Women Leaders as Catalysts for Community DevelopmenEmpowering women Panchayat Sahayaks to become leaders in last-mile social security facilitation in Uttar Pradesh, Indiat.

Abstract

Social security is critical for the 240 million people of Uttar Pradesh, India, most of whom work in the informal sector. Access to government services like subsidised food, maternity benefits, and pensions protects a household from economic shocks. In reality, however, delivery of such social protection at the ‘last-mile’ is challenging, due to lack of documentation, complicated processes, low awareness and poor trust in systems. Women and marginalised groups are particularly excluded. This project, designed with and for women PS, proposes a transformative solution – to turn them into leaders of social security facilitation, and therefore community development.

The Problem: The potential of PS, specially women PS, is currently untapped. They lack necessary professional skills to effectively deliver social security, specially to the women of their community. Women PS face a "double burden" of unpaid domestic labour, and are limited by low agency and low mobility, owing to prevailing patriarchal structures. In many cases, their male relatives act in their name, further reducing their agency.

The Objective: To transform women PS into leaders of community development by focusing on social protection. The project also focuses on gender transformation at the community level, and within the organisation. This will be achieved through: 

• Leadership and technical training on navigating complex social security systems
• Mentoring and peer-support structures for problem solving and solidarity
• Gender advocacy with government officials who supervise PS
• Sharper focus on addressing needs of women in the village, by providing targeted social security, enabling collectivisation, leveraging their community expertise
• Enabling capacity development of women field team members of Jan Sahas as well
• Implementing policy changes to enable gender-equal workspaces within the Jan Sahas implementation teams

Establishing women leaders will allow us to focus on social security delivery, as well as holistic community development, and greater gender equity. This pilot project aims to create a scalable and sustainable model for community development across rural India.