basking in her own confidence – a skillful farmer and an expert trainer. The change in her external surrounding was also visible. People, both men and women, started seeking advice and support on issues ranging from agriculture to poultry.
For her old parents, she is the rock of their lives. Her in-laws and husband want her to return but Hemlata has a destiny to fulfill- a destiny defined by her.
She is on a roll. On her Scooty.
“Baanj, Baanj” (Barren, Barren) was the torrent of abuse every day. It had been 8 years of her marriage. A married woman with no child is effectively a living corpse in some parts of the world. Can this living corpse, in a remote village of Narharpur block in Chhattisgarh, transcend all societal barriers and ride to freedom ?
Organization: Professional Assistance for Development Action
Designation: Employment Facilitator
Number of Positions: 1
Locations: 1)Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
PRADAN aims at providing relevant employability skills to young women from its states of operation – Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh- and help them get linked to appropriate employment opportunities. A major destination of employment is in the four southern states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi NCR Region in potential sectors such as manufacturing, automotive, e-commerce, garments, textiles, hospitality, healthcare and retail industry. PRADAN is looking for a person to liaison with employers and young women who are engaged so that they work in a dignified work environment, able to retain themselves and build a long-term career for themselves. The person would be reporting to Integrator, PRADAN.
Key Deliverables:
QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:
Education
Applicants must have Degree/Post Graduate Degree/ Diploma preferably in Social Sciences, Rural Development/ Management or equivalent, from a reputed institute.
Experience
(1) Minimum 3 to 5 years of experience in rural / urban development / skilling / employability programmes.
(2) Experience of working with employment generation programs is preferable, and not mandatory.
Skills and Competencies:
(1) Good written and oral communication skills in English and functional communication in Hindi and Tamil is preferable
(2) Excellent interpersonal skills
(3) Excellent team skills
(4) Willing to travel
COMPENSATION OFFERED
Compensation offered to the selected candidate shall be commensurate with qualifications, experience, and past salary history.
LOCATION
The job requires the person to be on the go; can operate from Coimbatore but should be willing to visit the employment facilities on a regular basis.
Founded in 1983, PRADAN has been at the forefront of innovations in rural development and has played a significant role in the design and implementation improvement of major rural development programmes. Given the deep deprivation in rural pockets, particularly among tribal and vulnerable groups, we promote sustainable livelihoods, integrated with work on issues of Gender, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Climate Change, Skilling and Governance. We currently work across 8 states, reaching out to 2.8 million households in collaboration with more than 100 NGO partners. PRADAN is an equal opportunity organisation. To learn more, please visit us at: www.pradan.net.
As an Executive (Communications), the incumbent is supposed to be a knowledgeable, self-motivated and passionate individual with a creative bent of mind. The major focus area would be to promote and help flourish the practice of reflective writing and process documentation. The role involves content generation, curation, presentation and publication of articles for internal forums and external agencies including mainstream media. The person will also be responsible for organising training events for the same. Creating and implementing the media strategy to showcase PRADAN’s successes and challenges will be another key aspect of the position.
The qualifying degree is a minimum of 16 years of education (A Master’s degree in English literature, or any other social science stream).
A degree or diploma in Mass Communication from a reputed institute is preferred
Nature of Engagement: Regular position with a probation period of six months.
Remuneration: Based on qualification and experience the CTC would be in the range of INR 8 to 10 lakhs per annum. The CTC includes basic pay and other allowances. Apart from this, provision of deferred benefits such as PF, Gratuity, NPS, Insurance (Term life insurance, hospitalization insurance for self and dependents and accident insurance policy) are provided.
Place of posting: In PRADAN locations (possibly district town or state capital)
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Those shortlisted will be invited to a selection process in Noida, tentatively in the first week of September 2024.
PRADAN is an equal opportunity employer. Women candidates are encouraged to apply.
Interested candidates with the relevant background and fulfilling the eligibility criteria are visit our website https://www.pradan.net/join-us/#careers and fill the ‘Application for Executive (Communications)’.Applications close by August 31, 2024.