STREE SWABHIMAN EMPOWERING PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED & SOCIALLY DEPRIVED WOMEN IN RURAL INDIA 

Arti Kumari and Kaushalya Devi are two examples of women leading a life of discrimination owing to their gender as well as disability.

As situation turned grim, Kiran Kumari, a Village Level Entrepreneur, emerged as a silver lining amid black clouds for them. Both of them witnessed a dramatic change in their lives when they came in contact with VLE Kiran who runs a CSC in the remote village of Brinda which comes under Birni block of district Giridih in Jharkhand.

Kiran had recently set up a sanitary napkin unit under Stree Swabhiman project and enrolled the two women to work at the unit. CSC SPV trained Arti and Kaushalya in the operations of the unit and now both are employed at the unit. They have not only got a source of income, but have also earned respect and dignity in the society.

Arti Kumari, who is a school pass-out, was also provided digital literacy training at Kiran’s CSC under PMGDISHA programme, before starting work at unit. Now along with them, eight more women have been employed at Kiran’s unit, thereby getting empowered.

The unit presently produces 300 napkins per day, and its’ members have been organizing awareness campaigns around the village to make girls and women aware of using sanitary napkins for improving menstrual health and hygiene, besides distributing free samples to school girls and tribal women.

Kiran Kumari is a champion VLE of Jharkhand who has been delivering digital services to citizens in remote villages of Birni block. She has enrolled 150,000 people under Aadhaar, provided tele-medicine service to 300 patients, Digital Locker to 6,000, opened 800 bank accounts and made 15,000 people aware of cashless transactions during Digi Dhan Abhiyan. For her exemplary contribution towards a digitally inclusive society, she was also awarded by Hon’ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at the launch of Digital India Programme in 2015.