Women’s empowerment is the key to progress in rural communities and has proved a highly effective vehicle for change in all sectors. Through nurturing women’s self-help groups, AVISHKAR encourages women to become more active in the social and political spheres and to advocate for gender equity in their community. AVISHKAR also provides Agriculture – based livelihood training to enable women to interact with the world outside their village. Because women’s empowerment underlies all project areas of operation, the focus on turning marginalized women into true stakeholders in their communities has not only advanced their status but has also resulted in more stable households, healthier families, greater political influence, and more prosperity overall.
Empowerment of the women through the formation and strengthening of SHGs. Presently, the organization has network with 165 SHGs,30 JLGs and two women farmer clubs mainly to achieve social and financial sustainability. Continuous effort is being made to upgrade the skills and capacities of women SHGs and JLGs through training and capacity building in our project villages. SHGs for women are viewed as an appropriate platform for socio- economic empowerment .In an effort to tap the potential capacity present in women, the organization conducted training and capacity building inputs facilitates for formation and strengthening of SHGs and JLGs.
The organization has provided specialist NGO services for the PMKSY-WD Watershed Project- Batch- III implemented by the Agriculture department in Madhugiri taluka of Tumkur district. The organization has provided services as the Specialist Non-Governmental Organization (SNGO) and conducted training on Income Generation Activities (IGA) and skill trainings for 51 women SHGs in batch-III PMKSY-WD watershed project in 12 villages of Madhugiri taluka of Tumkur district. Under the project, AVISHKAR had imparted different training and capacity building programme for women SHGs. The details of EAP and SEDP training programmes conducted under PMKSY-WD- Batch- III of watershed project is presented in the following table.
| Sl.No | Name of the training | Units | Target | Achievement |
| 1 | Training for SHGs | NOs | 51 | 51 |
| 2 | EAP trainings conducted | Members | 775 | 671 |
| 3 | Animal husbandry training | Members | 524 | 524 |
| 4 | Tailoring training | Members | 89 | 89 |
| 5 | Ragi processing & Packing training | Members | 06 | 06 |
| 6 | Agarbathi training | Members | 38 | 38 |
| 7 | Crafts making training | Members | 14 | 14 |
| Total | 1497 | 1393 |