The challenges
The community was extremely conservative and lacked awareness. They, in fact, did not even want any change in the situation – due to fear and doubts and also their laidback attitude. Men were mostly into gambling and drinking and women in the families were overburdened with work. The condition of the women was not great – they were harassed and lacked social stature. Youth in the community lacked ambition – girls were not allowed to study and work and boys, too, wandered aimlessly due to lack of guidance.
In the beginning of SEDI there were a lot of hurdles to overcome, like female candidates were not allowed to go out of their house for studies. The acceptance of SEDI was not there in the community. In the beginning of SEDI it was really hard for us to call the candidates for training.
