Striking the Gender Balance

Out There in the Villages: Women at the Centre of Transformation

PRADAN’s engagement with marginalised communities especially Women in rural pockets, is based on the intention to promote gender equality in livelihoods, income generation and distribution, decision making, and governance. Gender mainstreaming (an approach to policy making that takes into account both women’s and men’s interests and concerns, as defined by 1985 Nairobi World Conference on Women) has taken up steam and its integration in all our livelihood interventions is increasing. Across PRADAN, teams are designing livelihood programmes and strategies keeping women’s role and participation in mind. Training modules are prepared with a focus on ensuring women’s participation in livelihood planning, agriculture, livestock etc. The gender integration facilitates enhancing her role and her say in agriculture issues, reducing drudgery through introduction of appropriate farm mechanization suitable for women, and creating linkages for women with input suppliers, technology providers, and markets. It also involves establishing women as technology providers and entrepreneurs, creating assets in her name, such as orchards in MGNREGS, opening bank accounts in the name of women, and ensuring women have control over income.

We are working towards ensuring that women understand their economic contribution to the household, thereby increasing a sense of agency and enhancing the ability to negotiate for decision making space in the family.

Women are now taking decisions regarding production and are also getting engaged in marketing of produce, thus challenging many spaces which were hitherto male dominated. Nearly 5500 SHGs and 300 VOs/GPLFs have been provided in-depth orientation on gender-based discrimination across various walks of life and members of more than 7,800 SHGs discussed these issues and formulated strategies to address them.

Inside the Organisation: Making PRADAN a Better Place for Women to Work

  • Facilitate women colleagues stay, grow and acquire leadership position in PRADAN,
  • Men, in the organization, becoming more integrated, free, equality driven, and caring persons striving for creating a more equal society; and
  • Women becoming more confident, without fear, dignified, free to express, realizing their own potential and have enhanced understanding of gender equality and her role in it
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What We Did to Ensure This

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Gender Audit

To make a periodic assessment on where PRADAN is, in its day-to-day business, on its journey towards being a more gender equal space.
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Curriculum on Gender for Newcomers (Development Apprentices)

To bring in a separate women and leadership segment in the module. Two modules, 1) Gender and Patriarchy and 2) Own role in making workplace better for women.
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Women Caucus

A space exclusively of women with a mandate to prepare its women’s leadership internally and influence PRADAN in its journey to become a gender just organization.
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Men in Gender

Building men champions who would take the lead in keeping the issue of gender equality top-of-the-mind in the organization through personal demonstration, and regular messaging. It is to bring to the fore the role of men in the process of countering masculinity and building a gender-just culture.