At Community

1. Mahila Juth

Women from the poor and lower middle class areas come together for saving activities and also meet to discuss problems they face as women in every day life. We organise discussions on current issues, film screenings and other cultural activities during these meetings.We provide information to women about various government schemes available, availability of training, education and employment opportunity in private or government institution. Encourage women who aspire to make a difference in their life by becoming independent or continuing their education.

About Community, Problem and Relevance

Sahiyar has been actively involved in issues related to rights of women from minority community and also involved in struggle against communal violence since 1985. We are based in Vadodara which is considered as communally sensitive city. We are involved in building up a common front for Human Rights and Communal Harmony with other progressive individual and organisation in Vadodara.

During the year 2002, Gujarat including Vadodara, experienced unprecedented violence, principally targeted against Muslims. In fact the relentless violence was termed ‘genocide’ by several fact-finding reports. Sahiyar (Stree Sanghathan) joined hands with many other progressive organisations and individuals to form a common forum called People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Shanti Abhiyan (Peace Campaign). All of our human and economic resources were diverted to working on this issue under this forum for several months.

The women in the Muslim community were bearing the major burden of the effects of the 2002 violence. They were facing problems from outside as well as from their own family members and community.

With its sustained efforts to support people for resisting violence by organising area committees, organising protests for peace and justice, and work for relief and rehabilitation in relief camps and in areas and to represent their plight and problems to National Human Rights Commission, Election Commission, Peoples Tribunal, International Initiative for Justice etc., during the genocide in 2002, Sahiyar gained the respect and trust of local communities. It also enabled Sahiyar to continue its efforts to work on issues faced by Muslim women in various areas.

One of the result of the crises situation was that several women came our for the first time and emerged as a community leader in their areas. We started working with several such women grassroots activists who were initiated into the human rights movement and women's movement after the experience of 2002. The group started consolidating its efforts from September 2003, with partial support from Action Aid. We started the work in Bawamanpura and Kagada Chawl in the old city areas where Sahiyar had worked in 2002 and where local support had developed.

Some of the problems faced by women in these areas are common across all communities, but some are specific to their identity as women from particular communities. For addressing community specific issues, we became active members of Muslim Women Rights Network which was initiated by several organisations at national level with a vision to build a society where a Muslim woman can live a life free from fear and where she can enjoy her social, economic and political rights as an equal citizen of the country irrespective of her religious beliefs.

As communal disturbances and other crises have become every day reality in these areas, women in these areas need to deal with various aspects of the state like police, justice system, various government offices- various departments of Municipality and Collector office. They also face issues of domestic violence and internal conflicts within community. They look for support from organisation like Sahiyar (Stree Sanghathan) and PUCL in such situation. As result of our awareness programmes, few women have emerged as community leaders in these areas and are able provide immediate intervention before out side organisations can reach to the spot. They have become role model for many other women and young girls in their areas and other such areas. Some of them have asked for support and training to deal with the day to day problems of access to various services from the state institutions as their rights as citizens. We had organised series of training for a group of potential leaders during 2007-2008 with the financial support form Yugantar. And in 2008-09 with the finantial support form AJWS in collaboration with Awaz- e- Niswan. A group of about 20-25 women from Bawamanpura, Bawchawad, Ektanagar, J.P. Nagar, Kisanwadi, Yakutpura, Dandiabazar, etc. are involved in this process. They are provided basic knowledge of laws related to women’s rights and rights of citizens and exposure visits to local police station, various government offices, Municipal Ward office, Courts and tribunals, Other organisation and their field area.

The results are very encouraging in the first group and the ongoing group. The women trained earlier are intervening in the common issues faced by the entire community as well as women’s issues. Some of the interventions made by these women in their areas are making representation for civic amenities, intervention in the cases of domestic violence, starting saving groups in their areas, awareness campaign during elections etc. Many of them have began to gain respect and confidence of people in their areas. They have voiced a need to continue this training process for this group of women to reinforce their learning and providing support to them in the field to practically handle the issues. They also need support from few other women to form a core group of women activists in their respective areas.

2. Leadership Training

Women’s Leadership For Peace, Justice and Communal Harmony:

We work in the eastern part of Vadodara city, where the major slum areas of the city are located. These areas also face communal disturbances frequently. Women living in this vicinity come from different communities and are engaged with Sahiyar in spreading the message of equality and communal harmony. These women are given training to take up leadership roles, women who are part of this training call themselves “Buland Awaz”(A group of Women For Peace and Justice) and have been active in their respective areas, in spreading awareness and empowering other women.

One of the hurdles they face in their work is lack of support from youth in the area. Many women have voiced there concern about vacuum that youth face in the communities. In absence of any meaningful social culture and community activities for youth they may get attracted towards fundamentalists’ forces or forces which generate hate and violence among communities.

This is one of the long felt needs of the community. The organisation have worked with youth sporadically in past but we will be working intensively with youth for the first time. Hence we have included modest ideas like a pilot project. For this year we are planning to initiate some work with youth which can give opportunities to young people of various communities to meet, learn and undertake some meaningful activities. It will include participatory discussions on the issues of justice including gender justice, communal harmony and any other current issues faced by youth and their communities. The programmes in the community and common public programme will include awareness generation through cultural activities, sports, educational outing etc,.

We propose to continue similar training with a third group of other 20-30 women and also initiate some work with the youth in the area. As this is beginning we will try to reach out approximately 100 young people during the year. Some of the new women trainee and youth will be from the same areas and some from the new areas to expand the work in future. Many of the earlier women will also participate with this group as facilitators.

1. Mahila Juth

2. Leadership Training

3.Awareness Programme

4. Education Excursion