KEM Hospital Research Centre,Pune

Women's Health and Development Training Centre, Pabal

“Empowering Female Population in rural India”

Women’s Health and Development Service cum Training Centre at Pabal has  started functioning again. Funding for the same was received from Larsen & Tourbo Public Charitable Trust, Mumbai. Training programs for girls between the age of 12 to 19 years coming from villages are undertaken in this project.

Dr.Mrs. Usha Krishna and Dr. Kurus Coyaji actively supported the venture which was initiated on 1st June 2009. This activity was a dream of Late Dr. Banoo J. Coyaji.

Objectives of the training

a) To train women to undertake income generating activity individually or in a group of suitable size, in the area of Catering Services or Food Processing & Preservation which has an ever increasing demand from rural as well as urban pockets.

b) Proximity to an industrially developing mega city like Pune and the active involvement of the KEM Hospital Research Centre are the additional advantages from the point of view of self employment of the willing trainees.

c) The proposed training is also expected to set new patterns of food consumption in the families of the trainees, focusing on the cost, variety and nutritional value of food items.

A.] Projects undertaken since inception of the Centre

I.] Training in Food Processing & Quantity Cooking for women:

1:]Information on basic ingredients of food, importance of balanced diet, reasons behind mal nutrition and remedial actions, calculation of calories, food requirements in different age groups in Indian settings.

2:]Processes of food preparation - roasting, cooking, shallow and deep frying, steaming etc. and their effects on nutritional value of food. Precautions to be taken before, during and after processing of food, safety measures, handling of fire etc.

3:]Safety & cleanliness of water, kitchen & utensils, importance of personal hygiene, bifurcation of wet & dry waste, beautification of kitchen & surrounding.

4:]Various aspects of management - costing, planning of fuel - man power – time and methods of accounting, mandatory licenses and procedures of obtaining NOCs for starting new business, linkages with Self Help Groups, Banks & technical support agencies, PR for obtaining orders, marketing strategies, contacts with wholesalers etc.

II.]Basic Computer Course

This course is started by the Centre in order to make rural youth competitive with the urban youth. Course has helped many boys and girls and also the middle aged population of the village.It has created a sense of awareness among them.Basic computer syllabus is being covered in this course.

III.]Home Nursing Course

Nursing course is being started by the Centre. Topics covered under the course are Hygiene, First Aid, Surgical Nursing, Anatomy, Medical Nursing, Nursing Arts, Nutrition, Midwifery and family planning, Pediatric Nursing, Personality development. Centre has published a booklet on Home Nursing to help trainee women. After completion of course many girls and women have got job offers from private hospitals and have started earning their livelihood.

IV.]Late Dr. Sarah Rao Tailoring Unit

Tailoring course is offered to rural women.Frequency is 3 days in a week for 4 hours over a period of 6 months. This is a special vocational training course for school drop out girls and economically weak housewives. The age group addressed is 18 to 50 years. About 30 to 35% women are able to set up a business and also start stitching clothes for their homes.

B.]Training and Vocational Skill Development undertaken earlier:

The main activity of the project addresses the economic dimension of empowerment. Access to and control over resources have been highlighted as a very important dimension of empowerment. Employment alone cannot be utilized as a marker for empowerment where the woman might be working due to other socio economic compulsions. At the same time non-employment cannot be taken as disempowerment since the job opportunities might be less due to say location of her residence.

I.]Bakery

Every year two or three courses were taken where the girls learned baking skills. Many families were not very keen on their girls learning this course. But due to constant efforts by our team, has now seen a dramatic change in thinking of people in Pabal.

II.]Paper Technology

In this Unit two courses were conducted per year wherein book binding, different files, note books and pads were made. The material produced was sold at the local school, KEMHRC and to students.

III.]Goat Rearing

A goat rearing centre to demonstrate correct goat rearing practices and cross breeding with Sanen breed of goat was set up in the year 1996 – 1997. Through this women were trained in appropriate goat rearing practices. The male goat was used for breeding purposes. There were one male goat and five female goats.

Training on importance of goat rearing, about illnesses faced by goats and how to choose appropriate goats was also provided.

Younger women would soon marry and possibly leave to go to a different home of their husbands. Carrying such skills with them would ensure economic independence even when they leave for their maternal homes.

Training and vocational skill development would be targeting adolescent boys too if required by them, in addition to adolescent girls and mothers, in order to build their capacities.

Other Projects:

A project funded by CEDPA named: Why should I choose my future: - “BLOOM Project” was carried out under the Pabal Centre. For this project students from class six to nine were taught for a period of six months, 3 days in a week with each session of ninety minutes.

Other Courses:

At the Centre a number of training Courses were carried out. These included Self Help Group training, training for projects of other NGOs, sweater knitting, preparation of Diwali Items, Artificial jewellery, Mehendi and Rangoli Courses and Mahila Mandal Meetings.

Self Help Groups(SGHs)

From 1995–96 women were encouraged to save money in locally constituted SHGs which proved to be very beneficial as women could easily get small loans from the savings collected by the groups.

Subsequently loans were made available through nationalized Banks for entrepreneurship initially through KEMHRC. This progressed to loans being directly given to SHGs from Nationalized Banks. When the project ended (May 2005) there were as many as 208 SHGs of which 60 were linked with nationalized banks. Thus various occupations like goat rearing, women’s co-operative milk society, poultry rearing, sewing sweaters, knitting were taken up.

The SHGs served as an addition to savings, a place where women could gather, where group activities would be undertaken, psychological support, awareness generation and self development.

Plantation:

At Pabal centre 30 tamarind and avla trees and 45 custard apple trees are planted. Due to drought –like conditions, drip irrigation facility has been provided.

With the help of Pabal Grampanchayat a community well having a 2 horsepower electricity pump is made available through which the Centre and the  trees are adequately provided with water.