Adults

India’s Dalits have recently taken drastic strides toward social equality and economic empowerment through our partner’s nationwide movement to establish customised education centres.  In these centres, Dalits can attain employable skills to carry them out of the poverty trap that their lineage has suffered under for so long.

Although the Indian family as a social institution is well known for the emotional and physical support that it provides to its extended members, it sometimes fails to respond to the needs of women, especially for women in difficult circumstances.

Poverty is not so much a lack of ‘things’ but a lack of ‘power’ – the liberating power of self-determination and opportunity.  It starts with belief in the people. Without first building the base of an empowered people, the whole edifice of community development and meaningful social change is top-heavy and unsustainable.

In rural Nepal, tertiary institutions are hard to come by.  Opportunities for higher education is mostly limited to those who are wealthy and live in the metropolitan centres.

A deep-seated caste system has caused the Dalits to not only live a life of limited opportunity, but also perceive their lowly status as permanent and prevailing as it is considered deserved for past ills. Typically, they must endure chronic underemployment with no job security and little opportunity to save for times of illness or their children’s education.