India
Realizing human rights and ending poverty in India
Inspired by the Jewish commitment to justice, we support organizations working to overcome poverty and oppression. Our small, grassroots grantees are rooted in communities, where they empower local people to identify their most critical concerns and take action to address injustice. We also support groups that organize broader movements for social change, influencing governments and policymakers to respect and promote human rights.
In India, AJWS supports community organizing and advocacy for women’s, girls’, LGBTI and sex workers’ rights, much of which focuses on changing discriminatory community attitudes and norms. AJWS also advances the struggles of tribal and Dalit communities for land rights and economic justice with a focus on women’s access to livelihood.
Recent Projects in India
Sahiyar
Training Grassroots Women
Purpose: To secure widow pensions and provide educational opportunities to adolescent girls and rebuild trust between different religious groups in the slums of Baroda by organizing the communities and providing them with training about gender justice, communalism, and environment and their rights.
Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM)
Peer-led HIV/AIDS Education Among Sex Workers
Purpose: To defend the rights of sex workers and empower them to design and implement sustainable programs for their own health; and to combat discrimination and stigma within the wider community through community organizing, rights-based education, and peer-led HIV and AIDS programs.
Shaheen
Women's Empowerment
Purpose: To strengthen women and girls ability to resist sexual exploitation and sexual and gender-based violence by providing education, vocational training, counseling services and employment opportunities to marginalized Muslim adolescent girls and educating community members on sex trafficking, domestic violence and the health needs of adolescent girls.
