Lifeline for women and children

Women’s Health and Development (WHAD), an NGO based in Bangalore, provides assistance to economically marginalised women working in the unorganised sector. The NGO has also started schools for children of such women, writes Pushpa Achanta

“Our organisation is considered a social vaccine and its activities supposedly resemble an immunisation programme,” says Ida Deva Chandrika, the founder and director of Women’s Health and Development (WHAD), an NGO based in Ambedkar Nagar (off Tannery Road) in north-east Bangalore. Started in 1993, this not-for-profit organisation has been providing assistance and awareness about basic health and sanitation primarily to economically marginalised women working in the unorganised sector and their families.

A small beginning

A community health practitioner in east Bangalore, Ida Deva was inspired to launch WHAD when she found that women from low-income neighbourhoods in the vicinity did not have access to proper diagnosis and care even for minor ailments. Further, she realised that children also had no good and affordable school to go to. One of the first programmes that WHAD initiated was the Little Angels school. “We began with four girls. Now, it is a regular government recognised institution with over 250 girls and boys studying in classes starting from kindergarten to seventh standard,” Ida says. The school has adopted the syllabus prescribed by the Karnataka State Secondary Education Board.

The students have extra-curricular activities such as drawing, sports and field trips to parks and museums as well as sessions on hygiene and nutrition. From their gleaming faces, their ability to speak fluently and confidently in English and other languages, and their overall discipline, it is obvious that the school has made a positive impact on the lives of its students. Chand, one of the senior and long-term members of the staff at WHAD explains, “A nominal fee is collected from the children to ensure that they are regular and their parents are responsible and accountable for the education and welfare of their wards.” For people like her and the committed teachers at the school, working at WHAD is not only a means of eking out a living, but is also a tool for empowering them.

As the school stabilised, in 1997, WHAD initiated ‘Basheera’, a programme for young women who prefer not to work in the poorly paying and the informal labour sector. In each batch, there are around 20 girls who learn embroidery, zari work and tailoring over a period of six months. They are trained under the guidance of Farzana Bibi, an enthusiastic and capable woman in her 50s who has been associated with WHAD since 1995. “The girls who go through this course gradually start their own stitching enterprise,” Bibi says.

Steady growth

In addition to the Little Angels School, there are programmes such as ‘Farishte’, ‘Taare’ and ‘Raasthe’ for children of other age groups from Muslim Colony and the nearby area of Devarajeevanahalli. The first of these was started around a decade ago to focus on early childhood education. It consists of an activity area which is usually a spacious room located in the house of experienced nursery teachers like Shenaz. Kids aged between two and four years are at the centres between 11 am and 2 pm so that they get acclimatised to an external environment and begin to build healthy social relationships.

Girls and boys are taught nursery rhymes, numbers, colours, names of species of flora and fauna, etc. In total, there are seven centres with nearly 25 cherubic children at each place. “I enjoy being in the midst of children,” Shenaz told me with a smile. It is evident that her work with WHAD has helped her gain independence and immense confidence. It is pertinent to mention that through the ‘Taare’ programme which was begun in 2005, Shenaz also tutors older school-going children after they return home. These are children of parents who are barely literate and are engaged in jobs that earn them fairly little.

Owing to this situation, they do not have sufficient time or energy to help their wards with school work. Women’s Health and Development also initiated the ‘Raasthe’ programme from 2006 to provide basic education and social skills to employed adolescents. 

One of the highlights of the programmes run by WHAD is that they are structured and implemented according to the requirements of the local community. With the conviction that gender differences can be overcome only with the involvement and support of men, the NGO also began a programme for auto drivers in the neighbourhoods of Azad Nagar and Farooq Nagar (near Mysore road) a little over a year ago. Apart from organising discussions to boost their self-esteem, WHAD has talked to men about the importance of saving some amount from their income and the need to recognise women as equals.

For the last five years, WHAD has also been reaching out to children and women in Valmiki Nagar and Nayandahalli on Mysore road through regular awareness sessions on community health, disease prevention, nutrition and hygiene. Qualified and experienced healthcare professionals conduct medical camps every three-four months. In fact, all WHAD staff (who are primarily women) undergo regular training to augment their skills.

As I walked through the locality from one WHAD centre to another, it seemed as if the NGO has had a positive effect on women who live nearby though they have no connection with the organisation. This was something that a few members of the staff confirmed to me later.

Also, WHAD has been invited to conduct awareness sessions on general health and well being in a few government schools in the surrounding areas.

(Names of some individuals have been changed to protect their identity.)