A girls’ empowerment project takes wings
Yadhumanaval, the programme to empower girls, particularly in the smaller towns and villages of India by PDG V R Muthu, RID 3212, has picked up traction and is being implemented in other districts with help from Muthu, his club RC Virudhunagar and his Yadhumanaval team led by a retired professor of English and motivational speaker Jayanthasri Balakrishnan.

Under the leadership of District 3231 Governor M Rajan Babu, this programme was held in five colleges and caught the interest and imagination of around 8,500 college girls from private and government colleges in the cities of Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur, in Tamil Nadu, with the sessions being sponsored by PDG Muthu’s Idhayam group.
Saritha Muralikrishnan, the district chair for women’s empowerment, who was in charge of this project is wonderstruck when she describes to Rotary News the mindblowing interest that the girls, “most of whom are from rural backgrounds, showed in this project. In DG Babu’s hometown of Tiruvannamalai, the session was attended by nearly 3,000 girls, and as the rooftop auditorium had open sides, the girls were literally overflowing in the verandas, trying to get a glimpse and hear what was being said.
“In my hometown of Kancheepuram, the hall had a capacity of only 1,500, but there was so much of demand for this programme that the girls themselves volunteered to remove the chairs, saying that this would accommodate over 300 more girls. The hall was overflowing and from the veranda, more girls were peeping in, listening to the talk and lapping up the question and answer session,” says Saritha, who is a member of RC Kanchi Infinity.

She said that for lack of space only second and third year students were invited, and the “first year students were so angry and asked why they had been left out. So I told them there was no place inside and I would upload the whole session on YouTube and share the link with their vice-principal.”
An interesting sidelight she gives is that “after this programme, the principal, who had earlier been indifferent, held my hand and thanked me. And later, she called me twice and said that if you do more programmes like this, please come to our college!”
As the Tamil word Yadumanaval implies (she is everything), this project is all about women’s empowerment and self-esteem, and while talking to the girls the lead speaker Jayanthasri talked about the important role that education will play in their lives giving them not only self-esteem and self-confidence but also a meaningful career.
DG Rajan Babu who had attended a session overflowing with a whopping number of over 3,000 college girls in Tiruvannamalai was amazed at the response the speaker managed to generate from the girls. “Basically, most of these girls are from a rural background. It was really surprising to see how interesting and lively the Q&A session was, and the girls asked so many questions about how to overcome fear and face social norms and taboos. I was impressed to find them boldly speaking out even about things like infatuation, which is an issue adolescents grapple with. We found that this was a super hit programme in all the five centres it was organised. I am really grateful to PDG Muthu and the Idhayam group for sponsoring this programme,” he said.
On the kind of issues which are occupying the mindscape of girls from small towns and rural India, Saritha said that most of them asked questions related to the practical ways in which they can improve their lives… make their living conditions better. Most of them were not aware of so many things, including the importance of education, or what is going on in the world around them. “They wanted to know what should be their priorities and what field they should choose for a better future. They asked about so many things including the need to use sanitary napkins, and often we found tears rolling down our cheeks when we learnt from their interaction that they do not have the money to buy even the most basic necessities.”
She adds that the team including Jayanthasri and Rtn D Vijayakumari from RC Virudhunagar, who is the overall head for this programme, were very happy to note how seriously the girls took what was suggested during these sessions. “They were not shy to ask questions, and even Muslim girls, who are normally very shy, opened up when the Q&A session began. Once the questions started flowing in we were not able to stop the students. We had kept about 20 minutes for the questions but the girls kept asking and we had to extend the 90-minute session to two hours and more. Even after we came down from the stage, the girls approached all of us and kept talking about their concerns and what is important to them,” said Saritha.
Two interesting takeaways from these five sessions in RID 3231 were “complaints about parents. They said our parents keep fighting with us all the time, so that we find very little peace in the house!”
The other related to attraction to boys or doubts on how to decide about a possible relationship with the opposite gender. “They would beat around the bush a little and put it indirectly. For instance, they would not say what do I do when I am attracted to ‘someone’; they’d say ‘when I am attracted to something’! As expected, the questions were loaded, or veiled. They’d ask if someone asks us to do something, what should we do? But the meaning was obvious and Jayanthasri would advise them to first of all themselves analyse whether the step the girl decides to take would be right or wrong for her own future.”
Next, to take that analysis further, they should talk to a genuine, reliable, level-headed and mature friend, an elder sister if they had one, or even their parents. “As always, adolescents face many emotional problems and as elsewhere, in these areas too, there are cases of girls getting misled, giving up their education, eloping and facing pregnancy at such a young age. During these sessions, the girls were told how important it was for them to realise the value of completing their education to secure their future.”
Summing up the entire initiative, Saritha says a lot of effort went into selecting the right institutions and areas to conduct the programme. “There was so much demand for these sessions which were held in four districts, that Vijayakumari could give us only five sessions, even though we’d have liked to do at least two more as we realise that these kind of sessions should go hand-in-hand with academic courses.”
Overall, the students asked questions related to their future goals, freedom, growth, success, depression, inner battles, how to deal with low self-esteem and achieve their potential. “We were so moved to find a few girls bursting into tears during the interactive sessions, proving that they had opened out their hearts to the speaker,” says Saritha.
She is happy that through this project, the district team was able to empower the girls sufficiently to be able to stand up and ask questions, clear their doubts and seek advice from an expert on women’s empowerment. “For after all, when we empower a girl, we are empowering her entire family and our nation as well,” she adds.