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EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

Mahila Shanti Sena is a movement, a voluntary organisation of women that was started in Vaishali in the state of Bihar. Twenty-five hundred years ago Vaishali gave the world the Great Law of Ahimsa. Significantly, the Mahila Shanti Sena movement started in the same legendary town in 2002. The MSS works towards the capacity building of rural women in the areas of peace, non- violence, participatory democracy and human rights.

The movement has spread outside Bihar too. Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Eastern UP and Orissa. Unnayan has been the nodal agency in Orissa for the MSS since September 2005. At present, the movement has spread to three districts in the state—Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Jagatsinghpur. 2006 was a year where we involved more women in the programme. A total number of 1752 Shanti Sainiks have taken the oath so far. The workshops, seminars and capacity building camps have contributed to 3496 training days for women.

	The objectives of the MSS movement are
	To empower women to build a peaceful and just society
	To raise mass awareness among women to realize their strength and power
	To focus on women’s issues—violence, poverty, illiteracy and unemployment
	To provide training in peace, democracy and development
	To make women aware about their rights and duties under the Panchayati Raj
	To make women realize their potential as agents of social change
	To educate women in the Gandhian tradition of constructive village service

Report of Regional MSS Convention, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha