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Report on the Community
Workshop
held
at Kherwadi, Bandra East, Mumbai on 22 October 2011
 The
CSSS organised a community workshop at Kherwadi jointly
with Committee for the Right to Housing (CRH) a
Mumbai-based NGO, for the benefit of families li ving
in Kherwadi, an urban slum in Bandra. The women living
in the Kherwadi slum belong to all religions and are
forced to work, either from their homes or outside their
homes, to supplement the family income. No
government-sponsored poverty alleviation programme has
touched the lives of these women. Poor and illiterate,
the women have been found to have no knowledge of the
avenues
available for earning a decent minimum wage for the hard
work that they put in. The workshop was therefore aimed
at capacity building and awareness creation among the
women so that they know the worth of their work, improve
their income and do not get cheated.
The 50-odd participants consisted of grass roots level
women workers who were engaged in various income
generating occupations to eke out their livelihood or
supplement the family income. Being illiterate, they had
no awareness of the possible ways and means as to how
they could increase their income in order to manage the
family. Thus, the main demand of the participants was
for information on the ways and means of improving their
economic status, so that they could help in giving their
children two square meals a day and get them educated.
Apart from impressing on them the need for education as
a means of achieving gainful employment, the CSSS had
invited a NGO involved in such activities to e ducate
the participants, through audio-visual presentation, and
make them understand the worth of their work and the
reasonable remuneration that they should receive which
would be commensurate with their work output. For
instance, cases were cited where ready-made garment
manufacturers assigned work to the women in Kherwadi on
piece-work basis, paying them far lower than what they
should receive. The women were therefore required to
know as to how much they have to expect for the hard
work and labour that they put in. The women were
addressed by Dr (Mrs.) Manjula Jagatramka of Vaitarna,
an organisation engaged developing
entrepreneurial skills leading to the overall growth and
empowerment of individuals generally and women
specifically in a practical and
sustainable manner, particularly in the fields of
handcrafted textiles and crafts. Vaitarna has been
working with the underprivileged in Mumbai, conducting
training programmes in income-generation skills, such as
embroidery, tailoring etc. besides developing an
instruction manual and other training material.
Dr. Manjula exhibited a documentary film in Hindi
produced by the International Labour Organisation. As
the documentary was in Hindi the participants could
understand the message conveyed by the film. In
addition, Mr V.M.Riyas and Ms. Minal Mhatre of the CSSS
interacted with the participants and explained to them
the importance of education, even elementary education,
in taking forward their urge to increase the income as a
means to alleviating their poverty.
The documentary and the discussions that followed
explained the opportunities
available and made the participating women understand
the avenues available to every woman who wants to do
something on her own to earn livelihood or improve her
family income.
The workshop was a part of the initiatives undertaken by
the Centre in taking knowledge and awareness right down
to the community on various aspects like gender
violence, human rights, poverty alleviation etc. The
present workshop was meant for a group of women who were
facing a number of problems in connection with their
occupational activities.
While thanking the CSSS, CRH (represented by Mr. Sarat
Chandran) and Vaitarna, the participants desired that
there should be follow up workshops at which they could
narrate their experience in adopting the new concepts
and the benefits derived by them and the lessons learnt.
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