1. Leadership and Capacity Building Training Project in cooperation with the MHI (Mariwala Health Initiative)

WAYVE imparts Leadership and Capacity building training to  young grassroots women activists from marginalised communities on a rolling basis. It is a one-year programme in which the trainees are selected from the three deprived communities (Tribal, Dalit and Muslim) from different states of India. The training is imparted through a series of online training sessions and in-person workshops covering a wide range of topics and issues that any activist working at the grassroots should be aware of. These sessions topics that inter-alia include various women specific laws, skill development, and discussions surrounding mental health. The training also aims to create a sense of solidarity amongst different activists who have been working for similar causes in the society.

In the year 2020-2021, 31 young women activists were trained from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.  For the current year 2021-2022, 35 young women activists have been selected from 11 states of India namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

 

  1. The NSFW Research Project in collaboration with Zubaan

No Space For Work- Political economy and challenges to women’s labour participation, safety and autonomy (or NSFW), a national project spearheaded by Zubaan, seeks to apply the lens of violence, and the threat thereof, to the recent patterns in women’s participation in, access to and exit from the workplace, in both the formal and informal sectors of the Indian economy. Contemporaneous work looks at falling female workforce participation through quantitative analyses that can overlook nuance in how violence and workplace and work-related hostility impacts women’s choice. The project seeks to frame violence through a broader and supra-economic understanding, not merely in terms of the physical or interpersonal violence women may face at work, but the broader structures of violence that impact women’s relationship with work, whether paid or unpaid.

WAYVE was involved in this research and 15 researchers who were part of the MHI leadership and capacity building training project, conducted qualitative interviews across   districts of Uttar Pradesh of 70 women in unorganised sector.

  1. Online campaign #leavenodalitwomanbehind in collaboration with CREA

WAYVE conducted this online campaign during the month of March 2021 in cooperation with CREA. The campaign focused on the girls and women from the manual scavenging community in Uttar Pradesh and highlighted their issues based on a framework that takes into account the following six SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)-

  • SDG 1: No poverty
  • SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 4: Quality education
  • SDG 5: Gender Equality
  • SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

The campaign brought forth voices of women and girls from manual scavenging communities  from  the district of Ghazipur, Fatehpur, Balliya, Devariya, Varanasi, and Jaunpur  of Uttar Pradesh in the form of images, audio-visuals, narratives and incidents that highlighted the problems and challenges that the women from the Valmiki community face in this area. These women represent the most oppressed strata of the Indian society. They are especially vulnerable in the times of COVID-19 crisis. The campaign attracted a lot of audience who in one way or the other wanted to help these women.  We also conducted live interviews  on social media, with women leaders and activists who are from the Valmiki community who have been pioneers of resistance and change for women in their community.