Acknowledgement 1Introduction, Objective, Duration and Target Beneficiaries 2Target Areas 3Strategy&Methodology 4-5ProjectActivitySchedule 6Baseline Survey 7-15Focus Group Meetings 16-17Information,Education&Communication 18Awareness Camps 19Leadership Development Training Programmes 20Workshops 21-22Challenges 23Outcome of the Project 24Glimpses of Activities 25-27

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is our privilege to put on record our sincere gratitude to all those persons who have contributed to the completion of this Project on Equal rights for women, focused on political participation and prevention of violence against women. We wish to express our gratefulness to His highness Alphonsus Stoelinga, Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands.

We are grateful to MuhammedAfzal, Policy Advisor, Department of Political Affairs, Public Diplomacy and Culture, Ms. Petra Smulders and Ms. Priya Dagar, Senior Policy Advisor for giving us opportunity for the above project.

In performing assignment, we had to take help and guidelines of our core team. Our team would like to show gratitude to Hon’ble Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Reform Movement for great idea of project input. He had enriched my understanding of the subject in more than many ways. I feel without his cooperation and expert input, this project work may not have become as authentic as we confidently find it to be.

We are thankful to Mr. Naresh Kumar, ADC, Nuh Haryana. We greatly appreciate the support and cooperation of Ms. Mohameddi Ji, President District Mahila Congress, Nuh Haryana, Mr. A.R. Asri, District Project Coordinator, Rural Livelihood Mission, Nuh, Haryana, Ms. Meenu Bhati, Birender Sandhu, BDO, Nuh, Haryana and Mr. M. Imtiyaz Khan, Principal, YMP College, Nuh, Haryana

We are highly appreciate our chief guest of workshops Ms. Andrea Schlehuber, Dr. John Crabtree & Ms. Judith CondorVidalfor their valuable presence.

No words can express our feeling of indebtedness to all the Women Sarpanch/Panchayat Heads extended their cooperation and support during our project in 15 Panchayats of Nuh District.

I would like to express our deepest appreciation to all my team members Mrs. Ekta Meena, Mrs. Pratibha Pathak and Mr.O.P.Yadav for all support during this project.

We are thankful to ICWC, who has rendered tremendous support at all stages in completing this project and Mr. Nadeem Khan, Coordinator, PMKVY from Nuh for mobilization resource of this project.

Last but not the least we are grateful to all persons who have helped us directly or indirectly in the completion of this project.

(Dr.SumanChahar) Chairperson

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Introduction

Women have the right to participate in political processes that affect them, their families, and their societies.

Countries with increased women’s participation and leadership in civil society and political parties tend to be more inclusive, responsive, egalitarian, and democratic. When women meaningfully participate in peace processes, they can help to expand the scope of agreements and improve the prospects for durable peace.

Yet, women around the world are still largely absent from national and local decision-making bodies; struggle to have a voice in peace building transitions; and are excluded from political processes. Despite representing half the global population, women comprise less than 20 percent of the world’s legislators. From discrimination and violence to a lack of support and resources, women face countless challenges

to participate in the civic and political life of their countries. Strengthening women’s rights and addressing barriers to political participation are critical to achieving gender equality and female empowerment. ICWC is guided by a mission which aims to provide a better world for the women and children in accordance to the spirit of United Nations proclaimed “MillenniumDevelopment Goals or MDGs”.

ICWC provides model programes and projects encompassing major issues in the area of training and capacity building, welfare , support services, awareness generation and sensitization.

Our organisation submitted a project to Embassy of Netherlands on “Equal rights for women, focused on political participation and prevention of violence against women to fullfill following objectives-

Increase rural women participation individually and in groups, in community decision making, local civil authority and municipal Governments.

Enhance the effectiveness of the work of female political leader representing rural areas.

Objectives:

DURATIONONEYEARTarget Beneficiaries: Target Beneficiaries: Approximately 1709 no. women from panchayat member and women groups participated in various programme. The programme included Sarpanch, Panchayat members, lead person of the community, public representative, Aanganwadi workers, ASHA workers, government officials and other stakeholders.

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Target area- Covered 15 Panchayats of Nuh, Haryana

Bai

Birsika

Babupur

Sonkh

Hirmathla

Kanwarsika

Muradbass

Kotla

Bibipur

Sudaka

RozkaMeo

Ranika

Kairaka

Hussainpur

Nausera

Nuh,Mewat

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Strategy

The programme strategy was to attain following objectives :

i) Empower rural women as full fledge members of the citizens, to gain a say in the day to day political life.

ii) Create on enabling environment for stronger political participation by both Individual and group women.

The survey was conducted in the villages of Nuh District of Haryana. Only the villages that had women at the position of Sarpanch were selected, out of which, those who allowed the team access to their village and its people were selected to conduct the survey. Hence, 15 villages were selected to conduct survey with Focused Group Meetings (FGM). The project ‘s main aim was to promote and built support and advocacy for gender equality in decision making and bring visibility to women political representation.

Methodology:

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The primary strategy of this project would be to build awareness and capacity at various level, sensitization and awareness on the right of women to political participation and representation, building the capacities of women and civil society to strengthen civic engagement and promote women participation in democratic processes. Supporting a cadre of women to bring visibility to women in leadership positions and those aspiring for political office.

Women face several obstacles to participate in political life. Structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women option. Capacity gaps mean women

are less likely than men to have the education, contact and resources needed to become effective leaders.

Towards these ends, we provided leadership development training proogramme for women political candidates to help built their capacities for civic education and sensitization campaign on gender equality. Workshop/ seminar, awareness campaign and development of information, education and communication on related issue supported equal rights for women focused on political participation around making gender for equality measures centre to public policy making.

Following activities were organised to get objectives of the programme-- Baseline Survey - Focused group meeting

- Awareness Campaign - Development of (IEC) Information Education&Communication Material

- Leadership Development - Workshop/Seminar TrainingProgramme

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S.No.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

ActivityName

Baseline Survey

Focus Group Meeting

Awareness Camp

Leadership Development Programme

Workshop

ActivityDate

1 December 2016 to 31st December 2016

16-01-201731-01-201707-02-201707-04-201719-04-201722-04-201727-04-201729-04-201704-05-201717-05-201722-05-201724-05-2017

17-08-201706-09-201709-09-201718-09-2017

28-10-201731-10-201702-11-201706-11-201708-11-201711-11-2017

14-11-201718-11-201721-11-2017

VillageName

All 15 Panchayats

1. Hirmathla 2. Bai3. Birsika4. Sudaka5. Nausera6. Muradbas7. Ranika8. Kairaka9. Hussainpur10. Kotla11. Sonkh12. Babupur

1. Hirmathla2. Birsika3. Hussainpur4. Bai

1. Muradbass2. Kotla3. Sudaka4. Nausera5. Rozka Meo6. Ranika

YMD College, Nuh, Haryana

Project Activities Schedule

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Baseline Survey

SurveyMethodThe survey conducted was predominantly qualitative with quantitative aspects such as age, family size and educational level.

ObjectiveThe objective of the survey was to establish a baseline of the political rights awareness of the women in the villages of Nuh District of Haryana.

MethodologyArea: The survey was conducted in the villages of Nuh District of Haryana. Only the villages that had women at the position of Sarpanch were selected, out of which, those who allowed the team access to their village and its people were selected to conduct the survey. Hence, 15 villages were selected to conduct survey followed by Focused Group Meetings (FGM).

Survey Method: The survey conducted was predominantly qualitative with quantitative aspects such as age, family size and educational level and questionnaire was prepared (Annexure 1).

Participants: A population of 15 women were targeted from each village and a population of 268 villagers was achieved with a random sampling method, within the age range of 16-60 years. However, some outliers above the age of 60 years were accepted as they had key information about the activities conducted in the village.

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Outcomes of survey

The survey was conducted on the following aspects:

1. Political Participation

2. Education

3. Gender Discrimination and;

4. Violence Against Women

In the aspect of political participation the women could not answer when asked to define the concept except for the Sarpanch of the villages, as they were educated through their various trainings. However, when the question was reframed as describing the activities of the Sarpanch of the village, the women were fluent in their answers; describing the construction of the roads and drains and fighting for electricity and water for the village.

A very important part of political participation is the awareness of government schemes in the village. In this case the Sarpanch of the villages and their close family were well aware of all the schemes in village. However, when it came to the women in the village their awareness was in bits and pieces of the schemes being

implemented in the village. So, as the we go further from the family and close acquaintances of the Sarpanch the knowledge of what is going on in the village decreases, especially when it comes to government schemes.

There is a general lack of distrust when it comes to the Aaganwadi workers and the ASHA worker in the village. This is due to two reasons; the first is lack of awareness. The women in the village have a partial awareness of the functions of the Aaganwadi and the ASHA workers. This is because of their lack of participation in their Panchayat, where the ASHA workers and the Aaganwadi workers do describe their roles in the village. Another reason is the low communication skills of the ASHA and Aaganwadi workers with which they can clarify their roles in the village. When asked about their roles they were able to clearly describe it to us but when asked to explain their roles to the village women, they would describe their roles on “what the village women should do for them” rather than “what they can do for the women”. This gave a authoritarian perspective, combined with low communication skills, which has led to a general lack of trust in the village when it comes to the ASHA and Aaganwadi workers.

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The last theme that emerged during the survey within the aspect of political participation was the lack of awareness of the long and short-term goals of the Sarpanch of the village amongst the people. The village residents were not aware of what the Sarpanch is going to do and what she is planning for the village in the future. This is because of the low level of interest in the village women for the politics of the village. The women in the sampled villages are responsible for household work and the farming. Hence, they simply do not have time to sit and discuss politics. However, when they were asked that so you practice social participation by going to each other’s homes and discussing about each other’s lives over a cup of tea, their answer was “Yes, of course! This is a part of life”. Hence, there is a potential for increasing awareness by tapping into these conversations and motivating women to take a few minutes and discuss village politics as well. Moreover, these discussion also need to be guided in a positive direction that is, from “complaints” to “solutions”.

Gender Discrimination is an aspect, which is dominant in the region. It is a patriarchal society, where women are not considered as equals. The majority of the work is given to the women and the men love to play cards at tea stalls. During our survey we found that the women do have a say in the village but it is confined to the private sphere. Their say in the public sphere is only considered when in the Panchayat. Hence, creating awareness leads to the potential of influencing the politics of the village through the private sphere that is their homes and the public sphere that is, the Panchayat meetings. Any intent to completely overturn and disrupt the patriarchal system will only lead to increased suppression of the women. The empowerment of women is a gradual process that needs to be accomplished by training women to work within their circle of influence and gradually increase it.

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An uplifting finding was that the men in the family of the Sarpanch work very hard to support her in her endeavours. They are well aware of the limitations women face in the area and work around them to accomplish goals and influence people. The steady support system is what helps the women cope with the patriarchal society in which they live.

The formal education of women is very low in the area. However, they are well aware of families and the history of the village. They are also experts in what formal education has termed Home Science. Hence, there is potential to use this aspect to motivate women to recognize their importance. The tireless labour of household work and farming is a part of their

routine. If something becomes a part of your routine it is normal and people tend to forget its importance. Therefore, it is important to make them realise that if they stopped the work, the society collapses. We need to use this aspect to empower the women and motivate them to educate their future generation.

Violence Against Women is an aspect that is very sensitive to the region. The general consensus is that there is no violence against women. However, there is a sense of normalcy for domestic violence, which are termed “arguments”. Data on this aspect could not be gathered in a setting with men present. Therefore it will be explored more during leadership trainings and awareness programmes.

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Recommendations of Survey

The following are some recommendations that need to be kept in mind while conducting Focused Group Meeting (FGM), Leadership Development Trainings and Awareness Camps:

1. It is necessary to increase coordination between the Sarpanch and policy implementers like Aaganwadi and ASHA workers so that they may increase awareness, build trust and keep a check on each other.

2. During FGMs it is necessary to;

a. Increase awareness about the functions of key leaders in the village such as the Sarpanch, Aaganwadi Workers and ASHA workers.

b. Enhance capacity of Self Help Groups (SHGs) with the purpose of increasing political awareness in the village and bringing concerns as well as progress to the Sarpanch on a regular basis.

c. Motivate them to support the leaders of the village and to take personal responsibility for their improvement.

3. Create a Sensitization Programme for the men of the village towards the importance of women in their everyday life.

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Political Participation and Awareness In this aspect the Sarpach of the village is fully aware of the political schemes and rights for her constituency.

When it comes to village women, if directly asked the meaning of political participation, they were not able to define the concept. However, they associate the meaning for political participation and understand it through the works done by the Sarpanch. Being aware, noticing and contributing to the works done by the Sarpanch in the village by support her initiatives verbally, generating positive opinions or by contributing via manual labor when it comes to digging drains or roads.

The social participation or the everyday of women in Bai is defined by household work for example, Hanima says,

The view point of the majority of women is the same as Hanima. They define their roles with family and household chores. Their social participation is well accounted by the men in the village because an overarching opinion of the women of the village is their voice and their opinion is always heard. They have a say in household and village matters which may not be considered as equivalent to men but it is considered close. The comparison of answers by two women gives a glimpse of the atmosphere of the village;

Sarvory, Sarpanch

Hanima , village resident

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Sectional Analysis

Here we can see that age, status and experience in the village, matters when it comes to speaking freely. Although both women were from equally participating families but Ruksaar noticed more suppression when it comes to free speech.

Rasina (35 yrs), wife of former village Sarpanch

Ruksaar (26yrs), village resident

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In the case of this village there is a wide divide between the village women. The women connected closely or are in close proximity to the Sarpanch’s family are well aware of their political rights and schemes to help them in their daily lives. The other part, are the women in the village who are not so closely connected. The majority is illiterate, that is, they have not stepped in a school. This can be partly because of the reason that the maximum schooling provided to the women in the village is till 8th grade. However, there are women who are going to school outside the village but those are the ones who come from more ‘open-minded’ families in close proximity to the Sarpanch. Moreover, there is no ‘previous generation’ or ‘new generation’ divides in this village as most of the women who gave the interview were quit young (20-35 yrs). Hence, even the women who were newly married or came from different villages did not have an education.

Although, in a baseline survey the measure of education in numerical form which, needs to be listed, can only represent the classes passed in school. The women in the village who did not go to school were well versed in the art of homemaking. They knew everything from washing clothes, to horticulture, farming, child development and family welfare. They were well aware of their culture and customs, how a family is supposed to work and the psychology of the villagers. Hence, labels matter a lot when it comes to analyzing women in such projects. The women in this village or in any other village cannot be termed as ‘illiterate’, they are just unaware.

Educ

atio

n an

d W

omen

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In the case of Bai, the women were previously neglected. It is not as much a deliberate attack on women and their rights, rather it is about tradition. The women in the village knew their role in society. They take care of the private sphere and the men take care of the public sphere. Now, with the new Sarpanch the women have realized a new role for them and are starting to come forward into the public sphere. This was noticed during the FGM where the women were the ones running around gathering women for the meeting. They realized the importance of awareness amongst the women because they are the ones who are intimately aware of the needs of family welfare and health schemes.

However, still a majority of women are hesitant about participation in the public sphere. It was also noticed that out of 15 Panchayat only 4 women heads/Sarpanch were during their responsibilities and rest of 11 panchayat either their husband or father in law work for them.

Women have the right to participate in political processes. The survey results revealed that in Mewat area the society is male dominated and they do not allow women to develop leadership qualities and in most of the Panchayat women are “Sarpanch” for the name sake.

Gen

der D

iscr

imin

atio

n

Violence and Women

The general consensus is that there is no violence against women in the village but the position of women was secondary in the family.

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Focus Group Meeting:

The main objective of Focus Group meeting is to increase awareness

a. Increase awareness about the functions of key leaders in the village such as the Sarpanch, Aaganwadi Workers and ASHA workers.

b. Enhance capacity of Self Help Groups (SHGs) with the purpose of increasing political awareness in the village and bringing concerns as well as progress to the Sarpanch on a regular basis.

c. Motivate them to support the leaders of the village and to take personal responsibility for their improvement.

The above mentioned activities were mainly focused on distinct barriers that women face to achieve gender parity in national decision making. ICWC organised various activities to achieve objectives. The focused group meeting was help to sensitize community and women for gender equality, education, government policies, rights of women and legal awareness.

1. Bai 2. Birsika 3. Babupur4. Sonkh 5. Hirmathla 6. Muradbass7. Kotla 8. Sudaka 9. Ranika10. Kairaka 11. Hussainpur 12. Nausera

12 Focus Group Meeting were organised in following villages

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Information,Education&Communication

IEC is an important component

of the programme. During

project ICWC has prepared

following material:-

1. Awareness Messages through picture

2. Training manual for Training for trainers

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Awareness Camps:

Awareness camp were organised in following 4 villages:

1. Hirmathla

2. Birsika

3. Hussainpur

4. Bai

Objectives:

1. It is necessary to increase coordination between the Sarpanch and policy implementers like Aaganwadi and ASHA workers so that they may increase awareness, build trust and keep a check on each other.

2. Create a Sensitization Programme for the men of the village towards the importance of women in their everyday life.

The organisation did the awareness campaign and development of information, education and communication on related issues supported equal rights for women focused on political participation around making gender for equality measures centre to public policy making. The awareness campaign helped to sensitize not only women groups but also community for making gender equality. During awareness camps beneficiaries were informed about government policy on health, sanitation education, role of panchayat head in implementation of government policies.

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The organisation were providing leadership development training programme for women political candidates to help in building their capacities for civic education and sensitization campaign.

Leadership Development Training Programme were organised in 6 villages of Nuh District

1. Muradbass

2. Kotla

3. Sudaka

4. Nausera

5. Rozka Meo

6. Ranika

During focus group meetings and awareness camps the women having leadership quality were selected for further training. The leadership development training programme enhanced confidence level in women political candidates and also help to build their capacities and gender equality. In this training programme they were given demonstration to address the gathering and also to raise the community issues and policy advocacy with government authorities. It increased their participation in the community development programmes.

The sphere of political participation is very wide. It is not limited up to casting of votes only but it is also bringing changes in politics, raising voice in the society in favour of women and political awareness among the women also and topics of training were:-

• Attitudinal

• Social Justice & Social conflict

1. Caste

2. Gender

3. Class

• Functioning

1. Ensure people participation

2. Accountability

3. Transparency

Type of Leadership

1. Autocratic

2. Democratic

3. Collective

Group activities for disseminating knowledge and sharing thoughts different participation exercises were conducted by the experts under leadership workshops different activities were conducted on team work/ building, participatory approach, women panch and sarpanch working by going out of the box challenges on gender issue and political participation, cultural social barriers and strategies to overcome, achievement motivation practices, role of men in development task and the adapting to the new social and political orders in relation to the Panchayati Raj System consequent amendments.

The theme of the discussion had been to inculcate a sense of dignity and empowerment among the women representativeness through political participation on the changed scenario of they were encouraged to take the village development to the next level through the local self governance system known as the 3rd tier of the governance in India.

The programme mainly focused on the various level to reach and influence various stakeholder who can address the district barriers that women face to achieve gender parity.

Leadership Development Training Programme:

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The workshops were organised at the block level and district level. Apart from other speakers, the women heads shared their experiences and most of them address the gathering first time.

The programme was done by ICWC expert team; monitor the deliverable of the project. The monitoring strategy is to attain the objectives of the programme i.e.

i) Empower rural women as full fledge members of the citizens, to gain a say in the day to day political life.

ii) Create an enabling environment for stronger political participation by both individual and group women.

During workshop the monitoring strategy was also discussed. Ms. Mohammedi, 50 yrs, President of District Mahila of Congress shared her experiences. She was first women graduate of Mewat. She faced number of challenges in Mewat, Now she is full confident and role model for other women of Mewat.

Ms. Andrea Schlehuber, a development activist and managing director of a fair trade company in Selzburg, Austria was the chief guest of the workshop on 14.11.2017.

Ms. Andrea started her address with extending thanks to ICWC for carrying out the project for the women of Mewat district in Haryana. She appreciated the role of village women in the local self bodies and their increased awareness through the project activities conducted by the team and experts during implementation of the project.

She further emphasized that her individual interaction, prior to the workshop, with the participants has made her happy with the political awareness and leadership quality among the female of the villages represent ting in the workshop. She thanked Dr. Suman Chahar and Mr. O.P. Yadav for giving this opportunity.

Ms. Judith, Trading for development Oxford University, Ms. Judith, in her address to the workshop participants, elaborates her journey as

WORKSHOP

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a women from Peru to U.K. She appreciated the women of minority community taking a strong step forward in political and social issues.

She shared her experience in working with the women at the grassroots and acknowledges a bright chances for the women development in rural areas. She said that she looks a lot of similarity in the SHG formation in India and meeting out small requirements of the with the collective support of peer group members in their daily life and more particularly giving priority to the health and education need of their children. She complement the people the area for maintains serration and their increased efforts in addressing the issues related to women development.

Lastly the program was supported and encouraged the women in various stages of the political process, including at the local level. Strengthen the ability to build women’s skills

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and organize women across ethnic and political lines, as well as create the opportunity for women from diverse backgrounds to coverage around shared goals in solving ways that way their societies of development and wellness.

Mr. A.R. Asri, addressed the gathering and mentioned about the role of education in women development. He motivated women heads and leaders to come forward for participation and also gave them valuable information for state livelihood mission projects.

Dr. Suman Chahar in her address motivated participants and ask them for their participation in politics, she mentioned about government policies for women development and also emphasized on women is nucleus of family. She told, “ICWC along with Embassy of Netherland has successfully completed the project. It is an innovative project. Our team has developed leadership quality in women.”

Our team faced following challenges- 1. Sarpanch women are not supposed to came out from their houses. Their husband, father in law, brother work for them.

2. Sarpanch Women bounded with household as well as agricultural work.

3. ICWC team faced problems in organizing activities due to their pre occupied agriculture work and festivals.

4. ICWC team did number of one to one counseling sessions for participation of Sarpanch Women. It was really very difficult to change the mindset of male community.

5. It is very difficult to convenience to Meo women related to women development & government policy due to her backwardness.

Challenges:

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• The women groups started participated, in community decision making on matters of socio economic development.

• Female leader build mentorship relationship with young leaders.

• Strengthen the role of women in the consolidation of democracy, largely at the community and municipal level. At those levels it was benefits at least young women living in rural communities. Both as individuals and in groups they gain a greater say in local political affairs and play a more active role in decision making and the working of government.

• Lastly, the programme supported and encourage women at various stages of engagement in the political process, including at the local level. Strengthen the ability to build women skills and organize women across ethnic and political lines, as well as create the opportunity for women from diverse backgrounds to coverage around shared goals to solve problems in way that contribute to the development and well being of their societies.

OutcomeoftheProject

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Glimpses of Activities

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+91 11 25 054 102 icwcindia@gmail.com www.indiaicwc.org

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