Utthan envisions a society that imbibes and ensures the values of gender justice, equality, peace and happiness in practice.Utthan’s mission is to initiate gender sensitive processes of empowerment amongst the most vulnerable communities, through a process of building conscientiousness and organizing around their major issues.

Key Areas of Focus:

• Gender and empowerment – Intervensions: Building women’s institutions to initiate a grassroots women’s movement Strengthening women’s participation in governance through Panchayati Raj
• Providing access to safe, reliable and sufficient water, sanitation and hygiene
• Improving community’s health status and women’s reproductive health rights
• Encouraging savings, credit and income generation activities for economic empowerment
• Building women and vulnerable community’s access to resources, land and property ownership and rights
• Mainstreaming gender just perspective in all possible institutions and programs

Conflict Transformation & Peaceprocess – Intervensions:

• Initiating and promoting processes to build bridges between the communities in conflict, through various dialogues and processes; sharing grief, and understanding the root causes of conflict.
• Engaging members from different communities around gender issues of livelihood security.
• Strengthening leadership, especially within Muslim women and youth, thereby encouraging them to actively  participate in the public domain.
• Building awareness amongst diverse communities about the vulnerabilities that could lead to division and conflict.
• Mainstreaming peace perspective in other programs and institutions in seemingly communally non-conflict areas from the context of diversity, responsible citizenship, interfaith dialogue as well as revisiting common inter-cultural practices and sacred places of common faith.
• Campaigning and mobilising against violence on women

Livelihood security – Intervensions :

• Gender sensitive water resources management through augmentation, efficient use and equitable access Watershed development program
• Promoting biodiversity through ensuring basic livelihood securities such as food, fodder, fuel, water, sanitation and health and enhancing their economic power
• Encouraging the adaptation of good practices for ensuring gender sensitive, equitable, transparent and sustainable Natural Resource Management, disaster preparedness and mitigation for overall ecological justice and sustainability

Project Impact :

This project reaches out to 3725 villagers in 115 villages.

Achievements :

• One of such major movements in the coastal areas of Bhavanagar and Amreli, has been that on protection of community’s land and other natural resources for their livelihood security.
• Utthan, through its women’s federations has been instrumental in triggering off     movements against a cement factory (Nirma plant in Mahua) and Nuclear plant (in Mithivirdi).
• Through the state level network Working Group on Women’s Land Rights Organisation (WGWLO), it has also contacted and included other similar ongoing community based struggles, in the advocacy efforts.

Amount Supported :
$16000 (Rs. 404400 in 2011)