ALAMB
Empowering Women/Girls through Education and Vocational Training
Mission
- To provide education to 150 children in 5- 16 yrs age group in sector- 16 A Papankala in South West Delhi.
- To provide vocational training in beautician course to 120 adolescent girls.
- To make the community aware about girl’s rights and gender discrimination.
Activities
Education
- Non-formal classes
- Balwadi classes
- Remedial classes
- Study tour
- Theater workshop
- Mainstreaming
- Sports, painting , drawing
- Counseling
- Street play
Vocational Training
6 months certificate course for adolescent girls/ women in cutting & tailoring. Computer education and beautician in collaboration of Jan Shikshan Santhan Prayas sponsored by Min. of HRD Govt. of India.
Health
- Checkups of children, their mother & community people.
- Counseling on nutrition, immunization pregnancy cares.
- Meetings, camps on general health, immunization, nutrition education, family planning adolescent girls care.
- Awareness of HIV/ AIDS prevention among commercial female sex workers.
270 children will be enrolled in 5- 16 yrs age group through 6 batches in 2 education centers, and 3 batches in 1 vocational training center. The children who are dropouts and never been to school would be enrolled in the class. 150 children will be enrolled in education and 120 girl children will be enrolled for vocational training in beautician course. About 20% boys would be enrolled in the class. After getting education in non-formal class children would be motivated for mainstreaming in Govt. School and through NIOS within 3 yrs.
Contact
Mr. Rustam Ali
BE - S - 37, First Floor Hari Nagar
New Delhi-110064
India-5401630
Udayan Care
The Udayan Shalini Fellowship Programme
The programme reaches out to disadvantaged girls who live with their natural families. Udayan Shalini Fellows are given monetary and mentoring support to continue pursuing academic as well as vocational training. The selection process is called NAT – Needs, Ambition and Talent. Fellows are attached with senior educationists, who mentor them through their high school, college or vocational education.
These Fellows are supported with a monthly scholarship amount whilst regular motivational workshops are held to expand their vision. This is the fifth year of the programme and we have had 4 batches so far, and we are in the process of inducting the 5th batch. This programme has impacted 308 girls so far. We currently have 255 girls spread across school, college, and disciplines such as nursing, medicine, engineering and chartered accountancy.
To afford financial aid to deserving but needy girl students enabling them to study and reach their true potential.
To create a Mentoring environment that provides individual attention, counseling and grooming for the girls and assures their overall mental and moral development.
Through obligatory social work, we aim to encourage them to make a positive contribution to society and become the socially responsible citizens of tomorrow.
Through education, to improve their career prospects and financial capacity and thereby reduce the impact of poverty in communities.
Unique Features:
- Need as well as merit-based.
- Mentoring and counseling support.
- Regular workshops to create a broader world vision.
- Recipients are encouraged to give back to the community by doing 50 hours of social work.
- Placements leading to financial independence.
All activities geared towards enhancing the self-esteem and communication skills of the Fellows.
Contact:
Head Office
Basement, C-9, Lajpat Nagar-III
New Delhi 110024.
Tel:+ 91-11-29840151,32603837
E-mail: udayancare@gmail.com
Registered Office
Udayan Care
461, Kailash Towers-2
Mount Kailash,
New Delhi-110065.
SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1September 6, 2006
SUSTAINING THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEX SELECTION
(September 15, ‘06 to May 31, ‘07, eight and a half months).
1. Goal
Stopping the decline in child sex ratios in the short run so that in the coming decade restoring the nature’s balance in sex ratios at birth is attainable for the country.
2. Duration
Sept. 15, 2006 to May 31, 2007. Note the Budget & Activities are split into two phases as the project duration is over two separate financial years for UNICEF (2006 and 2007).
3. Scope of the Project
Within the country the priority is to States like UP, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Bengal. Other parts of the country if need arises or potential exists for sustained action at the local level.
4. Specific Objectives
1. Sustain the media coverage at the national and regional level so that the discourse in the country is maintained on this issue.
2. Respond to global media concerns on millions of “missing girls” in India.
3. Monitor new media like internet for identifying violations of PNDT law.
4. Plan effective actions to restrain sex selection such as advocacy with the governments; seek appropriate judicial remedies, including, attempts to create original jurisprudence.
5. Initiate dialogue with well known corporate leaders in order to ensure that new technologies of sex selection will not be produced/marketed by the Indian business world.
5.0 BACKGROUND
“We have a dream of an India in which every woman can feel safe, secure and empowered. Where our mothers, sisters and daughters are assured a life of dignity and personal security. We must end the crime of female foeticide”.
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Independence day Speech, 2006
5.1. Introduction to sex selection (female foeticide)
Violence against women is a global phenomenon. Sex selection and selective elimination of female foetus is an extreme form of violence against women. Women have been subject to various kinds of discrimination for millenia in our country. The practice of sex selection is spreading all around the country and the immediate demographic consequences is millions of missing girls. Traditional forms of discrimination such as deliberate neglect of girls and female infanticide never led to whole state level child sex ratio drop to 800 or 700+ levels (girls per thousand boys). Demographers have estimated that in the past two decades nearly five million girls have been eliminated before birth in India due to unethical medical practices. The practice of fetal sexing was possible after the development of genetic tests like amniocentesis. In our country AIIIMS medical scientists first promoted the practice of female foeticide for non-medical reasons in 1975. Later the Government of India banned this mis-use of medical technology in Government institutions. Subsequently, private medical entrepreneurs entered the business of eliminating girls before birth. The first private clinc was established in Amritsar in 1979 and spread to other parts of the country. Ultrasound became available widely in the 1990s, and because of its non-invasive nature became the most common form of prenatal tests misused for foetal sex determination. Today, the medical profession annually earns between Rs. 500 to 1000 crores from the business of sex determination and sex selective abortion of female foetuses. Though Parliament enacted the PNDT Act in September 1994 the implementation started only when the Supreme Court intervened in 2001.
5.2. The contribution of the project partner to this issue.
Business and Community Foundation India (BCF) is a not-for-profit business coalition, established in New Delhi by Indian and international companies, in association with the Prince of Wales International Business Leader's Forum. BCF is an alliance of like-minded companies who believe that business can be a powerful and positive force for change in today's society. BCF works in close cooperation with its member companies and provides them professional inputs to formulate and translate their corporate social responsibility polices into action. The Foundation helps the corporates identify and work in partnership with state and civil society organisations in order to benefit marginalised and disadvantaged communities.
Member companies include Bajaj, Cadbury, Glaxo SmithKline, Kanoria Chemicals, Gokuldas Images, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nestle, Satyam Computer Services etc. Last year, BCF organised a Workshop on female foeticide for the corporate social responsibility groups. UNICEF representative also spoke at this event. The Foundation has raised public consciousness on this heinous crime by other means also. Last year’s Delhi half-marathon event featured female foeticide as an issue thanks to the interest shown by BCF. This year’s annual lecture delivered by Mr Robert Davies, Chief Executive Officer International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) titled 'Can Business be a Dynamic Force for Development' specifically mentioned female foeticide as a major issue facing the country. Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Founder Trustee of the BCF has recently been elected as a Member of Rajya Sabha. Mr. Bajaj is known for his forthrightness, whether against the ‘Emergency’ in 1975 or against the ‘Gujarat riots’ of 2002; can be a potential ally in the Parliament on this sensitive issue. Mr. Bajaj is one of the most well known public faces of Corporate India having led the “Bombay Club” group in the early nineties against unfair advantages granted to the entry of multinationals into India.
Dr. Sabu George, Consultant with BCF has been working on ‘issues of girl child’ for more than 21 years. His research on female infanticide and female foeticide conducted in the eighties and nineties in TamilNadu and Haryana, respectively is well known. UNICEF India has occasionally funded several of his projects over the last twenty years (1986-90, 1998-99, 2001-2002, 2004, 2005-06). He worked with many NGOs since the mid-nineties in the states of TamilNadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab and Andhra on female foeticide. During the four years he was with the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi, (June 2002 - April 2006) work was initiated with partners in Rajasthan, UP and MP. His involvement with media on female feticide started in 1998 in Tamilnadu and from 2000 in Delhi and Bangalore. He has organised nine major two day Workshops for the Media since January 2002 apart from several short ones (half day and 1 day). Many of these where in partnership with the Centre for Advocacy & Research (CFAR). These include two Workshops for the Delhi Media in Goa and Workshops for the Rajasthan, Karnataka and UP Media. With the active involvement of partners in TamilNadu, Dr. George started the public campaigns against female foeticide in late 1998. He persuaded Vimochana, Bangalore, in December 2001 to work on this issue and has been closely associated with raising funds for their efforts for the past five years.
Dr. George was one of the original petitioners in the Public Interest Litigation against Government of India and all the States. This went on for three and a half years, from Feb 2000 to September 2003. Original jurisprudence to protect girl children was created because of this litigation. The landmark judgement of the Court in May 4, 2001 initiated the implementation of the PNDT Act. From 600 clinics in May 2001, today nearly 29,000 ultrasound Clinics have been registered. Several hundred ultrasound machines were seized and over 500 cases have been filed against violators of the law during this period. Dr. George was a Consultant to the Secretary, Dept of Family Welfare, 2001-02 during which the Amendments to the PNDT Law were drafted. He lobbied for the passage of the Amendments in the Parliament during the Monsoon and Winter sessions of 2002. Thus because of his passionate and long standing work on this issue he has been consulted as an expert by the Media, both national and global. A search on the news.google.com site will reveal the many hundreds of media citations on female foeticide attributed to him. His publications have appeared in respected medical journals such as Lancet, Reproductive Health Matters and Prenatal Diagnosis. Over the past two decades, his work has been funded by Thrasher Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, UNICEF New York, British High Commission, WHO, UNIFEM, UNFPA, Action Aid etc.. Note that for every Rupee UNICEF India has granted for Dr. George’s projects on female foeticide he has raised at least four additional Rupees from other donors.
6.0 ACTIVITIES
Note: All Workshops are on female foeticide (sex selection) related issues.
6.1 FIRST PHASE: Sept 2006 to Jan 2007
1. Media Workshop for Delhi Media, 36 participants, 2 days in North Bengal.
2. Media Investigations of Sex Selection-6
3. Legal Interventions in Courts, District, State and Supreme.
4. Local Campaign efforts in states like Rajasthan, MP...
5. Advocacy with Government, civil society....
6.2 SECOND PHASE: Feb 2007 to May 2007
1. Media Workshop for North India journalists, 2 days, Agra.
2. Workshop for Rajasthan Activists and NGOs, 2 days, Rajasthan.
3. Workshop on “Legislative framework for Investigative Journalism”, Outside Delhi (within 4 hours), 1day.
4. Workshop for Karnataka Coalition Partners, Bangalore, 2 days.
5. Media Investigations-6
6. Legal Interventions.
7. Local Campaign efforts.
8. Advocacy with Government, civil society.......
7. Outcomes
1. Consistent and well informed coverage (and strategically planned) in print and television. English, Hindi and vernacular languages where possible.
2. A new pool of media persons initiated to cover these issues.
3. Filing of cases in courts and follow up in cases filed by others (appropriate intervention in other cases to ensure that publicity hungry efforts of some organisations do not undermine the gains already achieved).
4. Sensitisation of new Government officials so that the Government concern is sustained. And continued accountability of the concerned officials including raising relevant questions in Parliament.
5. Involvement of new organisations and enhancing the involvement of those who are already been associated in the campaign against sex selection.
6. The quantum of publications in global space as well as the number of specific enquiries received from international media interviews are reflections of efforts in this area.
7. Initiation of actions which prevent violations of the PNDT law in internet.
8. Raising awareness of corporate leaders and challenging them to make specific commitments in their area of work and/or philanthropy to deal with the crime of female foeticide.
