Feminist Thought and Activism
The Alliance challenges and addresses persistent issues of exclusion and discrimination that obstruct and deny women’s, girls’ and other marginalised groups’ progress toward empowerment.
Gender Based Violence
The Alliance responded to the increasing incidents of GBV, especially arising due to the pandemic lockdown in a variety of ways. These included building the capacities of CBO/federation members through trainings on GBV, laws and how to handle cases that enabled them to monitor and support survivors of GBV, and also cascade the trainings through visual materials to all sangha(collective) members.
Creation of Legal Committees and deeper engagement with Nari Adalat’s resulted in sharp increase in the number of cases reported and also qualitative improvement in discussions and actions taken by the Committee/Nari Adalat members.
A study was conducted on the impact of COVID-19 on GBV across five states with women, girls, Gender Sexual Minority (GSM) persons and women in sex work. The findings of which were presented to the State Legal Services Authority and Karnataka Human Rights Commission who offered to train the CBO members on the laws.
A non-financial MoU is signed with Nyaaya, an initiative of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in Karnataka with an objective to co-create training modules on violence against women and provide legal information and guidelines to the legal committees to handle difficult cases.
Interventions with Adolescents
Adolescent girls are one of the most vulnerable groups in the community. The lack of information, coupled with patriarchal restrictions and societal myths, sets the platform for them to fall prey to various challenges. To help them realize their potential and empower them, Deepmala Sanstha, Samriddhi Sanstha, Hamari Drishti, Swadha Mahila Samakhya (SMS), and Jyoti Mahila Samakhya (JMS) facilitate two key activities, namely, a) the running of Kishori Manch and b) Ummeed Kendra.
Kishori Manch is a platform where adolescent girls are trained and counselled regularly on issues such as health, education, violence, abuse, child marriage, trafficking, and laws by trained mobilizers. These meetings are organized fortnightly and have substantial memberships: 30 Kishori Manchs under Deepmala Sanstha with 750 members, 40 Kishori Manchs under Hamari Drishti with 1230 members, 40 Kishori Manchs under Samriddhi Sanstha with 1333 members, and 42 groups of adolescents with 1255 members under SMS. Ummeed Kendra, on the other hand, offers free coaching support to adolescent girls from economically weaker sections to prepare for 9th, 10th, and 12th-grade examinations, with trained local teachers providing guidance and mentoring. Since its inception, Deepmala has supported over 245 girls, Hamari Drishti has supported over 200 girls through three kendras, and Samriddhi has supported more than 231 girls.
In addition to these activities, Alliance members have set up Umeed Centres (alternative learning centres) for kishoris from the poorest families who lack access to digital connectivity. Adolescent girls’ collectives (Kishori Sanghas) conduct regular meetings to discuss various issues and support federation members in documentation. The Alliance also implemented a Digital Literacy program, training adolescent girls in basic mobile operations, accessing resources, using email, conducting Zoom calls, sending WhatsApp voice messages, and capturing photos and videos. These girls then cascaded the training to sangha women.
Furthermore, a manual on Intergenerational Dialogues was created and rolled out by Alliance members. The objective of this intervention was to facilitate dialogues between women and girls to highlight their importance and explore the possibility of addressing social problems, such as early marriage of girls, through joint action between participants.