Ashankur stepped in and offered an alternative - empowerment of women. This has enabled women to increase their control over decisions affecting their lives both within and outside their households.

Ashankur is a training centre situated in Bhokar, a village under Shrirampur Taluka in Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra, India. The centre initiates programmes aimed at empowering women in the nearby villages, talukas and districts.

The women of this area lack education. Moreover drought related problems on the one hand and an inferior social status on the other make migration and unemployment the order of the day.

Ashankur aims to alter the situation by organizing them so that together they can fight for their rights. This togetherness enables them to be engaged in income generating activities, which improve their economic and social status.

Objectives

Some of the major barriers to the empowerment of women are illiteracy, lack of control over resources and non-participation in decision-making. Our aim and effort, therefore, is to facilitate change. To enable women to stand up on their own feet and take decisions concerning their lives. To achieve this, we focus on four areas where change can take place.

1. Change from household seclusion to social
interaction.
2. Change from the lack of control to control over resources;
3. Change from non-participation to equal rights in Decision-making.
4. Change from the humdrum routine of daily tasks to income-generating activities;

Activities

In the villages, women are organized through the formation of Self-Help-Groups (SHGs). These SHGs are self-governed and decisions about various village issues and production oriented income-generating activities taken. Whereas social interaction and sharing of resources are natural consequences of such activities, self-reliance and positive self-image are added advantages.