WOMANKIND Worldwide works with the Irula Tribal Women's Welfare Society (ITWWS) in south India to support programmes that empower some of the most marginalised Irula tribal women.
The Irulas are a major adivasi (indigenous people) community, spread out over a vast area of northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh. Initially semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who depended on forest products for their day-to-day food and medicinal needs, the Irulas' socio-economic rights and access to forests have been severely curtailed over centuries of marginalisation by state and society. They lack assets and employment, and suffer health problems, malnourishment, political exclusion, illiteracy, poverty and the loss of their traditional skills and identity.
ITWWS is a non-governmental, non-profit development organisation set up in 1986 in Chengalpet, near Chennai in southern India. It aims to: 'secure the social, economic, educational, political, health and cultural empowerment of the Irula community through a revival of indigenous identity, knowledge and dignity, along with the generation of forest resources and cultural values.'
How WOMANKIND helps Irula women
Within this partnership we enable Irula women to:- Learn about their gender and indigenous rights.
- Organise into community-based organisations (self-help groups) which collectively promote action for their rights and livelihoods.
- Learn vocational skills such as brick production, herbal production, handicrafts production, running a medicinal plants nursery and goat rearing
- Bring their children to learning centres for formal education. Such programmes strengthen girls' educational opportunities.
- Recover from the 2004 tsunami through relief and rehabilitation programmes, including community forest management, construction of housing, and playing an active role in fighting for their rights to the coast's resources.
- Build networks and alliances among communities with likeminded organisations.
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