NGO in-depth | SAAD

Posted on Monday, November 3, 2008 at 12:09 PM

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Amita Chauhan, a GiveIndia team member, is working with MoneyLIFE magazine on their Beyond Money column.  In this article, Amita profiles SAAD, which helps marginalised women in Maharashtra. SAAD is compliant with GiveIndia’s rigorous due diligence and Credibility Alliance’s norms for NGOs. 

“Life on the planet is born of woman” -- Adrienne Rich, poet and essayist

While urban, educated Indian women take forward strides as never before, women from less privileged backgrounds remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and misery. The Parbhani district in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra is a perfect example of a place that has been untouched by progress as yet. This dry and barren area is home to poor farmers and labourers who eke out a living through dry-land farming. Parbhani has only six to eight hours of electricity everyday. Getting a supply of drinking water even once a week is a luxury and the villages lie 10km-15km from the highway. The literacy rate for men in Parbhani is about 65%, while for women it is a dismal 29.4%. The daily life of a woman here is extremely challenging. Women are denied basic services like education and healthcare and are exploited. They are not paid equally for equal work; they receive only 50% of the wages that men earn. There is one ray of hope for these women -- SAAD or the Social Action for Association and Development. SAAD is a non-profit organisation established in June 1997 to empower and promote the weaker sections of society, especially women, through various programmes and training sessions.

This Pune-based registered trust is run by Mangala Daithankar who has a master’ s degree in economics from the Mumbai University and is a management graduate. She had earlier worked with the Devdasi Rehabilitation Centre. SAAD’s efforts focus on marginalised poor women including aradhey, malpardi, devdasis, gondhali, mochi and tamasha dancers. The organisation assists in the formation of self-help groups (SHGs) in villages and slums that help these unorganised women to learn about their legal rights, government schemes and various livelihood avenues available to them. Devdasis are young girls married off to temple deities. In olden days, they were trained in the classical arts and enjoyed respect as temple dancers; but over time, the custom had degenerated into sexual exploitation and many of them had turned to begging. Jamunabai, a devdasi, was able to change her fate because of SAAD. She was persuaded to give up her nomadic life and start a balwadi for the children of devdasis in Parbhani. Today, she has 160 children under her care. Chatrbai, the daughter of an aradhey, dreamt of studying in school; but her mother’s way of life meant her having to move from place to place. She had given up all hope until she got a lifeline from SAAD. Now, she attends school and is proud to be a student. The women of the SHGs manage these balwadis. So the community enjoys a double benefit -- employment and skills for rehabilitated women as well as a safe and positive environment for their children.

SAAD’s SHGs have also been a big success. It runs 50 groups for 500 members. The organisation trains women members of SHGs in several income-generating activities like tailoring, poultry farming, selling saris, goat-rearing, broom-making and running small shops selling food, vegetables, chappals, etc. Today, more than 125 women are able to earn money through this valuable training. Yamunabai Ganjle (50) had been reduced to begging. SAAD trained her in basic accounts and now she sells vegetables in her village. Former dancers Jaya and Abidabai Beg now do zardosi embroidery on saris. SAAD makes women aware of their rights and helps them gain access to and control over resources through SHGs.

Ms Daithankar says that “SAAD helps women to be organised, learn various enterprises and acquire skills so that they become confident and feel that they can do work.” In the Parbhani region, 65% of women suffer from anaemia. So, in future, SAAD hopes to expand its work to cover women’s nutrition and healthcare as well as to create awareness about their legal rights and improve their participation in local self-governance at the village level.

How can you support SAAD?

Help a devdasi become independent by setting up a small fruit and vegetable stand for Rs2085 (appx US$42)

Sponsor a devdasi's child in balwadi for a year for Rs1600 (appx US$32)

Comments (2)

Indian NGO said on March 17, 2009 6:26 PM
	It is really good to know about the good work that SAAD is doing in emancipating the lives of the marginalized poor women to fight against the oppressions of the society…