Sector Expert Consultation on Gender and Human Rights

Rajasthan Priorities hosted a sector expert consultation on ‘Gender and Human Rights’ on September 22nd, 2017 at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur. Experts working in the field of gender, adolescent, women empowerment, and girls right were invited to join the consultation.  Experts from the government academia, civil society, and various development partners joined. The experts were briefed about the project and methodology along with a brief on the work of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.

After an initial discussion around the issue and challenges facing the sector, the moderators of the workshop Prof. V S Vyas and Dr. Kanchan Mathur invited the participating experts to share the smartest interventions in the Gender and Human Rights sector based on their expertise and experiences. 

Interventions

• Women representation in decision-making process 
• Secondary education for all girl child 
• Better and equal economic opportunities for women 
• Women desk at Police station – strengthening and capacity building 
• Awareness of gender issues in migrant population  
• Marriage by choice  
• Institutions of (daycare center) – child-friendly and right understanding
• Pre-marital counseling (promotion and accessibility)
• Sex education and reproductive rights awareness 
• Redressal mechanism for Mental issues 
• Capacity development - Cadre of professionals working on gender issue
• Participation of civil society in women empowerment initiatives 
• Training and capacity building of grassroots workers – ASHA/Saathi
• Enhancing the coverage of good initiatives/ policies to the people at the bottom of the pyramid 
• Partnership in between government and civil society for bringing the innovation in programme implementation  
• Identifying the root cause for gender disparity 
• Education the male for women empowerment 
• Strengthening and improving the existing programme implementation process 
• Equal opportunity for stakeholder with support to right and establish organizations
• Removal of GST on sanitary napkins  
• Menstrual hygiene management - Continuation of existing successful intervention for behavior change 
• Ensuring sustainability of existing schemes/initiatives
• Awareness campaign for Menstrual hygiene and sexual awareness 
• Discouraging the existing social practices of blind faith and gender discrimination 
• Focus on removing the historical and caste disparities 
• Holistic approach for removal of religious and gender discrimination
• Strengthening the existing Aganwaadi centers and make them more accessible
• Promote awareness of existing policies/scheme of government - better promotion and outreach to last person (effective Information and communication practices  at ground/ translation in local languages)
• Stop women trafficking – better implementation and focused enforcement of legislation 
• Promote usage of the toilet by women (school girls) - ensuring basic facilities like water supply etc. 
• Gender budgeting - mainstreaming, monitoring and audit of each program 
• Gender desegregated data - area and scheme wise 
• Convergence in between Govt and civil society initiatives (including in between government departments) 
• Gender training in school curriculum/education  
• Orientation and better access to information for gender policies at workplace  
• Ensuring prominent display of information related to gender committees/ cells 
• Sensitization of judicial system for gender perspective 
• Sensitizing of young people (including men) 
• Better counseling facilities for girl child  (for mental health, adolescence, menstrual health    
• Advocacy to corporate sector for equal pay 
• Involvement of community leaders on gender issues and awareness generation    
• Enforcement of “Sexual harassment of Women at workplace (prevention, prohibition, and redressal) Act 2013 
• Political support system for continuation of (right and effective) schemes/policies 
• Accessibility and availability of Psychiatrist at village level 
• Supervisory and monitoring cadre - Strengthening and training in government system 
• Use of technology and IT for better monitoring 
• Complain box in school – better placement and positioning 
• Training and capacity building of ANMs and counselors
• Access to quality sanitary napkins   
• Complain redressal system – strengthening and implementation 
• Openness and acceptability of gender perspective (male and female) in society 
• Training and capacity building of institutions/ committee at Panchayat level 
• Addressing gender discrimination at household level 
• Scheme/ programme – Promote better understanding and promotion in local languages 
• Judicial process - speedy resolution 
• Legal awareness for gender violence
• Access to finance for women 
• Stop beatification and objectification of women 
• Awareness for health implication of early childhood marriage 
• Support for right and able women leadership (in women group) 
• Implementation of existing law/policies at bottom of the pyramid 
• Strengthening of institutional system for gender support
• Leadership development and empowerment of Gram Panchayat representatives 
• Creating and strengthening of existing platform for women/child

List of Participants

• Dr. V.S Vyas, Prof. Emeritus, and Board Member, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur
• Jyotsna, UN Women, Consultant-Directorate of Women Empowerment, Gobt of Rajasthan
• Neeraj Juneja  Project Officer, Save the Children
• Shipra Bhutani, Director, Quantum Career Academy
• Rasree B, CFAR
• Dr Rolly Sinha, Project Expert IDS, Jaipur
• R.S Sharma, IDS, Jaipur
• Zeenat Afshan, Program Associate, Tata Trusts
• Renuka Pamecha, Mahila Punrvas Samuh Samiti, Jaipur North & South
• Dr. Malti Gupta, Chairperson Rajasthan University Women Association (RUWA)
• Nisha Siddhu, Rajasthan Pragatisheel Mahila Fedration
• Ratn Katyani, Secretary, Mukti Dhara Sansthan
• Prof. Kanchan Mathur, Director, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
• Rajkumari Dogara, Mahila Salah Evam Suraksha Kendra
• Rakesh Foujdar, Director / Advisory, Kevaladev Research Foundation
• Sanjeev Chouhan, Director / Advisory, Tulsi Shiksha Samiti
• Pushpa Soni, Counsellor, Director / Advisory, Mahila Salah Evam Suraksha Kendra
• Vijaylakshmi Joshi, Consultant, Freelancer
• Dr. Pritam Pal, Consultant, Freelancer ( Gender and Health)
• Dr. Prem Singh Kuntal, Secretary, Educational & Rural Development Society, Bharatpur
• Omprakash Azad, Founder President, Vani Pradushan Mukti Sansthan, Bharatpur
• Lokesh Singhal, President, Swasthy Mandir & Naturopathy Sansthan, Bharatpur
• Ram Veer Singh Verma, Gen Secretary, Grameen Vikas & Prayavaran Sansthan, Bharatpur
• Praveen Sinha Region, Coordinator, CECOEDECON, Jaipur
• Radhika Sharma, Director, Jeevan Ashram Sansthan, Jaipur
• Bhupendra Singh, Senior Program Manager, Centre for Advocacy & Research
• Govind Akar, Center for Micro Finance, Jaipur
• Mamta Jaitly, Secretary, Vinidha
• Pinky Pal, Sapna