In 1994, Bala Vikasa with the collaboration of partners, started a Self Help Women Development Program. This program regroups village women and brings them and their families towards economic and social independence.

Bala Vikasa Women Development Program started with 5000 women. Now, the program mobolizes more than 80 000 women. Bala Vikasa understands the difficulties of women. Women live as second class citizen because of many factors, such as lack of education, lack of freedom, lack of finance, lack of job opportunites, lack of skills, lack of proper recognition in the families and in society at large. To eliminate some of these factors and to help women in different ways. Bala Vikasa through self-help mahila mandal program plans different activities. Bala Vikasa believes that women can and must help themselves.

Bala Vikasa believes that the best help that one can give to the woman is to build up their capacities. Capacity to think, to express themselves, to plan and to do.

Some of the activities take up by BALA VIKASA for women development are:

AWARENESS Through Bala Vikasa arranged regular group meetings in the villages, women become aware of their situation and learn many ways to better themselves economically, socially, intellectually, psychologically and morally.

Affinity With Group Through regular group meetings, women feel affinity with one another. The psychological bond between them becomes strong. They gain unity and group spirit which bring strength to the group.

Solidarity:Solidarity celebration is one of the activities of the program. This activity sensitizes women to be compassionate with less fortunate than them. This year, Bala Vikasa poor women contributed over Rs. 2 00 000 and bought needed gifts for 1 549 destitute people, such as old, blind, sick, orphans, handicapped people in their own villages.

Learning In Group They understand the importance of coming to the group meetings, learn to come on time wearing clean clothes. They also learn to sit with discipline, to listen, to think, to express their ideas, to speak freely without fear or shyness.

Savings And Credit Through a saving scheme they learn to think of the future, to save regularly and to wisely use their savings. Many women started savings with Rs.10 and after understanding the importance of savings they increased their contribution to Rs.50-Rs.100/month. All women save regularly. Up to now, their total savings is more than Rs.1 crore.

Loans Through Bala Vikasa loan fund, so far, 46 000 loans to a toatal of Rs.25 crores are given to women. Loans are given only for income generating activities. As an average, each month, approximately one thousand women are receiving loans with approximately Rs.50 00 000. Women have used loans for 140 different kinds of income generating activities and, in an average, increased their income by 40%.

Informal Education From the beginning of the program, over 9000 women have learned to read and write. This year alone, Bala Vikasa gave training to 457 teachers with innovative, interesting new method on how to teach women to read and write without pain. Over 5000 women attended classes where 1754 women passed. Bala Vikasa test for reading and writing and got certificates.

Learning Through Songs Since many women are illiterate, development songs are good tools for teaching them. Bala Vikasa produces its own cassettes with educational and motivational songs. Bala Vikasa Women Development Program coordinators are encouraged to compose songs and to sing.

Health Bala Vikasa organizes health camps for women. Through group discussions women gain knowledge on HIV/AIDS, family planning, etc. Through eye camps, women also learn to respect the elders and to support them by taking them to camps, for eye operations.

Environment While participating in TREE PLANTATION AND KITCHEN GARDENS, women learn about the importance of a clean environment. Through kitchen gardens in their backyard, women get daily vegetables which save them money and supplement the diet of their family.

Water & Sanitation Bala Vikasa women groups mobilize the village people and organize them to have water tanks or bore wells so that all can have access to clean drinking water.

Leadership & Training Leadership training is producing more and more women leaders. Bala Vikasa constantly reminds and encourages the leaders to take up their responsibilities seriously. Women with potential are now given chance to come up and to develop their hidden talents.

This year, 3 training sessions are arranged for leaders and over 4500 leaders (90%) have attended and learned on dynamics of leadership and the responsibilities of leaders.

Coordinators Yearly, 8 training sessions are conducted for all to 200 coordinators at Bala Vikasa for a total of 24 days. In these sessions program objectives, development principles, etc. are explained, activites are planned using participatory methods, action plans are drawn, follow up and evaluation of each activity are taken up.