For 30-year-old Sitara, a resident of Dev Hrishi Colony, Dehrakhas in Dehradun, life revolved around her husband, Md. Shamshad Ahmad, a small contractor and her three sons and two daughters. There was however, a latent desire to become literate, but in the absence of any infrastructure, she would just let it pass as a stray yearning.

It was the opening of the TARAakshar Centre in Dev Hrishi Colony on 23 Nov 2010 that gave a real opportunity to realise her dream. She came in contact with Sunil Masatkar, Instructor TARAAkshar, who informed her that she could learn Hindi and could do simple mathematical calculations using modern techniques in just 45 days. Not to let go of the opportunity, Sitara joined the centre and with her tremendous will power and dedication she cleared her examinations held on 20 Jan 2011 with flying colours.

Today her husband and other family members are very proud of her and are thankful to the State Resource Centre (SRC)–Uttarakhand for having given her life time opportunity to study. Sitara is a confident young woman now and is keen to study even further.

Prachi - Role Model for Many

Name : Prachi Ojha
Village : Sitapur
District : Tikamgarh
State : Madhya Pradesh

Prachi was very young when she lost her mother. She was raised by her father, who gave her considerable freedom, despite of the feudal set up of the society where they lived. Young Prachi had a mind of her own and she wanted to create a niche for herself. She got an opportunity when Radio Bundelkhand was set up in TARAgram Orchha. Prachi was in grade 10 when she applied to become a community reporter. She was selected!

It was a long battle for Prachi as she had to fight her own inhibitions and social barriers to pave way. Today she is one of the most successful anchor-producer of Radio Bundelkhand. She is now a transformed young woman, brimming with confidence. She has been adequately supported by the Radio Bundelkhand team in her journey. Initially, her scripts would get rejected or she was asked to record many times till she got it right. All this while her team offered her the support she needed. Today she is a role model for the same team.

Her story is that of struggle, creativity, change and success beyond limits. With her cheerful voice and composed style, Prachi has made place in the hearts of hundreds of listeners. After two long years of practice, she is the most popular among listeners. Some of her popular programmes are Stri ek kahani meri bhi, Ek din zindagi ka, Hoi jayen baatien khari-khari, Safalta ki kahani meri zubani, Chitthi aayi hai, Aas Paas etc.

Gaushala - Women Entrepreneurs in the Making

Name : Rural women of Bundelkhand
Village : Ramraja
State : Madhya Pradesh

Women in Bundelkhand are the most underprivileged section of the society, suffering under the yoke of illiteracy, unemployment and lack of awareness. Based on this assumption, Development Alter-natives initiated steps towards empowering women, institutionalising them and then building their capacity to stand and fight for their rights. As a result in the year 2003, a group of women applied to hold a piece of government wasteland, the main aim behind this was to develop the land as ‘Gaushala’ (cowshed), where cows can be kept and taken care off.

They managed to take 15 acres of land from the government, in the meanwhile they also institutionised themselves as a cluster and named it ‘Sankalp Swashakti Mahila Mandal’ Today the cluster is involved in various activities like dairy farming, fodder cultivation, capacity building exercises and trainings.

A visioning exercise was conducted by Radio Bundelkhand and DA at Orchha on 24 January 2011, under the Swiss Development Corporation project’s Sustainable Civil Society Initiative (SDC-SCSI). Approximately 50 women participated in the exercise where they were asked to envision how their future Gaushala would look like and give expression to their vision through wall paintings. q