Interventions : Capacity Building : State and Regional Workshops

Regional Workshop on Monitoring of Supreme Court Guidelines for PDS shops

In Chhattisgarh, a state level planning meeting of Pairvi partners was organized on 26th February 2009 at Raipur. Around 32 participants from the state participated in the meeting. It was decided in the meeting that a baseline survey and documentation of implementation of Supreme Court Guidelines on Public Distribution System will be done in 10 districts of the state. After the completion of the survey, a process of awareness and sensitization will be done. Around 50 village panchayats have been selected for the above work. It was also decided that an interaction meeting will be held in the state with the representatives of various political parties in respect to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The main objective of the above meeting will be to present facts reflecting the status of Right to Food and Livelihood in the state and what can be possible action taken by the political parties in regard to betterment of the above issues.

Regional Workshop on SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

The issues of dignity of dalits has been a priority for Pairvi and a regional workshop was conducted to train youth on effective utilization of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act, 1989 in combination with RTI in Uttar Pradesh. The workshop was organized on 18th June 2009 as a follow up of National Consultation on SC/ST Act in March, which brought together more than 50 activists working on dalit atrocity in 15 states and provided recommendations on amendment and effective implementation of the Act.

The regional workshop was organized in Jaunpur, UP in view of the long standing demand of the partners from the area. Youth from 6 districts were trained on rights of Dalits under SC/ST Act and how to make best use of the Act. A youth network to work on SC/ST Act and monitor violations and cases under the Act has been formed. The youth have also requested to organize a workshop on utilizing RTI for improved implementation of SC/ST Act in the state.

Workshop on Monitoring of Hunger Deaths among Tribal Children in Madhya Pradesh

The workshop was organized on 4th May 2009 at Gwalior to build the capacity of local organizations working with tribal and dalit groups on monitoring hunger and malnutrition deaths in the 4 hunger death prone districts of Madhya Pradesh namely Stana, Sidhi, Sheopur and Shivpuri. Pairvi had organized a fact finding on malnutrition and hunger death in these districts in 2008 and ensured action on the issue with the help of Human Rights Commission. The workshop equipped the participants with necessary skill to monitor, document and report malnutrition in these districts. Around 18 organizations from these districts, who had been partner in fact finding participated in the workshop.

Regional Workshop on Land Rights and Dalits in Bihar

Pairvi believes that land is a major component in ensuring food security of the underprivileged population in rural India. In view of the lack of progress in land reforms in Bihar, a state workshop was organized on 7th and 8th September 2009 in which more than 30 dalit activists from 25 districts in Bihar participated and discussed the situation of land rights of dalits in their district. The current situation of land rights among dalits was also discussed. The ownership of land in dalit hands is minimal in state yet after major efforts to bring in proper land distribution among landless community. The dalit community possess only 2-3 percent of land and a large number of dalits do not have their own land for shelter.

The workshop was organized in the light of the report Dr. Bandopadhyaa Committee on land reforms commissioned by the Government. The government has taken no action on the report, which has shown extremely poor condition of land rights among the dalits and recommended providing them homestead and agricultural land. The workshop drew a memorandum to be submitted to the government for expeditious implementation of the report, and also decided to conduct public hearings on land rights of dalits at block level. The government has recently started a survey of land and assessment of undistributed land with the government and has assured the poorest among the dalits (mahadalits) that they will be provided land at the earliest.

Regional Workshop on Drought and Food Security in Santhal Pargana

A regional workshop was organized on 11th September 2009 at Dumka, Jharkhand with regional partners and State Legal Aid Services Authority in which organizations, administrative officials, activist, and academicians belonging to Santhal Pargana region actively participated. It was discussed that though Santhal Pargana has always remained prone to drought and witnessed severe famines in the past, current spell of drought has increased the vulnerability of farmers and people.

Attributed mainly to climate change, the workshop emphasized that farming communities are encouraged to grow high water stress crops or cash crops, which makes agriculture in the state highly dependent on monsoons. The earlier practice of growing coarse grains has ensured that food security was not threatened even in case of acute shortage of precipitation. The workshop also discussed the inadequacy of government measures. Many adaptation techniques prevalent in the area were also discussed, listed and shared among the participants. The workshop concluded that it would be highly relevant to compile traditional knowledge of people in the region on adaptation mechanism, which would be highly beneficial for the farmers in the state.

Multi Stakeholder Workshop on Agriculture and Food Security

The workshop organised on 16th September 2009 in Jaipur, involved a number of stakeholders including media and UN agencies – UNICEF and UNFPA, experts, peasants and policy makers. The workshop brought out the grave situation of agriculture in the state in the face of droughts year after year and emphasized that non-farming opportunities should be made available to people and peasants to enhance their resilience top the food crisis. Rural Development Minister of State, Mr. Bharat Singh addressed the workshop and apprised participants of the recent efforts that government has made to encourage agriculture and rural development in state, and assured that state government will competently handle the situation with valuable inputs from workshop in particular and civil society in general.

Regional Workshop on Documentation and Reporting

A regional workshop on documentation and reporting was organized by Pairvi in Raipur, Chhattisgarh on 16th and 17th September 2009. The workshop mainly focused on the report writing using various types of reporting formats. Besides this participants were also trained on data collection, use of data, reporting and documentation. A workshop on grant writing and fact finding was also requested by participants. About 18 organizations and individuals participated in the workshop. The main purpose of the workshop was to build the capacity of the grassroots level organization and to help them writing their own reports and proposals.