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Launch workshop of Rural Girls Empowerment Programme, Chittorgarh, 7th & 8th January 2002 International Day for Violence against Women, Chittorgarh, 25th November 2001 State-level Workshops on Women's Health Development, Chittorgarh, 8th and 22nd November 2001 World Rural Women's Day, Chittorgarh, 15th October 2001 World
Water Day 2001
Pemdiya
Kheda, Nimbahera, Chittorgarh, March 23, 2001 Celebration
of International Women’s Day
Training
of Master Trainers 25th-30th
December 2000,Chittorgarh |
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Launch Meeting Workshop of Rural Girls Empowerment Porgramme |
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Structure & proceedings of the Event Planning meeting with children, grassroots stakeholders and networkers |
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Gender disparity manifests
itself in various forms, the most obvious being the trend of continuously
declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social
stereotyping and violence at the domestic and societal levels are some of the
other manifestations. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and
women persists in most parts of the country. This is all the more
important for the Rajasthan state, where the society is of conservative, male
dominated and segmented nature, with gender and caste factors playing major
roles in social interaction, bounded by age-old traditions, pervading all other
issues. This is because, the status of women is low in the prevailing
patriliny-patrilocality-patricentricity system; the attitude of men towards
women is discriminatory; and prevailing socio-cultural malpractice are adversely
affecting the lives of female population. All these factors have created a
lop-sided scenario for the fundamental status of women and girl children. With this as a backdrop, CUTS
decided to implement a project called Rural
Girls Empowerment Programme in five blocks (Nimbahera, Kapasan, Chittorgarh,
Gangrar and Bhadesar) of the Chittorgarh district and one block (Banera) of
Bhilwara district with the support of 'Save the Children UK-India' to contribute
to protection, development and welfare of children. Launch workshop of the
project was organised on 7th and 8th of January 2002 in the premises of the CUTS
Centre for Human Development (CUTS-CHD) at Chittorgarh. The overall objective
of the project is to build constituencies and capacities of rural girls in the
project area, with the purpose of creating a questioning society, in addition to
sensitising other stakeholders - the family, the society, the police and others
on the whole issue of prevention of violence against girls. Structure
& proceedings of the Event The two-day workshop had
three sessions: the first one intended to brief the various stakeholders about
the project, sensitise them on the problems of girl children and solicit their
participation to mitigate the problems; the second session aimed at the direct
and principal beneficiaries (the children) endeavoured to identify the issues
affecting the lives of children and strategies to seek their active involvement
in the project implementation; & in the last one strategies and activities
of the project were discussed with select children, the grassroots stakeholders
and networkers. The launch workshop was
inaugurated by Mr. Matadin Sharma (Additional Collector-Administration,
Chittorgarh). 165 people, including girls and boys (students and
non-school-going), government officials, people's representatives (ward panchs,
sarpanchs, members of Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishad), social activists,
lawyers, school teachers, community leaders, women members of SHGs and project
networkers participated in the event. Among the other distinguished guests were,
Ms. Bhagwati Devi Jhala (social activist and member of Zilla Parishad,
Chittorgarh), Dr. Yashpal Singh (District RCH Officer, Bhilwara), Mr. Pratap
Singh (Deputy Superintendent of Police, SC/ST & Women's Cell, Chittorgarh),
Dr. Kamal Bhargava (Medical Jurist, Chittorgarh) and Mr. Motha Singh Chundawat
(Block Education Officer, Bhadesar). The girls and boys of the project area
greeted the guests and sang the welcome song. Ms. Lehri Bai and Mr. Madan Lal,
two children presided over the inaugural session. Speaking on the occasion, Mr.
Matadin Sharma emphasised on: reduction of prevailing socio-cultural
malpractice; need for wider publicity of government welfare measures meant for
the development of women and girls; proper healthcare and nutrition of girls;
and ensuring complete enrollment as well as retention of girl children. Lauding
the role of CUTS for this commendable initiative, he told that community
cooperation, which is the strength of the Centre, would be key factor to the
successful implementation of the project. Ms. Bhagwati Devi Jhala
called upon every one to: check child marriage; reduce gender disparity;
facilitate self-reliance of women; ensure women's inheritance of property; and
encourage participation as well as representation of women in the polity. She
advocated for greater role of the mothers to bring in the necessary systemic
changes. Expressing his concern on
female feticide and its long-term impact on the society, Dr. Yashpal stressed
for government and societal controls on the institutions and people involved in
this heinous act. Briefing on the role of women's cell of police department to
control violence in cases of child marriage, dowry, nata
pratha etc., Mr. Pratap Singh mentioned the importance and necessity of
active interest and participation of community to eliminate these social evils.
That it is everyone's responsibility to, contribute to the reduction of violence
against women and girls; ensure equal access, rights, opportunities, and legal
protections for them, were said by Dr. Bhargava. The event ended with
illumination of candles by the children to mark progress from darkness to
enlightenment. Coverage of the event was done by the All India Radio,
Chittorgarh and the print media. Focus of the group exercise
by the children involved discussion on generic village issues and social
practices or customs directly or indirectly contributing to the drudgery of
women and girls. The broad outline was: revisiting the pre-project launch
discussions (Balika Sangam) held at
Raila (Bhilwara) and Chittorgarh; sharing of experiences of that event with the
children newly associated; and contemplation on the scenario of their family and
village environment, specially focussing on positive and negative factors. The children were divided
into eight groups in an innovative way with suitable distribution of
participants of the 'Balika Sangam' event and those freshly associated. Symbolic
naming (e.g. Azad meaning freedom, Pratap
meaning power) of the groups was done by the children themselves. Child marriage
was the frequently cited problem issue, whereas education was identified as the
comprehensive remedy. Menace of alcoholism, disproportionate workload on girl
children, burgeoning population, unequal distribution of nutrition, and scarcity
of potable water were the other issues referred to by the children. They also
deliberated on the possible mechanisms to reduce these problems, such as:
interaction with the members of the PRIs, intervention of grassroots social
action organisations, and organised effort by formation of groups of children. Interesting features of the
group exercise were: enthusiastic and joint presentation by girls as well as
boys; and drawings on the chart paper depicting their concern for environment.
Prior to the group exercise, the children interpreted the name of the project
for their own comprehension. During the group activity some girls and boys sang
patriotic and motivational songs as well, the girls leading the way. Planning
meeting with children, grassroots stakeholders and networkers The planning meeting with
select children, grassroots stakeholders and networkers contemplated on:
activities for the development of children, probable obstacles and mechanisms to
ensure proper implementation of the activities. The broad activities selected
were: contacting parents; interaction with formal (institutional) and informal
(traditional) leaders; increase reach of the child welfare programmes of
government; establishment of model villages; and formation of bal
panchayats. Some of the key activities discussed were: appropriate
approaches for school-going and non-school-going children; 2 boys and 2 girls as
leaders of each group of children of 10-18 years age; compilation of information
on each village; and dissemination of information about legal and police
establishments (the most vital being their location) among the community. Lack of interest and
involvement of community; schedule of the schools affecting participation of
school-going children; workload on children (especially girls); non-involvement
of children if activities would be conducted during night; neglect of the
animator/motivator by the community; absence of schools in villages, were
classified as the probable obstacles. The major strategies
identified were: child sensitive approach; interaction with key government
agencies (such as education, women & child development, health, police,
judiciary) and local people (especially community leaders, dai,
women); and adoption of various forms of traditional and local IEC (information,
education & communication) options. The structural aspects involved,
formation of Prerak Dal (team of motivators) and group of community leaders etc. Ms. Nitu - 'Dono (ladka aur
ladki) ki sahyog se pariyojana aage badhegi' (The programme will move forward
with equal participation of both boys and girls) Mr. Nandkishore - 'Desh ki
bhalai chahte hein; ladka-ladki mein koi bhedbhav nehin' (We are interested in
welfare of our country; there should not be any differential treatment for boys
and girls) |
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