We as a nation have borne the brunt of the collapse of our health system, and failure of our leadership. I would personally like to extend my condolences to the families of those, who lost the battle to COVID19 and paid with their lives.
At CSR we have personally been caught in this turmoil. While the team is recovering, I am proud to share that even while working through our own health challenges, my team and I have been able to extend a helping hand to our communities, and shown actual proof of resilience.
The team adapted well to the hybrid model of work, shifting our initiatives online for digital safety trainings, round the clock e-counselling services, holding Webinars on essential topics, as well as successfully carried out campaigns like Health kits’ distribution and our Sports for Girls program fundraiser. We have used social media as an important tool to drive multiple campaigns and garner support for all our causes. All our initiatives are working well on time, which in itself is very encouraging and a bright ray of light in these dark times.
Since the pandemic broke in 2020, CSR has been working with 30 NGOs in Delhi and Haryana to train 250 community health workers and support their frontline efforts, by organizing dry ration distribution drives, providing 8,000+ hygiene kits to our communities, and offer counselling resources to victims of domestic violence.
In response to the second wave of COVID, CSR is leveraging this network and will be working for both immediate relief and year-round support for our communities, to recover from this crisis and promote vaccination uptake. We're also well positioned to expand this work in areas of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and are happy to work with partners in those states.
I request you to reach out to me if you are interested in supporting this work and I will be following up with you personally to explore ways we can collaborate on this agenda. Any support you can contribute to these efforts will be greatly appreciated.
I conclude my message with these words by Marie Curie, a great mind of our times - “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less “.
We resolve to use our learning from this time, and apply it in a way that expedites our transition to a stable, violence-free, and gender-just society for one and all. We need to work together, now more than ever, because TOGETHER WE CAN DEFEAT THIS PANDEMIC!
Health kit distribution drive in one of the targeted disstricts
Centre for Social Research (CSR) in collaboration with the High Commission of Canada in India has commenced the implementation of a program to support “Women’s Relief Response to the COVID-19 pandemic through advocacy, capacity building, and providing access to support services” in 6 districts of Delhi (North west, South East, North Delhi, Central Delhi, New Delhi & Shahdara).
Through this program CSR has provided relief and redressal services to the Women, youth, Frontline Healthcare Workers and other community Members. We have conducted capacity building trainings on the DV (Domestic Violence) Act, E-Counselling of SGBV survivors, the POSH Act 2013 (Prevention & Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women at workplace), health & hygiene and psychosocial support for mental wellbeing of the frontline healthcare workers with, Dr. Nimesh Desai, Director of NIMHANS.
CSR has impacted more than 36,800 individuals directly and indirectly through these particular project efforts. On the outbreak of COVID-19 we distributed 1800 hygiene kits in 6 districts of Delhi to counter the threat posed by the pandemic.
The Centre for Social Research continued with its Skill Department program during these unprecedented times, we revamped our training program and moved our traditional classroom training to online sessions to keep the trainees safe and healthy at home. Given the spread of the COVID-19, education, all across has been disrupted and we believe that learning should not stop even during these uncertain times. Individuals can attain better learning experiences through our online Co-Ed Office Assistant Training Program under the Skill India Initiative.
The team is providing the trainees access to expert faculty, online learning resources, Emodules and best practices. We understand virtual learning is new therefore we provide assistance to our trainees throughout our weekly training sessions. We encourage everyone to utilize this time productively by learning new skills. We have successfully trained approx 60 girls and boys during this quarter.
CSR understands the importance of Skilling & Up-skilling during the pandemic.
On 8th February 2021; CSR team including Dr.Manasi Mishra, Ms. Poushali Kundu and Ms.Niharika Singh organized an online trainingsession on Prevention & Prohibition of SexualHarassment of Women at Workplace (POSH)Act, 2013, in association with Gender TrainingInstitute for 25 district officials of Internal-localcomplaint committees in the Kurukshetradistrict, Haryana. The session marked severalpoints for district officials i.e., as an official itshould be ensured that any sexual harassmenteither verbal or physical is not melted out tothe colleagues, while interacting with womensensitivity must be respected and any cruderemark involving women must be avoided. As anemployee one must ensure that you behaveappropriately with the colleagues and in anykind of sexual violence one must inform theSexual Harassment Committee at yourworkplace. A Pre-Testing questionnaire wasdistributed among the participants and latertranslated into a statistical analysis. heoutcome of the training was enhancedawareness of the law and an open forumdiscussion on gender equality and sexualharassment.
On 2nd April 2021, Centre for Social Researchconducted a Gender Sensitization and POSHtraining workshop with students of IIT Jammu.
The training was conducted online viaZoom with approximately 73 attendees.Within the training six major themes werecovered - Distinction between Gender andSex, Gender Bias, Unlearning Gender roles,Gender and Language, Gender Gap,Gender and Power. Dr. Manasi Mishra andher co-trainees utilized interactive trainingtechniques and activities to make theattendees understand these themes andquestion gendered assumptions that aredeeply ingrained in our psyche. The secondphase of the training focused exclusively onPOSH, its history, importance andapplication. Dr. Manasi Mishra walked theattendees through the various stages ofsexual harassment policies in India from theVishakha guidelines to Prevention &Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Womenat Workplace (POSH) Act 2013. The finalQ&A session also promoted candiddialogue on such a sensitive topic andbrought forth learning opportunities for theattendees and trainers.
CSR’s Crisis Intervention Centre (CIC) in Delhi enables individuals and families experiencing orwitnessing violence in their home or elsewhere. We provide free, confidential support servicessuch as mediation, emergency assistance and more. We are the member of 27 internalcomplaints committee and during the pandemic our CIC has registered approximately 58 casesexclusive of 5 Sexual Harassment cases. Centre for Social Research is the nodal agency of National commission for Women (NCW) inproviding E-counseling to survivors of SGBV. We have an established network of 30 NGOs toexchange information and provide survivors and victims’ a comprehensive range of services(e.g., Protection Officer, hospitals, police stations, shelter homes) also referral links for legaland psychological support.
Dr. Manasi Mishra, HoD, Research & Knowledge Management joined as a Panellist onWomen Power Connect’s Webinar on ‘Women’s Leadership in Times of COVID-19’ heldon 26th March 2021. She delivered a lecture on “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: SkillTraining for Office Assistants”. Students from Lady Irwin College, CSR’s Skill Trainingprogramme and faculty members from different colleges of Delhi Universityparticipated in it.
Women's access to public healthcare
In March, we held an online roundtable discussion with key stakeholders on “Women’s Access toPublic Health Care Facilities” officiated by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) where 200participants joined in from different localities of Delhi. At the end of the project, CSR alsoconducted an online consultation with all its stakeholders, ASHA, Aanganwadi workers, ANMsand active community members from 6 project districts as a closure activity to review all theinterventions that were undertaken throughout the program, the best practices and thechallenges confronted.
The Gender, Water, and Climate Change department mixes women empowerment, environmentalism, advocacy, and sustainable development. It tries to understand how women across the country, especially in rural areas, who are primarily responsible for the collection, distribution and management of water are severely affected by the changing climate and subsequent impact on water resources.
The department has been working on numerous projects in Rajasthan district which focus on enabling women, especially Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) to develop awareness and technical understanding to become leaders in conversations revolving around water.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown across India lead to hindrances given a lack of proper digital infrastructure to communicate with the communities/individuals affected. However, the department was able to successfully transfer their work online and with the help of the local partners close the projects, even conducting consultations on a state and national level for the project with HannsSeidel Sifting.
Since January 2021, the department, despite the hurdles of physical distancing, was able to conclude all the projects as envisioned pre-pandemic. Additionally, the department actively made efforts towards building new partnerships in 2020 which are coming through in 2021.
The Gender, Water and Climate Change department is happy to share that with the onset of 2021 ts efforts towards getting CSR empanelled for Jal Jeevan Mission implementation in Punjab has been realized. And so CSR is officially an implementation partner for Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS). Similarly; CSR received its empanelment with SMEC and entered into a joint venture to submit a proposal to Uttar Pradesh Power Distribution Network Rehabilitation Project.
Furthermore; the department has its joint venture proposal on Capacity building program for Elected Women Representatives (EWR’s) ofrural Odisha (Orissa) with Piramal Sarvajal being the technical partner in final stage of conversation with Jindal Steel (West).
We have successfully completed over 168 workshops with schools all over the nation and have trained more than 20,370 students so far since September 2020. We continue to conduct these training regularly and encourage students to refer to our Online Safety and Security Toolkit for more details and regularly update the toolkit with the latest developments, new information packets and relevant links to other resources.
We have successfully completed over 168 workshops with schools all over the nation and have trained more than 20,370 students so far since September 2020. We continue to conduct these training regularly and encourage students to refer to our Online Safety and Security Toolkit for more details and regularly update the toolkit with the latest developments, new information packets and relevant links to other resources.
The module has now been translated in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu & Kannada. We have also collaborated with renowned educational and child’s rights organizations like CRY, Pratham, Teach for India, Deepalya, and Wonder Parenting Moms. Through them we have been able to cover regions like Delhi & Haryana, North East, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. We were able to successfully train hundreds of children ranging from ages 10-18 years, from remote parts of the country. Sessions were conducted in Hindi, English, Marathi, and Kannada.
here are many more organizations with which collaborations are in the pipeline. Our efforts on social media with regular and consistent educational and informative content, have played a big hand in garnering support in terms of spreading the message and organizational collaborations. Thousands of pieces of original content have been created/posted over the span of the projects.
To join us in this endeavour to make the online spaces safe, secure, and inclusive for effective engagement, fill the form below and we’ll get in touch with you with further details.
Social media in today’s times is not only a place to exchange messages but a place of information dissemination, access and global participation. It is an instrument, if use deffectively, has the power to harness the potential of the youth and direct them towards civic participation.
However women’s’ and girls’ representation on social media lags significantly behind that of men and boys in India. And COVID19 has deepened this digital divide further. Online harassment and bullying, parental concerns about whom girls are engaging with, and negative online experiences can limit women’s willingness and ability to express themselves well. Many leave the platforms entirely, rather than suffer abuse. In this way, social media has become a place where women’s voices are not adequately represented and women are not fully empowered to participate. This is a cause of great concern and it is essential to build youth capacity to engage safely and effectively in online activities and to foster effective stakeholder and government response to create an enabling environment for women’s online participation. For this purpose CSR organized a panel discussion with industry experts, to effectively identify the issues on the ground and help us build a concrete plan for combating them.
The event was a great success with participation of Global Online Safety experts like Anne Collier (founder and executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative) , Marlyn Tadros(founder of Virtual Activism – and its project MENGOs [Middle East NGOs: Center for Knowledge Society]), Lucy Thomas (founder of Project Rockit) and Dr. Ranjana Kumari, (Director CSR, India).The event was moderated by Jyoti Vadehra, the Head of Media and Communications at CSR, India.
There were several very important points raised during the hour long panel discussion. A well-rounded global perspective was maintained and important useful recommendations made. CSR aims to publish a recommendation document as a result of this discussion and address it to all stakeholders responsible for making a positive change, like government agencies, media organizations, educational institutions, CSOs and individual activists
Girls’ representation in social media lags significantly behind boys in India. Online harassment and bullying, parental concerns about who girls are engaging with, and negative online experiences can limit young women’s willingness to express themselves on social media. Many leave the platforms entirely, rather than suffer abuse and harassment. In this way, social media has become a place where women’s voices are not adequately represented and women are not fully empowered to participate. It is essential to build youth capacity to engage safely and effectively in online activities, and to foster effective stakeholder and government response to create an enabling environment for women’s online participation.
For this purpose we at CSR have collaborated with Twitter India to organize workshops with university students all across the country with the aim to support young women’s engagement in civic dialogue on social media and improved government engagement on issues of digital gender equality.
We have held 3 workshops so far with students of Miranda House, Kalindi College, TERI University, Delhi and St. Pious Degree and PG College for Women, Telangana.
Ms. Faye D’Souza graced us with her presence for our premiere workshop. With her vastexperience of working as a successful journalist for almost 2 decades, she was able to impartwords of wisdom to all participants and encourage them to participate and exercise their rightto freedom of expression, especially online.
FEMINIST GLOSSARY
Centre Social Research’s English language Feminist Glossary Dictionary is developed by Shruti Das and edited by Jyoti Vadehra, along with the collective expertise and experiences of various feminist educators, scholars, organizations, activists and the entire grassroots communities. The glossary is organized into eight with the intention to conceptualize and educate the foundation of feminism, its intersectionality, and various ever evolving branches.
WEBSITE UPDATION
To highlight the important work team CSR has been doing, even while struggling with the pandemic, we have worked to upgrade our website. The updated website now is, not only visually appealing but easier to navigate, user friendly, faster and more secure.The homepage highlights the COVID Relief Response work team CSR is working hard on, along with our regular active projects. It helps us increase exposure to CSR, bring awareness to our cause, and helps boost funding, among other operations.
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Through our dedicated 20+ social media handles, on various platforms, we create regular content and posts to maintain awareness and interaction about all the causes we work on. And continue our efforts to host online discourse and discussions with experts and our followers through tweetchats about online safety, domestic violence, mental health wellness, and India’sproblem of an infodemic of misinformation, women’s safety in times of a global pandemic.
Following are few of the recent and on-going campaigns we have worked on:
#WomenCelebratingWomen is an initiative for women around the world to share their take on womanhood. Rules: record this in a video, post it with the hashtag or send it to us in DM and get featured on our social handles. Come on ladies, let's make it grand! #InternationalWomensDaypic.twitter.com/8p4T73qJAh
Health kit distribution drive in one of the targeted disstricts
CSR’s Crisis Intervention Centre (CIC) in Delhi enables individuals and families experiencing orwitnessing violence in their home or elsewhere. We provide free, confidential support servicessuch as mediation, emergency assistance and more. We are the member of 27 internalcomplaints committee and during the pandemic our CIC has registered approximately 58 casesexclusive of 5 Sexual Harassment cases. Centre for Social Research is the nodal agency of National commission for Women (NCW) inproviding E-counseling to survivors of SGBV. We have an established network of 30 NGOs toexchange information and provide survivors and victims’ a comprehensive range of services(e.g., Protection Officer, hospitals, police stations, shelter homes) also referral links for legaland psychological support.
At CSR we have personally been caught in this turmoil. While the team is recovering, I am proud to share that even while working through our own health challenges, my team and I have been able to extend a helping hand to our communities, and shown actual proof of resilience.
The team adapted well to the hybrid model of work, shifting our initiatives online for digital safety trainings, round the clock e-counselling services, holding Webinars on essential topics, as well as successfully carried out campaigns like Health kits’ distribution and our Sports for Girls program fundraiser. We have used social media as an important tool to drive multiple campaigns and garner support for all our causes. All our initiatives are working well on time, which in itself is very encouraging and a bright ray of light in these dark times.
Since the pandemic broke in 2020, CSR has been working with 30 NGOs in Delhi and Haryana to train 250 community health workers and support their frontline efforts, by organizing dry ration distribution drives, providing 8,000+ hygiene kits to our communities, and offer counselling resources to victims of domestic violence.
In response to the second wave of COVID, CSR is leveraging this network and will be working for both immediate relief and year-round support for our communities, to recover from this crisis and promote vaccination uptake. We're also well positioned to expand this work in areas of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and are happy to work with partners in those states.
I request you to reach out to me if you are interested in supporting this work and I will be following up with you personally to explore ways we can collaborate on this agenda. Any support you can contribute to these efforts will be greatly appreciated.
I conclude my message with these words by Marie Curie, a great mind of our times - “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less “.
We resolve to use our learning from this time, and apply it in a way that expedites our transition to a stable, violence-free, and gender-just society for one and all. We need to work together, now more than ever, because TOGETHER WE CAN DEFEAT THIS PANDEMIC!