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PARA “March”: Celebrating Women, Celebrating Equality
March 23 was a Day of Days, literally, celebrating 6 international days of March at a special workshop with the local women leaders. Beginning with March 8th, the International Women’s Day, the month of March has assumed special significance for us at People’s Action for Rural Awakening (PARA), Ravulapalem, Andhra Pradesh, India as the month of “March” towards Equality.
Here we look at everything from the lens of Human Rights and equality,and every day is seen as an opportunity to promote dignity with equality. Focused on our work to prevent domestic violence and sexual exploitation, we saw March 4, the World Day of Fight Against Sexual Exploitation, as an important opportunity for raising awareness on our efforts.March 10 is the Birthday of Savitri Bhai Phule (1831-1897), who started the first girls’ school in India (1848) and was a social reformer who fought against untouchability and caste and gender discrimination, and is the day on which PARA usually celebrates Women’s Day.
What prompted us to choose Saturday, 23rd March, for the special workshop was that 24th March is the International day for the Right to Truth of Human Rights violations and for Dignity of victims. We could not also not overlook the fact that March 25, the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, when women and girl children are so frequently traded as slaves in the current times.
A programme was organised to weave all these days into a single programme. The obvious choice was to hold a workshop on these themes with the participation of the Village and Mandal Committee Members. These women leaders are to spearhead the campaign for “0” incidence of domestic violence and sexual exploitation in their respective villages. On 23rd March,over 70 women and men working with women for equality, gathered at PARA to discuss the issues surrounding these themes.
A.P.J. Vinu, a practicing psychologist-cum-motivational speaker, was the main resource person of the workshop. Mr Nakka Isaiah moderated the sessions. Based on the theme of March 4, Ms. Sesha Ratnam of PARA Gender Desk spoke of sexual abuse and exploitation. Ms. Appayamma from Bhumika spoke on Domestic Violence. Ms Ramya Dasari presented a case study of how this situation was being addressed by the Gender Desk team. After common sharing on the theme, Ms. Subbayamma, in-Charge of the Differently Able People’s Collective, summarised the responses pointing out the danger of prejudice against the victims.
The women’s Day theme #Balanceforbetter provided the setting for discussion on moving towards Gender Equality. Ms China Durga, the District Coordinator, spoke of the efforts being made through the Human Rights Clubs in schools to take up issues of violation of child rights and support for the girl children to stand up and be respected as equals. Ms Pushpa, a MSW student, spoke enthusiastically about working together for equality and her wanting to join the movement as soon as she finishes her studies this year. Mr Ratnam, who leads the Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies for women in four mandals, waxed eloquent in speaking of their efforts to promote women’s right to equality.
After lunch break, it was the turn of Mr. Job P.J., a veteran in many struggles for liberation from bonded labour and for gender equality, to speak about the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims being celebrated on March 24. An admirer of Archbishop (now saint) Oscar Romero and a follower of Liberation Theology, he introduced the need to understand the truth of Women’s reality vs Men’s reality that maintains the present hierarchical system of inequality. He was backed by Mr Srinivas, Childline Coordinator and Mr Ramesh, State Coordinator for Human Rights Clubs with live examples to indicate the frequent incidence of Child Labour, Child Marriages, domestic violence and so on. The women were seen to face continuous human rights violations in domestic and social contexts. The sad fact remains that the Men’s Reality reflected in the hierarchical functioning of authorities ends up supporting the perpetrators of crimes against women. This truth must be recognised for the situation to change. Oscar Romero,whose courageous call to resist even the authorities in the service of human dignity and rights, led to his being murdered by the agents of the state on 24th March 1980. This is often the need today, even in the land of the Mahatma who defied the power of the British Empire and invited others to do the same. This day was declared by the UN in 2010.
A gross misunderstanding now-a-days is that slavery is a thing of the past. The UN General Assembly resolution of 17th December 2007 that instituted March 25 as an International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade called for programmes to communicate and to act against the dangers of racism and prejudice. The present workshop was a forum to put to the audience the tragic consequences of treating women as objects of exploitation and trafficking, much the same way as the victims of transatlantic slave trade. This day was celebrated on 25th March along with Bhumika when the PARA gender team joined #GlobalBillionWomenMarch.
Mr Saka Raja Rao of the Bahujan Desk spoke of the tragedy of human trafficking as modern day slave trade. Ms. Sesha Ratnam spoke of similarity of the slave trade and the bondedness involved in the current domestic labour market and trafficking of domestic workers to the Gulf countries. Ms. Gogulamudi Sandhya Rani presented live examples of issues being grappled with by the gender desk team with the cooperation of the Immigration Desk of the Government of India and Indian Embassies.
One could not fail to notice that the country has been relegated to an ignoble 140th place in the Global Index of Happiness out of 156 nations assessed. The citizen’s attitude to its women as equals in every way can transform this situation to one of genuine happiness among the people of this ‘great’ nation. Incidentally, March 20 is the International Happiness Day. After the election of the members for the district Committee, the participants pledged to join the campaign to make their villages and Mandals places with “0” incidence of domestic violence and Sexual Exploitation. The Days of the month of March: 4th, 8th, 10th 20th, 24th and 25th are reminders of past and present tragic situations as well as challenges to realise the hope that the future holds in terms of equality, dignity and truth and can lead to genuine and lasting happiness.
‘9 out of 10 differently-abled students drop out’
People’s Action for Rural Awakening in collaboration with CHAI-LF organised the “We Ring the Bell” campaign across two Telugu States Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on March 13, 2019. Around 1,000 people, including head masters, teachers, PARA staff and differently-abed children and committee members actively participated.
On the occasion, Community-based Rehabilitation worker B Mahima Rao underlined that 9 out of 10 children with a disability were dropping out of schools due to lack of minimum facilities for their condition and hence are left behind at home. He added that it was time for everybody to come together and draw the attention of government towards the problems faced by differently-abled children at schools by sounding the alarm bell.
Lauding the services of PARA, Teacher Murali said that there were two differently-abled students in their school who attend the school without a miss. On the occasion, he asked if PARA staff could help to provide a wheelchair to Sajeev Rao, a student of the school.
Shouting slogans that they need schools to be differently-abled-friendly, the children indicated 10 action points that persons with disabilities need to facilitate their education. These included ramps, restrooms, transport facility, good guidance, and so on. To show their solidarity, teachers, committee members and others observed the occasion by signing the manifesto, and joined the children in shouting slogans, blowing whistles and waving pom-poms.
VCPC members stopped two child marriages
Sussane, the team member of Don Bosco Mondo, paid a visit to the panchayat office of Venkatapuram village and interacted with the members of Village Child Rights’ Committee (VCPC) on 28.11.2018. All the members of the committee, except for members of Human Rights’ Clubs, were present on the day. The students, HRC members, could not make it to the meeting as they had an examination.
The session started with Fr. Ignatius addressing the meeting and briefing about PARA and its projects and the purpose of visiting the village. He also introduced Susanne to the gathering.
On coming to know about the problems in the village, Susanne asked if they were facing any challenges working with the people. The members of the VCPC said that since they were familiar in the village, people generally listen to them. With regard to VCPC, Susanne asked if any exchanges between the members of VCPCs of Venkatapuram and VCPCs of other villages have taken place so far. To this, VCPC members said that nothing as such had happened as the committee was just three weeks old.
The team member of Don Bosco Mondo asked the VCPC what were child-related issues in the village. Answering the question, the members of the committee said that they were spreading awareness in the village about trafficking of children on the pretext of job. To this measure, we are seeing that no girl goes out of the village for job with an unknown person, they added.
Talking about her 2-year-old child, who is in Germany, Susanne asked how children are being treated. The VCPC members said there was a bad influence of television on parents and added that these days parents, instead of giving time to children, were stuck to watching TV serials. A member of the committee said that parents were just cooking food for children and leaving them on their own. There was no exchange between parents and children.
They said they were ensuring that there were no cases of child marriages in the village. They also added that they were sensitising the parents about the complications related to early marriages, early pregnancy, challenges in raising children, and so on.
Susanne asked the committee members if they needed more training programmes on Human Rights. Nodding their heads, they said it this would help them get more familiarise with child rights. And when the session was open for ‘question and answer’, they asked Susanne what made her travel such a long way, leaving the 2-year-old at home. The team member of DBM said that though her job was to sit at her desk and report to BMZ, she wanted to know the conditions of children of other countries apart from her own.
Sharing her personal life, she said that she was a student scout and was passionate about helping others. This made me work with the needy. She added that her husband was into business.
Later, she visited the nearby Anganwadi centre which was about 200 meters away from the panchayat office. She enquired about the nutrition and medication given to pregnant women and children. She also she spent some time with kids who were of her child’s age.
From there, the district coordinator of Krishna, T Madhusudan Rao, led the visiting team to another panchayat office in Pedhaprolu village where the VCPC meetings generally take place. Even here both the parties, visiting team and VCPC members, introduced themselves to each other and Fr Ignatius walked them through the works of PARA and explained the agenda of the visit.
The guide teacher asked Susanne and Fr Ignatius why they were sensitising people on Human Rights. Fr Ignatius and Susanne said it was important to make the children aware of their rights like participation, protection, education, and survival of that children have a better future.
Talking about Human Rights, the members of VCPC asked for printed materials like fliers, books, hoardings, etc, on the rights to reach more and more people in the village. They added that there was no point in conducting or discussing about human rights within the four walls if they don’t reach the masses.
When asked if there were any problems in the village, the village secretaryaffirmed that there were no problems as the district collector was closely following up. He said that for this reason there were no NGOs in the area.
Susanne asked the meeting if there were any child marriage cases in the village. For which, all said no. However, as the discussion went on, they said there might be few child marriages carried out outside the village which were not coming to their notice. However, they said that parents were taking the children to faraway places like temples to conduct the child marriages.
The VCPC members added that they stopped two child marriages in the village that they came across and counselled the parents about the problems related to early marriages. They also sensitised them on rights. One of the VCPC members said that might the reason why parents were taking children to remote areas to conduct child marriages.
Discussing about the health of pregnant women and children, the gathering said the village had established a nutri-garden, where all the required fruits and vegetable were grown. To a question on how their children were treated, they said now-a-days children were not listening to parents. They were either busy with their mobiles when at home or go out with friends and return only late in the night.
To this, Fr Ignatius said that the current generation was fast and “quick learners”. He added that parents should give them time and listen to their ideas and opinions instead of downplaying their views. Otherwise, once they realise that you are not listening to them,they stop telling you anything to the parents or elders, even if anything major incident takes place. He ended the session by asking them to have quality time with children and make them aware of their rights.
Workshop on HRE/HRC project reporting
Sussane, a team member of Don Bosco Mondo, was treated to a warm welcome by Director Fr. Ignatius Vattigunta and staff of PARA on November 26, 2018 at PARA campus, Ravulapalem, Andhra Pradesh. Fr. Ignatius went through the phase-I of the project and why it was taken up here. He spoke of several cases of child rights’ violations, children not being heard and children not aware of their rights. Moreover, there was no evidence of a culture of Human Rights.
The director said that the intervention of PARA saw increased number of Human Rights’ Clubs and raised awareness on child rights and child participation. However, he also spoke of the setbacks: there was no sustainable Human Rights’ culture and high number of violations of child rights is still taking place.
Talking about the phase-II of the project, Fr. Ignatius said that one aim was to involve the government and to link the clubs with communities through Village Child Rights Protection Committees. This would also help in the sustainability of these efforts.
To break the ice between them, the staff members introduced themselves and explained their responsibilities to Susann, who in turn explained the purpose of her visit to India, namely, to review the current status of the project and to conduct a workshop on how to report to Don Bosco Mondo. Later, Sussane introduced herself and explained the purpose of the visit to India from Germany.
Beginning the process of explaining the format of reporting, Susanne gave modules to the staff in which there was an additional column, “Means of Verification,” besides goals and indicators.
Earlier in the phase-I, there was no such column. The team member of Don Bosco Mondo said the ‘objective’ of the workshop was to review the current indicators and examine them carefully to ascertain possible ways of verification.She explained that while the indicators describe the success of the project, the “means of verification” indicate where and how the information is obtained.
To make the session participatory, she asked the participants to form 5 groups and brainstorm on “Means of Verification”. Each group presented their “Means of Verification” to all participants and discussed in detail the same. After two presentations, the session broke for lunch.
Before the session could resume, post lunch, the staff observed the 69th Indian Constitution Day – also known as Samvidhan Divas. Later, the remaining three groups presented the “Means of Verification”. After each presentation, the session was open for suggestions and views which further helped participants understand the difference between “Indicators and “Means of Verification”.Each “means of verification” was scrutinised, and further possibilities were explored by participants as well as Susanne. The day ended with the feedback from all the participants on the discussions of the day.
On the second day, the session began with Fr. Ignatius revisiting the “means of verification” suggested by all groups on the previous day. A team of two staff along with the director and Susanne had filtered the suggestions made on November 26.
Susanne, then, presented her PPT on BMZ regulations.She explained the funding scheme. She added that BMZ gives 75%, SDB/FMA gives 15% and Don Bosco Mondo (DBM) gives 10% funds to the project. The presenter also gave details about the roles of each organisation i.e., BMZ (Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany) provides funds, SDB/FMA implements the project and reports to DBM and the DBM administers the project and reports to BMZ.
The agenda of the session was to create awareness among the staff of PARA on reporting format as they will be submitting reports to DBM. Susanne explained the regulatory statute of reporting and said that upon every three months, a quarterly report should be submitted. Likewise, upon six months, a half-yearly report, annual report, follow-up report and audit report should be submitted to DBM, which will then be forwarded to BMZ after editing, if needed. Talking about the reporting format, she asked the group to give an overview of the activities implemented in the three months and an update with regard to the status of funds of the project.
She also highlighted the due date 15.02.2019 of the annual report and asked the staff to report on 01.01.2019 so that there would be time for review, improvisation and correction, if any. Susanne also underlined the different components that should be incorporated in the report. She said the report should be narrative, financial matters should be touched upon, audit section, supporting documents according to the project agreement and photos (JPEG) should be attached.
The team member of the DBM added that the actual state of the project implementation, outlook on future project progress, special notes, success stories, documents or bills of items purchased, and presentation of “means of verification” should also be reported.
Information like changes in the general conditions and project implementation organisation, target-actual-comparison of all measures or activities and outputs, cooperation with other stakeholders, appropriateness of the utilisation of the resources should be mentioned in the report.
When staff brought to her notice the difficulties in yielding 100% results, Susanne said that it was completely understandable if that were the case. She added that the staff needed to document the challenges to support their claims. If there are negative results, even those should also be mentioned in the project report, she said. Finally, the overall assessment of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability or viability of the project is to be followed by the conclusion.
Later, she handed over the stamp to the finance department which needs to be every bill that is to be claimed by the implementing organisation. After explaining thoroughly the financial section, she conducted an exercise for staff. Five volunteers were given five bills and were asked to tell in which section it fits. She then opened the session for feedback. Susanne received a very positive review from the participants.
‘Special needs of differently-able children neglected’
March 21, 2018 saw different type of day at ZPHS Boys High School, Ravulapalem. Differently Able People’s Collective (DAPC) Coordinator Subbayamma along with the CHAI-LF State Programme Coordinator G Jagan conducted “We Ring the Bell” programme. This was part of a larger campaign to make the voice of differently-abled children reach hundreds and thousands of people around and, through them to take the special needs of the differently-abled people to the notice of the government.
On this occasion, Ms. Subbayamma shared with the staff and children information on the very large number of drop-outs from among the differently-abled children. The reason for these children dropping out was that high schools were not differently-abled children-friendly. She pointed out that the special children need ramps to reach the class room, special toilets, and other requirements according to their conditions. These were not being provided in schools. There was a constant neglect of the needs of these children.
Kota Challayya MPP, P Vijaya Lakshmi president, School Education Committee chairperson, Ward members and others were present on the occasion. They appreciated the information given and saw the urgency of remedying the situation.
DAPC is a department of People’s Action for Rural Awakening (PARA) at Ravulapalem. PARA has conducted the campaign “We Ring the Bell” and other campaigns under the DAPC banner and the Human Rights Clubs across the two Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In these campaigns 3,731 students have participated.
Awareness on government schemes for differently-abled people
On December 10, 2018, 70th International Human Rights Day was celebrated at Chinthaluru village in Alamuru Mandal of East Godavari District in a very special way. The village president, G. Venkata Narayana Murthy and others observed Differently-Abled People’s Day to understand their rights as people with disabilities.
The programme was animated by Ms. Subbayamma, Liliane Fonds Project Coordinator at PARA, Ravulapalem. She began with a discussion on the etymology of the word differently able. Earlier the word handicapped was being used. This word originated in the late 15th century. King Henry VII of England had asked the disabled veterans to make a living with their ‘cap in hand’, begging for coins. Today the situation has changed. We look at people from a rights perspective. We are not depending on the mercies of the rulers or anyone else. Every citizen has a set of rights which others need to respect. The so-called handicapped, were first seen as those who are disabled, then as physically or mentally challenged, and now as those with different abilities. Now in India, we refer to them as Divyang.
The project coordinator took the opportunity to create awareness on government schemes for differently-abled people and also how they could avail them online. The Mandal Self Help Groups Assistant Programme Manager who was also present, informed the gathering that they could form group of 10 people and save some money, unlike others who need to have 30 members in a group. Once the group was formed the members have the right to receive loans from the government. The village president G Venkata Narayana Murthy, a Divyang, promised that he would do everything in his capacities to help the differently-abled people in the mandal.
Around 35 differently-abled persons participated in the event. The day brought great joy to the group and their families to see life from a very positive and hope-filled perspective. Kudos to the organisers of this unique event.
