Director's Message

DR RANJANA KUMARI
With some sense of relief, I am writing this, as we may be moving out of the pandemic and entering the recovery phase globally. The collective efforts of each and every stakeholder should be to dedicate their lives towards a sustainable and inclusive future. We have survived an environment of anxiety, uncertainty, and fear, where so far material greed has been driving people. Now the Covid reset should lead us to ask for less, use less and take care of our planet till our last breath.

I am proud to share that our team at Centre For Social Research has been dedicatedly working towards contributing to building a sustainable community. Under our COVID-19 relief response and recovery, Phase III, we reached out to all the 11 districts of Delhi and 5 Gender critical districts in Haryana. Through this program, we provided Relief and Redressal services to Women, Youth, Frontline Healthcare Workers, and Community Members. More than 15,000 people were directly and indirectly reached.

As we all know this Pandemic period has severely affected everyone, but women and children were neglected and suffered domestic violence on women increased manifold and on the other hand, their access to support services also lacked. During this time of crisis, our team did handholding of the victims of Domestic Violence. CSR as the nodal agency of the National Commission for Women (NCW) provided E-counseling to survivors of Gender-Based Violence. In this quarter our Crisis Intervention Centre registered 42 domestic violence cases and supported women who faced discrimination and mental & physical abuses.

Moving ahead, our research team conducted evidence-based research to understand the gendered impact of COVID-19. According to one of our findings there exists a gender gap in vaccination drive and only 47% of the respondents had both the vaccination shots. Misinformation regarding vaccination prevails, pregnant and lactating women still do not have clear information.

During this quarter, CSR also initiated a research study in partnership with The Asia Foundation to examine how Gender Mainstreaming can add value to India’s foreign policy engagement, focusing on India’s engagement with other SAARC nations.

Throughout the quarter, CSR's team working on Online Safety and Security issues has been conducting workshops on Digital Safety & Online Well-Being for school students. Since last decade we have successfully trained more than 100,000 students across 26 states of India, and the project has moved into the second phase with our partner, Facebook India.

Similarly, with support from Twitter India, our team has conducted 20 virtual workshops on Digital Citizenship and Civic Participation for Gender Equality, in English, Hindi, Kannada, and Marathi languages with the youth across India. With a primary agenda of creating an inclusive internet providing opportunities to women and young girls and promoting participation in online spaces . More than 4000 youth were reached during this quarter.

Believing in the power of "Social Media for Social Good", our dedicated social media team focused on bringing important issues to the forefront through a diverse set of content and campaigns. In this quarter, #WomenInSports #SaveAfghanistan #CareForClimate & #iSupportWRB are a few campaigns successfully carried out that garnered immense support on all social media platforms.

Lastly, I would like to invite you to subscribe to our CSR Podcast on Anchor and Spotify platforms-" UNITE FOR EQUALITY" to listen in to the issues we are raising with youth and mentors from different sectors.

With our committed enthusiastic team taking charge, I look forward to the last quarter of this year achieving important milestones.

Women’s Relief Response during COVID

Centre for Social Research (CSR) in collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy, New Zealand's Embassy, Australian Aid, and The Asia Foundation, New Delhi has been continuing its efforts under COVID-19 relief response and recovery, Phase III in all the 11 districts of Delhi and 5 gender critical districts of Haryana.

Through this program, CSR is providing relief and redressal services to Women, Youth, Frontline Healthcare Workers, and other Community Members. We have conducted capacity - building training on sexual harassment at the workplace and COVID-19 response and recovery training in 16 targeted districts so far and have reached around 1000+ Frontline healthcare workers and community members.

We have conducted 14 youth workshops wih 240 youth champions volunteers in this quarter followed by mobilization drives, awareness generation campaigns, and data collection via youth champions. Street theatres will be organized to mobilize people towards getting people vaccinated, especially women. It was helpful in busting the myths surrounding vaccination and its side effects. More than 5000 people were directly or indirectly reached. CSR has been relentlessly working towards COVID-19 relief response and recovery since the outbreak of COVID-19 and in this quarter have to focus on capacity building training and distribution of 1400 dry ration packets and 3500 hygiene kits as well.

Women Skill Development Program

The Centre for Social Research continued with its Skill Department program during these unprecedented times, we revamped our training and moved our traditional classroom training to online sessions to keep the trainees safe and healthy at home. Given the spread of the COVID19, 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 a Skill India Initiative.

The team is providing the trainee’s access to expert faculty, online learning resources, E-modules, 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 approximately 124 girls and boys until this quarter.

Crisis intervention Centre

CSR’s four Crisis Intervention Centre’s (CICs) in Delhi enables individuals and families experiencing or witnessing violence in their home or elsewhere. We provide free, confidential support services such as mediation, emergency assistance, and more. We are a member of 27 internal complaints committees and during the pandemic; our CIC has registered approximately 42 domestic violence cases in this quarter.

We have an established network of 30 NGOs to exchange information and provide survivors a comprehensive range of services in regard to follow-up with Protection Officers, hospitals, police stations, shelter homes, etc. and referral links for legal and psychological support.

Evidence based Research

CSR conducted evidence-based research to understand the gendered impact of COVID-19. The research was conducted in 16 targeted districts and more than 600 samples were collected by the team. Following are some of the findings of the research :
  • The study was conducted in all the 11 districts of Delhi and 5 districts of Haryana between the periods of March-May 2021.
  • Overall, there were a total of 574 responses collected via the online questionnaire. Out of these 506 were female (88.2%), 65 were male (11.4%), and 3 (0.5%) chose not to answer the demographic profile section of the survey.
  • 63.5% of the respondent voiced that 'loss of income has been the biggest problem people faced during COVID-19.
  • According to the present study, the mortality rate of both men and women due to COVID-19 is equal as stated by the majority of the respondent (38.5%).
  • The majority of the respondent (60.8%) did not get tested for COVID19.
  • The majority of the respondents (88%) in total and 62% of women respondents, in particular, said that they did not get registered in the hospital even while having the critical symptoms of COVID-19.
  • Pandemic has exacerbated women’s access to healthcare facilities.
  • COVID-19 Pandemic has thrown an unprecedented challenge for the mental health of all community members and frontline healthcare workers.
  • Around 61% of the respondent agreed to the fact that mental health issues do exist.
  • There exists a gender gap in vaccination drive. Only 47% of the respondent had both the vaccination shots.
  • Misinformation regarding vaccination prevails, pregnant and lactating women do not have clear information.
  • Gender-based violence has been exacerbated during the strict lockdown period and various reasons have contributed to the spike in the cases. However, 29.4% of the respondent suggested that the pandemic-induced lockdown had increased control of the victim by the perpetrator at their homes and the nearby vicinity.

Pilot Research study on "Gender Mainstreaming in the Foreign Policy of India"

CSR with support from the Asia Foundation has initiated a research study to examine how gender mainstreaming can add value in India’s foreign policy engagement, focusing on India’s engagement with other SARCC nations in the areas of:
  • Health
  • Climate change
  • Trade and Commerce.
The goal of the work will be two fold:
  • To assess the Indian government’s interest and openness for formal integration of gender in foreign policy concerns, and
  • To generate an informed discussion on the scope for gender mainstreaming in the three policy areas indicated above.
The proposed research work will be a pilot study. In addition to addressing the scope for gender integration primarily in the three focused areas, it will also bring together key stakeholders for a policy dialogue to present the research and explore further steps to promote gender mainstreaming in various aspects of Indian Foreign Policy.c-induced lockdown had increased control of the victim by the perpetrator at their homes and the nearby vicinity.
 

Gender, Water & Climate Changes

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns across India generated technical and logistical challenges due to a lack of suitable digital assistance to interact with the affected people. Despite this, the department has successfully moved its work online and accomplished projects with the help of local people, even conducting meetings at both the state and national levels.

We carried out a field visit to Dhadikar, Alwar, Rajasthan on August 11th, 2021. The overall purpose of this visit was to collect perspectives from the field on their learnings from one of our projects, which is related to sustainable water resource management and restoration of water resources, as well as feedback for growth in the future. Women from SelfHelp Groups (SHGs) who were engaged throughout the 2020 project cycle provided the most comments. A Focused Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted with women from Self-Help Groups (SHGs), community members, local partners. Finally, our local partner chose 10 women from four distinct Self-Help Groups (Bhavna, Shona, Radha, and Lakshmi) to listen their thoughts, hurdles, and benefits from the project in order to have a better picture of how the initiative was implemented in the community.

Furthermore, our department is working to identify the work under water ministry so that it can support and to do so a field visit was undertaken to three different villages in the Bagpath district of Uttar Pradesh on August 19, 2021. The purpose of the field visit was to mobilise the community regarding importance of water conservation. In all three villages where the project will be implemented in stages, an introduction session was held to provide a broad overview of the project. Furthermore, additional activities are being carried out in accordance with the projects objectives, while adhering to the relevant Covid-19 regulations.

Additionally, on August 27th 2021, the department hosted a tweet chat titled "The Importance of Building Resilience for Climate Change through Gender Equality" on the last day of World Water Week 2021. The discussions were constructive, with prominent organisations and individuals participating.

Digital Safety and Online Well-being in Collaboration with Facebook

The Centre for Social Research in collaboration with Facebook’s initiative to impart digital safety & online well-being to students to ensure learning and understanding of digital safety and wellness, importance of skills and tools essential for the current times.

In the last year and a half we have collaborated with national organisations like Good Universe and Shri EduCare and have reached out to school students from different states of India including Hyderabad and Telangana.

With the motto of "No Child Left Behind" we have conducted the workshops in the remotest of areas in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Karnataka, etc. CSR has collaborated with the esteemed international Child Rights & You (CRY), and national Teach for India (TFI), Deepalaya, and Pratham among others. The collaborations have made it possible to reach out to students from areas with limited access to the internet and other resources.

Hereafter, to make online spaces safe for all students, CSR has also

initiated collaborations with eSafety Australia and Childnet USA.

We conduct the workshops with the aim to -
  • Create a conducive and comfortable learning environment for children to share their experiences and challenges.
  • Engage young minds to understand the safety and well-being nuances while they are online
  • Prepare them with tools and tips so as to combat all kinds of threats that come their way.
  • Make aware and understand the importance of digital citizenship and other safety & security tools.
  • Emphasize on the need for a secure and safe experience online alongside positive and respectful communication.
  • Teach the importance of consent and make children understand about bodies, boundaries, and respect.
  • Become responsible digital children, and adults.

Digital Citizenship and Civic participation for Gender Equality

CSR have been conducting workshop with the youth, all across the country on Digital Citizenship and Civic participation for Gender Equality. In the July to September quarter, the media and communication team conducted 16 virtual workshops on Digital Citizenship and Civic Participation for Gender Equality project in English, Hindi, Kannada, and Marathi languages.

4000+ youth were reached out in four states including Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

Students form esteemed higher education institutions including University of Mysore, ITM University Gwalior, Manav Rachna University Haryana, KES Shroff College & B. M. Ruia Girls’ College, affiliated to SNDT Women’s University in Maharashtra, Jain University Karnataka, participated in our virtual workshops
 
Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO of Yourstory Media joined our conversation with the youth and shared her valuable insights on the importance of getting online & using it for social good. Shradha explained that youth should come online and take a stand for what is right, stand in support of other women, express views without any fear, become stronger together and stop the bullying whenever you see.
NSS Karnataka, a Central Sector Scheme of Government of India, under the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports associated with CSR India to help spread awareness on the Digital Safety & Security related to youth especially young girls and women’s participation when they are online. Dr Shalini Rajneesh, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary ( NSS Cell ) to Karnataka Government also graced the virtual workshop to connect with youth NSS cadets across the state and encourage them to use social media and online spaces respectful and inclusive.

Social Media for Social Good

Our Social media team is highly focused on bringing important issues to the forefront through a diverse set of content and campaigns. For instance, we organise regular #TweetChats on issues that matter to the society, and in each of our efforts we try to engage with as many stakeholders as we can.

Below are some of the recent content series and campaigns:
• Campaigns:
1. Women In Sports - #PlayItLikeAGirl
2. Save Afghanistan
3. Climate Care & Climate Action -
    #CareForClimate
4. Women Reservation Bill - #iSupportWRB
    #CampaignOfHope
5. World Water Week
6. Girl Education Advocacy - #LetHerLearn

• TweetChat:
1. Student and Digital Safety
2. Reinventing Youth Skills Post Pandemic
3. The Importance of Building Resilience for Climate Change through Gender Equality
4. Women Reservation Bill
5. International day for Universal Access to Information

• Webinar - Gender Mainstreaming in the Foreign Policy of India
• Feminist Friday

Podcast

In this quarter, Centre For Social Research came back with its second season of the Podcast - UNITE FOR EQUALITY.

In the month of August the first episode was released, where we talked about our project "Digital Citizenship & Civic Participation for Gender Equality" & why equal women participation on online platforms is the need of an hour.

Second episode followed in the month of September, where renowned journalist Faye D'Souza joined us & talked about her online experiences.

Blogs for Gender Matters

We enjoy writing about & discussing any & all matters relating to gender, development, society, culture & politics in India & South Asia. Our blog site "Gender Matters" has become a point of international reference, informing the globe about activities of CSR & development across India in the field of gender. Three new blog were published in this quarter on Gender Matters.

CSR In Media

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