Partnering with NHRC for promoting human rights

AIILSG team interacting with NHRC Member Dr Dnyaneshwar Mulay during his visit to Delhi Regional Center

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he AIILSG is in the process of collaborating with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for ‘Strengthening the Local Self Government for Promotion of Human Rights’. The collaboration and co-operation is expected to help local governments incorporate and implement human rights standards and practices into their policies. The collaboration’s aim is to undertake, coordinate, and collaborate on capacity building and extension activities related to the promotion and implementation of various aspects of human rights and local governance.

Under this project, the AIILSG and NHRC will jointly undertake capacity building assignments. Major activities will include formulation of modalities for establishment of Human Rights Cell at the Gram Panchayat/ Municipal level with the help of respective State Human Rights Commission; formulation of modalities (viz. content, timeline, budget requirements, geographical location (city and state), target audience, mode of training) for organising National Level Seminars and Webinars on inculcating basic human rights for the personnel of Urban/Rural Local Bodies; and developing courses on Human Rights in AIILSG Centers; training for Senior government officials and other stakeholders.

Following themes and topics will be covered for the seminars, webinars, and development of training modules: » Disability Inclusion in Urban Sphere » Role of Local Governments in Protection of

Human Rights » Right to City for All Marginalised Sections » Inclusive Urban Design: Ensuring Participation of All Social Groups » Building Urban Infrastructure with Human

Rights Angle » Gender Mainstreaming and City Governance » Urban Liveability and Human Rights.

AIILSG’s projects with disadvantaged populations- from SDGs’ lens

With deep commitment towards the empowerment of disadvantaged populations, AIILSG looks at its field actions with them not just with constrained project mode, but has developed its own programs and innovations. It has entrusted its International Centre of Equity & Inclusion for Transformation [ICEQUI-T] the explicit performance indicator of ‘number of lives improved’. AIILSG through its ICEQUI-T synergizes with social sensitivities of various stakeholders, such as Corporates through its Corporate Social Responsibility Centre

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he article elucidates the AIILSG’s illustrative projects and programs anchored at its ICEQUI-T, especially those fostering global innovations which will have impact on furthering the SDGs with the disadvantaged populations. The focus here is explicitly on disadvantaged as AIILSG believes that an important test of progress towards the SDGs is the impact created with the disadvantaged.

While AIILSG works with a wider gamut of the SDGs as presented in the table below, the current text focusses on some of them due to space considerations. Moreover, projects working with AIILSG’s holistic development model [e.g. TARFAH for tribal and rural development] encompass most of the development interventions.

AIILSG holds deep gratitude to all support agencies for enabling resources to make these humble contributions together with them towards improving lives.

SDG 1- No Poverty, SDG 2- Zero Hunger, SDG8- Decent Work and Economic Growth

AIILSG’s projects and programs towards attainment of these SDGs are anchored around its innovative model- TARFAH [“Transformative Actions for Rural Development, Food Security, Agriculture & Health”]. Its recent and ongoing projects based on this innovation include: » Five projects supported by TATA Rallis CSR in tribal areas of Raigad district of Maharashtra,

Palghar district of Maharashtra, Narmada district of Gujarat, and non-tribal areas in Karim

Nagar and Warangal districts of Telangana. » One project supported by TATA Technologies

CSR in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra » One project supported TATA Industries CSR in

Raigad district of Maharashtra » One project supported by German organisations-

Terra Tech and Aktion Deutschland Hilft- with nomadic tribes in Beed district of Maharashtra » One project supported by HDFC CSR through which a Kaushalya Vikas Kendra is established in Mumbai for honing skills of slum dweller youth of Mumbai

While detailing for each of these projects is customized to the respective local context, the key driving fundamental tenets of the TARFAH model common for them are as below:

The TARFAH model of AIILSG

The word ‘TARFAH’ is derived from a traditional musical instrument of the indigenous populations. The innovation brings the interventions in sync with the cultural preferences of the tribal and rural populations in appreciation of their closeness to the natural resources. Instead of superficially importing alien interventions from an urban perspective, the TARFAH model appreciates the unique significance of the local problems (and thus the solutions), custom-designs solutions, and implements them through community participation. In the process it builds sustainability

AIILSG-ICEQUI-T Innovation of ‘Khushi Doll’ for Differently Abled

mechanisms which takeover the baton of development from AIILSG as a conscious well-designed process. The approach is firmly rooted in micro-planning process at the family and hamlet levels and then converging into the village-level processes.

The TARFAH model addresses the food security and livelihood concerns in a holistic & gender-sensitive manner. It constitutes a customized blend (tailormade to the respective agro-ecological condition) of longer term sustainability enabler interventions with shorter term food security objectives. An important fundamental tenet of the TARFAH model is it enables the tribals to substantially enrich their natural resources by converting their ‘wastelands’ into productive orchards, and through soil & water conservation. This bolsters the local primary sector which further cascades into promotion of secondary and tertiary sectors unveiling greater livelihood options for landless and marginal landholders- either directly (vis-à-vis value addition to the primary produce) or indirectly (due to improved local purchasing power).

The short term food security issues with the highly impoverished tribals are addressed through the activities of 1. For landholder families: improved agriculture, improving crop productivity, cropping intensity & enriching cropping pattern, vegetable cultivation, 2. For landless families: appropriate livestock interventions such as poultry and Rural Non-Farm

Sector interventions.

This innovation addresses the issues in the long term through appropriate horti-forestry interventions by the landholder families and livestock & RNFS interventions by the landless. The horti-forestry initiatives are supported with appropriate soil and water conservation initiatives. Considering that many rural and tribal populations face acute water deprivation right from the month of December, water resources development is often conducted as one of the initial activities which also serves as crucial for community mobilization.

The livelihoods options domain is diversified in line with consistent market scanning. Depending upon such inputs, interventions such as floriculture, and cultivating vegetables of different types are decided in a participatory manner with the community for which strong forward linkages are put in place, in addition to the technological support from agricultural sciences.

In-Building Sustainability Enablers

The in-built sustainability-enablers are in the form of: » Intensive participatory approach manifested in community participation at all stages » Fostering grassroots community institutions which take over baton of development of project » Building local skills » Capacity building of community, especially youth » Establishment of strong external linkages with markets and technology: to pre-empt exploitation, community facilitated for collective bargaining, get maximum return for produce through fair practices » Strengthening linkages with formal government machinery and Panchayati Raj Institutions [PRIs]

Establishing/Strengthening Linkages With Formal Government Machinery And Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI)

For sustainability and mainstreaming of development, it is important to bridge the gap between the disadvantaged community and government machinery. AIILSG works for awareness generation within the community about relevant government schemes and programs. This also builds confidence in the community to approach the government machinery overcoming possible psychological barrier. AIILSG’s efforts on strengthening the supply side, i.e. the government machinery includes supporting the government to reach those who are difficult to reach and creating avenues at the grassroots for the interactions between government agencies and the community.

The PRIs, being the tier of formal government closet to the grassroots, has a very significant role. For all the activities above, the proactive role of PRIs is envisaged and efforts to mobilize it and its capacity building are made right from the beginning.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being

While this theme is covered as an in-built constituent of all the projects, certain recent projects had this as a dedicated focus, which include » MUFG CSR supported project dedicated to enabling

Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd.), DG, AIILSG addressing students at AIILSG Mental Health Innovation launch

sustainable mental health support to 10,000 marginalized youth, 50 per cent of whom will be women » ‘Creating Access to Comprehensive Sexuality

Education for Blind Girls & Women from Developing

Countries’ under the aegis of ‘Stars in Sexual and

Reproductive Health and Rights 2019’ by Grand

Challenges Canada. The innovation also involves developing innovative capacity building tools for blind girls and women.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed back progress made on ‘good health & well-being’ especially for the underprivileged populations.

More importantly, the increase in gender-based violence, abuse & violence against children has further intensified health & well-being related challenges for the children & women in vulnerable situations. The worst sufferers of this were differently abled including visually challenged women & children which warranted urgent attention. The need for ‘sexual & reproductive health education’ (SRHE) emerged as a first step to create awareness & impart knowledge about SRHE amongst differently abled women & children enabling their less vulnerability to exploitation & abuse. The innovation of audio-tactile ‘Khushi’ doll was conceptualised and developed under the aegis of Stars in Global Health Award 2019 by Grand Challenges Canada. A simpler version of it was also designed by the AIILSG-ICEQUI-T team in such a way that an easily accessible and replaceable pen-drive within Khushi doll can be uploaded with audio messages on wide range of health aspects, including SRHE, WASH & COVID-19. This innovation has a special significance as it will enable accessing information by visually challenged women who are not ‘braille-literate’ and help in transcending socio-cultural taboo associated with imparting SRHE to all types of differently abled girls & women.

Another, hitherto neglected, health aspect that came to the fore is impact of COVID-19 challenges on Mental Health which has emerged as a shadow pandemic. Further, impact of gender-based violence, women’s reproductive health on women’s mental health is often ignored & is still highly neglected. The key aspect related to Mental Health is ‘stigma and taboo’ associated with it. Also, there is a dearth of mental health services & approaches which are communitycentric, socio-culturally sensitive, gender inclusive, youth-friendly making it more accessible & acceptable to youth, enabling participation &ownership of youth. The innovation of ‘Mano-Swasthya Ranjan Kendras’ initiated within community supported by MUFG Bank Ltd. CSR are addressing this by engaging 10,000 marginalised ‘Youth’, including those from indigenous ‘Siddi Tribes’ of African origin thus facing high stigma & discrimination, Scheduled-tribes and marginalized youth from urban slums from the states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The community-centric approaches have come to the fore which helped to reach the most marginalised and hard to reach populations during COVID-19 pandemic. AIILSG’s trained team members were also part of Gram Aarogya Suraksha Dal (community organisation at the village level) and have supported government’s COVID-19 related relief work.

COVID-19 has highlighted importance of immunityenablers and nutrition. The nutritional status, especially of disadvantaged children and women, has otherwise taken a bit hit. AIILSG pre-empted this by furthering its MAMTA (Movement Against Malnutrition for Transformative Actions) movement to many more. This involves enabling plantation of nutritious kitchen gardens by location-customized vegetables and herbs. This was further augmented by developing AIILSG’s innovation of herbal gardens, with 3 sub-types of it.

SDG 4: Quality Education

While this theme is covered as an in-built constituent of all the projects, certain recent projects had this as a dedicated focus, which include one project each supported by the: » MUFG Bank CSR at 140 slum locations in Mumbai,

Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru » National Stock Exchange Foundation in 51 villages in

Nandurbar district of Maharashtra

» HDFC Bank CSR at 40 tribal locations in Palghar district of Maharashtra » Kotak Mahindra Bank CSR in 4 Schools of Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra » EagleBurgmann CSR in 1 slum location

The inequality in education exacerbated during COVID 19 pandemic due to disruptions in education and digital divide in education which disproportionately impacted the under-privileged children the most. The AIILSG-ICEQUI-T’s innovation of ‘Children Resource Centers’ (also referred to as ‘Shikshan Ranjan Kendras’) nested in the community enabled continuity of teaching-learning, enriched learning environment with quality teaching-learning inputs, improvement in WASH behaviour and holistic personality development for the underprivileged children from diverse settings of urban slums, rural & tribal areas and for hard-toreach Denotified & Nomadic Tribes’ children. There has been key emphasis on ‘Girls’ education’ ensuring that minimum 50% children participating in Children Resource Centers are girls. To establish/foster role models for the Girl’s education, it is ensured that more than 50 per cent Education Mentors (ShikshanMitras) are educated local women. This model has proved to be robust, resilient, adaptable & effective even during COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. These Children Resource Centers have been instrumental to bring learning at children’s doorstep, provide equal opportunity for learning, play & safety to children. These have become centers of learning, exploring and a creative space for children to express themselves. The focus has also been on anchoring education & learning of children nested in their local context which is relevant to their lives, both culturally and academically. For example the innovation of ‘BHASHASETU’ (i.e. bilingual teaching learning material) is developed to overcome the language barrier faced by the tribal children.

In post-pandemic era, the key innovative approach being adopted is ‘Digital SRKs/CRCs’ emphasising on digital literacy for the under-privileged children so that they are not left behind than other children. The CRCs engages all stakeholders children, their parents, community representatives and schools.

Sdg 5: Gender Equality

AIILSG believes that gender equality in real terms can’t be enabled through theoretical discourses and seminars. The AIILSG’s field action foster gender equality through the following fundamental tenets: » Provisions for women-anchored livelihood activities. » Special focus on women-headed families. » As decision makers in the grassroots community institutions, it is mandatory to have participation

of minimum 50 per cent women in hamlet-level committees and 50 per cent girls in Baal Panchayats. » In skills-training, financial-literacy, digital-literacy: minimum 50 per cent of participants are women- overcomes gender-stereotyping. » Promoting women friendly appropriate technologies: e.g. modified sickle, water fetcher, etc. » Inculcating pro-gender-equality mind-set in all right from young age. Thus emphasis on girls as equal decision makers in Bal Panchayats goes a long way in enabling this.

SDG 6- Clean water and sanitation

AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T innovations on this count bridge a crucial prevailing gap- enabling the disadvantaged populations to self- assess, plan and proactively seek participation of other stakeholders in improving status. AIILSG has developed simple visual tools, even understandable by illiterates- thus enabling their participation in community self-assessment and planning. The community ownership and accountability built through this process has proved to be very crucial for sustainability.

WASH initiatives include

1. Behaviour change communication within community through edu-tainment by using creative medium of plays, puppet shows, awareness rallies, 2. Innovation of Khushi doll to convert WASH and

COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour messages in audio to visually challenged children 3. Hygiene kits to foster adoption of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour & improved WASH behaviour 4. Developing a cadre of BAL PANCHAYATS on WASH to convey wash and CAB messages 5. Improving access to WASH services through construction and repair of toilets, enabling access to water through water & soil conservation measures

SDG 13:Climate Action

AIILSG is proactively putting into practice the innovations on climate action front which were felicitated with the United Nations Risk Award 2015. They are dovetailed with its innovation of ‘Community Self-Assessment and Planning with Women’s Participation for Disaster Risk Reduction of Vulnerable Communities’. These have been supplemented recently with the launch of the HDFC Bank Corporate Social Responsibility tree plantation drive for carbon neutrality launched in the AIILSG’s tribal field action area in Palghar district. Moreover, AIILSG has recently launched its innovation of “Rejuvenating indigenous trees for carbon neutrality” in its tribal and rural development field action areas.

Experts’ Opinion

The urban local bodies and Urban Development Department have a close knit bond with the Institute. Just as there are apex training bodies for IAS and IPS at Mussoorie and Hyderabad, respectively, AIILSG plays such role for the elected members and personnel of the urban local bodies

eknath shinde Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Based on our initial interaction with the AIILSG team, it has been very helpful for the entire planning which has been done for the various project we are implementing in Bhopal Smart Smart City

divya Pillai Consultant, Bhopal Smart City

We do not have a shortage of good laws on human rights in the country but we have shortage of good implementation. One way to solve this is to inculcate human rights awareness. But most importantly, we must debate these issues and create dialogue. I congratulate the All India Institute of Local SelfGovernment for creating a space for such dialogues to flourish

dnyaneshwar mulay Member NHRC & former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

The initiative of AIILSG to come up with a book on ‘Urban 75’ is much needed. It is a great opportunity for us to reflect how far our nation has come and think of where we would like to take it and what kind of steps are necessary

Hitesh vaidya Director, NIUA

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All India Institute of Local Self-Government

AIILSG is a premier institute working towards strengthening and reinforcing Urban Local Governance. For nearly nine decades, it has contributed to the principles and practice of urban governance, education, research and capacity building. In all that AIILSG has done, it has taken care to work with a full range of stakeholders – grassroots organizations, NGOs, ULBs, state and national governments, international organizations, organizations of the UN, research organizations and universities. Among international agencies, it has been working closely with World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, UN-HABITAT, USAID, UNESCO, the European Union, DFID, GIZ, CITYNET and others in carrying out various training and developmental programmes for enhanced urban development and management.

Ranjit S Chavan President Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd.) Director General

Ravi Ranjan Guru Deputy Director General

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