Women, especially in rural regions, face challenges that are unique to them.
The Art of Living helps face these challenges and empowers women using three tools:
- Strengthening the individual
- Creating a sense of community
- Helping them find a cause to discover their own potential
A special focus is to empower women in rural communities. The rural woman is at the foundation of the rural community and our approach aims to nurture inner strength, creativity and self-esteem. Women can then become agents for peace and change for their families, the community, and society as a whole.
The Art of Living has been working in collaboration with various partners to create avenues for women empowerment that include increasing global awareness about women’s issues, creating economic empowerment and creating opportunities for women leaders to emerge.
Increasing global awareness
In partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, The Art of Living works to educate people against the practice of sex selection and female feticide in India. It runs a biannual Women’s Conference as a platform for women to discuss pertinent issues and create a renewed sense of enthusiasm about the difference they can make to the world.
Creating economic empowerment
To promote self-reliant communities, programs were started to engage rural women in income generation livelihood based activities. Rural women were trained in different skills like stitching, cutting, embroidery, beadwork, for jute bags. Agarbatti i.e. incense stick rolling provides another convenient and simple means for rural women to earn their livelihood.
Numerous Self Help Groups have been promoted in the fields of food processing, bag making, tailoring & embroidery.
The Vishalakshmi Cooperative Society – a women’s multi-purpose cooperative society been set up as a support mechanism. It has over 300 members hailing from the underprivileged background with dreams of business ideas. Under this project, various loans are dispersed to the members to facilitate self-employment at a low rate of interest.
Through its myriad service projects, opportunities have been created for women to emerge as leaders – be it prison programs, terrorist reformation, women’s issues, environmental causes, rural transformation.
500 rural women
were trained in tailoring training centers established in Odisha and Assam.
Over 623 Self-Help Groups
formed in the areas of food processing, bag making, tailoring and embroidery.
5,000 rural women
in India trained in vocational skills
About 100,000 people
sensitized against pre-natal gender testing
About 150,000 people
sensitized against child marriage
Trained over 200 rural women
in agarbatti rolling (incense sticks) in villages surrounding the Art of Living International Center in Bangalore.
Bi-annual Women’s conference
hosted to bring together women from different walks of life.