Plight of Women

CONCEPT NOTE GENDER RESOURCE CENTRE
1. Introduction
The growing influx of migrant population, mounting growth of slums/resettlement colonies, adverse sex ratio of girls and it declining trend in Delhi, low female work participation rate, high incidences of violence and crime against women, disturbingly high prevalence of anemia amongst women along with other areas of vulnerabilities such as RTI/STI TB, reproductive errors, protein malnutrition- lend challenging dimension to the work required to be done to make the city more women friendly and to empower women themselves to create a supportive and enabling environment. The status of women in Delhi is a subject which raises concern of government and link society as a whole. Even since Delhi was made the capital of the country, large number of people from different parts has migrated to this city. Delhi has become a conglomeration of different cultures but some of the pockets and localities retain distinct cultural traits. Though most of them belong to families with a regular income some of them do require financial/economic activity to augment the family budget. Lack of awareness as well as lack of visible opportunities make them remain unemployed in most cases. At the same time their lack of confidence to compete in a men oriented economy is also one of the contributing factors Many of the migrants who have come to the city in search of livelihood end up occupying public land earmarked for some other developmental activity. Over a period of time large clusters of such unauthorized habitation has come up all over the city. Due to the unplanned nature of their growth basic service like health, education, skill development has not kept pace with other areas. Out reach programme like mobile clinics, literacy/skill development classes has not made any significant impact in these areas. At times the Government has tried to relocate some of these people in a more organized manner in tenements specially built for them. In these resettlement colonies, the city government has planned schools, hospitals as well as trading facilities. These colonies have also been provided with regular supply of water and electricity. Drainage system has been introduced for removal of sewer. However, the economic status of these resettlements colonies is quite low as compared to the other areas even though they are slowly getting interlinked with the larger economy of the city. These area provide industrial work force, construction labour, petty traders etc. In large number. These colonies also provide services like motor repair, auto repair, electricians, plumbers, fitters etc. Most women in these areas help their husband in their petty trades etc. and also at times work with the husband in their casual labour. Some of them also work as domestic help in neighboring affluent areas. Since they are completely tied up in earning the livelihood and taking care of their families, they have little opportunity to take care of their health and other requirements. The Government is conscious of these problems and over a period of time has been devoting more of its resources to improve the plight of the women of these areas. Significant contribution in this has been made by the series of Stree Shakti Camps being held in different areas which require such services.

Women play a vital role in the development and sustenance of society at large. On account of the traditional patriarchy followed since time immemorial, often their contribution is not accounted and valued. With the changing times, the status of women both in the oriental world as well as in the occidental world has changed. Along with equality, and empowerment, today’s woman has also to tackle new challenges and shoulder responsibilities manifold specifically in the context of developing nations. One of the institutional mechanisms desired to take proactive steps to address the area of concern is the creation of Gender Resource Centre and provision of services in collaboration with the Voluntary organizations under the scheme of Govt. Essentially the Centre is expected to take care of all dimensions related to women empowerment in a holistic manner.

2. The Gender Resource Centre are envisaged as instrument to bring Social, Economic, and Legal empowerment of Women particularly those belonging to the under privileged sections of society. 3. Main Component of Activities: The activities of Gender Resource Centre are to encompass. Social Empowerment Legal Rights Economic Initiatives- skill building, Micro enterprise and entrepreneurship Development Health Aspects Information Sharing and Networking Aspects Non formal functional literacy

4. Constituents of the Gender Resource Centre In keeping with the Bhagidari (Partnership) the project attach Multi stakeholders collaboration with the involvement of stakeholders Keeping this in view, the main constituents of the Gender Resource Centre could be as under: • • • • All the state Government Depts./Agencies concerned with women issues NGOs working with Women and Children Legal and Health Experts Vocational and Educational Experts

5. Objectives of the Programme • • • • • To act as a catalyst for making Delhi safe for women through social legal and economic empowerment To improve Health of women To impart skill for specific trades and to provide forward and backward linkages enabling women to be a part of productive work force obtain good remuneration. To provide facilities with linkages for school drop outs to return to mainstream and to provide non formal functional literacy To establish a mechanism for linking existing government schemes for women and to enable women to access it better.

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To raise awareness on issue of ……….. relevance and provide legal literacy about women rights. To set up a documentation center which will act as a clearinghouse for information of women and will work towards a system of affiliation of the organization working on the same issue

6. Functions and strategies: 1) Social Empowerment- The existing schemes of the Government for women including their welfare, old age, widows and for empowerment should converge at this window. Instead of duplicating the existing set up of concerned departments, the centre should act as a facilitator and provide awareness for better implementation of the schemes and to reduce the gap between the beneficiaries and the service provider The Centres shall be platform for awareness generation on social issues relevant for women disseminating knowledge about their rights, privileges, opportunities and threats. Issues such as safety of women, trafficking, female foeticide shall be addressed through the information cum facilitation networks. 2) Economic Empowerment- The Centre will help to identify and provide training in conventional and non-conventional trades specifically through creation of Self Help Groups. To provide forward and backward linkages with banks, financial institutions, agencies offering loan both in Delhi and Central Government such as SJSRY. The Centre will have a tie-up between beneficiary and relevant implementing agencies. The Centre will promote micro-enterprise development and establish effective marketing linkages. 3) Health- The Centre will help in organizing general Health check up at regular intervals for check up and issuance of referrals. The centre will also promote sex education to adolescent in order to ameliorate morbidity in STD, RTI and AIDS cases. The Centre will act as a Nodal point for creating awareness on the status of girl child and as a motivator for reduction in female foeticide 4) Education- The Centres would endeavor to promote education among girl child and to reduce dropouts through linkages with open school and take up Adult literacy. 5) The Centres should closely liaise with NGOs of the area, with lawyers, doctors and councilors to promote reporting of cases of violence and other crimes against women in the community and also to activate re-conciliation proceedings. 7. Methodology of Work: The District Centres will maintain close link with NGO partner already working with Delhi Government and also promote interaction with registered organizations and community groups, which are working at the district level. In order to achieve the same, these centers will identify Nodal NGO and other field NGOs for acting as resource centers and activity centers. It is expected that the Gender Resource Centres will be able to draw upon the resources of all the categories of women who have a potential to contribute to the overall development of the economy. Women will be encouraged to set up enterprise though self Help Groups. Interaction between the educated and uneducated groups will be the focal point of development of the Gender Resource Centres so that all the three groups over a period of time are able to contribute each other’s development and at the same time achieve the overall objective of women’s empowerment. Centre wise action plan for interaction of these women groups and development in a phased manner will be worked out in close cooperation with the government, service providers and the NGOs.

8. Activities: 1) Social Empowerment: a) The Centre will act as a clearing window and keep forms regarding all relevant schemes of the Government of Delhi and the Central Government Pertaining to women. b) Provide assistance for seeking help to any women with grievance by contacting the concerned department and the field NGO for ensuring proper follow up by the service provider. c) Centres will organize training camps for girls for developing: • • • • • • • Negotiating skill Self-confidence Counseling Gender issues Leadership Civil defense Self defense

2) Legal: The centers will organize periodic legal awareness camps and help in counseling/redressal of legal problems through follow up on cases 3) Education: Each center will identify school dropouts through the NGOs working in the area. These girls will be encouraged to enroll in the open schools and the field NGOs will maintain close link with the beneficiary to ensure continuation of the programmes. Functional literacy amongst adult women has to be a particular focus. 4) The Centre will also impart gender education for which material and training capacity will be developed 5) Health: The center will associate nearby government hospitals, dispensaries and health workers for holding General Health Camps where general check up as well as screening for RTI, STD and AIDS cases will be done. 6) Economic empowerment: The center will promote vocational training in conventional and non-conventional trades and aim to develop entrepreneurs with marketing activities for both products and services linkages would be established with schemes such as SJSRY.