- Information
on programmes to eradicate female
infanticide amongst the Lambadas
- Programme:
Improvement of Medical Services for Lambada settlements in Deverkonda.
- Programme:
Income Generation Activities for Lambada women
- Programme:
Education for Empowerment of Lambada Women and Girls
Information on programmes
to eradicate female infanticide amongst the Lambadas
The main objective is:
"Improve
the status of the Lambada women and girl children, in order to assist
them to stop neglecting, abandoning or killing their female children and
to assert their rights and create a more humane quality of life."
Background:
The Lambada tribe is the largest in Andhra Pradesh and is politically
neglected and economically challenged. The issues that have caused the
practice of female infanticide amongst this tribe are low status of women
in society, poverty, lack of education/training and lack of medical facilities.
Giving birth to a girl involves worry of raising the child, lack of food
security, high marriage expenses, dowry and a blot on the family prestige.
Women and girls are deprived from social, economic and educational rights.
The above
situation has evolved into a sense of helpless insensitivity while making
a decision to kill a girl child in her infancy.
Target Group
- Women and unborn
girls of the Lambada tribe.
- They belong to a
total population of about 9000.
Target
Area
12 Lambada villages in Nalgonda district, AP, India.
Activities
- Awareness and counselling
- Adult and primary
education: This includes training in areas like PHC, gender issues and
off-farm activities.
- Infrastructure on
primary health care.
- Collective Action:
This helps overcome isolation of the women in tackling poverty.
- Livelihood: A gradual
improvement which will be under the control of the women and help lift
them out of poverty.
Expected
Results
The programmes aim to achieve by the year 2007:
- End to the practice
of female infanticide
- At least 100 women
from 12 villages are self sustainable leaders with basic education
- A literacy rate of
52% for all children
- An improvement in
agricultural practices
- Established linkages
between Lambada women and the government
- Practice of family
planning
Improvement
of Medical Services for Lambada settlements in Deverkonda
Problem definition
- Lack of infrastructure
in target area for medical services.
- No possibility of
regular visits of or to a medical practitioner.
- Midwives present
in the thandas (villages) don't have facilities and medical background
- No medical stores
available for the supply of medicines.
- Traditional medicinal
practices have been abandoned.
Programme objective
To improve the PHC situation of the Lambada women.
Programme Activities
- Setting up of medical
stores
- Organising training
in herbal medicine (including a manual in Telugu)
- Organising training
in "How to run a store"
- Organising training
for midwives in technical issues as well as parent counselling (including
a manual in Telugu)
- Providing medical
kits for midwives
- Organising delivery
rooms in thandas.
- Organising medical
camps for mothers and children
- Cultivation and use
of herbal medicine.
Timeframe
1 year
Results
In each Thanda one woman was trained as a midwife, one room was dedicated
as the delivery room and the midwife received a medical kit. During the
project period all the female babies have been accepted by their parents;
none of them was sold or killed.
Evaluation
Follow-up was considered important. It was thought necessary to also
improve the livelihood of the Lambadas as the area is also drought prone
and people live below the poverty level.
Donor
Remonstrantse Kerk
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Income
generating activities for Lambada women
Problem
definition
- Income from agricultural
produce, which is the mainstay of their livelihood, is far below average
and below subsistence levels.
- Financial assistance
from the government programmes does not reach.
- Women are economically
dependent on the men.
 Programme
objective
To generate additional income, which will be under the control of the
Lambada women and will gradually increase from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 4,000
per year to lift the women out of poverty.
Programme Activities
- Creating awareness
via SHGs on the economic contribution of women in the Lambada society.
- Income generation
through sheep rearing, embroidery and stimulation of agriculture through
crop loans.
- Encourage savings
and credit activities amongst the women by providing a revolving fund
to women's groups and organising workshops on "How to run a Sangham
(women's group)"
Timeframe
1 year
Results
- 30 women were given
loan to buy 1 sheep. They repaid the loan when the sheep gave birth
to a lamb
- 15 girls were trained
in sewing and given a loan of Rs. 4,000/- (about $100) to buy essentials
- 30 women were given
a loan of Rs. 1,000 (about $20), sufficient to cultivate 1 acre of land.
- The women contributed
part of the produce to the grain bank in the women's group, which helped
them through the dry season (April/May).
- By saving Rs. 5 per
week a total of 350 women collected a group fund (of about Rs 10,000),
which served as a low interest, exploitation-free, source of loan in
times of need.
Donor
The Gobal Ministries of the Uniting Churches (GMUC) in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Education
for the Empowerment of Lambada women and Girls
Problem definition - Social, economic and educational backwardness
of the Lambada women.
Programme objectives
- Gender education
and strenghtening Sanghas (women's groups) through workshops, meetings
and a Mutually Aided Co-operative Society (MACS)
- Education for adolescent
girls
- Technical raining
for women as well as for adolescent girls
- Emergency loans for
individual women who are beyond the mainstream Sanghas
- Support of administrative
activities like documentation, monitoring and evaluation and training
of staff.
Programme Activities
- Literacy camps for
adolescent girls
- Strenghtening women's
groups
- Gender workshops
for the members of the women's groups
- Technical training
and practical implementation
- Emergency loans
Timeframe
4 years.
Current Activities (2001)
- Campaigning against
the sale of girl babies at village, state and national levels. The latter
aspect needs to be continued with a focus on changing the guidelines
for adoptions.
- Organising day and
night schools for children
- Teacher's training
on child focused learned methodologies
- Summer school for
working children as part of back to school programme
- Awareness campaigns
on social issues such as child labour, female infanticide and child
trafficking
- Health campaigns
in collaboration with the government
- Organising women
in Self-Help groups
- Training women to
plan income generation activities
- Training women for
leadership
- Training women to
campaign on right's issues
- Innovative pilot
projects to undertake sustainable land development
- Support to tribal
women for network building in the Khammam district
- Creating links with
global sisterhood network Australia (????)
- Creating a campaign
front with state voluntary organisation
Expected Results
- 100 girls will be
educated through Non formal Eucational Centres and integrated into the
mainstream schools
- 20 womens groups
will form a Mutually aided co-operative society and 20 women will be
trained as leaders.
- At least 2 workshops
per year will educate 40 women's group members in gender aspects of
livelihood, health, law, leadership and government schemes.
- Also technical workshops
will give women's group members practical income generation skills in
vermiculture, horticulture, nursery, sheep rearing and compost production.
- The women who are
too poor to belong to saving's groups will be assisted with individual
loans.
Donor
Global Ministries of the Uniting Churches (GMUC), Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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