In one corner room of a BMC building in Shastri Nagar, Santacruz (W), is a rolling pin made of barbed wire and chappatis of cloth that tell stories of the women who made them. ‘I gave birth to two daughters and my mom-in-law and husband beat me with a dog leash’, screams one chappati. Another yells, ‘He never earned and whenever I asked him for money he beat me up’.

Their 19-year-old creator may not have experienced domestic violence, but knows several who have. Saba Khatri’s rotis will soon be part of an art installation that will represent the homes she, and others like her, live in.

Women from Shastri Nagar and Dharavi are part of an initiative titled Dekha Undekha, organised by NGO Sneha, to blend discussions on health awareness with development of artistic talent.

The women have been encouraged to express their stories through three art forms - textiles, photography and ceramics.

The purpose of the exhibition — which will be held at Kumbharwada in Dharavi in the last week of February — Priya Agrawal, the advisor of the foundation, says, “Is to invite the lay public inside their space.”

Source: Mumbai Mirror

The issue of equality and rights for eunuchs has come to the Bombay High Court, with an NGO filing a public interest litigation demanding action to ensure better treatment to them.

The petition has been filed by Salvation of Oppressed Eunuchs (SOOE). Among numerous issues raised in the PIL, the SOOE has pointed out that eunuchs cannot get appropriate identification documents for the purpose of enlisting themselves in elections. The petitioners have also demanded the modification of Section 375 of the IPC to include transsexuals and eunuchs in the definition of “rape”.

The NGO has pointed to verbal abuses used to describe members of the community and has demanded that such remarks should be treated on par with derogatory remarks made against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Source: Indian Express

India’s school education success story has a flip-side: more than half of the students in class V in rural India cannot read the text taught in class II in 2011, even though around 97 % of children in the 6-14 age group are now enrolled in schools.

The startling fact is finding of NGO Pratham’s annual education survey of 6.3 lakh children across India in over 16,000 villages, who under the Right To Education Act are supposed to get quality education. A non-government report, an annual feature since 2005, evaluates the learning ability of students through a simple test based on what students are taught in their classrooms.

A survey conducted 18 months after watershed RTE law was implemented found that there is a decline of 5% in learning ability of students in schools even though the parents are employing more private tutors than ever before.

Around 52% in Bihar had age appropriate learning level in Pratham’s first survey in 2006. Five years down the line, the number has fallen to 29.9 %. Those in class V student, who can read a class II textbook, have the basic ability to learn.

Bihar is not alone. Similar decline in reading and mathematics was also reported from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Haryana even though many of the students surveyed were taking private tuitions.

“The tutor is a complementary factor and if the school functioning declines, the effectiveness of the tutor is lower too,” the survey report of 6.3 lakh children released by HRD minister Kapil Sibal said.

Source: Hindustan Times

Focusing on capacity development, complex as it may be, is really the only way to help countries end aid dependency, writes Jonathan Glennie in The Guardian

A mantra in development, and a constant demand in every policy paper, is that there is a need for “capacity development”. The fact that this is still such a prevalent prescription gives an idea of how hard it has been to make progress.

Capacity development is the process by which individuals and organisations develop the ability to set and achieve their own objectives. But beyond that general statement, there is little agreement on what it means. I was hauled over the coals recently for suggesting that capacity was weak in many African countries. It depends what you mean by capacity and which countries you are talking about.

And on top of that no one really knows how it is done. While capacity building used to focus on individuals, now there is more focus on institutions and societies.

But all this fairly well-known analysis is turned on its head by the slogan of a network called the Learning Network for Capacity Development (LenCD), which states simply that “capacity is development”.

I read this to mean that you don’t build capacity as a means to achieving the end of development. Increased capacity is what development is. It is the end itself.

Read the full story.

The government has promised to take steps to ensure effective implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, across the state.

The state women and child development department said it would immediately issue a government resolution (GR) telling officials in hospitals, police stations and state offices to understand the urgency of domestic violence cases and interpret the Act in its right essence. “We want to ensure the aggrieved women gets immediate relief,” said minister for women and child development, Varsha Gaikwad.

A delegation of women’s rights activists and NGOs met the minister on Thursday to express their concern over the increasing number of cases of domestic violence, especially in urban areas such as Mumbai. The delegation presented a charter of demands to the government, mainly to provide interim and immediate relief to victims of domestic violence. The state, it said, must take urgent steps to create awareness about the Act., which was unveiled in 2005.

Source: Times of India

A recent survey by an NGO shows that though the government’s eligibility criteria for free housing remains the same, the slumdwellers, an overwhelming majority of whom are tenants, don’t have documents to prove they have been living there before 1995.

The state government had selected Sector 5, which was covered by the Committee for Right to Housing survey, as the pilot for its ambitious remaking of Dharavi through the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority. “What the finding means is that a vast majority will be dishoused if the redevelopment is carried out under the existing slum rehabilitation law,”’ said Shweta Damle, member, CRH.

The CRH survey drew its 1,094 respondents across four bastis from Learn, an organization for women in Dharavi run by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Source: Times of India

Every 20 seconds, India records a child death due to diarrhoea and pneumonia. Every year, 1.73 million children die before the age of five. And nearly one million die within the first month of their life. Save the Children-an NGO working for the cause of children – has written to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, chairman of the Planning Commission to increase the annual budgetary allocation towards healthcare from the current 1.1% to 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“India ranks the lowest in public healthcare spending. India spends a little over 1% of its GDP on health with out of pocket being as high as 73%, affecting the lower income groups,” wrote Shabana Azmi to Ahluwalia. Azmi, the Save the Children campaign ambassador was in Delhi to launch the campaign ‘No Child Born to Die’ in Delhi a few days ago.

“The government must invest more in health and that must reflect in the country’s planning process and greater budget allocation,” she said at the launch.

The WHO recommends that all developing countries must allocate 5% of GDP on health.

Source: Hindustan Times

An NGO has threatened to file a public interest litigation (PIL) against the state government, which is yet to issue circulars about the implementation of 25 per cent reservation in schools for the economically weaker sections of society under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The NGO, Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), alleges that the state has failed to notify the rules of RTE and further implement it.

The state had decided to notify the rules under RTE after it was passed in the state Cabinet in September this year. However, no circular or notification has been issued since then.

Many private and unaided schools have already started issuing kindergarten admission forms or will do so before the end of this year. FFE says the government is deliberately delaying the implementation of the Act and they fear that rules of RTE will not be implemented even this year.

Jayant Jain, president of FFE, said, “It seems the state is not willing to implement the 25 per cent reservation clause under the RTE Act. We feel they are being forced by fellow politicians, who own schools and also the managements. There is already a case going on in the Supreme Court, filed by private and unaided schools. We fear that due to all this, there will be a delay in notifying the rules in the state and further delay in implementation. As of now, there is no stay on the implementation of RTE and so the state government can go ahead with it.”

Source: Indian Express

Makeshift houses made out of tin and tarpaulin sheds on the footpaths of Mumbai, which thousands of homeless call their homes in this land parched city, will soon make space for street libraries. An NGO Alternative Realities has launched a Homeless Library called HoL! for homeless cutting across ages.

“It’s a mistaken conception that the homeless beg for their living. Most homeless work as daily wagers but find it difficult to rent a space and are forced to stay on the streets. Many of them have basic education. Their children, too, go to the nearby civic schools,” said Abhishek Bharadwaj from Alternative Realities.

In a survey conducted by the NGO, it was found as many as 38 per cent of the total 1.5 lakh homeless population has the basic reading skills. Further the survey suggested that 83 per cent know Hindi, 48 per cent know Marathi and 4 per cent know basic English.

The library aims at focusing on homeless who are so engrossed in the fight of their daily survival that education becomes a secondary issue.

“While parents are busy fending for the family, education takes a back seat. Our idea is to help them build their self-esteem, generate their interests in reading and create a community space to stimulate social interactions,” Bharadwaj added.

Source: Indian Express

The police have started sending bulk messages to Mumbaiites, informing them of the new helpline launched on Tuesday for women to complain against incidents of sexual harassment and molestation. The police have asked citizens to use the helplines or then log on their website and file the complaint.

Nandita Shah, co-director of NGO Akshara, which is involved in issues related to women, said: “Women should save the numbers on their mobile phones and call the helplines if they need held about an eve teasing or molestations.” Shah suggests also using the helplines to report an incident you are witnessing. “The identity of the women will be kept under wrap,” she said.

The police have sent bulk messages asking citizens to call 103 or send SMS on 7738133133 or 7738144144 to report incidents of eve-teasing or molestation. Complainants can also log on to the police website, www.mumbaipolice.org, to report incidents.

Source: Hindustan Times