Update on our work in India

The Hunger Project in India continues to focus all of its energy on the mobilization and empowerment of elected women representatives in local village councils called “Panchayats”. The last six months in particular have been a period of growth in which The Hunger Project-India has taken critical steps in expanding its programs - both qualitatively as well as quantitatively.

In May, THP-India hosted its first-ever national trainer’s workshop in Bangalore, at WIPRO (India’s largest computer software company) offices. Forty trainers out of the 480 trainers who have displayed masterful skills in training the elected women representatives came together with THP staff from India and the Global Office - to reflect upon, learn from their own experiences, and renew their energy in continuing to work with women’s leadership in local democracy.

The participants had an opportunity to share their experiences of what worked in the training processes and what further needs to be modified or adapted. The trainers who were from several states shared their experiences, innovations and modifications made to suit the local context. Participants spent time reflecting more deeply on the conceptual understanding of issues such as Transformative Leadership, Power and the nature of social change processes that are participatory and people-centered.

The participants left with renewed enthusiasm and with a sense of solidarity. In the words of Gitanjali from Uttaranchal, “On the first day, I was like a full bottle - all about myself. I realized that in order to gain something, I would have to empty myself of my past. I can now see all that I can do in my area differently and better.”

In June, 60 NGOs from 14 states across the country who collaborate with THP-India in empowering women’s leadership came together to participate in the first ever national level NGO Partners workshop in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The intentions of the workshop included - deepening partnership to become a unified collective force towards building women’s leadership in panchayats, and to create the next strategic steps for our work together. The participants spent the three days also deepening their understanding of the gender issue. One of the highlights of this meeting was that men in the room took the opportunity to share their personal experiences and observations regarding discrimination against women.

Carol Tisson, investor/activist from California, participates
in the NGO-partners workshop in June.

One of the men said, “I don’t believe in reincarnation, but if it were so, I would like to be born a woman. My mother suffered a very tormenting relationship with my father. She was not allowed to speak out or make any decisions, and was physically abused. As a boy, I did not know what to do, but I stood by my mother when she left my father. When I got married and my wife and I had a daughter, the pressure on us was to have a son. In my will, I have given everything to my daughter, to express my commitment to women’s empowerment. And, I am dedicating my life to the empowerment of women and girls.”

The workshop provided the participants an opportunity to build linkages with other campaigns and movements - like the national right to food campaign. The group identified several priority actions that they would develop to forward advocacy of womens’ leadership in panchayats.

Panchayat Women point the direction in providing relief in their villages: As in Bangladesh, thousands of villages in India faced the worst floods in over two decades during the months of May -- August. As is the case in such circumstances, the Indian government provided food aid immediately. Despite their efforts, relief was not reaching the people in the remote areas, which were also the hardest hit.

In the state of Bihar, two districts where THP partners are working - Madhubani and Sitamarhi - were devastated from overflowing rivers, which swept away entire villages, leaving people destitute. The grains provided by the government were useless to the people, who had lost their kitchens. Those who had utensils could not cook the food for lack of clean water.

In a dismal situation like this, the elected women representatives trained by The Hunger Project and NGO partners in the area worked tirelessly to provide the support that was required. They identified the worst affected families and provided survival kits to them. They also ensured the distribution of medicines to prevent diseases like diarrhea, insect and snakebites, eye and skin sores.

Although Bihar is one of the poorest states in India, and where the status of women is the lowest - the elected women representatives stood tall in their leadership and accountability to their people in this time of distress. The Hunger Project salutes these dynamic heroes of India.

Influencing Public Opinion: As part of the strategy to influence and mobilize the media, both at the local and national level - several media workshops were held around the country. Here are highlights from two of our states:

Trichy in Tamil Nadu held its first media workshop, which was attended by 41 leading journalists including Bureau Chiefs, sub-editors and chief reporters. Elected women representatives shared their successes and constraints with the workshop participants. In Tamil Nadu the collaboration with Dinamalar, a leading Tamil Daily, where an entire page has been dedicated to Panchayat issues, completed a year.

In Assam, 48 journalists from 20 newspapers and magazines participated in a media workshop in Jorhat district. Mr. Prafulla Rajguru, a journalist of great repute in India said in his inaugural speech, “Media, being the fourth pillar of democracy, definitely needs to make public any threat to the people-centered-governance. But at the same time we need to reflect on our (media) initiatives in the recent past, and look to see if we are strengthening the negative forces in society by highlighting only the negative news in media”. At the end of the workshop, the journalists committed to dedicating a portion of their reporting every Friday to women and panchayat-related issues.

Over 500 people - elected women representatives, international donor agencies, NGO partners, media, investors, delegates from THP-Bangladesh, friends and families, celebrated the Fourth Sarojini Naidu Prize on October 2nd at New Delhi’s India Habitat Center. Keynote messages were received from eminent personalities including His Holiness The Dalai Lama; Azim Premji, the global corporate leader; and Shri Gulzar, a well renowned national poet, who expressed his sentiments in the form of a poem.

This year, we received 705 articles on the issues of Women and Panchayat Raj from all over India. In our first year, we had received 166 articles. The state of Gujarat had the maximum numbers of articles - 120!

The jury went through the articles that were short-listed and made their selections on September 15. The winners of this year’s prizes are:

Twenty-five elected women representatives came together to represent the over one million sisters in panchayats. Ms. Aparna Sen, eminent filmmaker and Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer, Minister of Panchayat Raj, were the chief guests.

25 panchayat presidents participate in the 4th annual
award ceremony of the Sarojini Naidu Prize.

A special video presentation of our work with women leaders was unveiled for the first time at the event, and is available for viewing through The Hunger Project’s website.

THP acknowledges the 73^rd and 74^th amendment to the constitution as a transformative opportunity. However, for the potential to be realised, many more supportive interventions need to be put into place by the government. Gains made by one policy can easily be eroded by another, unless effective social action keeps the pressure to retain public spaces won by the women. For instance 2,000 women in Bihar came together at the State Capital in June to march for rights of elected women representatives. More than 40 different NGO partners worked together with a common vision to make this possible. The women petitioned the Hon. Minister of Panchayati Raj, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyer, and presented to him their charter of demands.

THP and its partners have also identified the issue of Two Child norm as another anomaly that hinders womens’ effective participation and leadership in local governance. Several State Governments (including Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Karnataka) have imposed the conditionality of having no more than two children to be eligible for participating in local government elections. Studies conducted by THP and other NGOs show how such a qualification adversely effects women representatives in several ways. THP along with other national NGOs and networks organized a Public Tribunal on 9th-10th October where women and men from over 12 States gave testimonies of how this policy has unfairly affected them. The Tribunal was attended by nationally-recognized personalities from the field of Politics, Social Activism, Cinema and Art. Leading newspapers and media channels covered the event extensively. The panel came out strongly against coercive population policies, and demanded that policies that impose conditions on democratic participation should be revoked.

THP is also recognized by the Central Government as a nodal agency to facilitate its thinking around the issue of Training and Capacity Building for Panchayat Raj Institutions. THP will be holding the national roundtable in Rajasthan involving Central and State Ministers in December.

As we write this report, the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh teams are gearing up for a large scale and very intensive pre-election voters’ education campaign. Third round of elections are due in these two states in January-February 2005.

Andhra Pradesh: We continue to work with tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh to build the capacity of tribal women through leadership training, gender sensitization of tribal men, and building alliances among civil society organizations, citizens, and government counterparts at the village level.

A training program designed around the concerns of tribal communities - their traditions and customs - was held for 163 tribal women in August. The women confronted gender-related issues that affect their lives and livelihood. They came to a common understanding that women shoulder the majority of the responsibilities for their home, children, and farming. The next phase of training, which will be held in the next few months, will focus on the role of government and other institutions, and leadership qualities that the tribal women will need to display in order to successfully contest the local elections. This training also was an opportunity to build alliances among women from different tribal areas who do not often have a chance to gather as a group.

Arunachal Pradesh: In this state, the 152 women who have taken the Women’s Leadership Workshops have displayed enormous courage to be a part of the workshop. They have had to overcome numerous cultural and physical barriers to attend the workshops - traveling long distances, taking time off from agricultural work thus losing income, obtaining the support of the men in their family, and confronting a pervasive lack within their culture to participate in collective activity.

Assam: The heart of The Hunger Project’s recent work in Assam has been the Gaon Sabha (village meeting) Mobilization Initiative. It has become clear that participation of villagers in the village meetings is essential for panchayats to succeed and become more effective. The Gaon Sabha, the largest local government decision-making body, is often sidelined in the course of decision-making. THP organized a workshop to mobilize the people and revitalize the structure of the Gaon Sabha. Forty-seven young women and men came together for 20 days and worked with THP and a local theatre company to train them to perform in street plays - created specially to empower elected women representatives from their districts, and make the Gaon Sabha accessible to the people.

Forty-two elected women representatives participated in a Communications Workshop in Assam to strengthen their ability to communicate effectively, which is a crucial skill they have to develop as leaders in panchayats. This skill is even more critical for women, who are stepping out in public life for the first time and have almost no experience speaking with people outside their families.

Six Block-level forums for elected women representatives were organized in the Jorhat and Golaghat districts. A total of 140 women and men participated in these forums.

Gujarat: Networking with NGO groups and lobbying the government has been The Hunger Project’s focus in Gujarat. Thirty-one members of 28 NGOs attended a meeting organized by THP to discuss Panchayats, The Hunger Project’s vision for elected women representatives, and the provisions of the Panchayat Raj State Act in Gujarat.

In Kalol district, 20 women representatives met with the Panchayat secretary urging him to hold regular meetings with government officials at the block level, and stressed the importance of training for Panchayat representatives.

Thirty women secretaries from Vadodara and Bharuch districts also came together to build on their unique contribution as women in the Panchayat structure, and to facilitate women’s empowerment in local governance. This is the first time in Gujarat that the need for such a coalition was recognized.

Karnataka: From July through September 2004, five Women’s Leadership Workshops (WLWs) were organized for 231 elected women representatives and other women leaders. In addition, 19 follow up workshops were held with 668 elected women leaders and 100 other women leaders.

One of the highlights in the last few months - more than 100 elected women representatives came together to raise their voice against violence against women. They were concerned that despite the guarantees provided in the constitution, perpetrators of violence were still at large. In addition to discussing the various forms of violence, the meeting specifically focused on violence encountered by elected women representatives and women in general.

Key beliefs that keep violence against women in place were challenged. For example:

The women leaders also discussed the opportunity they have in their leadership position to address this major issue that women face in the villages.

Jammu and Kashmir: The Hunger Project’s vision in Jammu and Kashmir is to encourage women to contest over 50% of the seats up for election in 2006. Through training and mobilization, potential leaders from community groups and self-help groups are being trained to declare themselves candidates for the upcoming election. The first step in this effort began in 25 Halqa Panchayats in Ladakh.

Women’s self-help groups came together as one voice to express their feelings and mandates on the issues of gender and leadership. They also engaged in discussions on the socioeconomic status of villagers; responsibilities of elected representatives on issues of health, education, environment and food security; strengthened their awareness of social and political citizenship, and women’s participation in governance.

Maharashtra: THP-India has continued to work with - Chetna Vikas and Parivartan its NGO partners in this state. Chetna Vikas is focusing on organizing five WLW’s, follow-up workshops and field visits. These workshops will begin in October, as the women are currently busy with their agricultural duties.

Parivartan, on the other hand has expanded its activities to one more district - Chiplun. In the districts of Mandangad and Chiplun, the focus will be to organize WLW’s, building forums of women leaders and addressing issues related to advocacy. Mandangad hosted its first WLW earlier this month, where the participants said that it was the first workshop of its kind they had ever attended. They said that they experienced the same degree of love and support as they did in their mother’s home.

A new partnership in Maharashtra started in August with the Resource & Support Center for Development (RSCD). RSCD has rich experience in working with elected women representatives, and launched a campaign for women's governance in 841 villages in 30 districts. RSCD is well known for its consistent efforts on advocacy for elected women representatives.

THP-India and RSCD alliance is designed to strengthen the capacities of women leaders, identifying district women leaders as facilitators, and the formation of women leaders training team at the state level. A training of trainers will be held in October to accomplish this goal.

Madhya Pradesh: In the past six months, Madhya Pradesh has concentrated on Gram Sabha mobilization. Our 5 partner organizations selected 10 panchayats each, which they will monitor to evaluate the effectiveness of the WLW and follow-up workshops. Seventy panchayats have been selected as part of this process. It has been observed that there has been a significant increase in women’s participation at the Gram Sabha in the last 2 months. They have also been speaking out at these meetings.

A series of women’s gatherings were held in the districts of Gwalior, Raipur and Sheopur, and were attended by over 1,000 women. The prevailing sentiment was that unless women fight in unison, they would not be able to make a difference in panchayats.

Orissa: THP has been working in this state through a network of organizations. Members of this network as well as other partner organizations from the 5 districts that THP currently works in met in Bhawanipatna on July 8 to share experiences, take stock of the current work and create a future plan of action.

Similar district level meetings were held in Raygada and Kalahandi with SANGRAM and the Lok Adhikar Samakhya Networks to find new ways of working with Gram Sabhas.

At a workshop organized by our NGO partner Nari Surakshya Samiti (NSS), women representatives gained a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and recognized that lack of unity among them allowed people to exploit them. They also saw the need for a district level forum of all the women panchayat leaders, and they took the initiative to form their own district level forum.

District and block level sensitization programs are being held in Orissa with participants from all sectors of society, where women leaders have an opportunity to express their views and request support in fulfilling their responsibilities to their communities.

Tamil Nadu: THP staff and partner NGOs from around the country met in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, in early September to gain a clear understanding of capacity building in the context of Panchayat Raj and women. This meeting was held to prepare for a round table forum organized by the Ministry of Panchayat Raj to be held in December 2004. From June-July, 271 elected women representatives from Cuddalre and Tirunelveli districts participated in the WLWs. The district administration in these areas mobilized these women to attend the workshops.

THP-Tamil Nadu has been very successful in working with women leaders to create micro-plans to present to their panchayats. Their success in the districts of Pudukottai and Sivagangai has motivated other districts to initiate similar processes. Thirty-one presidents participated in a one-day workshop in July and learned the importance of preparing micro-plans at the village level.

A similar request from the District collector of Dindigul, initiated the creation of micro-plans in 16 panchayats in that area. These Panchayats were selected based on the capacity of the Panchayat President, the integrity and commitment of the elected women leaders, and community support.

Meanwhile the micro-planning process in Pudukottai district has reached the next phase. Thirteen panchayats completed their plans, and received approval from their Gram Sabhas. All these plans are compiled into one document to facilitate their dissemination to all the panchayats in Pudukottai. A workshop was held with the objective to explore the possibility of scaling up the exercise in the entire district; share the experience gained; and develop a culture of planning at grassroots with the participation of people. The District Revenue Officer and members of Tamil Nadu State planning commission presented their expert comments on these 13 plans. As we share this, the Government of Tamil Nadu has accepted and passed an order that lays special focus on micro-planning by gram panchayats, and to use them as basis for granting development funds.

Uttaranchal: 279 women attended 9 WLWs in Pauri district, while four WLWs were conducted from July-August for 132 women leaders of in Almora district. Here are some of the comments made by the participants in Almora:

“When I was coming for this workshop, some people in my village said, “We have heard of meetings that men participate in, but this is the first time we have heard of a women’s only meeting!”

“Women have clear hearts; they are transparent about their dealings. If there is anything incorrect going on, they will be the first to talk about it”

“I do not allow my husband to come to gram sabha meetings. People say all kind of things to the Panchayat President (me) and he tends to get very upset. I stay cool. It is important for the Panchayat President to remain cool.”

“Ever since I have become the Panchayat President people comment about my looks and clothes. If I wear a beautiful sari, they pass sarcastic comments. If I wear an old ordinary sari, they say ‘oh she cannot even wear a proper sari, how will she run the panchayat!”

Uttar Pradesh: Work in this state has expanded in the Mirzapur and Faizabad districts. A pre-election campaign organized by our existing partners and other NGO networks is planned for late 2004 to ensure the active participation of women in the 2005 Panchayat elections.

THP will be extremely keen to support women both at the grassroots and at the NGO level to increase their participation both in the development sector and in the political arena. We would also like to encourage other networks to play an active role as ‘watch dogs’ to ensure that various factors, including violence against women, does not hamper their active participation between now and the end of June 2005.

In Mirzapur, special focus is being given to increase women’s participation in Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha meetings, and ensuring that panchayat-related information is regularly disseminated to the women leaders through wall writings, street plays and resource mapping exercises.

In Faizabad district, PANI, our newest NGO partner is working on initiatives like women’s action in the pre-election voters’ campaign, interfacing with the panchayat health committee and organizing media workshops.

A breakthrough in fundraising happened with The Swiss Development Cooperation in India committing a total of Rs. 11.2 crores ($2.46 million) for a period 4 years from June 2004 - May 2008. This funding is towards all of THP-India’s strategy and provides a great deal of financial flexibility in our work.