Stree Shakti

Stree Shakti was built on face-to-face training designed to empower economically and educationally challenged women. Following 4 days of hands-on training carried out in Delhi by the DDA's Slum Wing, groups of 5-6 women worked together in teams to operate the India Mark III model handpumps.

Organisers explain that the action research methodology led to outcomes that went beyond the scope of the project as envisaged. That is, a variety of communication tools were created as a follow-up to the original training that used both entertaining images and factual information to continue the work of strengthening skills and building literacy. Specifically, organisers developed a multi-media kit that featured, first, a video with built-in motivational content. This video featured actual trained women (from the Delhi session described above) operating the handpumps. In addition, the kit included tapes designed to foster community-based 'in situ' training, as well as group training. 'Trigger tapes' were edited out of footage to address issues specific to the government sector, the NGO sector, and the community.

This multi-media kit also included various printed materials, such as a highly visual comic-book-format reference manual with stills from the video (designed for easier recall). This material, specifically, was designed with a built-in literacy component intended to promote functional literacy. In addition, a set of 4 posters focused on water, sanitation, and women's empowerment were developed to create the mood and environment for handpump training. Finally, a flip-chart calendar (which can be hung on the wall for easy access) was developed for trainers, specifically, as a reference tool highlighting key messages.

Literacy, Women, Economic Development, Water and Sanitation.

One outgrowth of Stree Shakti was the formation of the NGO Development Communication India by a team of like-minded education communication professionals in 1991. This group has been undertaking projects in drinking water, sanitation, rural development, youth affairs, elementary education, energy conservation, health, population and HIV/AIDS communication, and environmental conservation for United Nations bodies as well as central ministries of the government of India. DCI's activities include training, evaluation, action research, and materials design; here are a few examples of specific undertakings:

• Creating and running 5 elementary Learning Centres that offer bridge classes to primary school drop-out children between the ages of 6 and 14 years. This project is called "Akshardeep".
• Forming 100 all-women Self Help Groups in District Chamoli of Uttaranchal State in an attempt to understand first-hand the scope and potential of the microfinance projects being promoted by the government as a group endeavour towards poverty alleviation in rural areas.
• Evaluating all the rural development schemes of the Government of India [Ministry of Rural Devt.] in the districts of Pauri Garhwal, Uttarkashi & Pithoragarh in Uttaranchal State. Currently undertaking the third phase of evaluation, DCI has set up a low-cost post-production facility that enables the conversion of footage into broadcast-quality videos that are meant to serve as training modules. Recent field work has led to the creation of the following:
  1. Power to the People: deals with a project to try out a community-based development communication intervention in Pakhi village, Joshimath block, Chamoli district of Uttaranchal state in India wherein the water from a local gurgling stream will be harnessed to generate power to run a cold storage unit for the local women's Self Help Groups.
  2. Drops that Maketh the Ocean: a documentary on the attempt to support the Public Care System of Govt. of Haryana (at Gurgaon district) through mobilising young adolescents from East Delhi's resttlement / unauthorised colonies/ urban slums as volunteers. This work has been carried out on Pulse Polio National Immunization days (NIDs)/Supplementary NIDs for the last few years and has evolved into a strategy to involve and sensitise young adolescents from disadvantaged sections on reproductive and child health (RCH) issues.
• Creating digital video tapes (over 100 of them, as of late 2004) covering issues - such as watershed management, micro enterprise, and elementary and adult education - that are being tackled at the grassroots levels by the government, NGOs, and civil society agencies, including DCI. These experiences were documented without any pre-planning, but just to capture the processes of planning, implementation, evaluation, training, and networking.

A year after Stree Shakti was completed, the DCI team visited 7 states (M.P. [Betul], A.P. [Ranga reddy dist.], Maharashtra [Mahabaleshwar & Jaolin], Rajasthan [Udaipur], U.P. [Banda & LakhimpurKheri], Assam [Guwahati], and West Bengal [Midnapur]) on a mid-term review of the training project for UNICEF. DCI found Stree Shakti to be quite successful in a few places; for example, the group of 6 women trained in Kusumpur Pahadi, an urban village in South Delhi near Vasant Kunj, had become famous for being successful as women handpump mechanics. They made an impact on their community and were being hailed as role models. However, Stree Shakit had yet to take off in some other areas; for instance, in a slum resettlement colony about 10 km away, the women of Tigri and Govindpuri were not so successful.

DCI explains that there was a felt need to implement the training nationwide. To that end, UNICEF translated the Stree Shakti kit into 16 Indian languages and used it all over the country.