A BRIEF REPORT ON
VIMUKTI AT CHIKKODI
 Ten years back in 1997 the Diocese of Belgaum entrusted Chikodi mission
to the care of the Capuchins. Since there were not many Catholics the
apostolate of social action was thought of. The bishop extended the
services of BDSSS (Belgaum Diocesan Social Service Society) to Chikodi.
When Fr. Dominic was transferred after initiating the mission, Fr.
Martin D'Silva took over and coordinated and started social work
initially in 15 villages. It was difficult to win the confidence of the
rural people. There was lot of suspicion about us. However as time went
by we were able to win the trust of the village folk. We started Self
Help Groups of rural poor women. For two years groups were formed and
maintained for BDSSS. In fact it was the first attempt in the province
to start social work officially and in an organized way. Mean time we
started a project under Vimukti and Andheri Hilfe from Germany sponsored
it and still continues to do so. The work of empowering the rural poor
women continued under both the projects with the leadership of Fr.
Martin D'Silva. Today we are working in 73 villages of Chikodi Taluka
among which 33 villages of Vimukti and 40 villages of BDSSS and total
women 3944 and 449 men are organized in 321 SHG groups.
The Change:
 The rural women who were very poor and marginalized are
brought to the centre stage of development. Today they have regained
their human dignity. They can now withstand the atrocities heaped on
them by the male dominated society. The rural woman who is under our
guidance is no more a mute spectator to the events happening around her
but she is able to participate in the dynamics of decision-making.
Vimukti has given her 'MUKTI' from male domination in her house and from
the dependency both economic and social. Now she has her own money. She
owns her own assets. She has a say in domestic affairs, which were
earlier the sheer domain of males of the family. This change brought by
our work signifies the success of the mission, in spite of lack of
adequate house or office or training centre for six long years.
The Empowerment:
 For the past nine years we have given number of trainings and conducted
numerous awareness programmes for the project beneficiaries. Trainings
such as Legal, Health. Rights, on Gender discrimination, Management of
Natural resources, Conservation of soil and water, Modern agricultural
methods, banking, personality development. Herbal medicines Income
generation, etc., were conducted to enlighten the poor. Women were given
awareness about their dignity and their rights. They were taught to
procure govt. schemes. Series of awareness programmes, exposures,
movements, agitations, trainings and struggles made women self-reliant
and confident.
Finance and Self-Employment:
The women in the groups have saved so far Rs. 48,44912. 00
and they have taken internal loans from the groups. As a result of this
many house holds in villages are free from the clutches of the money
lenders and rich people. The groups have got bank linkages and almost
every group has procured bank advances and using the money for various
development programmes. Women have got number of govt. schemes and
altogether Rs. 58,39.500.00 has been got as subsidy from the Govt.
departments. With this money women purchased buffaloes, sheep or goat,
brought sewing machines, women have started petty business, started
small poultries, and developed their agricultural holdings.
Social Change:
 It is not that only on economic filed our women are thriving
but our thrust from the day one was change of their social and political
state. Woman, in this part of the world is considered just a "thing''.
She is just a property of the husband. He has got absolute right over
her life. As a result her social status is very decimal. She lacked self
confidence, courage, education, health, and just compensation for her
labour. Her movements were limited to temple, washing place, and fields
where she laboured. Her world was within the four walls of the house.
But after years of awareness building and working in the groups the
woman of our project has changed. She knows that she is somebody. She
has become assertive of her dignity and rights, not only from her male
family members but also from society at large. She has brought a social
change in her world. Now she has respect and honour from her husband.
They also have become politically strong. No longer passive voter, who
acted as husband commanded but well informed citizen of democratic
nation. They have participated in panchayat elections and won 38 seats
out of 56 contested. They take active role in village panchayat
functioning and other welfare programmes of Govt.
The Volunteers:
We have in each village one woman volunteer. Second week of
every month volunteers find joy to come together for meeting. They come
with prepared with the responsibility they had in their respective
villages. On the whole they feel happy having assisted some one who is
in need of them. There is lot of" enthusiasm to develop their resource
in the villages. We also give them in-puts on various topics. We help
them to grow their personality. We support and encourage them for their
committed service to SHGs, the animator and people at their village.
These are the key persons to sustain and implement our project in the
respective villages, because they want to improve their resources and to
make good use of the government scheme.
This time Mahasanga Presidents and all Volunteers had excursion to Ujire,
Dharmastala with the involvement of decennial celebration of Vimukti
trust. They took active participation in the programme and also spoke
about our Vakkuta activities and understood the activities held in Ujire
Vimukti. Bankal Vimukti and Raichure Vimukti. For the rally our Vakkutas
former President Mrs. Meenakshi Talwar (Vimukti Chikodi) gave speech and
lighted the lamp. Mrs. Shantha Hakkare, volunteer ( Vimukti Chikodi)
spoke about her personal development in the SHG, Mahasangha and in
Vakkuta. There were nearly 3500 women gathered.
Politically Changed
- Growth is excellent. All women know about their rights.
- Understand their role in a democracy.
- Aware of the role of elected representatives.
- Legal awareness regarding issues relating her life.
- Women leaders have become assertive.
- 20 women have been elected as panchayat members.
- One member contested for taluk panchayat from federation
Federation:
Women also have agitated against the lack of legitimate
facilities like buses, drinking water, roads, and also fought against
corruption and liquor shops in the villages. Now they have formed their
own federation namely 'Maitri Taluka Manila Okkuta\ And from Federation
they take loans for development. They give importance to IGP programme.
On the ground of health and hygiene they insist to build toiler to each
SHG women.
Soil and water Conservation:
Ecology is another major concern of Vimukti; hence it has
also taken up land and water conservation programmes for the people.
People are trained in watershed, rain water harvesting, storing the rain
water in farm ponds etc. Since two years we have started to organize
small farmers and agricultural workers in groups, We hope to help them
with modern techniques of agricultural practices. In an era of
globalization, the small farmers are lacking knowledge and becoming
helpless. We need to support them so that they may withstand the
onslaught globalization.
Among the poor victims of Floods:
The Vimukti in Chikodi also has a wonderful history of
working with flood-affected poor of three talukas of Belgaum district.
Last two years consecutive floods have destroyed the livelihood and
shelters of thousands of poor. We rushed to help them. Two years
continuously we were with them with the help and support from Action
Aid, TDH and Caritas India. We have distributed the relief materials to
the tune of Rs. 12,00000.00 and organized the people in groups and
empowered them to assert their rights. We have supported them with
psychosocial care with the helps of experts from NIMANS, Today as a
result of our constant work pressure has been built on the officials and
govt. is forced to act upon the needs of the people.
Thus Vimukti has succeeded in bringing light and hope in the lives of
thousands of poor of Chikodi. They have become aware of various
oppressive structures, which were hindering their lives and equipped to
oppose them with necessary courage and knowledge. The empowered rural
poor women give Vimukti a new horizon of opportunity and goal. And it
surges with new vigor to usher light in the lives of many more in
Chikodi.
NREGA- 2005 - Livelihood Programme, Right Based
Approach:
At present from June 2008 Vimukti is working to organize
whole village people to avail the scheme NREGA. Awareness programmes
have been conducted specially the street plays. At the same time we
bring before them various schemes announced by the government. We have
an idea of organizing whole village people under the Village Development
Committee (VDC). The committee consists of various organizations
representative such as SHGs Mahasanga president. School Betterment
Committee, Grama Panchayath member, Anganwadi teacher, Govt nurse,
Village leader etc of that village. On the whole it is peoples
organization to solve their problems of their village. Every month they
come together discuss about the schemes, which come to them and thinks
how to improve the surrounding of the village. This is also opposing
committee to Gram Panchayath. Through this VDC Gram Panchayath President
and Secretaries are active and ready to assist people in their problems.
To build this VDC we have a strong support of SHGs, Mahasangha and
Vakkuta also the farmers groups. Thus the vimukti in chikodi is
concentrating not only on women empowerment but also it reaches to all
people in the village. We have lot of support from government officers
like Gram Panchayath and taluk Panchayath executive officer. There are
lot of changes in women SHGs and Men SHGs. And our work of empowering to
do the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for all the 28
target villages is in progress.
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OFFICE BEARERS
Bankal
Staff
CHIKKODI
Staff
POTHNAL
Staff
UJIRE
Staff |
