Voices of Single Women — Reaching the Corridors of Power

In many villages of Rajasthan, silence becomes tradition. The struggles of single women—their loneliness, their needs, their exclusion—often get buried beneath a collective social quiet. Yet today, that silence is beginning to break. Voices long suppressed are now reaching the Chief Minister’s office.

This initiative by Rajsamand Jan Vikas Sansthan (RJVS) was not merely an awareness campaign. It was the emergence of a collective consciousness. A team of Aparajita field workers, spread across 18 districts and 38 blocks, reached out to 13,750 single women. They visited homes, sat in panchayat meetings, paused at village squares—asking the question that often remains unasked: “What is your biggest concern?” Each woman answered in writing—on a postcard. Some expressed the struggle of unresolved ration cards; others narrated delays in pension. Some highlighted lack of healthcare services, while others wrote about loneliness and social stigma.

These postcards were then collected and sent to the Chief Minister under a statewide initiative called Women Empowerment Fortnight. From each panchayat alone, more than 250 postcards were mailed—quietly, without slogans or rallies.

The uniqueness of this effort lay in its simplicity—no public stage, no loud campaign—only the authentic voices of women and the lived truths written in their own words.

RJVS demonstrated that when communities are empowered to lead, hope finds pathways. Even a woman standing at the margins begins to speak directly to the system, demanding recognition and justice.

This is the essence of empowerment— when a woman becomes the voice of her own struggle.