Asian Leadership Training
for the Protection of Human Rights of
Socially Disadvantaged Women in Asia

The village of Changun is a few hours drive from Kathmandu located on an isolated hilltop where agricultural land is scarce and the forests have been mostly cut.
About 45 women assembled in Changun Village to share their concerns and to think of their future when they were visited by a team from Japan and Nepal. They talked about the problems they encounter in the village, and shared their visions for improving agriculture and small animals, having funds to begin small agro-businesses, and for all the women to be able to read and write.

The village of Nagarkof is several hours drive from Kathmandu located down a steep hillside in view of the vast Himalayan mountain range. The village has 400 people living in 86 households.
About 115 women assembled and dialogued with first a team of Americans, and then with the team from Japan and Nepal. After nearly three hours of dialogue, the women said that their deepest concern is that their literacy classes have been stopped due to insufficient funding. In response, the team promised them enough money to continue the classes for one group of 24 women for 6 months. Following these photos is further information on the village situation, the vision of these women, and the issues they face.

About 97 women from three villages met together to looks at their issues and opportunities, guided by professional facilitators from ICA Nepan.
The women first met organized by villages, and looked at the key womens issues for each village. Upon finding they had many common concerns, then they met at one group and looked at their underlying issues.
Their issues were clustered into the following nine arenas:
A. Unemployment D. Low level of Education G. Political Biases
B. Gender bias E. Unjust Social Structures H. Lack of Economic Opportunities
C. Degfradation of forests F. Problem of Drinking Water I. Poor Health
Thereafter, tney discerned the underlying contradiction for each cluster of issues. Then they proceeded to identify the challenges they face for each arena of issues, and proposed solutions and build their next steps implementation plans.

This womens meeting was held in Parithewadi village, about 3 hours drive from Pune, including 90 minutes on rough and often unpaved roads leading into a cluster of about 25 tribal villages where people live with few resources, little education, and yet with a great sense of community. In the midst of this cluster there exists a group of self-consciousness villages where people are pro-actively self-developing with the encouragement and assistance of a variety of national and international concerned people.
The meeting was held on a national holiday, and began with rituals of honoring each other. Then the men of the village left, and the tone changed as the women began to freely discuss the issues they face. Here is a summary of these womens vision, the issues and blocks to development that they face, and proposals for the next steps of their development:
Malegaon Womens Vision
A. Starting income generating schemes
B. Education and training for self-development
C. Provision of basic welfare services
Issues and Blocks to achieving their Vision
A. Blocked Economic Development
B. Illiteracy and lLimited Education
C. Unhelpful Traditional Social Behaviors and Beliefs
Proposals to begin Resolving the Issues
A. Small Scale Economic Advancement Schemes
B. Local Literacy Programs
C. Improved Communications for Womens Rights
Attached are the details of their planning, and information on the rituals held before this meeting.

Khamboli Village is about 2 hours drive from Pune near the end of a hidden valley. Few development schemes exist in this village and while they wish to have excellent village life, many people are find it necesssary to seek employment in the distant urban centers.
The women met for about 2 hours discussing their current situation, their vision, personal and community issues, and proposed an pro-active action plan towards solutions to their issues.
Their vision included:
A. Basic Services with Outside Assistance,
B. Income Generating Activities,
C. Preventative Health Care,
D. Farm Irrigation,
E. Awareness and Training Programs,
F. Appropriate Technologies Introduction, and
G. Environmental Care.
Their issues included illiteracy, no appropriate guidance, women not involved in development work, the drain of human resources attracted to outside of the village jobs, male dominance, alcholism, and little initiatives for business and improved agriculture.
They proposed to conduct business training, begin small scale goat raising and tailoring, obtain loans and begin raising cattle, educational programs, regular womens meetings, and creating an office for a Womens Association.

The village has about 311 families and their main occupation in agriculture. The women are keen to learn to farm systematically, to start new micro-enterprises, and to learn the legal side of things such as birth certificates, land rights, and maintenance of families by husbands who have gone astray.
This Legal Awareness Training Programme covered family rights and property rights training. They began with a long guided conversation on rights awareness, and then role played self-created skits covering three hot issues: 1) a husband who drinks and abuses the family, 2) a wife who takes an abusive husband to court for maintenance of the family, and 3) a mother going overseas to earn money for the family and then finds it wasted at home by her neglegent husband.
The second day the women received training for womens personal property rights and fundamental rights, and concluded by forming a society called the Solawewa Citizenﾕs Legal Rights Watch Committeeﾓ.