Mahila Samakhya Programme

The Mahila Samakhya Programme (MSP) is a pioneering initiative launched by the Government of India to promote women’s empowerment through education. Rooted in the belief that education is a key instrument for achieving gender equality and social transformation, the programme has played a vital role in enhancing women’s agency, collective strength, and participation in community development. Established in the late 1980s, Mahila Samakhya remains one of the most influential examples of participatory development and feminist policy intervention in India’s rural landscape.

Background and Genesis

The Mahila Samakhya Programme was launched in 1988 under the National Policy on Education (1986), which recognised women’s education as a crucial tool for social justice and national progress. The policy emphasised that despite improvements in literacy rates, rural and poor women continued to face deep-rooted discrimination and exclusion. The MSP was conceptualised to address this gap by creating a platform for women to collectively analyse their situations, assert their rights, and access resources.
Initially supported by the Government of India with assistance from the Government of the Netherlands, the programme began as a pilot in six states: Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh. It later expanded to include several others, covering more than 100 districts across India. The implementation was placed under the Department of Education, but its design allowed for flexibility, community ownership, and local-level innovation, distinguishing it from many other government schemes of the time.

Objectives and Philosophy

The central philosophy of Mahila Samakhya rests on the principles of equity, empowerment, and education. Its objectives include:

• Enabling women, particularly from marginalised and poor communities, to gain awareness of their rights and social position.
• Promoting education not merely as literacy but as a means of gaining control over life circumstances and challenging oppressive social norms.
• Encouraging women to form collectives and federations for mutual support, capacity-building, and local governance participation.
• Strengthening the link between women’s empowerment and broader development processes such as health, education, livelihood, and political participation.

This transformative approach positioned women not as passive recipients of welfare, but as agents of change in their own lives and communities.

Organisational Structure and Functioning

At the core of the Mahila Samakhya framework lies the Mahila Sangha, a village-level collective of women. Each sangha functions as a space for dialogue, learning, and collective decision-making. These groups identify local problems, prioritise issues such as literacy, domestic violence, child marriage, or economic deprivation, and design context-specific interventions.
The structure of implementation operates through three main levels:

• Village Level: Formation of Mahila Sanghas that engage in awareness generation, literacy programmes, and micro-initiatives.
• Block Level: Establishment of Resource Centres that provide training, documentation, and technical support to sanghas.
• State Level: Creation of State Resource Centres for Women’s Empowerment, responsible for policy coordination, programme monitoring, and advocacy.

An essential feature of the programme has been its emphasis on participatory planning and decentralised management, allowing flexibility to suit the socio-cultural realities of different regions.

Key Components and Activities

Over the years, the Mahila Samakhya Programme has implemented diverse activities, each designed to address specific aspects of women’s empowerment. Major components include:

• Education and Literacy: Conducting non-formal education classes, adult literacy campaigns, and continuing education programmes tailored to women’s learning needs.
• Health and Nutrition: Spreading awareness on reproductive health, nutrition, sanitation, and access to healthcare services.
• Economic Empowerment: Promoting savings and credit groups, vocational training, and linkages with self-help initiatives for income generation.
• Legal Awareness: Conducting legal literacy workshops, assisting women in cases of domestic violence, dowry harassment, and property disputes.
• Political Participation: Encouraging women’s involvement in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and local governance through leadership training and awareness of reservation provisions.
• Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment: Running programmes such as Kishori Shakti Yojana under the MSP framework to support adolescent girls through education and life-skill training.

Through these initiatives, women not only enhanced their own capacities but also contributed to the education of children and overall community development.

Achievements and Impact

The Mahila Samakhya Programme has significantly transformed the socio-educational landscape of rural India. Evaluations and independent studies highlight several achievements:

• The creation of tens of thousands of Mahila Sanghas that mobilised millions of rural women.
• Improved female literacy and enrolment rates in project districts.
• Enhanced participation of women in local governance and community decision-making processes.
• Increased self-confidence and reduction in gender-based violence due to collective assertion and awareness.
• Establishment of Nari Adalats (women’s courts) in some regions, providing alternative platforms for dispute resolution and justice.

Women associated with the programme often reported significant changes in personal and social relationships, particularly in negotiating greater autonomy within households and communities.

Challenges and Criticism

Despite its achievements, the Mahila Samakhya Programme has faced several challenges. Limited funding, bureaucratic hurdles, and uneven state-level implementation often constrained its reach and effectiveness. The shift of administrative control from the Department of Education to the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) and later to Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) led to concerns over dilution of its original empowerment-oriented philosophy.
Critics also argued that the programme’s success depended heavily on local leadership and community participation, which varied widely across regions. In some areas, patriarchal resistance and institutional inertia limited the transformative potential of the sanghas. Nonetheless, scholars and practitioners continue to regard MSP as a landmark initiative in feminist development planning.

Legacy and Contemporary Relevance

Although the Mahila Samakhya Programme was formally discontinued in 2014, its impact endures through the continued functioning of many self-sustained sanghas and federations. The programme’s participatory and rights-based framework has influenced several subsequent policies, including National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and other gender-focused schemes.