Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust

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RGCT: The Best Women's Empowerment Organization in India

Women's empowerment organizations have been dominating the scene ever since the idea of equality of woman to man has taken hold, and in the urban scenario, it is more pronounced than the rural areas, although, the reality is that rural women are more in need of it than urban independent girls. In the male dominant society, where the women are not even allowed to get the education without the permission of the male members of their families, even after the government has made it their fundamental right, woman empowerment becomes even more necessary than the infrastructure development.

There are many organizations working for uplifting the standards of these rural women from the most excluded groups, but RGCT is the best NGO, which has taken the holistic approach towards empowering the women by capacity building and bringing in the power of unity in their financial development.

Under one of its most tended project, called Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP), RGCT has brought together these women into the self-help groups, where the women are organized into the groups according to their village, then these SHGs are integrated at the block level, and then finally at the district level. Most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh are covered under this scheme, helping them money, not just the income and infrastructure, but also the respect, self-confidence, and financial freedom, making RGCT the most unique NGO working for women empowerment in the country.

The working is not based on providing each individual training for their vocation, but it is based on the principle of capacity building of the whole group, so that they are able to continue earning a substantial amount, which they can again use as the capital for their business, and take their salaries home as well. The best part is that if something doesn’t work out in any of these women’s lives, they have a lot of help from their fellow village women, fondly called as ‘Sakhi’, means friend. This type of bond when shared by the people locally, multiplies their strengths and help them progress in a true sense.

Our former prime minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi envisaged such a bond between the rural people and help by the more knowledgeable at the grass-root level to solve their financial, social and domestic issues. RGCT was built with an aim to realize his dream where the problems are solved by the virtue of hard work, proper guidance and investment in enterprises, so that the problem of poverty and domination of women can be solved permanently, with a lot of positivity among the people.

Even the families of the women who never wanted the ladies of their house to set a foot out of the house are happily accepting their wives and daughters to be the bread-winners of the household, as well as contributing to the economy of the nation. The financial inclusion of everyone was the dream of our young prime minister, which slowly seems to be materializing, and with this pace, it won’t be long before the most excluded rural groups become an integral part of the Indian economy, driving the development to the remotest parts of the country.

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RGCT: Empowering rural women of Uttar Pradesh

India is a country where women have always been respected and worshipped as goddesses. But with the influence of the invaders and foreign rulers, this respect diminished and today, even when goddesses are duly worshipped, the real women in the society are looked down upon. 

Their exploitation in the family and society is evident and the crime against women rate is at the all-time high. Although people are getting more education than ever, but in this male chauvinistic society, the women are not able to get enough rights to survive fearlessly, let alone the equal rights. Especially in the rural scenario, they aren’t respected, they are not allowed to get the education or vocational training and in the scarcity of money, they have to go out to others’ homes to do cleaning and washing, for which they are paid peanuts. And it doesn’t end here, being completely dependent on their husbands’ mercy, they are often at the receiving end of domestic violence. 

There are many women's empowerment organizations in India that promise women to save them from adversities, and sometimes they do too, but the problem is not a short-term trouble, it is a suffering they have been tolerating for generations, and why not? After all, they have no one to seek help from on a permanent basis and being financially dependent on their husbands, they have nowhere else to go, and even if they leave, the society won’t let them live in peace.

This is a whole circle of corruption that arises from poverty and illiteracy, and the permanent solution also lies in solving these problems. RGCT is an NGO working for women empowerment in rural areas, and instead of offering them some money for relief, which is a momentary help, RGCT stresses upon unity and capacity building of these women. 

Taking a step forward from helping women by giving them vocational training, RGCT also organizes these women into self-help groups (SHGs) and with teamwork, helps them to have the mass production which has some value in the mainstream market, and can earn them enough for their financial freedom. Not only this, these women are encouraged to save a portion of their earnings and collaborate it to build a working capital. By doing this, women join the mainstream economy of the country and lead life of a working woman who earns enough to fulfill the needs and save some. 

This also brings them respect in the family and society, for being the breadwinner of the household. This respect rejuvenates long lost confidence in them, helping them live like the queens of their own lives. And if any problem arises for any of them, the sisterhood in SHGs helps to solve their problems by the help of other women, and this unity gives them strength to seek justice in the society.

RGCT, being a prudent NGO, has built the most resilient and sustainable self-help groups in Uttar Pradesh, and also joined them with the mainstream economy so that they can seek financial help from the government and banks as and when necessary and live respectfully and happily in their households and society.

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Empowering women in Rural Uttar Pradesh

India is an agrarian country with over 60 percent population belonging to the rural background. Coming from such a humble background rural people are mostly naïve and simple, which makes them more vulnerable to the injustices by the richer, more powerful people, who exploit them to their last limit. They look up to the governing authorities, but because of the red tape, they do not always get much help. To set them free from the shackles of their woes, it becomes imperative to empower them so that they can help themselves and each other. Especially in the backward states, the worst of which is Uttar Pradesh.

RGCT understood this predicament, and started working for this cause with an aim to make the rural population, especially women, stronger and independent. The working method of this NGO is different from all other organisations that are working for rural welfare. Instead of providing direct help for a selected set of problems like education and sanitation etc., RGCT believes in making them efficient to solve all their problems and uplift their status in the rural community. RGCT creates self-help groups in Uttar Pradesh. The women in these self-help groups are called ‘Sakhi’, meaning ‘friend’, which they eventually become, sharing all the economic and social responsibilities together. These self-help groups are made village-wise, and then are combined on the block level and then further integrated on the district level, making them more powerful than ever, carrying out economic activities together, while helping each other with their social status and respect, and even house responsibilities.

In the field of rural development, RGCT is one of the most focussed women's empowerment organizations that have shown exemplary work and prospects to make lives better for rural women populations. And for that, these women need to be confident with their leadership roles, that’s why all these groups have one leader who leads other women in the group, then there is a block leader and district leader.

RGCT has helped the rural women find their potential and using their skills in earning a stable livelihood. They have found their confidence and now-fangled respect, which has been possible because of the power of unity they found when they established this beautiful bond with other women just like them. A lot of organisations have worked at different levels to alleviate the problems of rural women and provide them the means of earning a livelihood, but RGCT has taken up the feat to not just empower them with money but also with their status of living and respect in the society. The bond that these women share has also given them power to take a stand for their rights, for which they are not completely dependent on the male members of their community. It has also helped them to become an integral part of mainstream economy, at the same time, given them exposure to the outside world where they can exhibit their skills, which has made it the most successful NGO working for women empowerment.

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RGCT: Building self-dependent SHGs in UP

Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust, or RGCT is a non-governmental organisation working for the betterment of the women of the rural areas of India, especially Uttar Pradesh, providing means for sustainable income and empowering them for better living in the society. The aim of this charitable trust is not to just help them financially, but it is aimed towards the capacity building of these rural women, by providing means to them for efficiently earning for themselves and also contributing to the main stream economy by joining hands with the banks.

The working of this chartable society is through organising the rural women into self-help groups at three hierarchical levels, empowering them with the power of unity to achieve the otherwise impossible or difficult tasks. The three levels for the same are the village level, block level and the district level. By getting organised in SHGs, the women are now able to solve their own problems themselves, and the strength that comes from knowing that they are not alone in this, they are able to live a respectable life with good income and investments. These make the most efficient women SHG groups in UP, creating the young leaders among rural women.

Apart from the organisational help, RGCT also provides special eye care facilities by setting up the network of the best eye care hospitals. Set up by RGCT, Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital and Research Centre (IGEHRC) is the best charitable eye hospital in north India, with the best doctors and other eye-care professionals working towards providing selfless service to the needy people. IGEHRC, along with its three branches and numerous vision centers, provides high quality eye care to approx. 1500 people every single day.

Any hospital that cares for so many patients needs many eye care professionals in many branches of this wide stream. To meet this number, RGCT has also opened its training centers where the people from the villages can get trained in this field, providing them a good paying source of income and their contributions in the hospitals would put the patients closer to their service providers for better communication and a sense of oneness.

One of its branches is located in Sohna, Gurgaon where the high quality eye care is provided for free or a very nominal fees, as per the affordability of the paying patient, and even then the rates for the same are very low. It is a super-speciality research and training based charitable eye hospital in Gurgaon that has made a huge contribution in bringing in the high quality eye care to the common people.

RGCT has brought rural populations closer to each other than ever before and has made substantial efforts to help them stand on their own two feet financially, which has boosted their confidence to do better in the fields that they are working in. Along with the capacity building for sustainable income, RGCT has also provided them with better healthcare services, especially eye care. This innovative models of empowerment of rural populations of India has given RGCT recognition among the most excluded classes of the society, who are now reaping multiple benefits for their efforts by joining hands with RGCT.

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RGCT: Working to Empower Women in India

RGCT is the charitable trust set up By Mrs. Sonia Gandhi for realizing the dreams of all-inclusion of her husband, who was also the youngest prime minister of India, the most respected Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. It has been a well-known fact that he was an intelligent human being who genuinely cared about the people of his country. Being the prime minister at such an age was the way to bring youth to the politics to cause transformation in the country for good.

One of his speeches reveal that he was well aware of the situations that the real citizens were facing and that there were great minds among politicians who really, dedicatedly wanted to solve this problem, but were not able to do so as they focussed upon making the management plans, not the systematic plans. When he finally made the plan to run things systematically at the grass root level, the transformation started to show. To carry on his ideals and realise his dreams, this trust was set up, especially for the socially excluded weaker section, the rural women.

RGCT is the most advanced, established and stable among women's empowerment organizations and it touches every aspect of lives of women living in rural areas of India. The various tasks that are taken up by NGOs for women empowerment include creating awareness among them for their rights and inspiring them for becoming a decision-maker, running classes to develop skills in them so that by using that, they can earn money. These skills include stitching, tailoring, preparing spices, preparing ready to eat food items and side items like chutney, pickle, papad etc., making handicrafts, making daily use items like matchboxes, candles, incense sticks, bamboo or jute baskets etc. Another task is to make them literate enough for them to sign their name, read local newspaper and count the expenditure and earnings.

RGCT on the other hand, works on these primary tasks just as a starting to the bigger goals to make their lives even better. The main goals RGCT works for is to improve the overall living standards of the rural women by inspiring young girls to become future leaders, improving awareness on nutrition, helping them change health and sanitation behaviours, encouraging their political participation, forming women's self-help groups, facilitating their financial security from agriculture, which was previously dominated by men even when women worked equally hard.

Most of the NGOs that work for women empowerment focus on making them self-dependent, help them earn money by doing a job they are trained for, but here, at RGCT, this is taken a step further to make it even more concrete for them. This step is financial inclusion of rural women in the mainstream economy, getting their payments in their bank accounts makes them an undivided part of the Indian economy. Along with financial inclusion, the bank accounts also make sure that they have all the right over their hard earned money and nobody can take out their money without their permission, something which has been hollowing out the economic condition of rural women from time immemorial. This advanced approach by RGCT makes it the most successful NGO working for women empowerment for realising its vision and mission