Slum women celebrate Women's Day

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) Around 200 odd women artists from Rajasthan celebrated the International Women's Day in Kathputli Colony in Shadipur Depot here today.

The women with help of 'Anupam Prayas', an NGO, took part in rangoli, mehndi and folk dance competitions and rejoiced together on rhythms of their folk music.

A multinational company, DuPont, gave away a cheque of Rs 1 lakh for the benefit of girl children. Saumick Pal from DuPont said the fund had been collected by the employees to help the deprived.

The NGO has been working in the slums of Shadipur Depot for last 14 years and is empowering women by helping them to sell their handicrafts.

The women from this colony make puppets, wooden items, craft items from rags, beads and other embroidered stuff.

There are 18 alternate educational centres for school dropouts, six remedial centres which impart tuitions to school-going children, three and creches run by the NGO in the vicinity.

The NGO also helps women to get old age pensions, ration cards and loans. There are other self-help groups for women which encourage them to save for their own small projects.

The colony is in a pathetic condition and yet a lot of visitors from foreign lands come here to buy handicrafts. ''They would pay anything between Rs 100 and 1000 for a small piece of handicraft,'' Ms Gita from the NGO told UNI.

UNI SNG SW RN1559