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Director's Message
“In the wake of the #MeToo Movement, CSR’s membership in 26 Internal Complaints Committees for sexual harassment is strengthening the voices of women and encouraging institutions to respect diversity at the workplace.”
Happy New Year and welcome to CSR’s newsletter!  I hope you enjoy the new format.

I’m excited to share the launch of some major new initiatives.

In October, we welcomed Honda2wheelers India as a partner on two programs.First, our new skill program is training 100 women as security guards and placing them with jobs.  Second, we are building the capacity of elected women representatives in Alwar in water conservation strategies, expanding our current work in Rajasthan.

Our second new partnership is with the Netherlands Embassy, which made substantial investment in our work against pre-natal sex-selection in Haryana, continuing CSR’s advocacy and community engagement as a nodal agency for the government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program.

Some highlights from our portfolio of ongoing projects include:

  -Social Surfing, our partnership with Facebook to build student skill for safe and effective online engagement has reached 400 colleges and 17,000 students

  -The campaign for the Women’s Reservation Bill received over 30,000 signatures on its petition to pass the bill and support from Union Minister Honorable Mr. Rajnath Singh (Home Minister) and Ms. Sushmita Dev(President of All India Mahila Congress).

  -Tweesurfing, which advocates for social change through social media, launched its 4th chapter in Kolkata after Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore

  -The long-standing ‘Surrogacy (Regulatory) Bill’ was passed by the Parliament, an effort to which CSR contributed ground-breaking research on exploitation of the industry

  -Safe Cities is preparing a training manual for police to improve women’s public safety in Bhopal,Gwalior, and Jodhpur.

  -In the wake of the #MeToo Movement, CSR’s membership in 26 Internal Complaints Committees for sexual harassment of many primary institutions of India (Reserve Bank of India, Central Bureau of Investigation among many others) is strengthening the voices of women and encouraging institutions to respect diversity at the workplace.”

Please enjoy this newsletter for a full update on our work.  As always, thank you for your support and engagement and I invite you to connect with us in our fight for women’s rights.
 

Women's Reservation Bill


The Centre for Social Research, in association with the National Alliance is advocating for 33 percent Women’s Reservation in Parliament. The active advocacy has been initiated for over 1 year and in the last quarter of the year 2018, the signature campaign has continued with sustained vigor. Letters to Members of Legislative Assemblies have ensured that the important stakeholders support the cause. Mainstream media was engaged with, to ensure that the cause is highlighted. In the month of November, support was solicited from Honorable Mr. Rajnath Singh (Home Minister) and Ms. Sushmita Dev (Congress Mahila Manch). Ahead of the winter session of Parliament in the month of December, a conference in New Delhi was hosted to revive the dialogue on women’s reservation bill.
 

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

CSR as the Nodal agency for implementing “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”(BBBP) in the low sex ratio districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Jhajjar, Mahendragarh and Gurugram conducted community engagement and advocacy activities In collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy. In this quarter, 5 lowest sex ratio villages of each district have been identified with the help of DPOs and PC/PNDT Nodal Officials for intensive work. As a measure, CSR established 8 Community Watch Groups (CWGs) in Jharsa and Wazirabadvillageson25thSeptember (Gurugram); Badli and Rohad villages on 22nd October (Jhajjar); Nihalawas and Dublana villages on 15th and 16th November (Mahendragarh) and in HengaKheri village and Shanti Nagaron 5th and 6th December (Kurukshetra)We participated in Rahagiri day in Gurugram on 9th September2018 along with district authorities and organized a NukkadNatak (street play). Centre for Social Research conducted Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) training in the Mini Secretariat, Gurugram with the Panchayat members of fifteen low sex ratio villages of Gurugram district. The mobilization of the youth at educational institutions was carried out through art and culture initiatives like skit and poster making competitions in the Swami Vivekanand School, Mehrampur, Mahendragarh district. An expert group meeting was initiated with the medical fraternity

Water Conservation and Climate Change In Jaipur and Abu Road

A one day workshop on watershed management in Jaipur was conducted on 16th September 2018 that aimed at facilitating an understanding of the various tools available for watershed management, along with familiarizing the participants with the existing government schemes which can help address their needs pertaining to the same.
 
From 23rd to 25th November 2018, a National Workshop was held that brought together multiple stakeholders along with Elected Women Representatives and experts from different parts of India to demonstrate how water is treated, managed and preserved through their specific actions, such as community resilience, village-led initiatives, liaising with government setup and practically building ‘ideal villages’.

Water Conservation and Climate Change with Self Help Groups in Alwar

As an extension of the existing water conservation and climate change program in Rajasthan, a new initiative in Alwar was undertaken in partnership with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Limited through formation of Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) and honing them into leaders for the cause. On the 28thNovember, in partnership with KRAPAVIS, a three days’ pilot training was held in the village of Kali Khol in Alwar with women from the SHGs on Rain Water Harvesting Sources, Restoration of Existing Water Resources and Maintenance of Check Dams in the local areas. The training focused on capacity building of the women on Gender and its linkage to Water Conservation and Climate Change through participatory activities that included conceptualizing the direct relationship of water scarcity and its adverse effects on women.
 

Women Security Guards Training Program

 
In Collaboration with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Limited, we successfully launched our Women’s Security Guard Training Program in the Mini Secretariat, Gurugram on 11th October 2018. We commenced the first batch from October. The training was for 45 days and was imparted by professional ex-service officials. After the completion of the course the women were given a certificate from Sector Skill Counsel (SSC) and Private Security Regulation Act (PSARA) 2005. The Certification ceremony of the first batch of trainees were conducted on 15thDecember 2018.After the successful training of the first batch, the trainees were provided placement opportunities with the Security Agency partners of Honda in Delhi and Gurugram.The team has conducted multiple mobilization drives in Delhi and Gurugram prior to the commencement of both the batches. As a result, in early December the team commenced training for the second batch of women trainees and are currently preparing with mobilization strategies for the upcoming batches.

 

Crisis Management Centre (CIC) of CSR

Uttam Nagar, Vasant Kunj, Sangam Vihar and Khadak Village are four areas where Centre for Social Research has CICs who not only reached out to the communities to hold dialogues on domestic violence and gender equality. The CICs also faciliated in conducting mobilization drives for the Women Security Guard Training Program that was initiated in association with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Limited

#SocialSurfing

#SocialSurfing Workshops focus on engagement with the youthon aspects of online safety, discussing the Facebook safety features that would help the social media users control their personal informationthey shared online. The workshops are interactive and focus on CounterSpeech and the importance of sensitive, and informed communication. The final aspect of these workshops isabout leveraging and engaging with social media campaigns for bringing about desiredsocial change. In this quarter, some of the workshops conducted were in Chennai, Coimbatore, and Pondicherry in South India, as well as those in Bihar.
 
 

#TweeSurfing

On 22nd September, 2018, Twitter India launched its launched its 4th chapter of TweeSurfing in Kolkata after Delhi , Mumbai and Bangalore.TweeSurfing is a public education initiative that attempts to address online safety issues and spread knowledge on how individuals can express themselves, initiate conversations and engage more positively on the platform. The launch was graced by the presence of eminent speakers like Dr. Ranajana Kumari - Director of Centre for Social Research, Harish Iyer - an Equal Rights activist, Manasi Salvi - a prominent TV actor from Mumbai, Rahul Rajkhowa - a twenty three year old singer-songwriter from Assam and Jimmy Tangree – who is engaged in 91.9 FM in Kolkata. So far, TweeSurfing has interviewed over 100 influencers from diverse fraternities including Jack Dorsey - Founder of Twitter.Other notable personalities like Mr. Manoj Bajpai, Mr. Shoojit Sircar, Ms. Mallika Sherawat, Ms. Malini and Mr. Anupam Kher shared their stories of bringing about positive social change through Twitter as a social media platform.

Gender Sensitisation Of Police Officials

The Centre for Social Research’s ‘Making Cities Safe for Women in India’ seeks to promote women’s safety in three urban centers of Bhopal, Jodhpur and Gwalior by gender sensitizing the police for public place safety of women and girls. In the last quarter of the year 2018, Centre for Social Research undertook three Expert Panel Consultations in Jodhpur (25th September 2018), Gwalior (5th October 2018) and Bhopal (8th October 2018). These Consultations had the local stakeholders and gender experts convene to discuss the findings of the research undertaken by Centre for Social Research and the draft training manual that was formulated based on the research. In the month of December 2018, Centre for Social Research engaged with a Monitoring and Evaluation Agency and two gender training experts to finalise administration of the trainings.

Gender Training Institute's Gender Sensitisation Training - Group M

Gender Training Institute has been undertaking gender sensitization training for stakeholders from across the spectrum. The gender discourse is tailored as per the target group that covers educational institutions, corporates, livelihood generating organizations and community members. On 31st October and 2ndNovember 2018, the team of gender trainers administered gender training in four offices of Group M (Bengaluru, Mumbai and two offices in Gurgaon, NCR).
 On 11th October  and 12th October, the team conducted a two day training on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace at Haryana Institute of Public Administration and on 28th November at the National Training Academy that is under the management of Ministry of Labour and Employment. The participants at National Training Academy were Doctors from ESIC hospital and at the Haryana Institute of Public Administration, the team interacted with police officials of Haryana

Discussion on Privacy and Security of IOT Devices - MediaNama

MediaNama, with support from Internet Society, hosted a curated open house discussion in Delhi on Privacy and Security ofthe Internet of Things, exploring the principles, norms and practices related to the Internet of Things that need to be considered by manufacturers, regulators and consumers, to ensure that the billions of devices that will get connected, and collect our data, will respect our privacy and keep us and our data secure. This event took place on November 15th 2018
 

International and National Conferences Attended by Dr. Kumari

On 5th September, Dr. Kumari attended the Alibaba Philanthropy Week Global Conference in New Delhi. On 13th September, she attended the 35th General Assembly of ICW-CIF in Indonesia to speak on of "Transforming Society through Women's Empowerment". On 29th and 30th October, she attended the South Asia Online Safety Summit and Roundtable with National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in New Delhi.
On 2nd November 2018, she attended a core group meeting at National Human Rights Commission.
 On 15th November 2018, she attended the Family Online Safety Institute’s (FOSI) conference on ‘Creating a Culture of Responsibility plenary panel’. The agenda of the conference was discoursing about societal responsibility that has come with the rapid evolution of our connected life and the need to ensure that development in this space must be crafted in a way that can be positive

 
Centre For Social Research
email : info@csrindia.org
Phone : +91 (0)11 26899998 , +91 (0) 62125583
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