Uttarakhand Environmental Education Centre (UEEC)

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Women's Groups (Uttarakhand Women’s Federation)

The UEEC supports the working of 412 village women's groups, some directly and some through local CBOs. The gender and development programme, under the umbrella of Uttarakhand Women’s Federation, has evolved through four categories of initiatives. Those that work with (1) 12,000 members of women's groups, spread all over the hill villages of Uttarakhand, (2) Women leaders who run voluntary agencies in villages, (3) Women workers working in villages with local CBOs, and (4) Balwadi teachers and supervisors. These groups engage in a variety of activities to improve general village welfare and especially women's status, including:

  • Organizing regular monthly or bimonthly village meetings to discuss, plan and implement programmes which women decide are useful to them and their community. A decentralized, consensus democratic mode of functioning is adopted and each woman of the village is a member of the group,

  • Organizing regular regional congregations of women’s groups, through a committee of regional women representatives, to federate and plan activities at the regional level,

  • State level congregations of rural women to voice their concerns, share experiences and build up solidarity,

  • The rehabilitation, protection, and management of village community forests, grasslands and water sources,

  • The establishment and management of village pre-school centres,

  • Women's health issues especially reproductive health and ensuring mother's/children's timely vaccination,

  • Complete control over alcoholism and gambling among men,

  • Installation of sanitary latrines,

  • Village based savings,

  • Village cleanliness and order (e.g., cleaning pathways, repair and maintenance of traditional water sources, community centres etc.),

  • Organizing agitations and demonstrations against programmes and policies that women feel are not appropriate for them, their communities and the region.

In many cases these groups actively campaign against the sale of liquor and malpractice in the Forest Department. They petition and also agitate, if necessary, for improved electricity and water supplies. The UEEC supports these groups by organising training camps, awareness and discussion meetings and exposure tours, supporting pre-school centres, and producing and distributing learning materials.