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Women on the march

“Ours is not going to be a kitty party but a serious business meeting of a small group of fully committed women keen to usher in change in the lives of ordinary citizens in the city and also the downtrodden,” when Anitha Rajarajan declares this, you can sense of whiff of determination to make an impact.

Women have always played a vital role in social work as pioneers and founders, practitioners, policy analysts, educators, theoreticians, researchers, and academicians. There is perhaps no dearth of such enterprising women doing their work silently for the larger benefit of the society. But they all may be working in isolation without publicity or recognition.

“Individually we definitely count but together we can make a huge difference,” asserts Anitha, the president elect of Soroptimist International, Madurai, an organisation of women drawn from various businesses and professions.

“Soroptimist” (means ‘the best of sisters’ or ‘the best of women’) provides a platform to dedicated dreamers and workers to unite on a long term basis and effect a change for the better.

This international voluntary service organisation, which was started by 80 women in 1921 in Oakland, consists of over 100,000 members across 120 countries who work towards “making a difference to women”.

The Soroptimist International is divided into four ‘federations’ — of The Americas, Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, and the Pan Pacific, which includes South East Asia, Japan and Australia. The Indian branches of Soroptimist International are affiliated to the U.K. body and started with its headquarters in Pune 15 years ago. With 15 clubs in the country, the association yesterday (July 1) launched its 16th in Madurai, which is the second in Tamil Nadu after the Chennai chapter.

More than 20 women drawn from different professions from Madurai, Sivakasi, Dindigul and Rajapalayam, have come together for this joint venture to share their time, talents, and financial resources to enrich the communities.

Each club across the country takes up different themes and task. The Madurai unit has chartered out its priorities to work on waste segregation and management, ban on plastics and vocational training for adolescent girls to begin with. “Social work is seen as a full-time occupation. But this organisation allows space for women to engage with social needs while keeping their respective professions as priority. It is a voluntary service that marks the spirit of sisterhood across nations and races,” says Naina Shah, the president of Soroptimist International of Chennai Downtown who inaugurated the Madurai branch.

She feels Madurai has lot of potential for women to contribute socially to empowerment.

“Every woman has the ability and should give her best, come out with wonderful ideas, show their talent, ability and capacity and network properly to execute them. The purpose is to join with other women and engage in awareness, advocacy, and action in the service of her community and society with the fundamental faith that every woman can make the world a better place to live in,” she told the new members welcoming them into the association.

The Madurai members are upbeat and have already outlined several sample projects which they are likely to take up in the coming days. The larger plan is to make a difference in the areas of health, education, environment, human rights/status of women, economic and social development, and international goodwill and understanding. The Soroptimist also uses its international voice and official status with the United Nations to advocate women’s issues.

Projects are, therefore, carefully chosen to address challenges unique to today’s women and goals are based on the needs of individual communities, adds Naina Shah.

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