#rgct

Women's empowerment organizations have been dominating the scene ever since the idea of equality of woman to man has taken hold, and in the urban scenario, it is more pronounced than the rural areas, although, the reality is that rural women are more in need of it than urban independent girls. In the male dominant society, where the women are not even allowed to get the education without the permission of the male members of their families, even after the government has made it their fundamental right, woman empowerment becomes even more necessary than the infrastructure development.

There are many organizations working for uplifting the standards of these rural women from the most excluded groups, but RGCT is the best NGO, which has taken the holistic approach towards empowering the women by capacity building and bringing in the power of unity in their financial development.

Under one of its most tended project, called Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP), RGCT has brought together these women into the self-help groups, where the women are organized into the groups according to their village, then these SHGs are integrated at the block level, and then finally at the district level. Most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh are covered under this scheme, helping them money, not just the income and infrastructure, but also the respect, self-confidence, and financial freedom, making RGCT the most unique NGO working for women empowerment in the country.

The working is not based on providing each individual training for their vocation, but it is based on the principle of capacity building of the whole group, so that they are able to continue earning a substantial amount, which they can again use as the capital for their business, and take their salaries home as well. The best part is that if something doesn’t work out in any of these women’s lives, they have a lot of help from their fellow village women, fondly called as ‘Sakhi’, means friend. This type of bond when shared by the people locally, multiplies their strengths and help them progress in a true sense.

Our former prime minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi envisaged such a bond between the rural people and help by the more knowledgeable at the grass-root level to solve their financial, social and domestic issues. RGCT was built with an aim to realize his dream where the problems are solved by the virtue of hard work, proper guidance and investment in enterprises, so that the problem of poverty and domination of women can be solved permanently, with a lot of positivity among the people.

India is a country where women have always been respected and worshipped as goddesses. But with the influence of the invaders and foreign rulers, this respect diminished and today, even when goddesses are duly worshipped, the real women in the society are looked down upon. 

Their exploitation in the family and society is evident and the crime against women rate is at the all-time high. Although people are getting more education than ever, but in this male chauvinistic society, the women are not able to get enough rights to survive fearlessly, let alone the equal rights. Especially in the rural scenario, they aren’t respected, they are not allowed to get the education or vocational training and in the scarcity of money, they have to go out to others’ homes to do cleaning and washing, for which they are paid peanuts. And it doesn’t end here, being completely dependent on their husbands’ mercy, they are often at the receiving end of domestic violence. 

There are many women's empowerment organizations in India that promise women to save them from adversities, and sometimes they do too, but the problem is not a short-term trouble, it is a suffering they have been tolerating for generations, and why not? After all, they have no one to seek help from on a permanent basis and being financially dependent on their husbands, they have nowhere else to go, and even if they leave, the society won’t let them live in peace.

This is a whole circle of corruption that arises from poverty and illiteracy, and the permanent solution also lies in solving these problems. RGCT is an NGO working for women empowerment in rural areas, and instead of offering them some money for relief, which is a momentary help, RGCT stresses upon unity and capacity building of these women. 

Taking a step forward from helping women by giving them vocational training, RGCT also organizes these women into self-help groups (SHGs) and with teamwork, helps them to have the mass production which has some value in the mainstream market, and can earn them enough for their financial freedom. Not only this, these women are encouraged to save a portion of their earnings and collaborate it to build a working capital. By doing this, women join the mainstream economy of the country and lead life of a working woman who earns enough to fulfill the needs and save some. 

This also brings them respect in the family and society, for being the breadwinner of the household. This respect rejuvenates long lost confidence in them, helping them live like the queens of their own lives. And if any problem arises for any of them, the sisterhood in SHGs helps to solve their problems by the help of other women, and this unity gives them strength to seek justice in the society.

RGCT is the charitable trust set up By Mrs. Sonia Gandhi for realizing the dreams of all-inclusion of her husband, who was also the youngest prime minister of India, the most respected Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. It has been a well-known fact that he was an intelligent human being who genuinely cared about the people of his country. Being the prime minister at such an age was the way to bring youth to the politics to cause transformation in the country for good.

One of his speeches reveal that he was well aware of the situations that the real citizens were facing and that there were great minds among politicians who really, dedicatedly wanted to solve this problem, but were not able to do so as they focussed upon making the management plans, not the systematic plans. When he finally made the plan to run things systematically at the grass root level, the transformation started to show. To carry on his ideals and realise his dreams, this trust was set up, especially for the socially excluded weaker section, the rural women.

RGCT is the most advanced, established and stable among women's empowerment organizations and it touches every aspect of lives of women living in rural areas of India. The various tasks that are taken up by NGOs for women empowerment include creating awareness among them for their rights and inspiring them for becoming a decision-maker, running classes to develop skills in them so that by using that, they can earn money. These skills include stitching, tailoring, preparing spices, preparing ready to eat food items and side items like chutney, pickle, papad etc., making handicrafts, making daily use items like matchboxes, candles, incense sticks, bamboo or jute baskets etc. Another task is to make them literate enough for them to sign their name, read local newspaper and count the expenditure and earnings.

RGCT on the other hand, works on these primary tasks just as a starting to the bigger goals to make their lives even better. The main goals RGCT works for is to improve the overall living standards of the rural women by inspiring young girls to become future leaders, improving awareness on nutrition, helping them change health and sanitation behaviours, encouraging their political participation, forming women's self-help groups, facilitating their financial security from agriculture, which was previously dominated by men even when women worked equally hard.