Empowering Women
To empower a woman is to empower the societyJeevan Jyothi Federation
Jeevan Jyothi is a district level women’s Federation registered under Karnataka Co-operative Societies Registration Act, 1960. This federation is the result of 40 years of CMSSS’ contribution in the field of Women Empowerment.
CMSSS has adddressed different issues of women such as Awareness, Advocacy for rights, Involvement in local governance, Micro-financing through SHGs and Livelihood. As a result of this, today we can boast of reaching 18,000 women and presently we monitor the socio-economical growth of 6105 women through 514 SHGs.
The Jeevan Jyothi Federation is the mother federation of 30 Mahasanghas (cluster of Self Help Groups). The JJF Governing body consists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and 11 directors chosen from these Mahasanghas.
The federation is in the hand-holding stage where it is dependent on CMSSS for their administrative needs. This structure helps in various ways of women empowerment such as,
- Availing loan from different levels such as a SHG can avail loan from Mahasangha and also Jeevan Jyothi Federation. More and more SHGs are encouraged to avail loans from federation for lesser interest rates and reduce dependence on banks and other micro-finances
- Resolving various issues at various levels. Individual issues are resolved at SHG level and SHG issues are brought to Mahasanghas and district level issues are brought to the JJF. Thus women have a voice to face different problems up to district levels.
- Various income generation activities are conducted through the mother federation that adds to the growth and sustainability of the federation.
- Savings are increased as the federation shares become an investment for the women and membership amounts, penalties etc add up to the income of the federations at different levels, which in turn revolves as the loan amount for the needy.
The focus of the Women empowerment program in the next few years is to make them completely independent and also to make them sustainable on their own through income generation programs at individual and group income generation programs at federation levels.
Empowerment of Socio-Economically poor and disadvantaged Women
This project was started in the year 2003 supported by MISEREOR, Germany through KROSS, Bengaluru . This is meticulously planned program for women empowerment by taking various issues in different phases down the years.
The Goal of the Project is Socio-economic empowerment of disadvantaged women and their families.
This project is implemented in Hassan and Arsikere taluks of Hassan districts encompassing 2500 women under 7 Cluster federations.
Presently we focus om main objectives:
- Health and environment related issues are addressed by the women leaders
- Practice gender equality by building confidence in families and report atrocities
- Promote good governance through mobilization of resources and entitlements and support the federation staff
Renewable energy solutions to rural women
Rural areas are prone to power failures and poor households are often in the dark. The project aims at providing alternative power solutions to rural households through renewable energy sources through solar powered lanterns.
This will benefit the rural families to have a long term efficient and cost effective lighting solutions. It also helps to reduce expenses and power consumption of the family and aids children in education and family in household duties during power failures
Success Stories
Difficulty creates Strength
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Sundaramma is a brave fighter who is fighting since her birth to be an independent woman. She started the fight with her disability added with utter poverty, desertion in marriage [read her full story]
Responsibility and Women
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Very hard working Jayamma from Mudbagilu gave her two daughters in marriage and got them settled in their life. Just when every parent thinks her responsibilities were over, Jayamma’s responsibility was not over yet [Read her full story]
Towards Self-reliance
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Theresa and her husband are daily wage laborers. Their income is meager and there was a perennial challenge of making ends meet [Read her full story]
A Ray of Hope
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Anjali was married at the age of 19 to Mr. Narayana. She has two children a boy and a girl. At the age of 25 her husband abandoned her and the children and got into a second marriage at Tamilnadu. This was a critical moment in her life with two children of age 4 and 3 [Read her full story]