Meera Ramputty – Mauritius

It is very fulfilling to know that you add value to society.

Mrs. Meera Ramputty is a gender champion in the district council of Flacq. She lives in Central Flacq in the Republic of Mauritius. She first met Gender Links in 2012 at a Gender Based Violence (GBV) event. She attended the Gender Links Summit and has encountered Gender Links at several other workshops and campaigns.

In her personal life, Mrs Ramputty learned more and more about her rights from lessons and as a result of participating in different conferences, workshops and seminars. She thus gained courage to stand up for herself and her rights as a woman. The training she received from taking part in Gender Links activities put her in a position to gain a large number of skills. These events gave her an opportunity to practice how to protect her rights. She improved her skills in time management, communication, planning, and project management and so on. She also became more eloquent and much more at ease with the media. Proof of this development is shown by the fact that she uses these skills as a member of the Flacq council. She is currently a very confident woman who is not always affected by other people’s opinions or attitudes towards her work. She lives a life of peace and enjoyment, feeling fulfilled by the work she does.

As a result of the great effort she has made, her family is now very receptive to the changes and has supported her in every way they could.

Mrs Meera Ramputty supports women in the community in all aspects of protecting their rights and standing up for themselves. For example, she believes that women are the most affected by the state of the environment and climate change. It has encouraged her to start, and to manage confidently, a project doing recycling, reusing and composting.

She uses her position as one of the three women on the Flacq council to advocate for increasing the number of opportunities for women. She acts as a role model to women who aspire to be in leadership. She devotes herself to the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR). She educates people through providing adult literacy and parenting sessions as well as HIV and AIDS awareness. In the area of social development, she encourages sports activities, training, IT and library facilities as well as remedial courses.

She also faces many challenges on her journey of change. First of all, money is a big problem, especially in trying to develop her project. Secondly, it is often difficult to spend enough time on the project. She also meets resistance and hostility from her male counterparts in her efforts to better herself as a woman in society. Finally, public participation is lacking. It is difficult to convince people to take part in the project and to persuade them of its benefits. She has, however, managed to overcome these through support from the government, friends and family.