“మేము ఆమె కోసం” యాత్ర
31 districts.
31 days.
4,116 km.
From 1 to 31 July 2018, our founder travelled to every district of Telangana on the “We for Her” campaign, the first time anyone had covered the whole state in this way to listen to its women.
- 31
- days on the road, 1 to 31 July 2018
- 31
- districts of Telangana, every one of them
- 4,116 km
- travelled by road
- 30,000+
- women met in their villages
Why the campaign
“We for Her” was designed as a sensitisation and issue-identification drive: to raise awareness of the challenges women and girls face, and to find those challenges first-hand. It covered rural and urban women in equal measure, from apartment blocks in Hyderabad to tribal hamlets in the forests of Nirmal.
A second aim was to identify the problems faced by the girl child and address them through policy recommendations and the involvement of government and other stakeholders.
The founder met women where they were: in fields and paddy, at anganwadis and police stations, in colleges, residential schools and power plants. Women spoke to her in a way they rarely speak to officials. Out of the journey came our four-step method, ICTR, and the foundation’s first cases.
Follow the journey
Scroll to travel with her, day by day. Each point marks the village or town named in the campaign’s daily report.
Day 1, July 2018
Hyderabad
Habsiguda, Hyderabad
Apartments, a Lambadi basti and a community park near Habsiguda. Women spoke of alcoholic husbands, middlemen’s frauds and safety.
Day 2, July 2018
Medchal
Medchal
A 4 am start with women sweepers on their rounds, and a 75-year-old woman with no pension and no home.
Day 3, July 2018
Ranga Reddy
Ibrahimpatnam
A workshop with college students in Ibrahimpatnam, then women constables on the domestic violence cases they see.
Day 4, July 2018
Vikarabad
Vikarabad
Separate sessions for students and teachers, and women working at a nursery who had never heard of the schemes meant for them.
Day 5, July 2018
Yadadri Bhuvanagiri
Bhoodan Pochampally
Women handloom weavers of Pochampally, many in tears, asked for a market of their own.
Day 6, July 2018
Nalgonda
Yellareddigudem, Narketpally
Yellareddygudem, where fluorosis has disabled whole families and women carry the heaviest burden.
Day 7, July 2018
Suryapet
Vijayaraghavapuram, Munagala
Villagers cheated by a cooperative society, and an anganwadi with broken doors and windows.
Day 8, July 2018
Khammam
Pangidi, Raghunadhapalem
Six tribal villages and their anganwadi and ASHA workers. The first promise of a tailoring centre for women from broken marriages.
Day 9, July 2018
Bhadradri Kothagudem
Kothagudem
A packed meeting at the MPDO office, and help for the family of an 11-year-old girl with a brain tumour.
Day 10, July 2018
Mahabubabad
Seerole
1,000 km. In Seerole, a promise to Sakkubhai, an abandoned elderly woman whose roof had collapsed, and 480 girls at an Ekalavya school.
1,000 km on the road
Two months later: Sakkubhai Nilayam. Day 11, July 2018
Warangal Urban
Hanamkonda and Kamalapur
Girls protesting to save a 70-year-old vocational institute, and a night with 267 students at a residential school.
Day 12, July 2018
Warangal Rural
Muthojipet, Narsampet
Self-help groups with skills but no loans, and young widows married off as children.
Day 13, July 2018
Karimnagar
Thadikal, Shankarapatnam
Women farmers sowing in the fields, and beedi workers earning under ₹1,000 a month with failing health.
Day 14, July 2018
Rajanna Sircilla
Vemulawada
Women at the dhobi ghats and cotton farmers, all seeking loans to escape seasonal work.
Day 15, July 2018
Peddapalli
Kanagarthi
Villages still without roads, water taps or drainage.
Day 16, July 2018
Jagtial
Mallial
Women from dysfunctional marriages, ready to move to Hyderabad for training in tailoring and crafts.
Day 17, July 2018
Jayashankar Bhupalpally
Chelpur
2,000 km. Women engineers and staff of the Kakatiya Thermal Power Project.
2,000 km on the road
Day 18, July 2018
Siddipet
Guggilla, Bejjanki
Young widows and separated women looking for work, and a 13-year-old girl sent from a building site back to school.
Day 19, July 2018
Jangaon
Narmetta
A woman sarpanch in Narmetta, and young women at a brick plant in need of loans.
Day 20, July 2018
Mancherial
Jenda Venkatapur, Luxettipet
A mid-day meal eaten with the girls of Jenda Venkatpur school, and Muslim women hoping to start businesses.
Day 21, July 2018
Nirmal
Kaddam
Gond villages short of water and houses, where girls are honoured and asked only for a bus to school.
Day 22, July 2018
Komaram Bheem Asifabad
Golleti and Rebbena
A woman sarpanch in Rebbena, and educated women with no jobs, offered training to start businesses.
Day 23, July 2018
Adilabad
Utnoor
800 students at an ashram school in Utnoor, where girls spoke of sisters married as children.
Day 24, July 2018
Nizamabad
Ankapur, Armoor
3,000 km. Turmeric farmers in Ankapur, and former workers of the Nizam Sugar Factory.
3,000 km on the road
Day 25, July 2018
Kamareddy
Yellareddy
Villages without drinking water, and Burrakatha folk artists whose craft is disappearing.
Day 26, July 2018
Medak
Medak
Jogini women with no livelihood, and women who perform funerals for unclaimed bodies.
Day 27, July 2018
Sangareddy
Choutkur
Young widows and women in broken marriages, and parents persuaded to consider remarriage for their daughters.
Day 28, July 2018
Mahabubnagar
Mahabubnagar
Schools and welfare hostels, where a fourth-class girl asked to join the foundation.
Day 29, July 2018
Jogulamba Gadwal
Alampur
Elderly women in Alampur, in tears over the broken marriages of their daughters and granddaughters.
Day 30, July 2018
Wanaparthy
Wanaparthy
Sessions on safety and health at the Government Degree College for Women.
Day 31, July 2018
Nagarkurnool
Palem, Bijinapally
Budaga Jangam and Dommara women in Palem, promised sewing machines for training. The journey ends at 4,116 km.
4,116 km on the road
What she found
The journey gave us something no report could: first-hand knowledge of the hardships rural women face.
No way to earn
Women in broken marriages, young widows and abandoned wives had rarely been trained for paid work. Almost everywhere, women asked for loans or skills to escape seasonal farm labour.
Schemes that never arrived
Pensions, housing and loans existed on paper. Many women had never heard of them, and some villages had not seen a housing scheme since 1980.
Child marriage behind broken marriage
In Adilabad, Warangal Rural and elsewhere, girls told of sisters married off after Class 10 and abandoned while still young.
Invisible workers
Handloom weavers, beedi rollers, sweepers, Jogini women and folk artists were working hard and earning almost nothing, often at the cost of their health.
A promise kept
On day 10, in Seerole village, the founder met Bandari Sakkubhai, an elderly woman abandoned by her family, who had survived the collapse of her own roof. She gave her ₹5,000 as five months of pension and promised her a decent home within five months. Two months later, Sakkubhai moved in.
Read Sakkubhai’s storyWhat it led to
The campaign gave us our method, our first cases and our first promise of a tailoring centre, made in Khammam on day 8. Seven years later that centre opened in Ramanthapur. Since 2017 we have rehabilitated 547 single women.
“This is just the beginning towards a great movement to support the cause of empowerment of women.”
From the campaign’s final report, 31 July 2018.