Sensitizing and advocating for an enabling environment
Engendering Communities & Institutions
Equipped with advocacy and amplification tools, our community leaders rally support to shift patriarchal attitudes through public events, dialogues, campaigns, and showcases. They work to build community investment in adolescent girls as a critical demographic dividend. Our holistic framework engages, sensitises and builds ownership amongst key stakeholders in the ecosystem, including community members, field workers (such as Asha and Anganwadi workers), educational institutions, local leaders, government officials, civil society organisations, foundations, funders, think tanks, police, media, and the private sector.
One of the key causes of VAWG is inequality of power and resources which is institutionalised through policies, laws, social norms and patriarchal beliefs that grant preferential rights to men while denying women their rights. By addressing its root and structural causes there is a chance to end it. This requires a multi- faceted intervention at various levels of society which goes beyond individuals and reaches families and communities.In India, lack of adequate representation of women in institutions and public decision making positions have resulted in institutions and public policy operating from a gender blind and patriarchal perspective.
Outlays for women continue to be miniscule and there is no commitment to gender budgeting. As a result, women continue to be marginalised. It is critical to engender institutions and make them answerable to women’s needs. By sensitising institutions and making them realise and acknowledge the gender impact of policies, change can happen.
CEQUIN started its work at the grassroots with marginalized minority communities, with its first project in 2009 in the heart of Jamia Nagar, the GRC. Part of the 80 NGO network, ‘Mission Convergence’ where the Delhi Government NCT and Women and Child Department aimed to build synergy amongst all the gender related policies. Jamia Millia Islamia was onboarded as our partner, and the centre laid the foundation for a world where all the government schemes were anchored through the woman in a family. Various activities – from help desks to drive awareness about government schemes like pension, aadhaar, vocational training courses like tailoring, remedial classes for underprivileged students, legal training and support, health and nutrition camps and an OPD with doctor visits – the GRC reached out to over 10,000 households throughout the area. Over time, it evolved into a thriving community hub with a special focus on empowering women and girls. Through the GRC, CEQUIN honed its rights based approach, led mass awareness campaigns in and with the community, and built the path for the many programme like the Mahila panchayat, Kickstart Equality. It was the daughters of so many of our SHG and collective members who were the first girls to be part of CEQUIN’s football program in 2011. It was also the early years of CEQUIN, where women’s collectives were built through initiatives like the Naari Adaalat, women’s livelihood groups producing together, small savings and a mass mobilisation through camps on access to quality health, public meetings or jan sunwais . The GRC became a safe community for thousands of women from under-resourced communities in Jamia Nagar, finding strength in understanding their rights and building their skills for dignified livelihood, united. This laid the foundation for our work, where engaging local stakeholders and building strategic partnerships became a core part of our programmes.
Supporters
Key Features:
Engagement of local stakeholders – regular engagement of local stakeholder groups to engender spaces, enhancing accountability and their role to make communities gender equitable (community leaders, RWAs, police, panchayat/MLAs, asha, ANMs, school teachers, schools and colleges)
Building strategic partnerships with government representatives – district, state and national
Cultivating institutional collaborations – educational institutes, CSOs, funders, media, think tanks, police etc
Generating Awareness and Mass Engagement through Public Events & Action – campaigns, public meetings and hearings, safety walks, Nari ki Chaupals, local tournaments and community events
Capacity building for Gender based advocacy – with adolescents, youth, women, men and community groups
Community Help Desks – building access to critical information on government and welfare schemes
Highlights
Jamia Football Tournament, 2011 with JMI VC Najeeb Jung, 2011
Kickstart Equality – Gender Sensitization Campaign in schools, One Billion Rising & Delhi Police Week, 2017
#MeToo Public Events in Connaught Place, Delhi, 2019
MOU with MCD & horticulture department for Seemapuri Safeda Park adoption , 2021
Seemapuri Delhi Public Meeting with Police on water and sanitation, 2022
Meeting with District Commissioner, Nuh Haryana – Shri Ajay Kumar IAS for strategic partnership in Nuh, 2023
Planning meeting of 25 Delhi CSO partners convened by CEQUIN for campaign 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, 2023
Stakeholders during the International Women’s Day celebrations in Rozka village, Nuh, Haryana 2023 – ‘Sapna Barabari Ka’ – Roop Director Mr. Gaurav Jain, the District Education Officer, Nuh Mr. Mukesh Yadav, Child Protection Officer – Women and Child Department, Nuh Ms. Hema Kaushik, TAP Foundation CEO Kritika Sangani, Rozka School Principal, along with CEQUIN Chairperson and co-founders Sara Abdullah Pilot and Lora K Prabhu
CSO Meeting with Hon’ble Smt Smriti Irani, Ministry of Women & Child, GOI at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi , 2024 to present CEQUIN’s work
CEQUIN’s National Partner Dialogue during ‘15 Years of CEQUIN’ celebrations with 40 partners from 14 states across India to scale up Kickstart Equality , 2024
An Overview
