Supported by the Oak Foundation, Gender at Work embarked in 2018 on a beautiful 4.5 year journey along with the Civil Society Academy and partners. The Empowering Civil Society for Social Change in Jharkhand initiative aimed to enable and strengthen more than 30 diverse grassroots civil society organizations (CSOs) working on complex and multidimensional issues of systematic oppression in the Indian region in order to advocate for social change.
Enhancing leadership capacity in social change movements, promoting collaboration through a feminist and human rights-centered approach, and creating a strong network of CSOs that can collectively address the multifaceted challenges in Jharkhand were some of our collective goals.
In this blog post, discover how it all started, meet our partner organizations and watch their stories of change.
Jharkhand Anti-Traffic Network (JATN)
Established in 1999, JATN is a consortium of civil society organizations in Jharkhand, that has been working on issues of safe migration and other gender-based issues. It is currently operating in 13 districts of Jharkhand through 13 network member organizations and covers over 130 villages, encompassing marginalized communities such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST), backward classes, and minorities.
JATN’s primary focus is on promoting safe migration, countering trafficking, and promoting women’s rights. To achieve these goals, it has established ‘Migrant Forums’ in the villages it works that primarily include migrants and members of their families. These forums aim to catalyze change by creating awareness about safe migration and gender issues.
JATN also works with women’s collectives such as Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) to address trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence as well as provide counseling and support to victims. JATN member organizations undertake advocacy on safe migration, and child marriages, as well as foster relationships with government departments to facilitate access to available schemes and other entitlements at the village, Panchayat, block, and district levels. The 13 network member organizations also function as information centres, disseminating relevant information on safe migration, women’s rights, and government schemes in their respective villages.
Samvad
Formed in 2001, Samvad’s history is intrinsically linked with the long-standing struggle for a separate state of Jharkhand. This struggle represented the aspirations of indigenous communities for recognition of their rights and self-determination, encompassing their distinct identity, culture, and control over natural resources.
However, once statehood was achieved in 2000, it became evident to the founders that the struggle for indigenous rights—particularly over ‘jal, jangal and jameen’ (water, forest, and land) was not over. To address this Samvad was formed by social activists and intellectuals to mobilize indigenous communities, Dalits, women, and religious minorities and create awareness on their rights. Samvad’s vision is focused on creating a society that balances human-nature relations, preserves indigenous values, and fosters sustainable livelihoods.
Its mission is to realize—self-governance (swasashan), self-reliance (swawlamban), and dignity (swabhiman) based on equality, equity, and local governance systems. Samvad achieves this through various activities such as organizing awareness campaigns, capacity-building programs, promoting sustainable livelihoods, advocacy for indigenous rights and women’s empowerment, and strengthening Gram Sabhas and local governance systems. Samvad currently works in over 200 villages in Jharkhand.
Watch the videos below to discover some of Samvad’s stories of change in the context of the Empowering Civil Society for Social Change in Jharkhand initiative:
IBTIDA Network
Ibtida began as a collective leadership development program in 2002 to support a network of organizations from the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. The program aimed to build the capacity of women-led organizations at the community level and to support women representatives of these organizations beyond the top leaders and get into the process from individual to organizational to community development strategies and actions.
Ibtida, in Jharkhand, is a network of about 20 women-headed organizations based in various districts of Jharkhand that helps to ensure local-level movement building through the creation of strong networks of community-based organizations and to enhance the use of formal and informal human rights mechanisms at the local level. This is achieved by enhancing the leadership capacities of organizational leaders and ensuring that they have access to information that would enable them to demand their rights and alter their position within society – economically, politically, and socially.
Members of Ibtida work on issues of microfinance, health, gender equality, education, vocational skills, livelihood, anti-trafficking, environment, and violence against women in 16 districts. The members work with marginalized communities, including Dalits and tribals, and young girls and women. They actively work on building the leadership of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) to ensure awareness of women’s rights, public distribution system, women empowerment, advocacy for self-governance, and promotion of their rights.
Watch the videos below to discover some of Ibtida’s stories of change in the context of the Empowering Civil Society for Social Change in Jharkhand initiative:
Ekjut
Ekjut is a non-profit voluntary organization of India. Ekjut’s partnering communities are the indigenous people, people living in the underserved districts and the urban homeless. Their themes are Survive, Blossom, Thrive and Transform. They work in various districts in India for the improvement of maternal, new-born, child health and nutrition of partnering underserved, marginalised communities, through their empowerment, community-based interventions and influence good governance for improving access and quality of services. It is done through collaboration with leading agencies for building thier research capacities to strengthen the evidence base, dissemination of findings, engagement with government and networks and supporting scaling up of effective interventions.
Maitri
Maitri is a humanitarian NGO that is committed to facilitating every individual’s Human Rights, especially the Rights to Identity, Dignity, and Respect. Since 2005, Maitri has worked with over 45,000 individuals on the issues of social and health inequities and public health concerns through education, community outreach, networking, and legal advocacy.
Maitri’s work is organized under two main pillars: Violence Against Women and Migrant Workers. The organization has been addressing the issue of violence against women (especially in the uniformed forces), running a victim support and victim-to-survivor program, and promoting dignity and support for abandoned elderly widows in Vrindavan (Mathura, India).
Their initiatives with Migrant Workers include facilitating access to Citizenship Rights to ensure access to basic rights including healthcare to vulnerable migrant populations like rickshaw pullers and the homeless, and providing educational and skill-enhancement opportunities for underserved children and women respectively. They also run an Integrated Counseling and Testing Center (ICTC) for HIV/AIDS. Maitri’s mission is to act as a catalyst to enable access to basic rights to some of the most Marginalized and Vulnerable Populations in India so that their vision of a world in which each individual lives with Identity, Dignity, and Respect comes to life.
Learn more about the Empowering Civil Society for Social Change in Jharkhand initiative here.
