Supporting Women. Building Better Futures.

RUWSEC, from the beginning, stressed the importance of creating knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, which led to the founders becoming educators and trainers on sexual and reproductive health. Despite coming from a disadvantaged background with limited education, RUWSEC’s founders sought and gained knowledge and expertise about a wide range of sexual and reproductive health issues and shared it with the women in their villages. They demonstrated leadership despite facing numerous challenges arising from their families and their community. RUWSEC, as part of its focus on strengthening knowledge, produced numerous creative learning and teaching materials in Tamil.

In the 1990s, at the global level, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) became a salient issue. At the national and international levels, donors and others recognised RUWSEC’s pioneering work in SRHR. More funding became available for work on SRHR issues. In this context, RUWSEC women discussed the need to establish a women-centred clinic that would provide reproductive health services. The focus was on humane services and on avoiding the negative experiences women face in private or public hospitals/clinics.  

By the late 90s, RUWSEC began to play a role beyond local communities. Its knowledge creation activities included conducting research on the sexual and reproductive health of rural Dalit women and disseminating the findings through publications. The founders began providing SRHR training to other NGOs. RUWSEC was represented by local Dalit women at national and international meetings and networked with state, national, and international organisations to conduct collaborative research and advocacy on sexual and reproductive health and rights. By 2000, RUWSEC, in addition to being a local community organisation, had become a resource organisation, conducting programmes at the state level and collaborating with national and international organisations.