Woman By Woman: New Hope for the Villages of India

In the poverty-stricken rural villages of India, tradition discourages women from venturing outside the home to seek either work or education--many live in complete seclusion, only a few receive adequate healthcare while the majority suffer in penury, and (perhaps most telling) female infanticide is quietly and regularly practiced. Woman by Woman focuses on a program developed by Janani, a non-profit organization, to address these deplorable conditions. Working toward the avowed goal of counseling rural couples on family planning, Janani's strategy involves approaching rural medical practitioners (RMPs) to recruit their wives for a training session in a nearby town where they're counseled on healthcare issues and family planning. After the training, these women return home to work alongside their husbands as equal partners. This brief but satisfying film, featuring three female counselors currently involved in the Janani program, combines on-the-job footage together with interviews to illustrate that the program has made a significant difference in their personal lives and in the communities they serve. Recent focus on the plight of women in Afghanistan makes this message of female self-empowerment in a male-dominated society a good choice for women's studies and cultural anthropology collections. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (A. Cantú)