Global Reach: Grantee Partners

Prayatn Sansthan

Context:

Several studies have found dramatic and costly impacts of child marriage and early unions on girls’ rights, health, economic empowerment, mental health, and development outcomes. There is a strong linkage between early marriage and education in India. Household incomes influence family decisions to keep girls out of school, which subsequently results in their early marriage. The pandemic has pushed many families into chronic poverty, further worsening this situation.Girls and young women supported by community led organisations are well placed to challenge and change local systems through collective action. Evidence shows that participatory approach is key force in advancing progressive policies and are associated with reduced child marriage, changed attitudes towards women in politics and violence against women. The She Leads Change Fund presents a strategic opportunity to partner with young girl-centred local organisations to shift prevailing attitudes, norms and structural inequalities and drive policy and narrative change, redefining the ‘value’ of women and girls and improving their participation in public life. Investing in the ideas and areas prioritised by young people will serve as a force-multiplier for gender responsive programmes to influence social norms, create narrative change leading to decrease in child marriages, delaying age of first pregnancy and increased economic choices and participation among young women. 

Organization:

Prayatn was founded by Mr Malay Kumar in 1992 to enable people to respond to and change their situation of inequality and injustice. They focus on education and awareness, community involvement and collective action as the driving force of social and economic change. Our work is guided by the philosophy that a community should be viewed as a potential resource, that can be honed with the skills and knowledge that will help them to come out of the situation of deprivation. Prayatn works to enable people facing inequality and injustice to help themselves. We aim to strengthen ties in local communities so that people can work together to bring about positive changes in their lives. They particularly focus on girls and women to participate in this process, as they are the most marginalized, downtrodden and powerless social group in India. Prayatn gives them the opportunity to develop their decision-making skills and leadership capacity so that they can address the issues affecting their lives. Playing the role of catalysts, we help to implement sustainable development processes that will make communities self-sufficient in the long term. 

Current Grant:

EMpower’s She Leads Change grant to Prayatn will improve: 

1. Education Outcomes- The program will help 42 girls to improve their leadership and work toward improving inclusive education for their peers,  It will also help them to continue their schooling and progress from one grade to next. In addition the program will help 175 girls to have access to safe, inclusive environments for accessing education. They will continue schooling and progress from one grade to next.
2. Girl-led Decisionmakers engagement for social change- Girls will hold dialogue with relevant stakeholders in Rajasthan education department to improve facilities for girls.

Primary Location: Rajasthan

Website: https://prayatn.org

Funded Since: 2022