Activities

signal-2025-12-24-173014_002
signal-2025-12-01-195535_004
signal-2025-11-08-184715_003

Support and solidarity forums (Camps) are conducted for women to share their needs and stories. Volunteers help them address the identified needs (security, legal, administrative, livelihoods, psychosocial etc). These forums are conducted at least quarterly and more often as required.

Camps are conducted for women to come and share their needs and volunteers help them address those needs (security, legal, administrative, livelihoods, psychosocial etc).

Most single women are denied their entitlements (government schemes for social security) because they do not have the required eligibility documents. Some documents (ration cards, house, land, and gold loans documents) would still be in their husband’s name or joint names and getting it transferred to their name would be a herculean task. It could be as trivial as the documents using initials rather than their full names or the details (such as name spellings) vary across documents. SWAN assists them to get the documents up to date.

Lack of awareness and the stamina to follow through with the applications is the next major hurdle to get what is rightfully theirs. SWAN assists them in the process from application to access right from identifying the eligible entitlements, prerequisite documents, applications, and follow-up.

Gender-based violence is a reality, and single women are more vulnerable. SWAN provides a safe-space for women facing, or at the risk of, gender based violence. Legal aid is provided where required. SWAN collaborates with the state legal aid system for this.

All single women are working women. There is a wide spectrum of possible income streams – from employment, self-employment, to microenterprise to entrepreneurship. SWAN helps in the entire range – from career guidance, to bank linkages, to supply chain strengthening. 

Training and mentorship are provided for the interested women to become entrepreneurs – have a turnover of ₹20 million (2 crores) per annum and employ at least five non-family staff – and move up the value chain to retain as much of the value add. SWAN has a goal of supporting 50,000 such single women entrepreneurs by 2030.

Of the about 200 SWAN supporting civil society organisations, 66 are women headed. Building their capacity to international standards in best practices and stewardship is a core commitment. This includes strengthening systems, tools, and procedures for SMART operations, risk management, transparency, and accountability.