Capacity Building of Elected Women Representatives and Functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions, Angul, Orissa
Objectives
Empowering/building capacities of elected women representatives for effective functioning and setting women’s agenda.
Institutionalization of mechanisms (networks) to strengthen capacities.
Strengthening community mobilization and constituency building so that women are able to articulate their voice and participate in the electoral process.
Ensuring enabling environment for gender sensitive delivery of services through building multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Geographical spread
Angul district, Orissa
Key areas / components
8 cluster level perspective building workshops and district convention organized.
Capacity building training conducted and cluster level resource mapping done.
Women’s forums at cluster, block and district levels created.
8 information kiosks set up and quarterly advisory committee meetings held.
Mobilization and strengthening of gram sabha with active participation and clear issue articulation by women.
Process documentation and dissemination through media.
Campaign through organizing sammelans, film shows, folk songs and cultural programmes. It acted as a platform to share experiences and good practices.
Women’s forums were enabled to play a watch dog role to ensure services like health, education, nutrition, water and sanitation, employment, etc.
Multi-stake holder discussions at cluster level were organized from time to time among the panchayat representatives, government functionaries and forum members to share and improve service delivery.
Key outputs
Social evils such as dowry, domestic violence, sexual exploitation and harassment of women were raised and appropriate action was initiated by the concerned authorities against the perpetrators.
Increased women’s enthusiasm for participating in democratic decentralization process.
Women were well informed about local resources and ongoing local development activities.
Women were able to effectively articulate their issues and were actively involved in decision making.
Networks of cluster/block/district forums established and regular interface between members of the forum and government functionaries on development issues.
Women’s participation in palli sabha and gram sabha increased; prioritizing of women’s agenda in development.
Process documentation helped in making the people aware of the initiatives taken.
Effective monitoring of implementation of basic services like regular attendance of girl students in school, immunization, mid day meals, supplementary immunization programme, PDS, maternal benefit, widow pension scheme, disability benefit, safe drinking water, self-help group, etc.
