10,000 trees became the symbol of empowerment on International Women’s Day in Eastern India this year. The symbolic gesture by Dalit women demonstrated an exciting shift in the emphasis of International Women’s Day in India which had lost its political significance since its institution in 1975. With a revitalised theme of ‘equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all’, women made the most of this notable change by gathering together to celebrate their own empowerment.

3,000 Dalit women from self help groups run by DFN UK’s partners Operation Mercy India Foundation (OMIF) met together in Pondicherry. Many of them gave accounts of how their lives had changed through self help groups and similar initiatives. They took a collective vow to share their empowerment with other women working to achieve the same goal, as well as to work for the benefit of their local community. In one dramatic moment, the women agreed to plant 10,000 trees in their neighbourhoods during this year. This was inaugurated by distributing saplings at the gathering. Similar conferences were held elsewhere.

Women’s empowerment and self help groups help prevent the trafficking of Dalit women by making them aware of their legal rights and helping them become financially independent. For example, self help group members are given access to microfinance loans which help them establish their own small business enterprises. OMIF have been running women’s empowerment seminars for a number of years, in addition to encouraging Dalit women to form self help groups. Specifically during International Women’s Day, more than a hundred loans were distributed as part of the self help group programme.

Dalit Freedom Network UK works in partnership with OMIF to raise awareness in the UK of the issue of Dalit trafficking and to gather support for the anti-trafficking programmes, including the self help groups, run by OMIF in India. Our recent news story of women who had been in ritualised prostitution using such loans to buy water buffalo to provide them with regular income and a means to lift them out of the cycle of poverty and exploitation, which is at the heart of their vulnerability to trafficking, demonstrates the effectiveness of such initiatives. Read more here.

To donate to projects such as this, or to contribute to our UK campaign against the trafficking of Dalits, please use our response form.