Bal Mahila Kalyan

Their activities in 2012-13 were as follows:

• Link Worker Scheme: A link worker scheme has been launched in Katihar to decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst women and youth. As part of preventive interventions for the general population, BMK helped plan a communication strategy and systematic campaign under the concurrent supervision of Plan India. The project team focused on the reduction of stigma and discrimination and the promotion of services. The campaign identified training needs of link workers, volunteers and condom depot holders.
• Axshya Project: BMK is a participant of the Axshya Project that is part of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM). Their activities created awareness-building amongst the community, increased linkage with government facilities and aimed to decrease the number of dropout rates and missed dose cases amongst those registered with the programme. A total of 1,310 people participated in their activities, and 246 people believed to have the disease were referred for check-ups.
• Targeted Interventions with sex workers: The Bihar State AIDS Control Society assigned BMK the responsibility of working with 600 female sex workers. BMK developed a participatory model to monitor condom use amongst sex workers and its conditions of use to develop targeted interventions for their benefit.
• Self-help group (SHG) under SGSY: BMK was selected as a nodal organisation for seven Gram Panchayats (local self-governing bodies) to form and develop SHGs in Manihari, Bihar. BMK’s programme sensitised and mobilised the community in the target area and managed to integrate them with relevant local self-government institutions. SHGs in Katihar receive support from NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) through BMK’s intervention.
• Action towards rural entrepreneurship: BMK started a campaign for artisan registration which resulted in 4,500 artisans being registered with the Ministry of Handicrafts. They are looking to form clusters of SHGs in various trades to promote rural entrepreneurship.