Projects
Making a difference, Changing Lives
SSF has been advocating and moving into the mainstream, successful cutting edge approaches to the challenge of economic development "from the bottom up." Through conferences and training programs at its Bangalore headquarters, through its field-based research and village training activities, and through its path-breaking publications, the Foundation has influenced both the manner in which economic and social statistics and indicators are collected, measured and publicized, and the public policy response to the issues that emerge.
Few of the recent examples:
- The project on Economic Empowerment of Marginalized Rural Women through Propagation and Cultivation of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants has helped around 600 marginalized rural women to improve their income generation level.
- The Foundation's project on "Building Budgets from Below," mobilises and trains otherwise marginalized people, including illiterate women, to identify pressing social needs, and to obtain available public funds to support improvement of water and sewage systems, educational facilities, street lighting for improved security, etc.
- A recent Foundation study of the impact of state liquor sales on rural women and their families has helped to contribute the decision of the Government of the State of Karnataka to ban sales of arrack (the local liquor) from 2007 forward.
- The Foundation developed and disseminated the concept of Gender-based audits together with assessment tools and measures such as the Gender Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Index. These tools enable both citizens and top-level policy makers to drill down to see the often-unequal impact of policies on individuals, and particularly women.
The Foundation is committed to extending these successes to more districts, villages and people and to developing the synergies between them. We are well positioned to become a South Indian resource and hub for organizing and disseminating best practices in our areas of expertise.
SSF is grateful for the support received from its donorsComplete project report