REPORT FOR THE MONTH

OF

JULY –DECEMBER 2010

Submitted by:

JOINT OPERATION FOR SOCIAL HELP (JOSH)

www.josh4india.org, josh4india@gmail.com

Report for the Month of July to December 2010

During the month of July and December 2010 the following activities were done

by JOSH:

1. Implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act in colleges of University of

Delhi:

JOSH has been working with the authorities of the University of Delhi and the

colleges under it since two years for effective implementation of section 4 of the

RTI Act. As part of that effort, previous year, training sessions of Principals and

Head of Departments were carried out. After which information, including

budget details, norms, rules and regulation and all other information mandated

under section 4 of the RTI Act was uploaded on the website of University of

Delhi. However, there were many colleges whose section 4 disclosure needed

further improvements.

Therefore, as a follow up to the process, a series of RTI applications were send to

these colleges and the University of Delhi for not only effectively disclosure of

information, but also to update the information provided. In response to this,

colleges updated their manuals with recent and updated information, especially

budget and expenditure of the last financial year. Also boards, carrying

information about details of Public Information Officers and Appellate

Authorities where put up in many colleges and reports send to us.

Display board on under Section 4 of the RTI Act in colleges

2. National Youth Consultation on approach paper to the 12th Five Year

Plan:

A National Youth Consultation on the approach paper to the 12th five year plan

was held on the 5th of December 2010, in Delhi and was organized by JOSH along

with Tehelka Foundation, YP Foundation, IYCN, Pravah and LYF. This

consultation was attended by over 150 youth participants from around 70

organizations working on different issues in both rural and urban areas across 13

states of the country.

The consultation was held as part of the process initiated by The Planning

Commission to engage with civil society organization to get their inputs on

different issues for preparation of the approach paper to the 12th five year plan.

The National Youth Consultation aimed at discussing and raising the concerns

faced by the youth from across the country along different key issues. The

consultation began by setting the context by Shri. Arun Maira, Member, Planning

Commision and Amitabh Beher, from WNTA. After which the participants broke

into different smaller groups to discuss problems, possible solutions and specific

recommendations along the line of the different challenges identified by the

Planning Commission for preparing the approach paper to the 12th Five Year

Plan. The main issues taken up by the participating organizations were;

education, health, decentralization and democratization of information,

environment, enhancing capacity for growth and markets for inclusion, skill

development, urbanization, rural transformation and sustained agriculture

growth. The discussions on these issues were facilitated by Nikhil Dey, Dunu

Roy, P.V. Sateesh, Malika Vardi, Kiran Bhatty, Madhavan, Randeep Kaur and

others.

The workshops held on different issues highlighted and opened up discussion

on important areas concerning the youth. Specific recommendations on the

issues discussed were shared during presentations of the respective groups with

the Member, Planning Commission. Amongst all the recommendations, demand

for larger participation and inclusion of youth in planning and all other processes

dominated the discussion. All the recommendations were complied and send to

the Planning Commission for the preparation of the approach paper to the 12th

Five Year Plan. This process was facilitated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan.

Shri Arun Maira, Member Planning Commission addressing the audience

Group Discussion: On the Democratization of Information

Group Discussion: On Education

3. Pilot study with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

(NCPCR) of Implementation of RTE Act 2009:

A pilot study was done by JOSH with The National Commission for Protection

of Child Rights (NCPCR) to access the level of implementation of RTE Act 2009.

The study covered 13 schools in Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri area and 250

households. Results of the study indicate to the low level of awareness of the

RTE Act. It also demonstrated clearly that there is low level of preparedness

amongst the school authority to effectively implement the RTE Act. For this

study, students of Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI, Delhi)

volunteered with JOSH.

4. Training on Right to Information Act:

One day training on RTI Act was held for the entire batch of students of AADI,

Delhi. During this session, students were acquainted with the different

provisions of RTI Act. As these students are getting trained to become

professionals who will be working with children and people who are differently-

abled, they worked together to understand how they can use RTI Act to

especially help people with special needs.

5. Lakshya: The urban poor youth program:

This program aims to work with urban poor youth of two resettlements colonies

of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri to engage and capacity build them such that they

can raise issues of their community.

a. Youth Resource Center:

Daily classes for English and other subjects are been held. Presently, there are

about 157 youth enrolled in the center. There are six batches that are been held.

b. Group Discussion: Twice every month, group discussions are held for the

students. This helps the youth to not only study their course curriculum but also

understand different aspects of governance and democracy. The topic for GD is

usually announced a couple of days in advance, such that the students can

prepare readings to participate in the GD. The topics of these group discussions

range from understanding democracy, to corruption, to local issues like

cleanliness of schools and the community etc.

c. Capacity Building Trainings:

Capacity building trainings are held for the youth volunteers. It helps them to get

in-dept knowledge about the particular subject.

c. i Training on Right to Information Act:

A half a day workshop was held for the youth volunteers of YRC on the 31st of

Oct 2010. The workshop was facilitated by Rekha Koli of Human Rights Law

Network, Delhi. More than 80 youth volunteers participated in the workshop.

During this session, the different provisions of the RTI Act were shared with the

volunteers, along with examples of case studies.

During the workshop participants raised various issues starting from

irregularities in allocation and distribution of scholarships in schools, to state of

Public Dsitribution system in the community. Based on these queries, the

participants then broke into smaller work groups to draft sample RTI

applications to address these issues. The issues selected by the participants were;

status of water and toilet facilities in schools, scholarships for students, sanitation

and working of sweepers in the locality, PDS and maintenance of street lights of

the community.

Workshop on Right to Information Act

Group work: Participants drafting RTI applications on different issues

Presentation by the participants at the RTI act workshop

c. ii Training on Right to Education Act 2009

One day training was organized for the youth volunteers on the 19th of December

2010. The session was facilitated by representatives of The National Commission

for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). More than 85 youth volunteers

participated in the training. During this session, different provisions of the RTE

Act were shared along with examples. The main idea was to share all the

entitlements of a child under the RTE Act.

Workshop on Right to Education Act

c. iii. Community Capacity building session on PDS: A half day session was

held for capacity building of the community members on their entitlements and

ways to address problems arising in PDS. The session was facilitated by Santosh

from Parivartan, Delhi. Santosh has a wide experience of working on issues of

PDS in Delhi. More than 70 women and men from the community participated in

the session. During this session, participants were told about the different

entitlements under PDS, their right as a consumer, whom to approach and how

to reach these officials with complains etc.

Workshop on Public Distribution System for community people

d. Community Capacity Building Training on Right to Education Act:

A half a day capacity building training was done for the members of the

community on RTE Act by representatives from The National Commission for

Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). During the training sessions, people were

told about their rights under this Act and also about how this act will ensure that

the children actually are able to get free education. In response the members also

mentioned about the poor state of the schools in the neighborhood. They also

mentioned the poor quality of teaching in the government schools. However, it

was felt that unless as parents they don’t raise their voice and report violations

things will not change.

e. Awareness Camps on Right to Education:

Awareness camps on entitlements under the RTE Act have been held in different

parts of the community of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri. During these camps,

people are given information regarding admission process, especially regarding

admissions under the economically weaker section (EWS) category. Also

information about how after the enactment of the RTE Act, free education upto

class 8th has become a legal entitlement.

Awareness camps on Right to Education

f. Awareness and Christmas Rally of Youth on Right to Education Act:

Awareness rally on Christmas day on provisions of Right to Education was held

on 25th of December 2010. The rally of more than 110 youth volunteers went

around different blocks of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri with placards and

pamphlets disseminating information on RTE Act.

Youth with slogans:’ Khelo Khudo Kado Padhai, Apne Haq ki Ladho Ladhi’

Awareness rally of Lakshya Youth on RTE Act

g. Case Studies:

Pending pension sanctioned:

Apart from engaging the youth at the center, our volunteers have been also

working with the community. During our interaction with the parents of the

students and other members of the community it was found out that many

people had applied for old age pension but hadn’t heard from the concerned

department for several months. The issues were specifically raised by

Chandrapal, Manoram and Sheila, all residents of Trilokpuri, who mentioned

that they had applied for old age pension in the month of January 20101, and

hadn’t heard from the department till November 2010. In response to the

problem raised, JOSH members drafted RTI applications asking for progress on

their respective pension applications. In reply to the RTI applications filed, the

Department of Social Welfare wrote back that the pension of all those who had

applied in January 2010 where sanctioned and they will be receiving it with a six

months arrear. Also since the RTI application sought a complete list of names

and address of all those whose old age pension had been sanctioned it has

helped in ensuring pension facilities of many other members of the same

community.

Fight against Corporal Punishment in School:

JOSH received a complaint from a girl named Bharti studying in Xth standard of

R.S.K.V. block no 1 of Kalyanpuri. She was slapped and verbally abused by her

school principal. Bharti was completely shaken as her principal had used abusive

language for her and her family. Bharti’s family was supported and a written

complaint was filed to The National Commission of Protection of Child Rights

(NCPCR) against corporal punishment. Complaint was also filed with the local

police station against the principal. While this incident was going on, the

neighborhood community also stood by Bharti and JOSH members and strongly

voiced their concern about this principal, who was reported to be misbehaving

with students regularly. An enquiry has been set up on the Principal of the said

school by the Commission.

h. ‘Sandesh’, the community theatre group:

A theatre group of the name of ‘Sandesh’(Message) was formed by the students

of Lakshya. This group has prepared several small street theatres to create

awareness on different community issues like drinking problem, lack of

sanitation, corruption and RTI Act. ‘Sandesh’ has been performing in different

parts of the community to create awareness.

Sandesh Team performing their street play ‘Chai Pani’: A play against the

corruption

6. Malwa Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan: ‘Rural initiative of mobilization of youth

in Madhya Pradesh with Elected Representative’

The main activities of MMKS has been to work with rural youth to engage them

to work towards better implementation of provisions of MNREGA and different

entitlements and provisions meant for the poor.

Under this in the initial phase, capacity building trainings, field exposure of

different members of the team were done. After which Rozgar Choupal was

organized, during which 700 forms were filled and more than 400 people got

employment.

Also during the first phase, problem of people not getting pension was raised.

This was taken up by the volunteers and several pension forms were filled.

However, it was seen that even though work under MNREGS was started in

many villages, there were many issues like delay in payment of wages, non

employment of women workers etc. Also of the pensions allotted, money of the

pensioners was lying pending for many months.

Dharna:

To address all these issues a one day dharna was organized by Malwa Mazdoor

Kisan Sangathan against the lack of implementation of the MNREGA provisions

and irregularities in pension scheme in the district of Mandsaur, Madhya

Pradesh. The dharna saw participation of people across 15 grampanchayats of

mandsaur district, of whom more than 100 were women. The dharna was staged

in front of the Janpad panchayat karyalaya where they mainly raised issues of

irregularities under MNREGA, delayed payments and non payment of

wages. Also the women demanded for work where they could also get

equal job opportunity under MNREGA.

At the dharna 15 Right to Information applications were filed by

workers in janpad panchayat office demanding for information regarding

delayed payment and non payment of wages for workers under MNREGA.

Some RTI applications were also filed by pensioners, demanding

information for delay in sanctioning of pension and delayed payments.

After filing the RTI application, a rally was taken out from the

dharna site to the SDM office, where a memorandum signed by the people

was handed over to the SDM. The memorandum raised issues of non

allotment of work under MNREGA. In this it was also mentioned how the

panchayat secretary and sarpanch refused to take the job application

form under the Act (Form 6), in some cases, where they did receive the

Form 6 they refused to issue any dated receipt of the same. This was

depriving the workers in demanding for unemployment benefits, where

work had not started. Also the fact that most of the works undertaken

under MNREGA, in this district, has excluded women workers, therefore

the memorandum also demanded for greater inclusion of women. The issue

of late payment was also mentioned in the memorandum and demanded

release of all pending payments of all workers for the last one year.

The memorandum also voiced the concerns of the pensioners, who have

been harassed by the administration by either delaying sanction of

pension or by delaying payments.

The SDM, Mr. N. S. Rajavat received the memorandum and also spoke to

all the workers and villagers gathered assuring them to take action on

all the concerns raised in the memorandum. He also assured that he

will take up the issue of delayed payments very seriously and process

payments within the next 15 days. With this assurance from the SDM,

the villagers ended the dharna, but also mentioned clearly that they

will again be knocking the doors of the administration if the promises

remain unfulfilled.

Success Story:

After which the SDM has sanctioned 1635 pensions, which were lying pending

for years. A total amount of Rs. 12, 52,300 was released as pension.

Saurabh Speaking at the Dharna sthal

Rally of people to the SDM Office to handover Memorandum

In Front of the SDM office

MNREGA Awareness Yatra:

An awareness yatra (rally) of rural youth were taken out to create awareness on

provisions of MNREGA. The yatra covered 15 gram panchayats in Malhargarh

block of Mandsaur District. The main aim of the yatra was to aware people the

importance of filling Form 6 to demand for work, to take receipt indicating date

of the forms and then ensure that work has began within 15 days of application.