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Promotion of Women's Rights through Network, Lobbying, Advocacy and Capacity Building
This project based on the human
right approach, emphasizes on providing minimum
condition of living to the participants with dignity. It
also aims at providing opportunities for peaceful living
and development of full potential of participants.
The project is supported by the
Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO),
Netherland.
| The project aims at promotion of
women's human rights by capacity building of the
women's collectives, developing their networks both
at the grass root level as well as at the higher
level for effective lobbying and advocacy.
This project has two components i.e. Crisis
Intervention Centers in Delhi and Gender Resource
Centre in Varanasi. |
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The first component of project endeavors at providing a life of dignity and justice to the women within the family, community and in the society at large in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
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The second part of the project aims
at capacity building of civil society organizations
at the grass root level by imparting gender
mainstreaming training so that gender could be
incorporated in the development process.
Both the
project aims at creation of situation in which women
can realize their full potential for peaceful and
dignified life. |
Focus of the Project:
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Promotion of
women's rights as Human Rights
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Elimination of all forms of violence
against women, special attention on Domestic Violence
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Mobilize Community Based organization
and leaders for strengthen their network and capacity
for prevention of violence
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Promotion of women's economic self
reliance by building the capacity of existing Self-
Help Groups
Reproductive Child Health
Awareness Program
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
India's progress on the health front is
a cause for great concern. Here are some key indicators:
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India has one of the highest levels of
maternal mortality in the world. Maternal deaths in
India account for almost 25% of the world's
childbirth-related deaths.
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Almost half of all our children under
the age of five are malnourished and 34% of newborns are
underweight.
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Roughly half the children in the country
do not receive complete immunization.
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The majority of births (58.0%) in India
are still unattended by trained persons.
The project
undertaken envisages reduction in Maternal Motility Rate
and Infant Mortality Rate in accordance with the
Millinium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Tenth Five
Year Plan by providing knowledge and information to the
adolescent girls (12 to 18 years) and women (in the age
group of 19 to 30 years) about the reproductive child
health issue. This is the age group, which requires
utmost attention. It is observed that in the absence of
knowledge and awareness, the impact of RCH programs has
not yet yielded desired results. Moreover, due to lack
of awareness and knowledge about RCH programme being
implemented by government and other agencies, has
resulted into apathy towards the programme.
We are implementing this project on Reproductive child
Health Awareness to adolescent girls and women in four
villages of Chiraigaon Block (Mokalpur, Amba, Mustafabad
and Chhitauni.) of Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh .
The project has been sanctioned by Department of Science
and Technology, Government of India.
CSR's
Development Model for Empowerment
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CSR has selected the following
three areas to focus on:
1. Political
Empowerment
Women must be empowered to participate politically
as the social equals of men. In the Panchayati
Raj system, women should not only contest for
a position within the 33% reservation for women,
they must also be able to fight strongly in
the elections for unreserved seats. Therefore
CSR's attention is necessarily turned towards
capacity building and awareness amongst women
about: relevant governmental schemes; the structure
and function of Panchayats; existing development
programmes; and legal provisions which have
implications on women's lives, such as that
related to the education of the girl child,
child marriage, dowry, and divorce etc. Through
training sessions and disseminating information
and about the institutional recognition of the
rights of women; we hope women will begin to
believe in themselves and the need for their
rights to exist on more than paper.
2. Economic Empowerment
One way the goal of the economic empowerment
of women can be strived for is through the organisation
of self help groups - Mahila Mandals. These
focus on credit and thrift activities, related
to meeting social financial needs and investments
for initiating micro enterprises. Mahila Mandals
provide the financial and institutional development
for initiating economic activities, and offer
appropriate fora for the delivery of trainings
in trades and skills necessary for income generation.
Economic empowerment of women does not mean
just poverty alleviation. It is essential to
bring incomes into the hands of women as this
promotes financial decision making and expenditure
independent of men.
3. Sexual Empowerment
The sexual empowerment of women cannot be realized
by promoting reproductive and child health alone.
Decisions about women's bodies are so often
not made by the women themselves, and we must
address the social roots of why this happens:
why women have no say in the number of children
they have or the spacing of them; why their
rights to personal safety and bodily integrity
are so frequently breached; why their well-being
is so poorly regarded relative to the need The
social biases, which result in preferences for
male children, female infanticide/ foeticide
etc., negatively effect both men and women.
These can be revealed through training sessions,
research projects and advocacy campaigns; on
issues such as domestic violence; rape; sex-selective
abortion; abuse of the girl-child and sexual
harassment in the workplace. Women must be encourage
to have the confidence to assert their sexual
rights; and men must not be alienated in the
effort to achieve this as they play a central
role in its realization.
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