Parvaz in Delhi is supported by

Convocation ceremony was held on Sunday 16 July to celebrate the first batch of feminist community leaders trained under the Parvaz programme in Delhi.

Parvaz programme creates a cadre of young women community leaders who provide information and support to enable women to claim their rights in all spheres of lives. We provide comprehensive training and a stipend to young women to become community leaders and catalyst for local change.

20 bright and energetic young women leaders have completed the programme in Delhi in 2016-17. They have already taken a lead on various right-based projects in their communities. As a result of their activities, 22,000 resource-poor women have been reached directly with information and support, and over one thousand were supported to get citizenship papers, access government social schemes and enroll for Women on Wheels to access non-traditional livelihoods with dignity.

The feminist leaders undertake a year-long training, combining four phases of residential training and on ground inter-phase work with Azad outreach and mobilization teams. The training and practicum programme aims to:

  • Equip the women with an understanding of women’s rights and entitlements
  • Enhance their analytical and soft skill (communication, personality, self, behaviour etc.)
  • Give them a conceptual clarity on non-traditional livelihoods, related social issues and supporting women to opt for non-traditional livelihoods, with a focus on driving (Azad’s Women on Wheels programme).

Each leader builds a core team of 10 other women around her – ‘sahelis’ (friends). With the Parvaz fellows leading the group activities, these women together reach more women with information and support, and work towards recruitment for Women On Wheels. Like a cascade effect, each fellow ultimately reaches at least 1000 women in this way. The leaders are also guided to implement their own community project, based on the needs of their community they identify.

The programme continues in Delhi with the 2nd batch being trained, and has also been launched in Jaipur in 2016/17.

“I DID A SURVEY IN MY AREA TO SEE WHAT STOPS WOMEN FROM GOING TO WORK. MAJORITY OF THEM SAID THAT THEY HAVE SMALL CHILDREN SO THEY ARE UNABLE TO GO. I ALSO SAW MANY CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS HAD GONE OUT TO WORK, ROAMING AROUND ON THE STREETS WHERE PEOPLE WERE HITTING THEM OR TROUBLING THEM AS THEY WISHED, WITH NO ONE TO STOP THEM. IT IS THEN THAT I THOUGHT ABOUT STARTING A CRECHE IN MY COMMUNITY.’ NUPUR, PARVAZ PROGRAMME GRADUATE