"Empowered" according to Google translator means "make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights."
And Chetana or CCW is clearly working towards EMPOWERING men and women.
I would focus on all the words which define Empowerment.
Strong- Women have always been considered the weaker sex, someone called them weaklings in a very popular TV show. And, in fact I would agree that women are weaker in terms of physical strength, because God created them in a such a manner. In a similar manner to balance the dis balance , God made them mentally and emotionally stronger than men. So women and men are equally strong. But history says that Men took advantage of their physical strength, and started assaulting women. Women didn't realize their mental and emotional strength, and silently submitted.
We at CCW are not doing wonders, except making the women realize their strengths to tackle the physical assault through our Safety lectures and Self defence classes.
Yes, after 3 years of serious efforts starting from mid 2011 onwards, we can proudly say that we have succeeded in making women stronger and confident, and would continue to do so in the future as well.
Confidence and Control- Being empowered not only means physically strong, but being confident in all respects of life. The other day I was having a conversation with a Social Worker, he asked me to define an Empowered woman. I couldn't define the word clearly, so he defined it for me- "An empowered woman is one who is emotionally and physically healthy, has control over her rights and has a say in the financial matters of the family irrespective of her financial contribution". And I completely agreed with him. We at CCW want to make a woman confident, and we believe that the confidence would come only when she is financially educated, and not financially literate. We seek to make women financially independent and educated through our CCW group where we promote savings. We call this group Jagruti. We have also started a Self Help Group of 25-30 women where we train them in Tailoring and Knitting, these women would start selling their products in the market within a span of 1 year. To promote the concept of Women Empowerment, we celebrated Women's Week from March 8-15, 2015, through SHG stall at Dilli Haat, Janakpuri. We sold products made by the members of our SHG group. Being financially empowered and educated would definitely boost the confidence of our Jagruti group, they will be in a better position to CONTROL their Lives.
Claiming their Rights- We all know that the Constitution of India has given women certain rights, to make them feel secure, and at par with their male counterparts. Constitution says that, "No person can be discriminated based on GENDER, race, caste or creed." But our patriarchal mentally hasn't adopted the above lines completely. CCW has a legal cell as well, where we make women aware about their legal rights, and encourages and help them fight if they are facing inequality in any respect. Equality is our right, it is not granted to us by anyone.
Chetana Conscience of Women, is trying to make this world gender neutral. We humbly request you to join us in our efforts to make WOMEN LIVE EMPOWERED.
-Mehak Bhatia
