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As more and more work goes remote, the need for human connection is higher, and at times, more challenging. That's where a webinar can provide a much-needed support. We have successfully held 5 webinars this quater with many more in the pipeline.
On 1st May, 2020, the Research Department of CSR conducted a webinar with a panel of experts including Mr. Adab Singh Kapoor, Advocate specializing in Domestic Violence cases, Ms. Karen Craggs, global gender equality expert and Dr. Manasi Mishra, Member Internal Committees, talked about The Prohibition of Sexual Harassment Act 2013 (or POSH); which highlights safeguarding workplace for women and cater the healthy environment that respects the rights of a working woman to equality of status and opportunity. The key point was to start a conversation about the complex scenarios we are living in and, given the broad definition of the ACT, how Covid-19 and “work from home” has changed the culture of work and made it crucial for all of us to think about the virtual world of video calls & telecommunication and the way ACT deems applicable.
Advocate Adab Singh Kapoor: “Under the current situation where most of us are working from home, organizations should formulate certain code of conduct for all their employees; mentioning some basic etiquettes including what kind of communication is permissible and what is not” |
A Webinar was hosted by the GWCC department on the 13th of May, 2020. The webinar was successfully able to create an effervescent discussion on water conservation through a gendered lens with our esteemed panel of experts including Dr. Fawzia Tarannum, Assistant Professor in the Department of Regional Water Studies at TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI SAS), Dr K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Vice President of Development Alternatives Group, responsible for technology innovation and research at the Group and Dr. Yogesh Jadeja, Founder of ACT (Arid Communities and Technologies), a dedicated organisation for Participatory Ground Water Management Epitome. The discussion was able to shed light upon policy initiatives, grassroots involvement, development approaches, and how women’s participation at all these levels is of utmost importance. This webinar has paved way for many more such dialogues on the intersection of gender and water.
Dr. Vijaya Lakshmi, Vice President, Development Alternatives Group: “Civil Society organisations play an important role in terms of ensuring women’s participation and presence. They ensure that the voices of women are heard and their perspectives are taken into account because there cannot happen one sided planning and implementation. Also looking at the current times of COVID-19 pandemic spread we need to ensure that the needs and perspectives of women are also included and considered for any kind of planning for hygiene and sanitation.” |
A webinar conducted by the Research Department of CSR on 27th May, 2020. The panelists included Mr. Adab Singh Kapoor, Advocate specializing in Domestic Violence cases, Ms. Lora Prabhu, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CEQUIN, Ms. Kamlesh Premi, Ms. Naghma Sahar, Senior Editor and Anchor at NDTV and was moderated by Ms. Kamlesh Premi, Lead Counsellor of CSR. The webinar attracted participants from various Civil-Society organizations, institutions and colleges as the panelist highlighted the importance of addressing the elephant in the room and questioning gender roles, aspirations, structures that discrimate on the basis of your biological sex. The key points included sensitising men and ensure their participation to stop violence against women and Ms. Naghma’s piece on biased media coverage of the exponential rise in domestic violence and abuse, the consumption of gender-biased programming on television, and the need to sensitise stakeholder parties that connect with women including police, medical staff, court officials is the way to ensure change.
Ms. Naghma Sahar, Senior Editor and Anchor at NDTV: “I’m sorry to say, but our textbooks are shamefully regressive. Why is the girl always the one making the roti? Why is the boy not allowed to cry? We have to go to the root of these gender dynamics to combat domestic violence … unless we address the core issue of patriarchy, the ways in which we socialize our boys to be brutal and our girls to be submissive- we are just treating symptoms” |
Due to the pandemic and the lockdown imposed, 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years in India lost jobs in April 2020 reported by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Therefore, CSR’s Centre of Excellence for Skill Development conducted a Webinar on “Discussion on Skill Development and Employment opportunities Post Covid-19” on 18th June, 2020 alongwith Ms. Col. Anil Kumar Pokhriya, CEO MEPSC India, Silky Raheja, Head of Planning & World Bank TVET Programme at National Skill Development Cooperation and Mr. Sainath Sunil, Manager at Ernst & Young. The conversation was on the dynamics of the Skill Development as a recovery mechanism. Our Experts panelists discussed the importance of Skill based training for the youth to secure and strengthen the future of the Indian Economy.
Col. Anil Kumar Pokhriya, CEO MEPSC India, “Covid-19 has changed the way we do things. Skill development also needs to adapt to the new norms. We need changes, new investments to do things the right way, and get better job opportunities.” |
5. Persevere to Win Your Battles | TEDxHyderabad
Dr. Ranjana Kumari was invited to be a speaker for Tedx Talks, Hyderabad and address the impact of the pandemic on the lives of women and how they have ended up being the frontline workers by default. They are taking care of the family, while also juggling with their work outside homes. And the current COVID-19 crisis has also exposed a huge risk to all the ones who are being subjected to violence and abuse in their homes. For all such women, Dr Ranjana Kumari had a message of hope - keep pushing your luck, and don't give up hope. |
Online Safety and Security Training Workshops |
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| "Centre for Social Research, in collaboration with Facebook, started conducting Online Safety Training Workshops virtually to ensure that students learn digital citizenship, the power of positive online engagement, how to identify and combat dangerous situations, digital wellness, importance of reaching out, how to spot fake news and understand the damage it can do and many more skills and tools essential to keeping safe and secure, while online." |
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The pandemic of COVID19 has thrust our children in the online spaces in an accelerated manner and has opened up a vast possibility of all kinds of dangerous situations, like cyber bullying, cyber stocking, scamming, doxing and many more. In light of this, Centre for Social Research, in collaboration with Facebook, we started conducted these trainings online to ensure students will learn what it means to be a digital citizen, the power of positive online engagement, how to identify and combat dangerous situations, digital wellness, importance of reaching out, how to spot fake news and understand the damage it can do and many more skills and tools essential to keeping safe and secure, while online.
We started module creation and editing in the initial stages and started mobilisation efforts in the form of calling, social media outreach and emailing. We reached out to over 200 schools, made approximately 500 posts across our social media platforms and have successfully trained over 800 students till date. As part of the training workshop, we reach out to all the students with a feedback form and a participation certificate. The students are also encouraged to refer to our Online Safety and Security Toolkit for more details and regularly update the toolkit with the latest developments, new information packets and relevant links to other resources. |
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Sports for Empowering Girls |
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Since the Nationwide Lockdown was imposed on India our “Sports for Empowering Girls in Five Gender Critical Districts of Haryana”-‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” program activities had stopped for some time due to strict practice of social distancing and restrictions on large gatherings. However, even during those difficult times our team reached out to the girls’ sports players and their families in Gurugram, particularly those who had lost their source of livelihood due to the lockdown; our team in collaboration with local NGOs distributed dry ration and some cooked meals to them.
In the Month of June as India is eventually unlocking, our team had reached out to the District Sports and Youth Affair Officers to assist us in at least resuming the distribution of nutritional intake to the players. Keeping in the mind the increased number of cases in India, the coaches and players are practicing in smaller groups and different time slots. So far activities have resumed in 2 out of 5 districts, i.e. Gurugram and Kuruskhetra districts of Haryana; here total 80 girls are receiving daily nutritious diet after their practice sessions. The distribution is monitored with the help of the coaches, who assist us in maintaining a daily nutrition register; they send us regular pictures/videos of the practice and the distribution.
In order to complete the remaining activities and to understand the way forward post COVID-19, our team also is strategizing to conduct an online meeting with all the associated coaches from the five districts. The meeting will have a discussion to shift/ modify the activities based on the current circumstances. |
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"So far activities have resumed in 2 out of 5 districts, i.e. Gurugram and Kuruskhetra districts of Haryana; here total 80 girls are receiving daily nutritious diet after their practice sessions. The distribution is monitored with the help of the coaches, who assist us in maintaining a daily nutrition register; they send us regular pictures/videos of the practice and the distribution." |
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Online Skill Training Classes |
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| "Keeping in mind the current situation, we have moved the traditional classroom training to online training sessions to continue the youth’s capacity building and safe learning from home."
"owards the end of the May we started making efforts towards placements and each of the trainees was given placement opportunities and appeared for an interview" |
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Due to the pandemic and the lockdown imposed, 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years in India lost jobs in April 2020 reported by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Therefore, Skill based training programs are required to ensure the continuation of learning and provide assistance to the Indian youth to acquire skill sets to re-enter the workforce. In 2018, CSR launched the Centre of Excellence for Skill Development with the aim of providing access to skills and employment opportunities to the marginalized section of the society. Keeping in mind the current situation, we have moved the traditional classroom training to online training sessions to continue the youth’s capacity building and safe learning from home.
Daily training - We commenced the training session from 20th April 2020; we have conducted 1-1.5 hour class each day. For each session we have made presentations from the curriculum and assigned homework questions after each class. As reference material we show short videos from online platforms to assist their learning.
Weekly Tests - Every Monday we conduct a weekly test based on the previous sessions. We have prepared question papers and have shared their performance card as well.
Placement - Towards the end of the May we started making efforts towards placements and each of the trainees was given placement opportunities and appeared for an interview. |
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Through our dedicated 17 social media handles, we make daily posts to maintain awareness and interaction about our skill based programs, the condition of education for girls, their lack of extracurricular participation in fields like sports, the online violation of human rights against women, lack of representation and opportunities in politics, the disparity present between the way natural calamities affect men and women, the role that women play in conservation of resources and changing the narrative about typical ‘male professions’ by providing training to women in the same sectors. And have been continuously hosting online discourse and discussions with experts and our followers through Tweetathons about online safety, domestic violence, mental health wellness, and India’s problem of an infodemic of misinformation in times of a global pandemic
Humans of the entire planet are wading through uncharted waters.It is a time of confusion, unfamiliarity, trial and error. We are all in the need of some tenderness from one another. We at CSR recognize this need and are trying to meet it with all our might, using social media under the umbrella of Wellness Camapign. Over the last few months, we have explored all aspects of well-being of human beings required during this time of mental, physical, economic and health crisis with the help of experts from this field and have successfully created an archive of blogs, videos, dialogue and submission artwork.
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As parents, teachers, mentors, responsible adults, it is our job to ensure children’s safety while in the online space as much as it is offline. It is up to us to help them navigate a whole new concept of being a Responsible Digital Citizen. In light of how the online world has become our primary mode of contact, news, education and entertainment, we started the Digital Parenting campaign with regular posts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, to create an environment of mutual learning and understanding about how to ensure our kids online safety and security.
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To build positive engagement with the youth groups on our social media handles, we started the #TuesdayTakeover initiative on Instagram and Facebook to share our experiences during lockdown, exploring activities at home, how to take care of our mental wellbeing and the need to share positive content online.
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In celebration of Earth Day 2020, World Environment Day 2020 and Word Hand Hygiene Day 2020, we shared tips on how to maintain a sustainable living lifestyle through #sustainablelivingtips, videos on how we can reduce water wastage especially in the times of Covid-19, and graphics on the importance of water conservation. |
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In the last three months, we conducted important discussions on Digital Parenting, Water Crisis, Mental Wellness and the shadow epidemic of Fake News. The Tweetchat was conducted with a panel of experts from each field and hosted participants from across the globe. Through our #tweetchats, we have been able to build our online community and invite engagement from fellow Civil-Society organisations and activists such as Child Rights and You, Anne Collier, Founder of The Net Safety Collaborative, The Better India, UNICEF India, Gender at Work India, Nipun Malhotra, Founder of Wheels for Life, MpowerMinds, Savhera Wellness, ECF India, Sayfty, Kamna Chhibber, Clinical Psychologist with Fortis Healthcare, and YourDost. |
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Crisis Intervention Centre |
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Now when the pandelic has forced people to stay at home as the most important tool of prevention, the number of domestic violence and child abuse cases are seeing a continuous spike all over the world. In India, The Hindu reported that the government helpline received 92,000 calls on violence and child abuse in 11 days. In the domestic violence cases 18 cases are from our own working area and 9 cases through our gender networking. In all these cases we did online counselling and gave them advice as per requirements of the cases. We also published an online list of organisations, official numbers and other helpful information on our social media handles and circulated the list on whatsapp groups or our community contacts to have the maximum reach. |
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Gender, Water and Climate Change |
The Centre for Social Research, as a response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, announced an order to Work from Home on the 16th of March, 2020. Since then, all departments have made a transition from face-to-face interactions in real time to a virtual work culture. Even though virtual means of communication was a novel concept to us, the team was able to quickly adapt to it. In the last three months, the Gender, Water & Climate Change Department has been able to accomplish many tasks, and even though we miss and look forward to our on-field interactions with the beneficiaries of our projects, we have been able to make the best out of the work from home situation.
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"CSR Team formulated a basic hygiene module, keeping in my guidelines prescribed by MHA, to be used to conduct hygiene workshops via video call with SHG women of the project.
CSR Team used the means of Video Calls, Telephone Calls, WhatsApp, and Emails to follow up with the local partners as well as the technical expert." |
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There is much to learn as the world rapidly shifts and responds to the consequences of staying and working from home. We continuously use our various social media platforms to launch campaigns, tweetchats, engagement with our followers and encourage debate on issues of digital parenting, the shadow pandemic of fake news in India, good news from all over the world and maintain positivity in these hard times. Online advocacy and efforts to build capacity training allowed us to shift our Gender Training Institute online and facilitated our connect with RBI to conduct a successful POSH Act Training session with more than 89 Group A officers.
Keeping in mind that economic empowerment of women is one of the key factors in supporting gender equality, we at CSR shifted our Skills Development syllabus online to ensure education and skill development for all.
While the world has been changing with the new waves of information and data, the power of the digital world has triumphed. All of us are now online for education, data, news, entertainment, courses and contact. In light of this shift, we adopted a unique reset where we are going virtual for trainings and webinars but also for community mobilisation through our NGO Chaupal. The NGO Chaupal meetings so far have focused on addressing sex selective actvities and ways in which we can curb these activities and provide relief. With the success of the NGO Chaupal, we were able to host an online Community Watchgroup with our parters of the Pataudi block of Gurgaon and were informed that the sex ratio had improved to 960 girls for 1000 boys for the month of May.
In the times of Covid-19, where prevention is our main focus, the official health advisories have been urging human beings all over the world to sanitise and wash hands, the water crisis has become another major concern. Our Gender, Water and Climate Change department is dedicated to highlight the effects climate change has on women, and how crucial it is, especially now, to move towards water conservation at every level and adopt a sustainable lifestyle. This had led to the development of hygiene modules that are delivered via phone/video calls, the construction of a Kund in Bhankrota Khurd Village and the implementation of Phase 3 for restoration of water resources in Alwar.
Keeping in mind the youth inclusion in the digital world as mandatory for classes, CSR in collaboration with Facebook, launched an Online Safety and Security Training Workshops to underline the threats that are available online and how we can empower ourselves as Digital Citizens to keep our online presence safe and secure and have positive, meaningful engagement with all online users. This quarter we were able to train over 800 students successfully from various cities like Haryana, Telangana, Lucknow and Delhi.
With this shift online, we have successfully hosted four webinars to engage with the youth who are now coming online, maintain coverage, and have important dialogues with a panel of experts from all over the world on issues related to rise of domestic violence and abuse against women in India, the need of Skill Development and employment opportunities for post Covid-19, the importance of POSH Act in times when the code of office conduct must be taken to home work spaces and the role that women play in the water crisis in India.
Now when the world is grappling with the pandemic turning into a humanitarian crisis, I would like to urge all of our readers, supporters, funders, partners and fellow workers to come together and stand united. The need of the hour is to extend help, positivity and create a circle of empathy across our planet.