Cooking is an ecstatic way of expressing yourself. It is more than just nourishment, it’s an art form that fetches people together. Foundation For Equal Citizenship’s Mahila Centre is the epitome of strength, resilience, knowledge and creativity. Cooking demonstration classes are conducted every week so that women get the knowledge they deserve.

The programme is run by Shaheen Baji and demonstration classes are executed by Al Saba. These classes provide a platform for women to explore new flavours, techniques, and recipes in a very inclusive environment. Women from every age group become a part of these vibrant classes.

FFEC believes in rendering the finest knowledge and mastery so that the future is bright and luminous. The session comprises almost 40 passionate women who have the thrill of learning something. The pedagogy of these classes believes in imbibing nutritional knowledge at a low budget. This means the mentors prepare budget-friendly meal ideas for pregnant, lactating, and anaemic ladies.

These classes are way more than just about food. They are a celebration of empowerment and self-discovery. As women come together they share joy, giggle, laughter, knowledge, never-ending stories and a lot more. This inclusivity builds a robust community. Through hands-on learning and interactive demonstrations, ladies gain the confidence to unleash their creativity and express themselves. These classes are followed by a competitive spirit where competitions are conducted.

Nutrition as everyone is aware helps curb the wasting in children and stunting. FFEC’s Mahila centre takes note of this and works constantly to bestow the knowledge of nutrition under budget.

The most rewarding aspect of these classes is the opportunity to share the pleasure of cooking with others. As these women hone their skills and discover budget-friendly healthy recipes, they become masters of flavours, spreading the culinary facet in their families.

Some delicious, budget-friendly dishes including energy choco bar, healthy makhana ball, sesame or jaggery laddu, Bajra churma laddu, poha, peanut chaat, healthy namkeen and moonglet have been prepared to date. From cooking to learning, FFEC’s community is growing and glowing. At our mahila centre, cooking is more than just a skill, it’s a gateway to empowerment and a progressive society.

As FFEC embark on a journey to strengthen the project ‘BUNIYAAD’, it also aspires to grow the community and inject exemplary knowledge. FFEC believes in providing practical exposure along with the theory. Women here enjoy themselves to the fullest and apply this skill set in their daily lives.

“While Poverty Persists, there is no true freedom” -Nelson Mandela

Lack of Financial Inclusion is among the most important, yet overlooked factors of poverty in rural areas. This is where SHGs come in.The concept of SHGs has been around since the 1990s, however, despite the life-changing advantages brought about by SHGs, their penetration has been fairly inadequate. SHGs are an important tool for empowering women from marginalized communities and they still continue to be among the best tools for increasing financial inclusion among the poor.But first what even are SHGs?

SHGs are informal groups of peoplewho come together to find ways to improve their lives through collective efforts. SHGs are self-governed, peer-controlled organizations.SHGs operate with the aim of building functional capacity amongst the poor and marginalized communities in terms of income and employment-generating activities. SHGs also help build social capital amongst the poor as they give them a platform to discuss and tackle social issues together.

There are currently 74.80 lakh SHGs across the country, however, the positive impact of these SHGs is still fairly low, owing to the difficulties faced by them in their day-to-day operations. For SHGs to function effectively and efficiently, they need assistance from NGOs and other social welfare organizations.

SHGs need comprehensive assistance, especially in their initial stages, and continued assistance throughout their course of operation to effectively flourish and empower women. This is where FFEC comes in.

FFEC

FFEC partners with marginalized communities to create solutions for them that can improve the socio-economic conditions of the members of the community. FFEC follows a 4-step approach to empower marginalized communities, these include-

1. Listening to the problems of the community
2. Building leadership among rural communities
3. Empowering communities through education,training etc.
4.  Partnering with local communities.

FFEC has been involved in helping women in suburbs and marginalized communities to set up SHGs. FFEC organizes training workshops for rural women and educates them regarding SHGs. The workshops follow a comprehensive and interactive approach which includes understanding the problems of the participants and educating them about how SHGs can solve those problems.

These educational workshops are an effective tool for increasing awareness regarding SHGs.

FFEC organizes workshops for women at its learning centre in Trilokpuri. These workshops see participation by women from diverse backgrounds. The workshops follow a comprehensive approach of first understanding the problems faced by these women and training them about what SHGs are. FFEC sends trainers to conduct these workshops, these educational workshops are an effective tool of creating awareness among the local communities about the benefits of SHGs.

Along with raising awareness about SHGs, FFEC also provides assistance with the necessary documentation required to setup a SHG, while also educating the members about how to manage the SHG on their own. The educational workshops go in depth into the workings of a SHG, the books maintained by a SHG and how to maintain these books, how to manage savings and loans of the members etc. This goes a long way in developing self-sufficiency among members and empowers the rural women to stand on their own and run the SHGs by themselves.

FFEC also helps the SHGs in creating income generating activities. At the learning centre in Trilokpuri, FFEC members were able to identify possible income generating activities for the SHGs based on the pre-existing skills of the members and provide them with initial raw material and expertise required to set up the income generating activities.

FFEC collaborated with the local SHG to provide them assistance regarding the income generating activities they can setup. Some of the manufacturing activities that were decided were-

1. Hair accessories
2. Small bags
3. Pouches

As mentioned earlier, SHGs today face the problem of not being self-sufficient enough and falling apart after the aid from NGOs stops. For SHGs to truly shine their light upon the people who really need it, it is of paramount importance that we build SHGs to be able up to stand up for themselves and not need hand holding after the initial stages.

SHGs are meant to give rural women independence and financial freedom, the ability to stand up for oneself in a world constantly trying to put them down, and finally the ability to be one’s own saviors. FFEC’s workshops help empower women from marginalized communities to do just that, to be able to stand on their own. SHGs formed under FFEC’s guidance have the necessary skills and expertise required to run a SHG successfully and create wide-spread positive socio-economic change for everyone involved.

Domestic Workers

Domestic workers are workers who work in or for a private household or households. They perform direct and indirect care services and are key members of the care economy. Their services may include cooking, washing, cleaning the house, ironing clothes, child care or taking care of the elderly or sick members of a family, safeguarding the house, driving, gardening and even pet sitting. A domestic worker may work full-time or part-time and may be employed by a single household, through or by a service provider. They may be living in the employer’s household (live-in worker) or may be residing in his or her own residence (live-out). A domestic worker working in another country is referred to as a migrant domestic worker.

Vulnerable Workers

According to statistics, there are 75.6 million domestic workers worldwide of which 76.2 percent are women, meaning that a quarter of domestic workers are men. There are many factors that lead women to enter domestic work. Women from poor background or disadvantaged communities do not have much employment opportunities and may face discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, class, race or ethnicity. Domestic work is a more important source of employment to female employees in contrast to male employees. Domestic workers rarely have access to rights and protection although they provide essential services. Around 81 percent of workers are employed in an informal manner, that is, twice the share of informal employment among other employees. They also work under strenuous working conditions. Domestic workers earn 56 percent of average monthly wages of other employees and are more likely than other workers to work for very long or short hours. They also face violence and harassment and restrictions on freedom of movement. Informal domestic workers are more vulnerable to such situations. There are many factors that cause women to enter domestic work. Women from poor background or backward communities are often provided with few employment opportunities and may undergo discrimination based on gender, caste, class, race or ethnicity.

Trilokpuri is a popular locality situated in New Delhi. Foundation For Equal Citizenship (FFEC) is located in Trilokpuri, East Delhi where a significant number of the population are domestic workers. Trilokpuri is sometimes referred as the “maid supplier of Delhi”. The maids work in Mayur Vihar housing societies.

Financial Responsibilities

According to a post covid news report, women employed as domestic workers often bear a disproportionate burden of not just unpaid work at their own homes, but also financial responsibilities. The survey states that as many as 51% workers had unemployed spouses and 36% were divorced, separated or widowed women.

About 17 organizations and unions in Delhi-NCR came together to form the Network of Rights and Voices of Domestic Workers and to ensure the safety and security of these women. Many other organizations and unions across the nation also held discussions with domestic workers to prepare a declaration of demands that called for a minimum money transfer to domestic workers under the National Disaster Management Act, global registration of employers and domestic workers, national legislation, an urban employment guarantee scheme and strengthening of local committees at the district level where workers can lodge complaints about workplace sexual harassment.

Plight of Women

In a focus group held on ‘Challenges of Working Women’ by FFEC, Nazia, a 40 year old domestic worker says, “My husband is an auto-driver. We live in Ambedkar camp, a jhuggi near Block 32 in Trilokpuri. We have 3 children and we had no income after covid hit. I leave for work around 7:30 am or 8 am and I leave my little daughter in the care of my mother in law. Once I found out that my brother in law touched my daughter inappropriately. My mother in law didn’t seem to care about it but my husband and I wanted to go to the police. However, we were scared of the repercussions”.

“I’ve been working in Mayur Vihar for more than 10 years now and I’ve had good experiences. The only thing is I’m worried about the safety of my children and my neighbors watch over them” says a domestic worker who wishes to be anonymous.

“I started working due to hardships during the lockdown,” says another woman. 

Conclusion

Foundation For Equal Citizenship (FFEC) has been providing rations to very poor families in the Trilokpuri Community. It is sad and horrifying to see the plight of women and children. At the same time, this sends out a message that it is high time we hold the abusers accountable and raise better men. We ought to make the world a better place for everyone.