Years of struggle, hard work, commitment, and the step by step road to success and empowerment of 2.5 lakh Kudumbashree workers across the state come alive in the 1072 books penned by them.
The books that have arrived from various destinations will be released at a function at Marine Drive by Finance Minister K M Mani on Monday. Kudumbashree executive vice-chairman Aruna Sundararajan will receive the copies.
Different chapters of Kudumbashree workers’ life, both bitter and sweet, relate how they overcome financial crunch, domestic violence, abuse, and other difficulties through sheer willpower and perseverance.
The experiences of Kudumbashree workers of each CDS have been made into a book, a few are in Kannada and Tamil. Only a few structural changes have been made by the editorial board comprising women in socio-cultural and academic field.
There are many success stories. Around 6000 women who started out as members of ‘ayalkootams’ have been elected to local self-government and their experiences in politics also have been penned.
Kudumbashree workers usually share their experiences during the ‘ayalkootam’, analyse them and learn from experiences. Success stories help boost their confidence. But the experiences were looked into more seriously with the initiation of Gender Self Learning Programme in 2007 when they started to jot down their experiences.
These experiences over the years have been made into books. The experiences shared in the ‘ayalkootams’ are discussed, analysed and taken up at the Area Development Society (ADS) at the ward-level committees for further discussions. They are then taken up at the discussion forum at the Community Development Society (CDS) at the panchayat-level. These discussions also form the basis of the case studies and study on Kudumbashree that have been uploaded on the portal www.sreesakthi.org. There are two modules - Women and Employment and Women and Health.
These experiences have now taken a book form.
A team of 26 workers will also stage a play on Monday morning on the theme how supportive are government and non-government institutions towards the issue of women. The play ends with the note of hope in which men and women complement each other in enriching society.
A women’s theatre is helping them, but the story and script, music and props are by the workers.
‘Pusthaka Yatra’
Excerpts from one of two books are read out at points where books from various regions join the ‘pusthaka yatra’ which culminated here on Sunday evening.
Crowds are thronging the Kudumbashree stalls at the ongoing trade fair at the Marine Drive and the sales is good. Stocks have been replaced.
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