CHENNAI : An army of almost six lakh women empowering each other, building a community of liberation, and fighting challenges to bring out the unheard voices out to the public is an idea that generates hope in building a utopia. Taking this idea to the grassroots, Nandini Azad and her team, Working Women’s Forum (WWF) and Indian Cooperative Network for Women (ICNW), ventured into change-making in 1978.
Since then it has been a journey of ups and downs but one without a pause; not even during the pandemic. In a virtual event from Germany organised by International Raiffeisen Union (IRU) connecting with the WWF-ICNW, president Nandini spoke about their journey, achievements, and future aspirations.
By promoting growth with equality, WWF-ICNW used the occasion to outline the successful route taken by poor women employees who transitioned from the informal to the pre-formal sector and went on to become economic and social leaders (in communities for other poor women). “We have our members all over south India in 14 locations in four states. In my study ‘Gender is more than a statistic’ of 18 countries in the Asia Pacific, hardly 10 per cent of women were in the decision-making sector in 2015. In 2000, it was only eight per cent. This has to change. Thus, we as an organisation work towards strengthening women’s leadership in the cooperative sector globally around the world in policy making,” shared Nandini.
WWF-ICNW has announced The International Network for Women in Cooperatives with 1,000 members convened to advocate awareness of gender in cooperatives. By following the Gender and Equity Model which highlights the transformation of atomised powerless women workers mobilised into a mass platform, as co-operators and trade unionists, they hope to bring in change.
“We also want our model to be practised elsewhere in the world. People who have started with `200 loans are now getting higher loans. They are able to do business as well as educate their children. The growth is not only the progress of the cooperatives but of everyone. In the cooperatives, the dividends are most important and that is shared by the poor. Credit is only catering to social transformation,” she said.
Addressing the problems of the women, helping them with the loans, making them become self-employed, the team inspires women to be changemakers. Nandini stated, “We use this opportunity to give people who need financial aid the money, holistic training, group leadership and social protection with other people together. After sometime they become empowered enough to do things on their own. This is the ultimate goal.”
Nandini summed up the session by speaking of the future aspirations. “By 2025 we want to increase our membership. People who have done well and created success models should organise more. We want to do international networks as it can talk to the government, private sectors, primary cooperatives, and cooperative institutions and tell them the needs of the women.”