Since I was a child India has been the object of my attention.  Looking back my memories bring a fixed image of Varanasi in my history book and a very young Sinthya reading Gandhi’s biography. So then there was no confusion in my mind about the country to visit to carry out my internship period. 

During the second semester of 2005 I was to do my internship as part of my studies of international relations. Among the four options available in the country, CSR’s profile became a decisive factor and sealed my choice.

The experience was great from the beginning to the end. My main assignment in GTI was a comparative study of women’s situation in Colombia and India , the result: a clear perception of the complex situation of women around the world no matter what the nationality, religion or philosophy of life.   

More than extensive academic and work experience in human rights field, the unique approach to Indian culture made this internship an immensely valuable period.   The day-to-day work time in the office, the interaction with people from other NGOs and international agencies and the field project in Sangam Vihar were very important to make this mission successful.

Now I just wish to say thank you; thousand times thank you to - one and all! 

Gracias

Sinthya Rubio

Back to TOP

Gender has been an issue of great concern in society from time immemorial. Yet, even today, India as a society has still not clearly established a respectable position for it’s women.

I spent a period of eight weeks at CSR (from May to July), which have been period of enormous learning for me. The rationale behind a summer placement, given by Delhi University is to provide students an understanding of the work culture, and to gain more than just a theoretical understanding of social issues. The eight weeks that I spent in CSR have provided me just that. An understanding of the various processes involved at work, the structured character of any task and the inter personal relationship building are aspects that I tried to imbibe here.

I had been interested in a work profile, which would involve a judicious mix of academic understanding, and administrative visualization of the planning. At CSR’s Research department I found both. Research is not an individual process, it requires group work. I have tried to value this group experience through my inputs at the department.

I was involved in a number of tasks. I spent my initial days doing a short study on the international and national funding organizations and some of their features. Creating a document that classified these organizations was a huge learning for me. Research is an area that requires financial infrastructure. While the developing countries are receiving tremendous amount of aid, there is still a tremendous gap between what this aid aspires to do and what it actually does.

Another task that I was a part of was the group research exercise of the Study on Impact Assessment of Gender Sensitisation of Law Enforcement Agencies. I was involved in the collection of research material, mainly books and manuals from key research libraries and in the content analysis of some of these manuals. After this exercise I am wholly convinced that the need for manuals for trainers on gender sensitisation is imperative. Most of the existing manuals are incomplete, full of clichés, and often do not address several key issues at all.

I also wrote a paper titled ‘Female Foeticide in India: An Overview of the Problem & Related Issues’. The paper gave me an important insight into the issue of sex selection and foeticide. This crude and inhuman form of gender discrimination has recently entered the arena of public debate and discussion. Nevertheless, the gravity of the situation demands immediate measures to be taken. The paper would be used as the discussion paper for CSR’s Interactive session on Female Foeticide, held in partnership with the National Commission for Women and UNFPA, on the 18th of July 2005.

CSR provided me wonderful opportunities to expand my understanding of the gender issue. I have interacted and learnt a lot not only from my department, but also through interaction with the gender training Institute. I would like to thank Dr Hamsa for being a wonderful guide, and Barnali and Dr Sanghita for being excellent work mates, and helping me out at various junctures. I also thank all the CSR personnel who have endured my madness for these two months.

Back to TOP

It was with some trepidation and many cautions from CSR staff that I agreed to conduct research on the Varanasi Project. Sweating through the blistering heat and trudging through the monsoon rains, I was amazed that CSR was able to keep its doors open. Though I didn't make the pilgrimage that many have made before me to the holy city of Varanasi, I was able to learn about the Varanasi Project from the CSR head office in Vasant Kunj. Through wonderful conversations with staff and terrific lunchtime debates, I felt like I quickly became a part of the CSR staff. The firsthand experience of studying such and interesting project shortly after it was completed was a fulfilling experience. I was able to convert theory into practice, bridging the important gap between academia and the real world.

Through my work at CSR, I was able to prepare a report on the Varanasi Project. Preparing that report has provided many valuable lessons for my own personal understanding of empowerment and development. Throughout my research, these lessons continued to shape my consideration of empowerment and development, and they will greatly inform my future research and Master's thesis. All of my experience working with non-governmental organisations in the past had been for health issues or political advocacy, and I had never witnessed the operation of a development agency. I was unable to intensively observe the internal operations of CSR or the various activities of the other departments, but I was curious about the collaboration that took place between the departments. Ultimately, I am grateful I was able to experience this internship at an organisation that was unlike anything I had worked with before

Back to TOP

It has been ten years ago when my life started to be spiced up by Indian chatnis, asanas and kahaniyan. Following my interest in Indian society, I joined the Indology department at Charles University in Prague as a complementation study subject to my Sociology. As I studied Indian linguistics, history, politics and literature, I was more and more positive that the most interesting, fascinating & mystifying topic within Indian subcontinent studies is social issues, which allow rising numerable questions about human rights, underprivileged classes and particularly position of women. For years I have dreamt about working for an NGO in India and putting my bookish knowledge on India in practice…

My time came in the winter 2005 when I joined CSR to participate in a child rape research. And well, this time experience was completely unusual and incomparably deep in comparison with my previous tourist sojourns to India. Of course, India gives a day after day opportunity to everyone to fight for its place in the sun but to disclose its intrinsical joys too. That is what I experienced till the bottom in the office and out of it indeed.

From the very beginning, I appreciated very friendly and comfortable environment in the CSR where both jokes as well as working enthusiasm were not missing. I have learned here a lot about hidden aspects of Indian life and society and found answers for some of my questions. True, thinking every day about the children being raped threw some unwanted shadows on my general perception of Indian society, but fortunately it always disappeared soon…
It was a phenomenal experience for me to be a part of Indian working team and observe how things can be done or not. So far, half a year is a long time to see but little time to learn enough. I believe I haven’t got all that I had asked for but that what I really needed. Thank you.

Back to TOP

I joined CSR as an intern in January 2004 and have been working in the research department for a little over one month. My educational background is Social Sciences, specifically Politics but with a little bit of Development Studies and Economics, in addition to French. I spent some time studying in France and really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people from many different countries and to experience life in France for a while. This spurred my decision to search for work experience abroad after my degree had finished. Through AIESEC I was able to find this internship at CSR, which I felt was an appropriate continuation from my studies and a great opportunity to see how development works first-hand.

The current research project at CSR is a mid-term evaluation of a development programme, which has been implemented in 10 villages in Jammu to help the women and children in the communities there. The programme aims to improve health and education, and to help income generation and empowerment of women. The data has recently been collected and I will be helping to collate this and draw up the report. There are two similar projects to be carried out further into the year and I hope to be able to become more actively involved in the preliminary proposal and fieldwork stages.

In addition to helping the research team on their current projects, I am doing some independent research on the topic of Gender and Democracy with the guidance of Dr. Ranjana Kumari, CSR’s director. Even just one month at CSR (and in India itself) has been enough to show me how important this issue is and how many countries are affected by gender inequalities at the governance level. I have already learnt quite a lot about the subject, but the more I learn, the more I realise how much there is left to understand. I recently attended a conference partly organised by CSR, where I listened to many speakers on the subject of democracy and specifically a session on Gender and Democracy. This was the first time I had attended such a conference and I hope that my internship at CSR will provide me with more opportunities such as this, as it was encouraging to be in the presence of so many people who were so passionate and so knowledgeable about the topic.

My internship is not just about research, I have the opportunity to see how different departments at CSR work too. All of the interns here have been invited to attend the street plays organised by the Gender Training Institute and visit the counselling centres in the local communities in Delhi. It was an amazing experience to see such a different side of the city and to interact with the kids and the workers in the counselling centres. One of the main reasons for me coming to do an internship in India was to be able to experience a different culture to that of my own, through living and working within the community. Just living in Delhi, it can be easy to be blind to some of the things that are parallel to your life here. CSR is helping me to explore other aspects of the city and I hope that during my year here, I will be able to visit some of CSR’s centres outside of Delhi and see how the organisation works to better people’s lives in other areas of India too.

CSR has a good office environment and the staff are great fun. I enjoy my work, but I love getting to know everybody here and I definitely look forward to lunch everyday, as we all share our food and I get to try many more dishes than I perhaps would otherwise! The great thing about having other interns here at CSR is that there are people to share your new impressions with and to support you with the challenges that you confront. So far, India has been something of an adventure, but a pretty amazing one. Everyday brings a new experience, some good and some bad, but it’s far more interesting than life at home, I can’t wait to see what the next 11 months will bring!

Back to TOP

All my life I have had the deepest desire to travel to India and work on a project that would empower the lives of women. I am so grateful to the Centre for Social Research for giving me the opportunity to not only work within such an interesting sector, but to be given the chance to see, with my own eyes, the current reality of what happens at the grass root level.

I embarked on a journey to the villages of Varanasi on Monday 15th to Thursday 19th August 2004 to determine for myself the current situation of the Non-Formal Education (NFE) system, and work in developing links with Australian schools. This was my first opportunity to see a grass-root village and gain an understanding of the every day life of the people.

Whilst visiting several of the villages I was given the chance to speak with many members of the community. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, and I was able to gain an understanding into their lives. Simply by walking through the village the effects of CSR’s initiatives are very obvious, with the Women’s Self Help Groups making Bindis, selling flowers or caring for the goats. I saw first hand the tangible results of the project and how the lives of many women and girls are impacted through empowerment.

A significant subject that I was confronted by was that of Marriage. Marriage is an important social institution in India, at first this was very difficult for me to overcome, it seems such a revolving circle of life for a female. When a girl reaches the age of 12 – 15 years she becomes engaged, then at the age of 18 she moves in with her husband, has children and the entire cycle begins again. Such as a 14-year-old girl from the Paterwan Village, her teachers told us that she has just passed her Class 5 exams and is the smartest in her school. When asked what she is going to do with her life, she replied that she doesn’t want to do anything; she must marry her husband and be a wife. By empowering women and girls CSR is in effect giving females choices. These village women are being taught about health, the importance of education, reproduction, income generating activities, and general awareness of their rights.

CSR is making a difference in so many peoples lives, not only in the lives of the little girls that go to the NFE schools, but the attitude of the entire family and community is consequently affected. I believe in this project, and could see very clearly the wonderful affects of empowerment and the confidence building in the hearts of each of the girls that attended the NFE schools.

I am so grateful to CSR for giving me this opportunity to visit the grass roots and see for myself the current reality. I especially want to thank Dr. Kumari for permitting