Livelihood

Apne Aap has taken up the challenge of facilitating women and girls from red light areas and slums to organise themselves into social and economic cooperatives that run small businesses or train for jobs.

1005 women and girls have their own bank accounts and are members of 67 self-help groups in India. The small businesses they run range from canteens, to handicraft manufacture, to computer classes, to job training and placement. Some of the women have got jobs as security guards, gas station attendants, crèche supervisors and dance trainers.

Though there was an initial struggle to mobilize the community, Apne Aap has been able to motivate the beneficiaries to opt for an opportunity of livelihood free from exploitation and choicelessness. 

Apne Aap believes in the power of collectivism. It believes that bringing women together creates a both social and economic group that nurtures each other while nurturing themselves. Women and girls organise themselves into small group structures through which all the activities of Apne Aap take place.

The Self Help Groups (SHGs) – Coming together:

Why:

Apne Aap empowers women in prostitution and their daughters by organizing them into groups by training them in leadership skills and developing alternative livelihood abilities. The SHGs create a space for its members to empower themselves so that they have the ability and the power to say no to prostitution. The SHGs created by the organisation are all autonomous self sustaining bodies.

What: 

An SHG is formed by a group of women from the red light district and also marginalised communities at risk to sex trafficking. These women come together for the purpose of social and economic interaction through: stimulating partnership and collective decision making, confidence building, encouraging saving, facilitating the accumulation of financial and social capital and creating a platform for themselves as agents of change.

Who: 

The organisation’s SHG intervention addresses the specific needs and demands of the women who are in prostitution or those who have withdrawn themselves from prostitution. Today there are over ……SHGs functioning under the umbrella of Apne Aap catering to the voice of….women.

Where and when: 

The demand for vocational training, skills development and income generation had emerged from the women’s group (Mahila Mandal) in the red light districts and communities that Apne Aap worked in. The Mahila Mandal eventually transformed itself into a more formalised SHG in the year 2002. The programme was designed keeping in mind the availability of local resources, the market demand and the best interest of the group.

Today the Self Help Groups function effectively in the Araria district of Bihar (10 villages), Khidderpore and Topsia in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, and Najafgar in Delhi.

How: 

The SHG intervention of Apne Aap comprises the following (income generating) activities: 

• Sewing and tailoring classes in Bhiwandi with market linkages.
• The innovative venture of the Soup Kitchen- a canteen run by the women’s group.
• Training in incense stick (Agarbatti) making.
• Running of a crèche or Balwadi in all the centres supported by Apne Aap with community women as staff trained in the profession.
• The women are imparted training to produce a range of hand made products like: Jute bags, paper bags, gel candles, napkin holders, embroidered napkins, beaded ornaments, cloth files and folders. Apne Aap has collaborated with the Emancipation Network, an NGO that works to market these products.
• The Subhash Camp centre near Delhi conducts classes with the women in making chalks. These chalks are eventually sold to schools in the locality. The Camp Centre also conducts Mehndi designing classes for the group.

The organisation also absorbs women from the communities into its programmes as organizational staff in various appropriate positions