UNDP-IKEA partnership helps women change rules in India

A woman and children stand in front of a house in a village in India, where women are gaining literacy and leadership skills through self-help groups.
Women from 500 villages in India are gaining literacy and leadership skills. (Photo: IKEA)

For most of her life, Shiela Devi had few options. Growing up in an impoverished village in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, she ate her brothers' leftovers, did chores at home while they went to school, and married at age 15.

At 35, Shiela was completely illiterate, had no source of income, and could not imagine any other way to raise her young daughter.

Highlights

  • An empowerment programme in India created self-help groups that are boosting literacy and entrepreneurship among 50,000 women.
  • Uttar Pradesh, site of the programme, is India’s most populous state and has India's second largest economy.
  • Only 18 percent of women in Uttar Pradesh participate in the workforce and less than half are literate.

Shiela’s life was not much different from the lives of many women in Uttar Pradesh, where over 30% of the population lives below the poverty line and less than half of the women are literate. Shiela certainly never dreamed she could go into business for herself, generate a profit, or influence decisions within her household and community.

Yet, thanks to a joint United Nations Development Programm (UNDP)-IKEA programme, women like Shiela are not only dreaming, but they are also doing. Launched in 2009, the five-year programme has created 238 self-help groups to boost literacy and leadership among 50,000 women in the 500 villages of the districts of Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Sant Ravidas Nagar.

Through these networks, women gain financial literacy and are educated on many other issues as well, including domestic violence, legal aid, their rights to information and property inheritance, and child labour.

It was through such a group that Shiela attended a discussion about nutrition and the practice of feeding girls last. After learning about the dangers of this practice, she is now determined that her daughter will be well fed, as well as educated.

The groups have also created new awareness among women of the importance of participating in local decision-making and democratic processes, such as council elections.

To affirm their collective strength, these women have signed a 12-point charter that spells out what empowerment means to them. Traveling through the 500 villages, the 10-foot tall charter serves as a powerful reminder to women that they are not alone and can change the rules.

“When the charter was being drawn up I suggested that girls should not be married before the age of 18,” says 40-year-old Susheela Devi who was married at 13.

Decades of poverty, deep-rooted caste hierarchies, and gender inequality do not change overnight. But in Uttar Pradesh, thousands of women are working together to empower themselves and create new opportunities for social change.