HistoryGovind Singh Rathore, founder of Sambhali Trust, witnessed the impact that a patriarchal society has on outcast women. After his mother was widowed, she lost her entire respect and rights within her community. He also witnessed many female servants in his household were not able to read and write and were emotionally as well as physically abused by their family members. Therefore, he started teaching his maid with her two children how to read and write. This way Govind strengthened their confidence and also helped them to develop an ability that made them independent to a certain extent. After only one day, the maid brought 18 more girls with her to the lesson. Six months later, Sambhali Trust was born with the help of his family and friends: a non-profit organization to help the Empowerment of Women and the most vulnerable of the society. Sambhali is run by an holistic approach: Deprived women in Jodhpur and in its rural outskirts are specifically asked which projects they want to pursue to improve their situation. An elementary education in English, Maths, Hindi writing skills and Sewing was their answer.
Members
Sambhali Trust was officially founded on the 16th January 2007 by Govind
Singh Rathore, Virendra Singh Chouhan, Mukta Kanwar, Badan Kanwar and
Rashmi Rathore, who became the 5 trustees of the Sambhali Trust “Non
Profit”, Charitable Organisation. It has taken the whole team a lot of
effort, dedication and enthusiasm to develop Sambhali Trust, and build
the trust and faith of our partners and supporters. We are very proud of
the relationship we have maintained with the local community as well as
our international sponsors. On top of that Sambhali is supported by a national advisory board consisting of of lawyers, health specialists and further social organizations as well as of an international advisory board located in Austria, Germany, France, the USA and in Canada.
Aims and Objectives
Sambhali Trusts' primary objective is to promote self-esteem, economic
independence, and the development of educational, vocational and social
skills for disadvantaged women and girls within Rajasthani society. We
focus our work on women within the Dalit communities, who experience
three levels of discrimination based on their caste, their economic
situation and their gender.
Since its creation in January 2007,
Sambhali Trust has worked tirelessly to change the lives of Rajasthani
women by providing them with access to formal education, training in
traditional income-generating skills such as handicraft production, as
well as arranging and monitoring women’s self-help groups, helping them
to save money, have access to loans and create small enterprises of
their own. We also empower women by teaching them about their human
rights and provide refuge, counsel and support in cases of domestic
violence, and financial help with legal or medical issues.
Trust does not accept ANY discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, creed, religion, sex or language.
Sambhali is committed to the welfare and rights of children. All children under the care of Sambhali will be treated with respect regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion or belief, ethnic or social origin, disability, birth or other status. Sambhali is committed to encouraging its staff to familiarize themselves with the Sambhali child protection policy and to protect and provide a safe environment for children and staff. This is also to protect the organization and encourage donors to have confidence in the organization. Sambhali is committed to comply with all relevant local legislation on child rights and welfare in order to provide what is in the ‘best interest of the child’ including labor laws that apply to children. Sambhali encourages all staff to treat all children in their care with dignity and respect. Those responsible for children are encouraged to be good role models, spending time with each child, listening to them, encouraging children when they do something well and giving good explanations on why they should not do something else. They should keep their promises. They should provide discipline firstly through verbal means
The Sambhali Women Empowerment Policy
The goals of the Sambhali Women Empowerment Policy are to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. The objectives include creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for the development of women to enable them to realize their full potential; help asset less and marginalized women become economically self-reliant; and access to health care, quality education, employment, equal compensation and social security. They also include elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and girls, and changing societal attitudes towards women and girls. The Policy also aims at providing training for improvement of skills, development of entrepreneurial skills, asset creation, and mobilization into small viable groups to enable beneficiaries to take up employment through income generating activities, and empower vulnerable groups of women in a holistic and sustainable manner. This will be achieved by addressing this group’s social, political, legal, health-related, and economic problems through vigorous capacity-building and organizing them into Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
Legal Measures
- Adopt, enact, review and revise wherever necessary policies to eliminate all forms of discrimination against womenEnsure land rights to women and encourage co-ownership of property by women to other productive assets like house, shop, etc.
- Ensure effective enforcement of all relevant legal provisions including Equal Remuneration Act, Minimum Wages Act, Child Marriage Restraint Act, etc. •
- Ensure the enforcement of Dowry Prevention Act and effective legal action against domestic violence and harassment of women at place of work •
- Public advocacy in cases where women are deprived of rights that are already secured under law • Create mass consciousness and provide legal awareness about women’s rights
- Implement laws regarding prenatal sex selection, practices of female infanticide, child marriage, etc., to eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child
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