REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JULY –DECEMBER 2010 · , [email protected]. Report for the Month of...
Transcript of REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JULY –DECEMBER 2010 · , [email protected]. Report for the Month of...
REPORT FOR THE MONTH
OF
JULY –DECEMBER 2010
Submitted by:
JOINT OPERATION FOR SOCIAL HELP (JOSH)
www.josh4india.org, [email protected]
Report for the Month of July to December 2010
During the month of July and December 2010 the following activities were done
by JOSH:
1. Implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act in colleges of University of
Delhi:
JOSH has been working with the authorities of the University of Delhi and the
colleges under it since two years for effective implementation of section 4 of the
RTI Act. As part of that effort, previous year, training sessions of Principals and
Head of Departments were carried out. After which information, including
budget details, norms, rules and regulation and all other information mandated
under section 4 of the RTI Act was uploaded on the website of University of
Delhi. However, there were many colleges whose section 4 disclosure needed
further improvements.
Therefore, as a follow up to the process, a series of RTI applications were send to
these colleges and the University of Delhi for not only effectively disclosure of
information, but also to update the information provided. In response to this,
colleges updated their manuals with recent and updated information, especially
budget and expenditure of the last financial year. Also boards, carrying
information about details of Public Information Officers and Appellate
Authorities where put up in many colleges and reports send to us.
Display board on under Section 4 of the RTI Act in colleges
2. National Youth Consultation on approach paper to the 12th Five Year
Plan:
A National Youth Consultation on the approach paper to the 12th five year plan
was held on the 5th of December 2010, in Delhi and was organized by JOSH along
with Tehelka Foundation, YP Foundation, IYCN, Pravah and LYF. This
consultation was attended by over 150 youth participants from around 70
organizations working on different issues in both rural and urban areas across 13
states of the country.
The consultation was held as part of the process initiated by The Planning
Commission to engage with civil society organization to get their inputs on
different issues for preparation of the approach paper to the 12th five year plan.
The National Youth Consultation aimed at discussing and raising the concerns
faced by the youth from across the country along different key issues. The
consultation began by setting the context by Shri. Arun Maira, Member, Planning
Commision and Amitabh Beher, from WNTA. After which the participants broke
into different smaller groups to discuss problems, possible solutions and specific
recommendations along the line of the different challenges identified by the
Planning Commission for preparing the approach paper to the 12th Five Year
Plan. The main issues taken up by the participating organizations were;
education, health, decentralization and democratization of information,
environment, enhancing capacity for growth and markets for inclusion, skill
development, urbanization, rural transformation and sustained agriculture
growth. The discussions on these issues were facilitated by Nikhil Dey, Dunu
Roy, P.V. Sateesh, Malika Vardi, Kiran Bhatty, Madhavan, Randeep Kaur and
others.
The workshops held on different issues highlighted and opened up discussion
on important areas concerning the youth. Specific recommendations on the
issues discussed were shared during presentations of the respective groups with
the Member, Planning Commission. Amongst all the recommendations, demand
for larger participation and inclusion of youth in planning and all other processes
dominated the discussion. All the recommendations were complied and send to
the Planning Commission for the preparation of the approach paper to the 12th
Five Year Plan. This process was facilitated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan.
Shri Arun Maira, Member Planning Commission addressing the audience
Group Discussion: On the Democratization of Information
Group Discussion: On Education
3. Pilot study with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) of Implementation of RTE Act 2009:
A pilot study was done by JOSH with The National Commission for Protection
of Child Rights (NCPCR) to access the level of implementation of RTE Act 2009.
The study covered 13 schools in Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri area and 250
households. Results of the study indicate to the low level of awareness of the
RTE Act. It also demonstrated clearly that there is low level of preparedness
amongst the school authority to effectively implement the RTE Act. For this
study, students of Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI, Delhi)
volunteered with JOSH.
4. Training on Right to Information Act:
One day training on RTI Act was held for the entire batch of students of AADI,
Delhi. During this session, students were acquainted with the different
provisions of RTI Act. As these students are getting trained to become
professionals who will be working with children and people who are differently-
abled, they worked together to understand how they can use RTI Act to
especially help people with special needs.
5. Lakshya: The urban poor youth program:
This program aims to work with urban poor youth of two resettlements colonies
of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri to engage and capacity build them such that they
can raise issues of their community.
a. Youth Resource Center:
Daily classes for English and other subjects are been held. Presently, there are
about 157 youth enrolled in the center. There are six batches that are been held.
b. Group Discussion: Twice every month, group discussions are held for the
students. This helps the youth to not only study their course curriculum but also
understand different aspects of governance and democracy. The topic for GD is
usually announced a couple of days in advance, such that the students can
prepare readings to participate in the GD. The topics of these group discussions
range from understanding democracy, to corruption, to local issues like
cleanliness of schools and the community etc.
c. Capacity Building Trainings:
Capacity building trainings are held for the youth volunteers. It helps them to get
in-dept knowledge about the particular subject.
c. i Training on Right to Information Act:
A half a day workshop was held for the youth volunteers of YRC on the 31st of
Oct 2010. The workshop was facilitated by Rekha Koli of Human Rights Law
Network, Delhi. More than 80 youth volunteers participated in the workshop.
During this session, the different provisions of the RTI Act were shared with the
volunteers, along with examples of case studies.
During the workshop participants raised various issues starting from
irregularities in allocation and distribution of scholarships in schools, to state of
Public Dsitribution system in the community. Based on these queries, the
participants then broke into smaller work groups to draft sample RTI
applications to address these issues. The issues selected by the participants were;
status of water and toilet facilities in schools, scholarships for students, sanitation
and working of sweepers in the locality, PDS and maintenance of street lights of
the community.
Workshop on Right to Information Act
Group work: Participants drafting RTI applications on different issues
Presentation by the participants at the RTI act workshop
c. ii Training on Right to Education Act 2009
One day training was organized for the youth volunteers on the 19th of December
2010. The session was facilitated by representatives of The National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). More than 85 youth volunteers
participated in the training. During this session, different provisions of the RTE
Act were shared along with examples. The main idea was to share all the
entitlements of a child under the RTE Act.
Workshop on Right to Education Act
c. iii. Community Capacity building session on PDS: A half day session was
held for capacity building of the community members on their entitlements and
ways to address problems arising in PDS. The session was facilitated by Santosh
from Parivartan, Delhi. Santosh has a wide experience of working on issues of
PDS in Delhi. More than 70 women and men from the community participated in
the session. During this session, participants were told about the different
entitlements under PDS, their right as a consumer, whom to approach and how
to reach these officials with complains etc.
Workshop on Public Distribution System for community people
d. Community Capacity Building Training on Right to Education Act:
A half a day capacity building training was done for the members of the
community on RTE Act by representatives from The National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). During the training sessions, people were
told about their rights under this Act and also about how this act will ensure that
the children actually are able to get free education. In response the members also
mentioned about the poor state of the schools in the neighborhood. They also
mentioned the poor quality of teaching in the government schools. However, it
was felt that unless as parents they don’t raise their voice and report violations
things will not change.
e. Awareness Camps on Right to Education:
Awareness camps on entitlements under the RTE Act have been held in different
parts of the community of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri. During these camps,
people are given information regarding admission process, especially regarding
admissions under the economically weaker section (EWS) category. Also
information about how after the enactment of the RTE Act, free education upto
class 8th has become a legal entitlement.
Awareness camps on Right to Education
f. Awareness and Christmas Rally of Youth on Right to Education Act:
Awareness rally on Christmas day on provisions of Right to Education was held
on 25th of December 2010. The rally of more than 110 youth volunteers went
around different blocks of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri with placards and
pamphlets disseminating information on RTE Act.
Youth with slogans:’ Khelo Khudo Kado Padhai, Apne Haq ki Ladho Ladhi’
Awareness rally of Lakshya Youth on RTE Act
g. Case Studies:
Pending pension sanctioned:
Apart from engaging the youth at the center, our volunteers have been also
working with the community. During our interaction with the parents of the
students and other members of the community it was found out that many
people had applied for old age pension but hadn’t heard from the concerned
department for several months. The issues were specifically raised by
Chandrapal, Manoram and Sheila, all residents of Trilokpuri, who mentioned
that they had applied for old age pension in the month of January 20101, and
hadn’t heard from the department till November 2010. In response to the
problem raised, JOSH members drafted RTI applications asking for progress on
their respective pension applications. In reply to the RTI applications filed, the
Department of Social Welfare wrote back that the pension of all those who had
applied in January 2010 where sanctioned and they will be receiving it with a six
months arrear. Also since the RTI application sought a complete list of names
and address of all those whose old age pension had been sanctioned it has
helped in ensuring pension facilities of many other members of the same
community.
Fight against Corporal Punishment in School:
JOSH received a complaint from a girl named Bharti studying in Xth standard of
R.S.K.V. block no 1 of Kalyanpuri. She was slapped and verbally abused by her
school principal. Bharti was completely shaken as her principal had used abusive
language for her and her family. Bharti’s family was supported and a written
complaint was filed to The National Commission of Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) against corporal punishment. Complaint was also filed with the local
police station against the principal. While this incident was going on, the
neighborhood community also stood by Bharti and JOSH members and strongly
voiced their concern about this principal, who was reported to be misbehaving
with students regularly. An enquiry has been set up on the Principal of the said
school by the Commission.
h. ‘Sandesh’, the community theatre group:
A theatre group of the name of ‘Sandesh’(Message) was formed by the students
of Lakshya. This group has prepared several small street theatres to create
awareness on different community issues like drinking problem, lack of
sanitation, corruption and RTI Act. ‘Sandesh’ has been performing in different
parts of the community to create awareness.
Sandesh Team performing their street play ‘Chai Pani’: A play against the
corruption
6. Malwa Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan: ‘Rural initiative of mobilization of youth
in Madhya Pradesh with Elected Representative’
The main activities of MMKS has been to work with rural youth to engage them
to work towards better implementation of provisions of MNREGA and different
entitlements and provisions meant for the poor.
Under this in the initial phase, capacity building trainings, field exposure of
different members of the team were done. After which Rozgar Choupal was
organized, during which 700 forms were filled and more than 400 people got
employment.
Also during the first phase, problem of people not getting pension was raised.
This was taken up by the volunteers and several pension forms were filled.
However, it was seen that even though work under MNREGS was started in
many villages, there were many issues like delay in payment of wages, non
employment of women workers etc. Also of the pensions allotted, money of the
pensioners was lying pending for many months.
Dharna:
To address all these issues a one day dharna was organized by Malwa Mazdoor
Kisan Sangathan against the lack of implementation of the MNREGA provisions
and irregularities in pension scheme in the district of Mandsaur, Madhya
Pradesh. The dharna saw participation of people across 15 grampanchayats of
mandsaur district, of whom more than 100 were women. The dharna was staged
in front of the Janpad panchayat karyalaya where they mainly raised issues of
irregularities under MNREGA, delayed payments and non payment of
wages. Also the women demanded for work where they could also get
equal job opportunity under MNREGA.
At the dharna 15 Right to Information applications were filed by
workers in janpad panchayat office demanding for information regarding
delayed payment and non payment of wages for workers under MNREGA.
Some RTI applications were also filed by pensioners, demanding
information for delay in sanctioning of pension and delayed payments.
After filing the RTI application, a rally was taken out from the
dharna site to the SDM office, where a memorandum signed by the people
was handed over to the SDM. The memorandum raised issues of non
allotment of work under MNREGA. In this it was also mentioned how the
panchayat secretary and sarpanch refused to take the job application
form under the Act (Form 6), in some cases, where they did receive the
Form 6 they refused to issue any dated receipt of the same. This was
depriving the workers in demanding for unemployment benefits, where
work had not started. Also the fact that most of the works undertaken
under MNREGA, in this district, has excluded women workers, therefore
the memorandum also demanded for greater inclusion of women. The issue
of late payment was also mentioned in the memorandum and demanded
release of all pending payments of all workers for the last one year.
The memorandum also voiced the concerns of the pensioners, who have
been harassed by the administration by either delaying sanction of
pension or by delaying payments.
The SDM, Mr. N. S. Rajavat received the memorandum and also spoke to
all the workers and villagers gathered assuring them to take action on
all the concerns raised in the memorandum. He also assured that he
will take up the issue of delayed payments very seriously and process
payments within the next 15 days. With this assurance from the SDM,
the villagers ended the dharna, but also mentioned clearly that they
will again be knocking the doors of the administration if the promises
remain unfulfilled.
Success Story:
After which the SDM has sanctioned 1635 pensions, which were lying pending
for years. A total amount of Rs. 12, 52,300 was released as pension.
Saurabh Speaking at the Dharna sthal
Rally of people to the SDM Office to handover Memorandum
In Front of the SDM office
MNREGA Awareness Yatra:
An awareness yatra (rally) of rural youth were taken out to create awareness on
provisions of MNREGA. The yatra covered 15 gram panchayats in Malhargarh
block of Mandsaur District. The main aim of the yatra was to aware people the
importance of filling Form 6 to demand for work, to take receipt indicating date
of the forms and then ensure that work has began within 15 days of application.