PRIA has been working in Haryana for the last 15 years on issues related to governance, participation and inclusion of the poor and the marginalized. In 2009, PRIA began work on violence against women in Sonepat district, Haryana, taking up the issue of reducing the incidence of female foeticide.
Objectives
- Bringing awareness in the community about the adverse impact of female foeticide for the community
- Generating awareness about the grave consequences of female foeticide and to initiate a spirit of voluntarism among the community
- Mobilizing the community to build pressure on the district administration/government to implement the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act, to stop the existing practice of female foeticide and also to change the attitude/mindset of the community
Key areas/components
- Door-to-door campaign to orient the community on gender, female foeticide and PC&PNDT Act
- Setting up a monitoring group to advocate against female foeticide in Sonepat district
- Strengthening women's coalitions and groups in villages to act as support systems
- Gender sensitisation trainings of primary health workers
- Sensitisation of academia and media on the issue
Outcomes
- Covered atleast 6000 households from the target villages and wards through door-to-door campaign.
- Around 500 village youth and 500 college/university students were mobilized to be part of the programme to raise awareness.
- Around 700 village elders, elected representatives, traditional and informal leaders were sensitised on the issue of female foeticide at the village and ward level.
- District level monitoring group built with inclusion of various stakeholders in the programme. PRIA's cluster members, District Advisory Committee (DAC), media, academicians, college youth, health workers, CBOs, NGOs and elected representatives became part of the monitoring group to advocate against female foeticide in Sonepat district.
- Strong formation of women's coalition groups (cluster members). These women's group are acting as support systems for women in the villages and wards. They also belong to Sakshar Mahila Samooh, mahila mandal and other self-help groups.
- PRIA became a member of the District Advisory Committee in 2011 and good collaboration between PRIA's cluster members and DAC has been built to work together further on this issue.
- Health workers (ANMs, Asha, Multiple Village Health Workers) have been part of various gender sensitisation programs and trainings of PRIA to advocate on gender issues and female foeticide. They have been sensitized to keep regular track of those families that are susceptible to female foeticide and maintain records of pregnancy in the villages and wards.
- Academicians have been sensitised on this issue and have started organizing activities and programmes related to female foeticide in colleges. One academic also become a member of the DAC.
- Media became an important stakeholder in the programme highlighting and covering the issue and PRIA's events and activities. PRIA organized a workshop mainly for media persons of Sonepat where the DAC was also invited.
Impacts
- As a result of the gender sensitization workshop of media persons and the DAC, the DAC decided to invite media persons to their bi-monthly meetings.
- Celebration of the birth of a girl child has begun. Around 200 families have celebrated the birth of the girl child. PRIA's cluster members have taken lead roles in doing so and the attitude towards the girl child is slowly changing.
- In the initial days of the project, wives (cluster members) were not allowed to attend meetings or activities as husbands thought that women should not go outside their village. Initially, when animators organized meetings with women in the villages, the men folk were very keen to know what was being discussed as they thought the women's group was plotting against them. At the end of the project, husbands even encouraged their wives to attend the meetings. Some of the women cluster members who initially felt shy to speak, have now become very outspoken on the issue.
Year/period : 2009
Client
