annual report 2018-19 · from the vicious cycle of trafficking. cause of bride trafficking gets...

empowerpeople.org.in

ANNUAL REPORT

2018-19

Empower People

Tel: +91-11-30010211

Email: [email protected]

Address: B 729 Pocket 11,

Jasola Vihar, New Delhi,

Delhi 110025, India.

http://www.empowerpeople.org.in/

mailto:[email protected]

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Annual Report 2018-19

INTRODUCTION

EMPOWER PEOPLE is an organization singularly focusing on work with

victims and potential victims of human trafficking (bride trafficking to be

precise) and honor crimes against women. The organization is gradually

taking the form and shape of a social movement, with a few community-

based organizations, activist individuals and groups.

The Organization was started first through an educational initiative called

Career Development Corner (CDC) in 1999 and later through EMPOWER

PEOPLE since 2006 with a singular focus on Empowerment and rescue of

victims of Bride trafficking with active engagement of religious/ethnic

leaders, community members, and other stakeholders. EMPOWER PEOPLE

is known for its works to protect and support trafficked women and girls

from the vicious cycle of trafficking.

Cause of Bride Trafficking gets support, when world recognizes it!

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ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The organization consists of a core committee

working at the apex. The core committee is

known as the National Executive Committee

that deals with all the matters. At the community

level, there is the staff that is employed by the

organization and the community-based

organizations working with the survivors and the

other women to create awareness and prevent

trafficking. The organization also has volunteers

who are working at the local level to create a

ripple effect.

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE

THE COMMUNITY

STAFF AND

COMMITTEEE OF

COMMUNITY BASED

ORGANIZATIONS

VOLUNTEERS/ MEMBERS

AND ASSOCIATE

MEMBERS

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GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE

EMPOWER PEOPLE is currently working in 22 clusters of ten states and

providing online counseling and other required support to domestic

violence victims and youths.

TARGET POPULATION

Indigenous Community, Dalits, minority focusing on women and

children who are always at risk of being trafficked for many reasons. We

have included the urban young population in our programs in recent

times focusing on their issues.

GOVERNING BODY AND MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

Governing body of EMPOWER PEOPLE consists of 11 active and highly

experienced and qualified rural development professionals with 6 male

and 5 female members. The 4 governing body members are full-time

active working executives of the organization. Governing body

members are having 5– 15 years of experience in the development

field. 3 of 11 members are having hand inexperience in working with

international donor organizations. The geographical experiences of

these members are eastern and northern India. Hands-on experience

of the GB members are from the field of NRM/Watershed management;

Gender Equity; Community Health and Legal aid services; large NGO

program management; financial management; networking and

capacity building.

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PROGRAMS

Bride Trafficking

Our aim is to ensure the security and safety of the trafficked women in the

destination area. Regular interactions through workshops, field seminars,

meetings are ensured to make them feel inclusive and accepted in the

community where they live. A constant vigilance is kept to ensure that

they are not re-trafficked again.

We are spreading awareness among people of the source area like West

Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar through distributing

pamphlet and campaign, video and audio clips and forming a

committee at the local level to save the future of vulnerable, their safety

and is toiling for raising this issue before the local administration.

(Please visit http://cabt.empowerpeople.org.in/ for more information)

High school report card of the

Assamese survivor. She went

back missing when she was in

8th standard and was rescued

after a month of her trafficking

from Kurukshetra. She was

readmitted to the school in

class 9th in Kasturba Gandhi

School in Assam. Her dream in

life is to start up an anti-

trafficking organization to help

women and victims.

http://cabt.empowerpeople.org.in/

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Female Foeticide / Female Infanticide

We started this program in 2006 in the form of Padayatra for three hundred

kilometers. In India, Haryana is a state having the lowest sex ratio. The

march extended from Jind to Hisar in Haryana and aimed to spread

awareness about issues like female Foeticide and infanticide and inform

people how it was a punishable offense.

Honor Crime

We believe that honor killing is the menace produced out of socio-

economic, cultural and Political factors and which has got approval from

social morality. And the remedy to the problem is also based on the above

four pillars. Under preventive programs, our organization is exploring the

civic sense by underlining the Panchayats and Social Pressure Groups. Our

goal is to create civic sensitivity against the menace. It is a male-

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dominated society where every year thousands of lives are sacrificed

irrespective of caste, sub-caste (Gotras), creed, religion, or the social

status of the family. People kill their own clan or kin for their false “Pride”

and “honor”. It has become a graveyard due to all these killings. In all

these the castes who consider themselves regional or very faithful are Jat,

Tyagi, Rajput, and Gujjars. For the past decade, they are going through a

phase of Cultural duality. Their traditional value system is such that they

determine their eating habits, Sex and marriage rules, etc. The same is the

case with Dalits and backward caste people.

We ensure to create civil sensitivity in the society in regard to Honor killing.

We aim to develop preventive programs by involving local bodies such as

panchayats and social groups to create a better and sustainable effect.

Domestic Violence (Dowry Harassment, Harassment due to

infertility/failure to produce sons)

The main focus of the

organization is to solely work

for disadvantaged women

regardless of caste, class or

religion. Women are not

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given equal status in society and are prone to social crimes like domestic

violence, trafficking or other types of slavery. The organization ensures to

support the survivor in the best way possible. They provide security, shelter,

counseling, legal support, etc. whichever is required in best regards to

safeguard the rights of the survivor.

Livelihood security

The organization aims to provide

livelihood security to the survivor

in the best way possible. This is

done to ensure that the survivor

lives with respect and become

self-dependent. This, in turn,

empower the survivor and help

them to be mainstreamed in the

society.

Sustainable livelihood security of marginalized through environment-

friendly farm and non-farm-based technology enhancement by ensuring

the empowerment process of the marginalized community.

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Poverty alleviation and self-sustainability

We ensured to make the survivor self-dependent either by mainstreaming

them to complete their left-out education (if the survivor is a young girl) or

helping them to become self-employed. The organization made sure that

the survivor availed some kind of vocational training in order to sustain their

family. The programs include tailoring, sewing, weaving, pisciculture, bee-

rearing, etc. The main focus of the programs is to empower the women so

that they get equal status in the society and can claim their rights.

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Rehabilitation

The organization’s focus is the integrate the survivor with the society again.

Survivor’s wellbeing and her concerns are our focus of work. The

organization is not the law enforcement agency; its task isn’t to punish the

criminals rather it strongly feels that law enacted falls short of its objective

of rehabilitating and integrating the survivor with the society in the true

sense. This clarity in the work area helps the organization to keep its focus

intact and work for those who truly deserve it. The in-community

rehabilitation process is designed from the survivor’s perspective and aims

towards the assimilation of the survivor in the society while keeping her

identity intact.

STAKEHOLDER MEETING

Meetings were organized by the organization to discuss the present status

of education in Mewat and what measures could be taken to improve the

condition. Different stakeholders from the community were present in the

meeting. During the meeting,

the stakeholders expressed

their perspective on the

present status and condition

of education in Mewat. A lot

of views came forward and

helped to analyze the

situation in order to take steps

in this regard. It was a

successful meeting.

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PROCESS

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FLAGSHIP PROGRAMS

MARCH AGAINST BRIDE TRAFFICKING

March Against Bride Trafficking was first of its kind of event that was

organized in India at such a huge scale. The total distance covered under

this march was equal to almost 332 marathons starting from Diphu of Karbi

Anlong District of Assam and culminating at Shimla. This social mobilization

drive was just another stepping stone in the decade long journey of

Empower People against the social scourge of Bride Trafficking. Route

taken for this march follows the same route, followed by traffickers both

from India and neighboring states like Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, and

Bangladesh. This route accounts for more than 60% of trafficking done in

India. Through this march, an attempt was made to bring this inhumane

route to notice of the authorities and sensitize people along this route

about human trafficking. The aim was to build a support mechanism along

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this network and to explore, promote and enrich possibilities of repatriation

and rehabilitation of victims within communities.

The march was spanned

across 70 districts of Assam,

West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar,

Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Along the way it covered almost 300 schools and about 600

bazaars/haats (markets). The march was accompanied by the launch of

Anti-Trafficking Helpline in Assam which was then disseminated throughout

the journey to provide a medium to access help. This helpline was primarily

aimed at providing help to stakeholders to overcome practical

“Let the girl be girl, not BRIDE!”

- Slogan of the March

Inspiration Bead Works, the creative and inspiring venture of

Durga Dingari was channelized by her for raising funds for the

March Against Bride Trafficking (MABT2018) in Philadelphia,

USA. She organized events of jewelry sale on two days, one at

her place and another at her friend’s place apart from running

the campaign on her website:

http://www.inspirationbeadworks.com/. She sent emails, called

people in her circles personally and even sent across

messages on WhatsApp for campaigning for the cause apart

from active post sharing on Facebook and twitter.

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challenges faced while handling cases related to human trafficking. The

march-crew consisted of people from diverse backgrounds like anti-

trafficking activists, legal experts, psychologists and grassroots workers who

all conducted, various workshops, seminars, training sessions and also

attempted to create civic anti-trafficking groups. The real success of the

march was when en route, it enabled officials/stakeholders to rehabilitate

127 trafficking survivors, by connecting them to

various state and central schemes. It

also helped to trace back the

home of 13 survivors. The

crew also documented the

journey through field reports

containing description of ill practices, case

studies in order to build a comprehensive repository of material about this

less known area of bride trafficking.

The march was full of interaction with the people, in order to establish a

connection with them. There were so many insights and nuances at every

stage. Each day we used to learn something new, each interaction taught

us about the functioning of this network of trafficking, each tear in

survivor’s eyes was reflective of pain, which s/he went through.

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WHEN LANGUAGE BECOMES A BARRIER:

A thirteen-year-old trafficking survivor who was

rescued from Rajmandi station by the

organization Mehfooz was misunderstood to

be as a Nigerian and was kept in the Firozabad

child shelter home for four years. The staff of

the shelter lost all hopes in finding the home

town of the survivor. During the March against

Bride Trafficking, Empower People reached

Firozabad. During the inspection, the team was

notified by the staff about the Nigerian child.

During the counseling, the team found out that

the child belonged somewhere from Yelapur

village of North Karnataka and was a member

of the Siddi tribe. Due to the expertise of the

organization the child was able to find its

original home after four long years of demise

and confusion. On further conversation, the

child told his original name and finally.

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MARCH ON FOREST AND LAND RIGHTS

(Jal – Jungle – Jameen Adhikaar Yatra)

The march was organized successfully in the month of February 2019. It has

participation of almost 10,000 people including children, men, women

and even senior citizens of tribal communities from 20 districts of Jharkhand

for their right to the Forests and Land. The march, also called ‘Paidal

march’ (Marching on foot) began on 20th February from Columbus

ground at Hazaribagh and concluded at Ranchi on 27th February

covering 110 kilometres.

The objective of the march was to put forth few straight forward demands

aiming to restore and protect the full rights of the tribal communities on

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the land, water and other resources of the forests from which they are

being systematically alienated. The main demand was that the people

should be given rights over the land. In Jharkhand, there are 16,452

villages with 19,94,387 hectares of their land covered by forests. So, the

villagers can be granted forest rights as a community and 14 lakh

individuals are eligible for individual forest rights. We at the National

Alliance for peace and justice (NAPJ) organized an 8 days March to help

Adivasis in Jharkhand state reclaim the forests, the rivers, the creeks, the

trees, the sand, and the farms. A day after the March began, the Supreme

Court ordered the eviction of the forest dwellers so, in the charter of

demands, we promptly added a demand to the state to file a petition

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against the order. The other demands are as follows:

We want our rights to the forest and the forest produce back such as the

fruits, medicines, wood and other produce. It is 12 years since the Forest

Rights Act has been passed but it is still not being implemented properly.

There are more than 32,000 villages in Jharkhand and everyone has their

land and their names recorded. But still what happens is the bullying of the

police and the Government. In one of our villages, the NTPC (National

Thermal Power Corporation) has forcefully taken over 25,000 acres of land.

And in another village in Santhal Pargana, where the people were

agitating, the police have put them behind bars under false allegations. It

appears like the state and the law are in favor of the rich and our voices

are not heard. The Government is not concerned about the forests and

the forest dwellers and now the Supreme Court has said that those whose

claims have been rejected should be evicted from the forests. Where will

they go? There must be lakhs of people in the entire country whose claims

have been rejected.” Now that the Supreme Court has stayed the order

of eviction of forest dwellers, the Tribals can heave a sigh of relief. But the

Supreme Court order for eviction came in the wake of some corporate

NGOs and other NGOs funded by corporate, filing a petition. The

corporate sector is anti-ecology and anti-forest dwellers. The state wants

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to institutionalize the forests – construct parks and reserves. But we want

the forests to be left as it is – wild and free. The Government does not even

have any record of the people who have been displaced for the last 20

years. And this is one of our concerns. Ideally, each state government

should prepare a status report on Tribals once a year and submit to the

central government but this is not in practice. There is no data with any of

the States. On 28th February, a group of 4 Adivasis leaders accompanied

by Ex-MLA Gautam Sagar Rana and Birendra Kumar met the Governor

Draupadi Murmu and submitted their memorandum of demands. The

governor who is a tribal herself assured that she will take up the matter with

the Central Government and at the state level also she said she will talk to

the Forest Minister. She has assured appropriate action, she also said that

• Withdrawal of minor civil and criminal cases against the forest dwellers,

• A dedicated Scheduled Tribe Department to be formed to focus on welfare

and rights of the tribal population;

• Land Acquisition Act, 2006 should be enforced and Land Acquisition Act, 2013

should be repealed;

• A state-level Joint committee should be formed for execution of Forest Right

Act, 2006.

• The Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, and Santal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act

should be strictly implemented.

• The common land, the grazing land, the forests, the rivers, rivulets, streams, the

trees, farming land and everything that has been added in the Land Bank should

be freed and not given to capitalists.

D

E

M

A

N

D

S

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government officials are acting on their own behest as government does

care about the rights of people living in the jungle.

Honorable Governor of Jharkhand has constituted an expert advisory

group on people's Rights over forest, water, and forest. A huge victory for

all the people who walked 110 km.

JAN POSHAN ABHIYAN

POSHAN, Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition was

launched by Honorable Prime Minister on 8th March, 2018 in Jhunjhunu,

Rajasthan. It is a multilevel scheme with a vision to attain malnutrition free

India by 2022. The focus of Abhiyan is to lay emphasis on the nutritional

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status of adolescent girls, pregnant women, women, lactating mothers

and children from 0 to 6 years of age.

The primary objective of the Abhiyan is to reduce stunting in identified

Districts of India with the highest malnutrition burden by improving the

utilization of key Aaganwadi Services and improving the quality of

Anganwadi Services delivery.

As per the research, the first 1000 days in the life of the newborn are

considered to be most critical (including nine months of pregnancy, six

months of exclusive breastfeeding). The development of a child from a

period of six months to two years is dependent on the nutrition of the child

during the period. It

focuses on increasing the

birth weight, reducing the

Infant Mortality Rate

(IMR) and Maternal

Mortality Rate (MMR). The

scheme aims to focus on

the overall development

of the child. The problem of anemia in young children, adolescent girls

and women is also covered in the Abhiyan.

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HEALTHY MEWAT CAMPAIGN

In the state of Haryana, the two districts Nuh and Panipat were selected

for the first phase of the scheme. EMPOWER PEOPLE believes in the

accomplishment of schemes or programs through community

participation. It is important to

collaborate with the government

in order to accommodate the

community. The organization is a

community-based organization

and aims to carry out the tasks

through local citizen’s support and participation. Based on the working

module of the organization, the local people who had an influence on

the community in any way (e.g., religious leaders, parents, teachers, and

students). The scheme was explained in a way so that it could be

represented as an issue of public concern. The local influencers were used

to make the POSHAN Abhiyan a Jan Andolan. Therefore, a campaign was

launched known as ‘HEALTHY MEWAT’ in the village of Jataka of Angina

(Nuh). A meeting was held for the local community leaders which

included a half-day training program in order to understand the issue of

nutrition and its importance. During the discussion, people were quite

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shocked to learn about the health statistics. It was found that 70.1% of total

women belonging to the reproductive age in Mewat were Anemic. 80.7%

of the total children under the age of five also suffer from Anemia. It was

a shock to find out that Mewat ranks 464 amongst 599 districts of India in

terms of health. The campaign was led by the Bride Trafficking survivors

which created a ripple of diverse engagement and support.

The HINDU

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Commune Meeting

The organization regularly conducts a meeting in local areas to discuss,

create awareness and record the cases (if any). One such Community

Survivor Commune meeting was organized in village Nuh to resolve family

disputes. A total of five cases of domestic violence were reported in the

meeting. Through discussions and counseling with the parents, two cases

of child marriage were prevented. Through community awareness and

discussions on the issue, the community members vowed to stop child

marriages in their community. It was also made sure that the girl who was

about to get married was sent back to school to continue their education.

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Induction of PARO women media & journalism

An innovative program was initiated by the organization to empower the

survivor leaders and build their confidence. In this program, survivor

leaders tell different stories from the village by video recording them. The

video stories are from the villages where they live and serve as community

leaders. The survivors encourage other survivors to share their stories and

experiences in order to save them for the future. It is also planned to

extend the stories to other performances like folk songs and other talents

in the people of the area. The survivor handles the camera and prepare

the scripts and also motivate people to share their stories. This develops

leadership skills and the survivors feel responsible and accountable.

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ADVOCACY FOR UP-GRADATION IN SCHOOL

15-day long Protest for up-gradation of Tapkan School

Tapkan school is nearby on-road school which has all facilities and

eligibility to be upgraded. With inspiration from the previous month's

experience, the committee

decided to organize protests as

school up-gradation was rejected

many times. The protest was

started after locking the school.

Local MLAs, Chairperson Mewat

Development authority and

several politicians visited the place

and assured their help in

advocacy at the state level. The Protest was culminated on 22nd July after

Surendra Pratap Deshwal BJP

leader and envoy to chief minister

of Haryana visited the school. He

assured up-gradation of school

and appointment of teachers on a

priority basis.

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3-day long Protest for up-gradation of Mandi Kheda

School

It has been observed during the Aao School Chalen campaign this year,

that a large number of girls would be left behind after 10th as they don’t

have any nearby school for admission except going to Angina Block

headquarter which is 12 to 16 km far from selected villages. And young

children need to cross almost 8 km of isolated agricultural field to reach

their schools. Local organizations were invited to plan a protest before the

education department and several organizations came into the board for

the campaigning for school up-gradation. The protest was staged before

the district education officer in Nuh from 11 June to 13 June. The District

administration came to discuss the issue and sent their recommendation

for the up-gradation of school. The school already has buildings and other

facilities required for up-gradation.

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First Month Village Protection Committee Meeting

In the last reporting year, we

had created village level

protection committees in

Villages and had given them

a task for their respective

village so that, government

programs and schemes

meant to protect children

would implement properly

and also Panchayat would raise issues related to the protection of

children. VPC was attended by all service providers and villagers including

mother clubs formed by us last year.

In this manner, members of the VLP were educated about the new

development of Government schemes and also about social issues

related to children. The VLC passed a resolution to stop child marriage in

the village.

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Intervention in Mewat Model School Suicide case

Renu of Mewat Model School found hanged in

her room in residential school, the matter falls in

suspicion as family was not informed on time

and they were only able to see their daughter

after post-mortem in district hospital nalhar.

Father of Girl alleged that his daughter was

killed by school administration as he went to

call on of warden where she insulted her

student and some teachers were also

harassing her for long. The deceased girl

belongs to Dalit family and administration was

covering up the case, we took this as serious

matter and contacted guardians of other children studying in the school.

And a massive protest was organized in front of the school. Resultantly, an

FIR was registered against school principal Sombeer Rana, class teacher

Shah Alam, library in-charge Pali and physical education teacher

Mahavir, and hostel warden Saraswati, under Section 302 (murder) of IPC

at Nuh police station.

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With regards to regular incidents of targeting Dalit students, a

memorandum of demand was given to Mewat Development Authority as

Mewat Model school is operated by Mewat Development Authority, the

Authority has set up an SIT to investigate all cases happening in Mewat

Model schools.

Central SC/ST Commission was also informed about the case and they

had come to investigate the whole situation. However, police were not

willing to accept this case as murder but they found that girl was in

pressure from her teachers and she had been insulted in Infront of many

other students in assembly and classes.

Case is still underway and follow-up of the case is going on.

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MEETING WITH STAKEHOLDERS

A Meeting dated 8th July 2018 was held with stakeholders and parents in

Uleta School. The school has all infrastructure except teachers the middle

school in the village has only one teacher which is a great hurdle in smooth

class hours and discipline. The situation became worse when 3 teachers of

primary school got transferred and no one comes to take charge. After

our intervention and complaint to DEO, Block education officer the school.

Resultantly three teachers has joined primary school in the same week.

However middle school yet didn’t get any new appointment. A complaint

has been made to CM window in district headquarter.

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Health camp in Kansali

With help from the legal literacy club of Hasan Khan Mewat medical

college, A health camp was organized in Kansali village on 26 January

followed by Flag hoisting ceremony in the village. Sarpanch and other

dignitaries of the village were part of the event. Health camp provided

medicine and prescription to the village. Dr. Jyoti Ahlawat had shown

concern over number of anemic women and girls. It was found that many

women and girls didn’t even use sentry pads or any kind of cloths because

of less blood flow. Her concerns were discussed with the villagers and a

meeting has been planned for first week of February.

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Fundraising events:

• ‘Nari’ documentary screening, 30th June 2018

The NYC premiere of the documentary ’Nari’, which has been produced

and directed by mother and son duo, Chaitanya Dingari and Durga

Dingari respectively, was launched as a fundraising event for Empower

People in New York City. The sincere heartfelt work was received very

well by the audience and all proceedings of the ticket sale were

dedicated by them for the March Against Bride Trafficking 2018.

The short film ‘Nari’ depicts the life, views, and struggles of women and

girls across various age groups. The film had a profound impact on the

viewers, who felt proud to be part of an initiative that empowered

women. Durga Dingari also spoke about the work of Empower People

and the issue of bride trafficking to spread awareness about the event.

The crowd was inspired to do everything they could to counter the

discrimination and marginalization of women. We also received a

donation from their friend who was not able to make it for the event but

wished to contribute for the March.

We are very grateful to them for including Empower People in their

creative ventures and making the cause a part of the celebration and

screening of their beautiful documentary Nari.

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• Fundraising for MABT- 2018

Inspiration Bead Works is a venture of Durga Dingari which aims to raise

funds via selling jewelry. She strongly believes that one should go

beyond our daily routine to do something for the society and help ease

the suffering in the world. For the event, despite a snowstorm in

Philadelphia, USA, people came to attend, yet many were not able to

and even requested her to keep it on one more day. They made

purchases online as well. Durga Ji was able to gather more than the

goal she had set and in her own words, she- “dedicated it to all the

women who are rescued and trying to move on.”

She sent the proceedings of the sale towards MABT- 2018 and she stands

to be one of the biggest contributors for the March. She also sent across

ten very creative MABT bracelets with messages of hope in them and

wanted the MABT team to wear them through March. We were able to

raise more funds through purchases made by supporters while some of

them were sponsored for the Marchers to wear.

We thoroughly appreciate the creative engagement of people for the

cause through innovative ideas of fundraising, which have lent the

entire cause an air of hope and positivity.

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OUR COVERAGE

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AUDIT REPORT

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Organization’s Details

Name of the Organization: EMPOWER PEOPLE

Registered Office: B 729 Pocket 11, Jasola Vihar, New Delhi, Delhi 110025, India.

Legal Status:

57377/06 Registered under SRA 1860 with the registrar of societies Government

of NCT of Delhi, have an 80G Registration DEL – EE23691-08022012 5454 and

12A NQ.DIT (E) 2011-12/Del ER21901 – 08022012

Phone: 011-29945951

Mobile: 9990452079

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.empowerpeople.org.in

mailto:[email protected]


www.empowerpeople.org.in


annual report 2018-19 · from the vicious cycle of trafficking. cause of bride trafficking gets...

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