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EKTA RESOURCE CENTRE FOR WOMEN

Report of the Activities

April 2016 - March 2017

1. INTRODUCTION:

The year 2016 – 2017 was mostly a mixed year with partners withdrawing support and

at the same time, a renewed energy when there was positive note from new partners.

EKTA as a steering group member of Girls Count, a national coalition, had undertaken

the Gender Equality campaign in Tamil Nadu.

The Hunger Project, India which has supported the work with women’s leadership

development in Panchayats since 2011, has decided to withdraw from Tamil Nadu. So

also, the support for the Protection and Promotion of Young Women’s Rights (PPYWR)

network has ended. However we continue our engagement with CWS in capacity

building trainings and are in the lookout for additional support.

Recognizing our work with the adolescent girls, the NAZ foundation has shown its

interest in working together in its programme GOAL to empower adolescents through

sports.

2. GENDER AND GOVERNANCE:

EKTA has been facilitating participation of women in governance since 1996, when the

first election to the Panchayats under the New Panchayat Raj Act with not less than 1/3

reservation for women was held. From 2011 it partnered with The hunger project, India

to accelerate its work with the elected women representatives (EWRs). During the

current year, the following activities were undertaken:

· Federation meetings(9)

· Village meetings (60)

· Outcome Assessment

The Panchayat election was scheduled for October with 50% reservation for women in

the Stat, therefore much of our focus was on identifying potential leaders, providing

them with leadership training. However, due to the political instability in the State, the

election process has been deferred, so the challenge is to sustain the enthusiasm of

women.

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16 day campaign: This was envisaged as a pre election campaign. Mobile van, street

plays & rally was organized in all the three blocks. Two press meets were held in

Madurai and Cuddalore District

Impact:

The elected women have created awareness on the Child Marriage Prevention Act and

stopped 10 child marriages in their locality. The dropout rate have come down, the

quality of services at the ICDS, Health centres and mid-day meal programme have

enhanced. The district and block officials have started counting on these women leaders

for implementation of government welfare schemes.

3 . GENDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS:

a. Round Table Discussions: EKTA organized two round table discussions; one at

Chennai and another at Madurai in which a total of 42 participants. The purpose of

these discussions were to reflect on the functioning of the Internal Complaints

Committees (ICC) under the SH Act, and the role of the external members in the ICCs

Concerns expressed: Non implementation of the provisions of the Act, lack of clarity

on the formation of LCC, lack of initiatives from the SCW.

Action Points Developed:

· A letter was drafted to the CM asking for a stronger chair with gender

perspective to lead the State Women's Commission

· A study on ICC was proposed.

· A State-wide roster would be maintained of qualified and trained persons who

can sit on ICCs.

b. Follow up Consultation was held in Madurai on 17th December in which there were

24 participants. The purpose was to review the progress made on the developed action

points and also to plan for the future. It was observed that very little progress has been

made; the reason quoted being the political instability in the State.

Participating members came forward to organize awareness drive on the SH Act in their

own area, to have a meeting with the respective district collectors to know about the

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functioning of ICCs and LCCs. It was also decided to prepare a simple handbook and

posters for wider dissemination.

c. Consultation on SDG Goal 5 with specific focus on the implementation of

PWDVA and SH Act:

Ekta organized a consultation on the 26 July 2016 at Hotel Western Park, Madurai to

reflect on the implementation of DV Act and SHAW in TN using the framework of Goal 5

of SDG.. A total of 35 participants attended the meet representing representatives from

NGOs, academicians, Lawyers, journalists and students of social work. A video on SDG

process was also shown to help participants understand the commitment made by the

State parties.

d. Debriefing Consultation on the Commission on the Status of Women

Ekta Resource Centre for Women organized a de briefing consultation on the 61 CSW

held from 13-18, March 2017 at the UN Head quarters, New York. The de briefing

consultation was attended by 33 participants consisting of representatives from

academic institutions, NGOs and advocates. Ms Vandinika Shukla, from the UN women

was the special guest

The objective of this consultation is two- fold, a) to create awareness on the importance

of CSW process and b) to reflect on the agreed conclusion and develop strategies for

active engagement of the civil society organizations by forming a policy dialogue forum.

Ms Vandinika Shukla gave an overview of the CSW and the role of UN Women in this

process. Ms. Shukla introduced UN Women and informed of ablished the linkages

between the Beijing Platform for Action, the MDGS, SDGS and the CSW and stressed on

the need to have an comprehensive understanding of this process to get engaged in

monitoring and advocacy actions.

There was group discussion on the agreed conclusion with reference to specific

thematic areas. Based on their preference, the participants were divided into 5 groups

and reflected on the following:

· Addressing the Growing Informality of Work and Mobility of Women Workers

· Strengthening Women’s Collective Voice, Leadership and Decision-Making

· Strengthening Education, Training and Skills Development.

· Implementing Economic and Social Policies for Women’s Economic Empowerment

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· Strengthening normative and legal frameworks

The Volunteers for Policy dialogue forum was formed.

e. LEGAL AWARENESS ON LAWS FOR WOMEN

A two days training on laws related to women with specific focus on PWDVA, PCMA and understanding international conventions like CEDAW and SDG Goal 5 was organized in Killai, Nambikkai Centre on 26, 27 January,2017. 34 participants from 12 panchayats of Parangipettai block participated. After a formal welcome and the self introduction of participants the training started with a brain storming session on “Why do we need to know about laws?”. It was then summarized as:

· Information is power · To protect women from all sorts of violence. · To give confidence to women that we have the right to be protected.

4. GENDER AND MASCULINITIES

a. Orientation to college students on gender equality: EKTA orients students both female and male from various colleges in the southern districts of Tamilnadu. On 30th January 2016 Students from Madurai Institute of Social Science (26) students approached EKTA and they were oriented on the patriarchal thoughts that imbibe them and the various means to achieve gender equality. They were given many books and pamphlets for enhancing their views on gender equality

From 4 Colleges, 13 students came as interns for three months in EKTA. They were asked to do small surveys on Violence against women and study on Safety Audit. The students from Fatima College prepared a skit on the need for immovable property for women and went to 6 villages, enacted the skit and had discussion with the community stressing the same.

Screening of Films on Men and Masculinities were undertaken in 8 colleges and 3 universities in Tamilnadu. A total of 750 students took part in this screening process.

Voices from the youth: (both positive and negative)

“It is true that we are silent when eve teasing occurs to a girl.

After seeing Ring the bell, I have decided not to be silent when violence occurs in any spheres

We boys enjoy eve teasing till today; I was unaware about the negative impact of eve teasing on girls. I will never be a part of this again

I can never admit that men and women are equal. They can never be equals.

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Most of the people think that marriage is the end point for women and this creates many problems.”

This film festival provided a space for both female and male youth to think aloud on Violence and its direct impact on women and also men. The faculty members too appreciated that this was a novel idea which should be taken up among the youth every month with different documentaries on violence, eve teasing and harassment on women and also men.

b. DISCUSSION WITH THE YOUTH

It was Ekta’s humble interest to organize youth at Killai to have open discussion with them. But this did not materialize at all. Though a few educated youth participated in the trainings on Men and Masculinities organized by Ekta at Madurai, still we were unable to coordinate them. On February 25th 2017, 25 youth from Nanjaimagathuvalkkai participated in a discussion on their understanding of life, their aim in life and the future of their life and the village in whole.

While looking at the situation in Killai, we could find that there were many suicidal cases and attempts to suicide also. While talking to the adolescent girls at Killai every month, it was noted that majority of the suicide death and attempts were love affairs. Hence Ekta was interested in talking to the youth on capacitating them.

5. STUDY CIRCLE: The ‘Study Circle’ was initiated at Ekta on the 14th January, 1992.

The objective was to create a space for women from different professional

backgrounds to come together to discuss, debate on women’s issues and thereby

evolve strategies for collective action.

28th April 2016 Pre - State legislative election / analyses of all party’s political manifestos

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10th June 2016 Post - State legislative election / Comparison of the CM speech and the election manifesto

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28th Dec, 2016 Review of the women’s situation in the State

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6. WORK WITH ADOLESCENTS

a. Life Skill Education in Schools:

EKTA involves in life skill development of the adolescents through a revised module in

which the staff team is trained. The module has been applied in schools in and around

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Madurai, Cuddalore and Sivagangai districts. A total of 886 students have been

benefited through this programme.

In addition, once a month, a group of adolescent girls from the nearby villages of Killai

are organized and given training on the sexual and reproductive rights of the adolescent

girls at Nambikkai Centre.

b. Summer Camp:

Summer Camp was organized for 5 days from 23rd to 27th May 2016 in Killai and for 5

days from 17th to 21st May 2016 in Kodimangalam. The theme for this year was “Role of

Children in protecting Environment.” 56 children in Killai and 68 children in

Kodimangalam participated.

c. Counselling:

Group counseling as well as individual counseling was offered in schools based on their

expressed needs. Group counseling is more focused on common issues like how to

prepare for exams, overcoming exam fear, personality development and behavioural

issues; whereas individual counseling is much more intense that focuses on the child

and her/ his family. More than 500 children have been given group counseling in 3

Schools and 20 adolescents have undergone individual counseling from 5 schools. All

the children of Nambikkai Centre are given periodic counseling.

On a regular basis, women approach Ekta for socio legal counseling. During the year 16

counseling cases were dealt with. (Domestic violence – 12 cases, Property rights of

women- 2, Maintenance -1, NREGS -1)

7.CAMPAIGN AND NETWORKING

a. One Billion Rising, 2017: Since 2013 Ekta is organizing OBR in Madurai, TN in

collaboration with Jagori, New Delhi. In 2017, there were multiple launches and 3

planning meetings for the main public event on 14the Feb. Also a review meeting was

held on 18th to appreciate all partners for their active participation and to collectively

reflect on strengthening way forward in this regard.

Ekta in collaboration with 19 NGOs, Advocates, Individuals, 2 Universities and 13

colleges organized the One Billion Rising in Madurai. Around 700 members participated

and made the event a grand success.

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The event started at 1.30 pm with a rally by the youth from Tamil Annai Statue which

was flagged off by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, Mr. K. Josh

Thangaiah. The rally ended at the main event point, The Gandhi Museum. Nearly 500

youth participated in the rally.

Ms. M. Jothimani Ilangovan, Assistant Director, All India Radio was the chief guest.

There was thematic address on issues related to women and children. The students

from the colleges and members from the NGOs entertained the audience with their folk

dances like; Karagattam, Oyillattam, Paraiyattam, songs, mime and skits. There was oath

taking by the members present and also joined together with Mrs. Rukmini

Palanivelrajan in flying the hydrogen filled balloons in the air as a mark of breaking our

chains to claim our legal rights in the space dominated by men.

Some responses from the participating students:

"Overwhelming experience to see so many women and also men coming together for a common cause, I am impressed and shall continue to collaborate in future program"

"An opportunity to meet and work with students from other colleges "

"Able to overcome my inhibition by participating in the cultural event"

"The creativity of young women was very impressive, as a male I would extend my support to them"

“Understood the importance of gender equality and also the damage caused by violence against women"

From Public:

“A much needed event, so far thought it is the responsibility of women to protect themselves but now realised how each one of us can play a vital role in curbing VAW"

“Amazing to see the gathering of women and men from diverse background"

8. Collaborative Programmes:

a. Feminist Capacity Building on Women and Development in Tamil

EKTA has partnered with SANGAT from 2009 in organizing this 10 days course for

participants from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. From 2009 till 2016 November 121 Sri

Lankans and 85 Indians have participated.

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This year, the training was organized from 7th to 16th November 2016 at Pallotti

Centre, Madurai. There were 9 participants from Sri Lanka (in the last minute three

participants could not make it) and 15 participants from Tamil Nadu. It was a mix of

NGO representatives working in the field, academicians, lawyers and college /

University students who had a passion to work for women and development

participated in this training. At the end participants from both India and Sri Lanka

developed their action plan to apply the learning from this training.

b. Campaign on Gender Equality

EKTA in collaboration with the Girls Count and NFI undertook the “Campaign to

promote Gender Equality” through sensitization of community women, Adolescents,

Youth, PRI members, Front line health workers and other stake holders.

Trainings for community women and adolescent girls on legal issues/gender laws

8 trainings 682 women

Workshops with youth on gender equality

7 colleges 556 students

Orientation of Panchayat representatives

4 meetings 182 participated

Dialogue with frontline health workers

3 dialogues 155 members

Consultations with multi-stakeholders

2 87 participants

Overall Feedback:

v Women participants were convinced that they should rear their boys with gender

equality ideas from their early days.

v The participants are able to discuss good touch bad touch health and hygiene gender

equality with their children’s especially with their boys.

v The participants view the serials in television for shorter hour and spend more then

with their children.

v Learnt the government scheme given for girls education, marriage, Sports,

v Discussed their learning with other members from their self help groups.

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v When the trainings were conducted in areas where female feticide, infanticide was

prevalent the information on government scheme for girls had an impact on its

prevalence.

v Women participants learnt the danger of marrying their daughter below the age of

18. They promised to wait till the girl completes 18 years.

9. Foundation Day and Women’s Day

a. The 26th Foundation Day of Ekta was organized on 5th Nov at hotel Westhern Park.

The thematic focus was on women’s political participation. There were 38 participants.

While introducing themselves, they were asked to share their association with Ekta. It

was found that many of them had directly participated in either trainings or campaign

activities and feel very much part of the organization. The representatives from colleges

highlighted the valuable reference materials and guidance that they have received for

their research work.

Following this, there was a brain storming session on women’s political participation. It

was found that very few had positive view about women’s participation in politics and

most others thought that it is not suitable for women.Dr. Regina Papa, former Professor

and Head of Department of Women’s Studies and Director of the Centre at Alagappa

University, Karaikudi, spoke to the members present on the need for women to get

involved in politics.

b. WOMEN’S DAY: 2016 Women’s day was celebrated with the people of Thuvariman

comprising of 80 women and 10 men. The history of celebrating women’s day was

explained. There was a discussion on “Women as change makers” and all the women

shared their experiences and voiced their concern over the growing violence in our

place.

10. SHELTER CARE FOR GIRLS AT NAMBIKKAI CENTRE

In 2017 three children appeared for their X exam and 2 children the XII exams. Their

exams were completed by the end of March and they left the centre. Out of this one child

Subbulakshmi could not get through her X exam and she is now admitted in a One year

course on Operation Theatre Nursing Assistant. Out of the two passed out girls from XII

std, One child Uma has joined as apprenticeship in Aravind Eye Hospital in Pondicherry.

The other child Valarmathi application is kept pending. Three children (Class X) from

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nearby Irular hamlet came to Nambikkai centre to study with the girls every evening

until exams. These girls have passed and are admitted in the XII std. A tuition teacher

comes to Nambikkai every day to teach the girls maths and other subjects for which

they are week.

Applications for admission of children in the current academic year was received,

scrutinized and 10 new children are admitted with prior permission from the Child

Welfare Committee, Cuddalore.

a. Netball Camp: EKTA in collaboration with NAZ, INDIA, an NGO from Delhi organized

this camp. This is a programme of NAZ, called the GOAL programme for adolescent girls

– EMPOWERING GIRLS THROUGH SPORTS. This was an innovative camp for 5 days

where the girls were given Net Ball training for 2 hours. After this they were given an

interval of 15 minutes and then life skill was given to them for one hour. The coaching

was given by well trained coaches from Delhi and Chennai. All the girls were quick in

learning the sport. On the 5th day, the girls were divided into 8 teams and a tournament

was conducted. The winning team and the runner up team were honoured. At the end of

the day, they were provided with biscuits, juice and banana as a supplement.

b. Supplementary Education Centres: Ekta is running two Supplementary Education

Centres in two middle schools Killai MC and MGR Nagar under the House of Smile

project and two more centres at Killai and Nanjaimagathuvalkkai run by EKTA with

their other funding source. From the feedback received from the Headmaster and class

teachers, it was found that the performance of the children in the Supplementary

Education Centres is generally better than the children who do not attend these classes.

Other than the academic performances, these children are trained in Co-curricular

activities like Singing, Dance, Painting, Art from waste, Craft work, Story Telling, Drama

etc. They were also motivated to improve the culture of reading. Story books from

Nambikkai Centre were brought to the SECs where the children read one book every

week, which was then rotated among them and finally when all the children completed

reading all the books they were returned to Nambikkai and new books were taken.

c. Children’s Club: Children’s Club is started in five villages namely; MGR Nagar, Killai

MC, Kalaigner Nagar, Ponnanthittu and Nanjaimagathuvalkkai. The children were

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oriented on the need for children club and how it develops their leadership skills and

other qualities which will enable a qualitative and bright future.

d. Home Management Committee Meeting of EKTA Nambikkai Centre:

As per the instruction from the District Child Protection Officer, the Home Management

committee was organized in the month of January with The DCPO, CWC member, HM of

a local school, one parent of Nambikkai Child, a senior Nambikkai Child and the staff

team. The DCPO asked the senior child of Nambikkai if she was happy and if all her

needs were satisfied. The HM of Panchayat union Middle School, Kalaigner Nagar,

expressed his views of Nambikkai Centre. The DCPO asked Ekta team to approach LIONs

or Rotary club for funds. It was advised to have a Yoga class for children.

e. Exhibition on BBBP Scheme:

Ekta decided to organize an exhibition on the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme” in

Nambikkai Centre. After having an initial discussion with the Headmasters of 3 schools,

Village Health Nurse and the Doctor from the Primary Health Centre Killai,

Representatives from NGOs and the ICDS staff the Exhibition was organized on 1st

September 2016 in Nambikkai Centre. Ms. Vijayalakshmi, RDO and the Collector in

charge of Cuddalore District accompanied by the Block Medical Officer Ms. Amutha and

Ms. Anita the CDPO of Parangipettai block declared open the Exhibition and saw the

exhibits of the children. They appreciated the arts displayed by the children and also

were wonderstruck by the dramas and dances performed by the children expressing the

need for protecting and educating girl children. 459 students from 12 schools and 144

adults participated in this exhibition and made this a grand success.

STAFF CAPACITY BUILDING: An external facilitator was invited to facilitate the staff

team of EKTA to reflect on the roles and responsibilities of the staff team vis a vis the

organizational goal and activities. The evolution process of Ekta was reflected and its

growth process was mapped. Following this each one shared their understanding about

the programme design of Ekta. The facilitator helped them to reflect on the relevance of

actions and also how it is linked to the overall goal of Ekta. Finally the team members

were asked to list down all the activities and critically reflect and prioritize them and

share their views. Based on this exercise some activities were redesigned and each one’s

role got clarified. The facilitator shared the Theory of Change Framework and asked the

team to put all their actions in to this frame work.

completed in the presence of the facilitator, but later a draft has been sent to her for her

inputs to finalize the document. The

appreciated the facilitator for helping them to gain deeper understanding of their work.

They also promised to continue this process.

STAFF EXPOSURE: On 11th and 12

the director went to Rameshwaram, spent one

memorial of Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

VISITORS TO EKTA:

A seven member team from Kanthari came to Ekta for 5 days to understand the

intervention strategies and also to interact with some of

and also some NGOs. Many Colleges sent their students for observation visit.

Researchers, representatives from government departments also came to collect

information on women’s rights, posters and booklets.

ctions in to this frame work. Due to paucity of time it could not be

completed in the presence of the facilitator, but later a draft has been sent to her for her

inputs to finalize the document. The team felt very positive about this exercise and

ed the facilitator for helping them to gain deeper understanding of their work.

They also promised to continue this process.

and 12th of June 2016, the staff team with their children and

waram, spent one night there, visited the temple, the

Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam and had a good time in the sea.

n member team from Kanthari came to Ekta for 5 days to understand the

intervention strategies and also to interact with some of its stake holders in the field

Many Colleges sent their students for observation visit.

Researchers, representatives from government departments also came to collect

information on women’s rights, posters and booklets.

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Due to paucity of time it could not be

completed in the presence of the facilitator, but later a draft has been sent to her for her

felt very positive about this exercise and

ed the facilitator for helping them to gain deeper understanding of their work.

team with their children and

ted the temple, the

n member team from Kanthari came to Ekta for 5 days to understand the

its stake holders in the field

Many Colleges sent their students for observation visit.

Researchers, representatives from government departments also came to collect