A Study on the Functions and Challenges Faced by the Sahayoginis of Mahila Samakhya to Empwower Rural Women of Mysuru District

Abstract

Mahila Samakhya is a rural and tribal women empowerment program of the Ministry of Human Resource Development of Government of India. The program was the result of The New Education Policy of 1986. The program believed in the social empowerment of rural and tribal women. The main aim of the program was to facilitate the rural and tribal women to analyse their secondary position in the patriarchy society, make them to realise that they do not have an easy access to and control over resources like education, finance, health, and that they do not have any decision making power in this society. The program believed that to empower women on these lines to need grassroots women workers, who have to live with the rural and tribal women and understand their daily life situations and then facilitate to take off the process of empowerment. This article is based on the secondary data available from the annual reports of Mahila Samakhya, Karnataka. The article has attempted to study the responsibilities of Sahayoginis, a grassroots women workers, the training inputs given to them by Mahila Samakhya, their achievements as Sahayoginis in empowering the rural women of Karnataka and the challenges they faced.