The Hunger Project-India

April-September 2007
By: Rita Sarin, Country Director 

Emphasizing its core strategy of strengthening the leadership of elected women leaders across 14 states, The Hunger Project has built the capacities of 65,000 elected women leaders to date. These women Panchayat leaders are now exercising their leadership and impacting change in their villages, affecting the lives of 6.5 million people in rural India.

To facilitate the leadership of these women leaders in each year of their five year election tenures, The Hunger Project India also focuses on training through: running needs-based workshops, facilitating the formation of federations, and actively strengthening women’s empowerment in the election processes in the states that are going in for elections.

The Cycle of Empowerment

Years I and II

Inspecting teaching aids at a WLW.

Stepping forth as leaders, elected women representatives of Bihar (elected in May 2006), Tamil Nadu (elected in October 2006), Gujarat (elected in December 2006) and Orissa (elected in February 2007) have participated in the Women’s Leadership Workshops immediately following the elections. The WLWs are conducted in 45 different languages and dialects and are designed keeping in mind the cultural context of the women leaders from each state. The workshops aim to motivate and inspire the elected women leaders by building confidence and self esteem so that they are able to fulfill their responsibilities and be effective in their constituencies. In the first two years the women struggled hard to change the status quo in their villages, fighting against patriarchy, the cynical social mindset, and caste, class and gender discriminations. Following the women’s leadership workshops the women get an understanding of the issues that need attention. They go back to their villages to prioritize the development needs and actively address social and economic issues.

On the invitation of Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), The Hunger Project is collaborating as a resource agency to train the master trainers of CBOs (community-based organization) Mahila Margdarsha. Working in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state, this partner organization aims to strengthen and build the capacities of the Panchayat women (who are predominantly tribal). In 2005, The Hunger Project had withdrawn from Andhra Pradesh as the partnership with SAMATA had closed. The Government of Sikkim has invited The Hunger Project to train the elected women representatives in the state after the elections, which are due to take place in October 2007. It is a great honour for The Hunger Project and we aim to train all 398 elected women representatives in the first three months following the elections. Sikkim has a reservation of 40% for women in the Panchayats. In the coming ten years The Hunger Project aims to strengthen the leadership of a cadre of women leaders such that there is a critical mass whose voice is forceful, and will demand policy changes, equitable resource allocation and practice a more pro-development leadership.

Village meeting.

Years III and IV In the third year of their election, the women realize the strength of a collective voice. In Himachal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, elected women leaders are working towards building a federation for themselves from where they can raise and voice issues that are of concern to them. The Hunger Project facilitates the formation of these block and district level federations, training EWRs (elected women representatives) in the processes of federation building, networking, and prioritization. Year V In the states going in for elections, The Hunger Project has been emphatically pushing the agenda of gender inclusive electoral processes. The pre-election campaign is a strategy that has been adopted by The Hunger Project to encourage women in rural India to participate both as candidates and voters, and adopt clean and fair electoral processes. Voters are asked to select genuine candidates and vote for people with integrity and commitment who will work for the welfare of the village. The campaign is also aimed at raising awareness regarding the election process from the first stage of nomination of a candidate up to the declaration of results.

Preparing for a federation meeting.

Each campaign has been designed to raise awareness which will hopefully lead to a clean election process and dispel rumors with regard to bogus voter lists, controversy over general seats being equivalent to male seats etc. The campaign uses audio visual tools (posters, films, songs, booklets) to disseminate information amongst villagers. The primary outcome of every Pre Election Campaign in all the states has been a large voter turnout, especially of women voters. There are also instances of women contesting for general seats and successfully facing opposition from men who have bribed and enticed the voters with liquor and gifts. Pre-election campaigns have certainly facilitated the process of building a strong cadre of potential women leaders who are well equipped with information and skills, and are fearless in their journey of leadership.

The Hunger Project is presently planning Pre Election campaigns in the states of Uttaranchal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

In Assam, Jammu, and Kashmir, Panchayat elections have been delayed. The Hunger Project, along with its partner organizations, has been working hard to hasten the declaration of the election dates. Where elections are delayed, women candidates loose ground very quickly as they do not have staying power in the absence of the support from family and political parties.

Highlights and Key Interventions

Sarojini Naidu Prize

The seventh Sarojini Naidu Prize jury met to select the Prize Winners for 2007. The Sarojini Naidu Prize 2007 focused on the “Role of Women Panchayat Leaders in Bringing Education to Every Child.” A total of 1,367 entries poured in from Assam to Kerala, showcasing the colossal efforts being made by the elected women in providing education to the children in their Panchayats. Reading the shortlisted articles, the jury was in awe of the depth of work that the elected women leaders have undertaken regarding education in the absence of resources and proper devolution. The following prizes were given:

Hindi Category

Mr Bhanwar Megwanshi for his article ‘They want to work for the education of Children’ published in Vividha Features and Dainik Lokmat between May – June 2007

English Category

Ms Teresa Rehman for her article ‘Lead Kindly, Light’ published in Tehelka on 30^th June 2007

Other Indian Languages – Malayalam

Mr VR Jeotish Kumar for his article ‘Silent Revolution’ published in 4 parts in Vanitha magazine between 15 – 30 June 2007

Media

The Hunger Project today is seen as a resource agency where best practices in self-governance and decentralization are documented and archived. The Hunger Project has struggled to change the cynical mindset of the people regarding the role of elected women representatives in local governance. We have facilitated extensive and continuous coverage of success stories of women in Panchayati Raj by the media, including mainstream print and electronic media. More than 5,800 articles have been submitted by journalists for the Sarojini Naidu Prize till 2007.

At the 2006 Sarojini Naidu Prize ceremony, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Hon. Minister of Panchayati Raj (MOPR) acknowledged The Hunger Project’s work with the media, saying that The Hunger Project’s efforts with the media had put his own ministry’s media department to shame. He said that his department was not able to find one worthwhile story from the media, but The Hunger Project’s Sarojini Naidu Prize has been able to attract over 4,000 entries in the last five years. He requested that The Hunger Project allow him to use these stories in his Ministry’s ‘State of Panchayati Raj report’ to be released on November 2006.

The Hunger Project had recently been invited by the Government to do a two day media workshop for empanelled film makers of MOPR. The workshop, conducted by The Hunger Project’s own staff, focused on the need to bring out the positive aspects of Panchayats, decentralization, and women’s leadership.

Great strides have been made in the electronic medium. Orissa has aired a 13 episode interactive programme for elected women representatives. Similarly Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are evaluating options. The radio programmes help to generate awareness on leadership practices as well as ways to access government schemes.

Similarly, in television, prime news channel Lok Sabha TV visited Karnataka and produced a documentary on the lives, struggles, challenges, and achievements of the elected women representatives. These leaders were all trained by The Hunger Project.

Networking

Rita Sarin, Country Director of The Hunger Project India went on a Government of India delegation to Lahore at the invitation of the Pakistani Government. The delegates participated in the first ever India Pakistan Symposium on Local Governance.

Institution Building

The staff of The Hunger Project India met in a retreat designed to take stock of the progress over the last six months and also to discuss the several action research undertaken in the different states. New team members were inducted and the retreat provided an excellent opportunity to share and learn from each other’s experience.

Hunger Project-India staff at the retreat.

National Platform for Promoting Decentralization

A structured discussion of the need for a national level platform on decentralization in India has been facilitated by The Hunger Project over the past year. An advisory committee, chaired by the Secretary, Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, has formed. This consists of academics, government representatives, training institutions, people who have been elected representatives as well as civil society. The national platform is envisaged to work in the domains of knowledge creation and policy advocacy. It will serve as a single window towards informing and influencing decision makers within governments and donors agencies.  It will also consolidate and share knowledge with academics, civil society activists and elected representatives. Two meetings of the advisory committee have been held thus far this year and a number of consultations at the state and national level are planned in the near future.

Collaboration with SALA IDA

As a step towards implementing the Swedish cooperation strategy for India 2005 – 2009, SIDA and SALA IDA (an umbrella NGO) would like to combine the vast Swedish experience in local governance and decentralization with The Hunger Project’s field experience in Panchayats so as to promote and strengthen the decentralization process in India. The state of Karnataka has been identified where the relevant areas of cooperation will be taken forward. The initial dialogues have taken place between SIDA, The Hunger Project and SALA IDA. The project aims to start in the first week of December 2007.