The women and adolescent girls from the underprivileged communities in Chittoor traditionally do the housework at home and rarely attend school. It is a patriarchal society and they are oppressed by other castes. They are expected to marry at a young age and repeat the cycle. HEARDS works with these underprivileged women and girls in expanding their capacity to have control over their own economic circumstances to secure more just & equitable gender relations in the society.

Later we conduct many programs for the women welfare like micro entrepreneurship programme.  Here our organisation has given trainings on making of sisal fiber products like shopping bags, baskets, place mats, runners and accessories such as bread baskets, cutlery tray, fruit basket, laundry baskets, storage baskets, bins and boxes and Natural fiber floor mats etc.  We have also conducted training on tailoring, embroidery, saree painting, basket weaving, croetche work etc.  In the villages we conduct trainings for the women self help groups and provide seed capital assistance to the poor women.  In this village the women has started income generating programs like tailoring, cow rearing, goat rearing, petty shops, small hotels, cloth business, saris business etc.

After this training programme we have provided seed capital assistance to them for starting their business.  This project will help them to get away from their bondedness and surely they will see a luminary in their life.  We are also promoting the habit of savings among backward community women by grouping them into self-help groups.  At present we have 84 Self Help Groups formed in Chittoor District.  The Women Development Programme helped the women to have some supplementary income, skills in managerial fields, increase in bargain power and the confidence in solving their financial crisis.