REPORT

State Level Consultation

on

Designing a Social Inclusion Plan for Socially

Marginalized and Excluded Population

Mumbai: 29th November, 2012

Jointly Organized by National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW),

Government of India, Women and Child Development Department, Government of

Maharashtra and Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR)

Empowerment of Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups and Women in Difficult

Circumstances

National Mission for Empowerment of Women

MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

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Designing a Social Inclusion Plan for Socially Marginalized and Excluded Population

Mumbai: 29th November, 2012

Day One: 29th November, 2012

The domain of Empowerment of Vulnerable and Marginalized women and

women in Difficult Circumstances under National Mission for Empowerment of

Women (NMEW), Ministry of Women and Child Development was led by a

delegation of senior officers of NMEW namely Additional Secretary & Mission

Director, Smt. K. Ratna Prabha and Executive Director, Smt. Rashmi Singh, to

participate in the State Level Consultation on “Designing a Social Inclusion Plan

for Socially Marginalized and Excluded Population.” The consultation was held

on 29th November, 2012 at Main Auditorium, Sahyadri Guest House, Malabar Hill,

Mumbai.

Hon’ble Minister Women and Child Development, Maharashtra, Smt. Varsha

Gaiekwad presided over in the inaugural session, Principal Secretary, Shri Ujjwal

Uke, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Maharashtra, Smt. Shomita

Biswas, Member Secretary, National Commission for Women and senior officials of

NMEW, Ministry of Women and Child Development,Govt. of India.

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The agenda included 3 Panel Discussions chaired by senior officials from

relevant departments, activists and members of Civil Society Organizations. The

event was organized as under the series of State Consultations of the States of

Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The event was second in the series

after the First State level Consultation, Hyderabad held on 1st October, 2012.

Representatives of various Civil Society Organizations, Gender and

Transgender Activists and experts from academia practitioners from the field of

development studies, UN agencies such as UNICEF, and lead representatives of the

target groups from Different parts of Maharashtra such as sex workers and trans-

genders of also participated in the consultation. The target groups representing

three districts of Parbani, Sangli and Pune were also present.

The theme of the Consultation was on “Designing a Social Inclusion Plan

for Socially and Marginalized and Excluded Population.” The event aimed at

initiating more concrete steps towards addressing the issues of members belonging

to this group such the women sex- workers and trans-genders who identify

themselves as women. This event provided a platform to bring together senior

officials from various Ministries and departments such as Health, Rural

Development, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Home Affairs namely

law enforcement etc. in order to discuss the measures of rehabilitating,

mainstreaming this population and strengthen the current efforts for the social

inclusion of this group through alternative livelihood solutions.

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The event provided a forum to bring political leadership and ownership of

accepting this group for providing their basic human rights such as living with

dignity, access to basic livelihood for the access and utilization of various schemes of

the government to tackle poverty, stigma and social ostracization among women and

children of this group and to raise the level of social, political and administrative

commitment to create, innovative, foster new approaches of partnerships among

various departments and to develop new strategies for providing basic amenities and

services while addressing the social challenges this group caters to. The consultation

aimed to:

1) Design a Social Inclusion Plan for Marginal Communities such as Sex

Workers and Transgendered persons in consultation with all key

stakeholders- major government departments such as Women and Child

Development, Health, Maharashtra State/District AIDS Control Society,

Education, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Urban Development, Social Welfare,

experts, civil society, women’s and community-based organizations working

on prevention of trafficking, targeted intervention, health, education,

livelihood development and reducing violence against women

2) Reduce their risk and vulnerability to HIV, STI and other related issues

Facilitate among all constituents listed above an exchange of perspective,

experience and learning on the advancements that have been achieved

through major interventions to safeguard their rights and entitlements, build

alternative livelihood and lastly ensure that this group is mainstreamed and

empowered socially as well as economically.

3) Facilitate experience sharing and emulating good practices being

implemented by grassroots functionaries of the government as well as by

community groups and civil society.

4) Share perspectives, experiences, good practices to emerge with a pre-design

framework reflecting some measure of consensus on guiding principles,

thrust and focus, identify areas of convergence and modalities of

collaboration and joint intervention

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The participants included representatives of key departments from

Women and Child Development, Health, Education, Social Welfare, Municipal

Administration, Women’s Police Commission, Rajmata Jijao Mission etc. and

flagship programs to address trafficking of women and minors etc. In addition

NGOs working on these issues namely SETU, Kranti Mahila Sangha, Saheli, HIV

Karyakarta Sangh, Veshya Anyaya Mukti Parishad, Ashirwad, Pathfinders, Aastha

Parivar, Sakhi Sanghatan, Astitva etc participated and also experts drawn from

academic and think tank bodies like TISS, Council for Social Development and

university departments were present and deliberated in the day long consultation.

The day long Consultation was sub-divided into an Inaugural session and three

Panel sessions. The Inaugural Session, was marked by formal Opening Remarks by Ms.

Shomita Biswas, Member Secretary, State Commission for Women. The context was set by

Shri. Pankaj Bedi, State Programme Manager,CFAR-Maharashtra, Thematic Addresses

Ms. Rashmi Singh, Executive Director,NMEW spoke about Advancing the NMEW

mandate by Piloting a Convergent Social Inclusion Plan for Maginal Communities.The

Keynote Address was delivered on “ Social Inclusion and Development for Sex Workers

and Transgenders identifying themselves as women” by Additional Secretary and

Mission Director, NMEW, Smt. Ratna Prabha and Presidential Address. This was

followed by three panel presentation and discussion. The focus of the Panels was to:

a) Develop consensus on how to design a plan for Social Inclusion for sex

workers and transgender women factoring in all the learning and lessons

from experiences shared by the representatives from the community,

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various schemes and programs implemented by state, civil society and

community in empowering the community, building leadership and

strengthening their participation and ownership of it.

b) Facilitate experts drawn from state, civil society and community to

collectively review the challenges and barriers experienced by the sex

worker and transgender women in advancing rights, empowerment and

access social development programs.

c) Evolve a broad framework on the schemes and programs of the

government that need to be brought together to strengthen the process of

convergence and delivery recognizing the special needs of the

community/ target group and challenges faced by them.

While the official representatives mentioned about the schemes and

programmes of the government, the experts/ academicians shared about the

various plans/ strategies and spoke about how to achieve inclusion.The

community voices were also represented as they were sharing their

experiences regarding the issues and challenges in the access and utilization

about programmes and schemes, their social inclusion, social acceptance and

violence faced by them.

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Panel I

“Strengthening Policy and Programme Framework for Socially Marginalized Communities: Achievement and Road Map.”

Senior officials from all key departments shared their insight and experience

of designing, managing and implementing programs aimed at social inclusion of

marginal communities such as sex workers and Transgenders identifying themselves

as women, followed by an open discussion. Executive Director of the National

Mission for Empowerment of Women, Smt. Rashmi Singh spoke about Mission and

the mandate and the processes involved for Empowerment and the strategies

adopted of convergence for using it as a tool for holistic empowerment of women -

especially women from vulnerable communities. She also stressed about the role of

CSOs in addressing the issues of vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Additional Secretary and Mission Director, NMEW, Smt. K. Ratna Prabha delivered

a key note address on Mandate by Piloting a Convergent Social Inclusion for SWs and TGs

Marginal Communities She spoke about the Pali experience of Poorna Shakti Model and

shared that similar models need to be worked out in every State and district.

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In the presidential address Hon’ble Minister for Women and Child

Development, Maharashtra, Smt. Varsha Gaikwad, spoke about ‘New Women’s

Policy’ of the Ministry and about the practical solutions to address the problems

being faced by women belonging to this target group. As a landmark development,

she not only announced the inclusion of addressing the issues of Transgender

community under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of

Maharashtra but also, as per the collective demand, she instantly included 2

members from among the Trans-genders in the committee under New Women

Policy.

Principal Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development,

Government of Maharashtra, Shri. Ujjwal Ukey, emphasized about a broad

convergent approach to render practical solutions for the social inclusion of this

group.

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Panel II

“Building Community Ownership and forging Government-Civil Society Partnerships”

Additional Chief Secretary, Ministry of Minorities Development, Smt. T. F.

Thekkekara, moderated the session and spoke about the need for women to be

identified with dignity rather than commodities and to exercise empathy for this

group.She narrated the experience of Gadchiroli – villages and reiterated that

convergence is very important between various departments at the state level of the

Government of Maharashtra, the representatives of civil society and community-based

organizations and academia working with the marginal communities on anti-trafficking,

HIV prevention, health, education, women’s rights and livelihood . She mentioned the need

to share their experiences, lessons learned and distill key principles and processes. She

emphasized the need to translate all discussions into actions too and ensured that they

would look into this group as potential beneficiaries.

Principal Secretary, Housing Development Authority, Government of

Maharashtra Shri. Debashish Chakraborthy, mentioned about the ‘Housing Policy’

of the Government of Maharashtra and the requirement of a need assessment survey

to estimate housing needs of this group as an imperative to be undertaken in-order

to address their housing requirement. He mentioned that stakeholders ‘such as that

of the ‘Guru’ or ‘Chief Transgender-peer’ from within the transgender community,

identifying themselves as women, should be involved while undertaking the survey.

He also mentioned the need for devising a scheme for this group regarding the

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provision of civic amenities etc., such that this group can be identified as a

community and community support can be provided to these excluded communities

in order to address their needs of housing and shelter.

An Associate Professor from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Shri. Vijay

Raghwan spoke about the need of a holistic convergent approach for addressing the

issues of this group such as simplifying the process of allocating citizenship

documents to them and undertake capacity building programme such as vocational

training with a monthly stipend to be provided to them.

Likewise, Shri. Balkrishna Adsule and Kum. Anusharan Kaur spoke about the best

practices being followed by the Maharashtra District and State AIDS Control Society

respectively and voiced that facilitating convergence from the state level is a pre

requisite in order to facilitate convergence at district levels.

Panel III

“Enhancing Social Inclusion: Beyond Raids & Rescue to Social Integration and Community Empowerment”

This panel raised issues on the role of law enforcement officials, police

advocacy, sensitization and training of sex workers, their social entitlements, policy

level changes, the rehabilitation issues of this group, inter-departmental convergence

etc. The major concern emerged over the clarity of policy on sex work and on raids.

A discussion also emerged on the law enforcement practices according to basic

human rights on issue of raids, arrests, detainment or rescue of this group where

made. The session highlighted on :

- Social entitlements of sex sorkers

- Perspective of sex-workers and transgenders who identify themselves as

women.

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- Methods of inclusion of this group.

- Policy Level Changes and Infrastructure policy of Shelter homes, rescue

operations.

- Rehabilitaion measures

- Role of law enforcement officials towards the sex workers and transgender

women.

- Role of relevant government departments and their convergent

interventions.

- Policy of raids on already victimised sex-workers and the norms

associated with their recue and rehabilitation.

All panels had representatives from the target groups from across Maharashtra who

voiced their issues and concerns of basic human rights, infrastructure and social

entitlements and their need for social inclusion. The recommendations and

suggestions that emerged from the Consultation from the three panel discussions

were well taken and deliberated resulting in a consensus taking the Consultation to

the next level and setting a tone for Policy level ramifications for this group.

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Major Recommendations and Suggestions

1. The methodology of Convergence among various Ministries must be used as a tool for addressing the issues of this Group.

2. Interesting innovations at Gram Panchayat level as well as Urban level can be taken up in a Pilot District.

3. Attitudinal barriers should also be addressed for this group along with Procedural and Structural barriers.

4. A need assessment survey for their access to housing facilities and social entitlements for proper planning must be undertaken.

5. Data sharing through Inter departmental coordination such as from MSACS and health departments can be undertaken in case the Mapping Exercise of the Sex Workers and Trans-genders who identify themselves as women, should be undertaken, in case the mapping has already been completed upto the locality level.

6. A concrete Action Plan for this group must be outlined along with some year marked funds.

7. New Women’s policy of the Ministry of Women and Child Department should also include a coherent policy on sex work.

8. Camp based approach to allocate citizenship documents to this group must be undertaken along with a designated nodal officer to deal with the matters sort the documentation related problems in an convergent manner.

9. Vocational training to this group should be provided with an inclusive monthly stipend associated with it.

10. A policy on conducting raids on this target group of sex workers and transgender identifying themselves as women should be constituted as proper rehabilitative mechanisms are absent in shelter homes for humanly behaviour on their detainment or rescue.

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Day 2: 30th November, 2012

On the second day of the visit, a brainstorming meeting was held between the

NMEW officials and CFAR team led by State Programme Officer, Maharashtra, Shri.

Pankaj regarding the Post Consultation recap, stock taking of the Consultation,,

follow up and actionable items, next steps, way forward, policy level thinking and

involvement of various stake holders at the State and District level accordingly. It

was decided that the follow up meeting would be held with the various officers of

the relevant Ministries addressing the issues of this group at the office of the

Ministry of Women and Child Development Department, Government of

Maharashtra and finalization of concrete action plan and agenda for the execution of

the Poorna Shakti Kendras in the proposed districts of Parbani district and Mumbai

Metropolitan Area. It was strongly felt that this area needs continuous focus and

attention of various stakeholders and hence another detailed meeting would be held

in first week of January in guidance of Secretary, WCD and other academic

organizations such as TISS, other CSOs and CBOs etc.

The next meeting in the series was held with Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation representative, Dr. Sameer Kumta, to explore areas of work,

convergence, partnerships on sub-associated and prospective pilots on focus areas of

mutual interest and NMEW’s mandate. The meeting included on exchanging

information about the mandate of both the organization in their respective fields,

thematic operational area and geographic pilferage and their respective target

groups. The aspects discussed were on policy level targeted interventions, issues of

the mutual target groups such as that of female sex workers, trans-genders who

identify themselves as females and HIV/AIDS interventions, awareness generation

at community levels and multi-partner interventions, gap mitigation and strategy

sharing, linkages and troubleshooting for this target group. A consensus was

emerged on work area and undertaking a pilot project in area of multiple

vulnerabilities such as in North East Region to address the vulnerability and

marginalization of women forced into sex work due to difficult circumstances

emerging from socio-economic, geographical and political situations.

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Media Coverage

........1 Dec 12

The Times of India

Transgender, sex workers to help draft women policy

TNN

MUMBAI: For the first time, members from the marginalized sections of transgenders and

commercial sex workers will help draft the state's women policy. State minister for women

and child Varsha Gaikwad told TOI, "The state women's policy aims to recognize the

concerns of communities like the transgenders and sex workers. Hence, the expert

committee reviewing the policy will have a representation from these communities."

At a consultation organized by the state women and child development department on

Thursday, Gaikwad asked NGOs working with transgenders and commercial sex workers to

forward the names of three members who could be included in the expert committee.

"This is the third review of the policy after 1994 and 2001. We want it to be ready to be

presented to the state cabinet by January 3, which is the birth anniversary of Savitabhai

Phule," the minister said.

A committee comprising members of Parliament, legislative assembly and non-governmental

sector has already been formed for the review exercise. "Now, we will expand the committee

to include three representatives from the transgenders and the sex workers in order to

ensure that their concerns get reflected in the policy document," she added.

In a press statement, transgender rights activist Laxmi Tripathi hailed the move as a historic

step and urged the minister to emulate the measures taken by the Tamil Nadu government

to constitute a transgender welfare board. The review was necessitated after women's

groups pointed out that the 2001 draft did not cover many aspects of reducing discrimination

against women.

The state has asked NGOs working with transgenders and commercial sex workers to

forward the names of three members who could be included in the expert committee that will

review the women's policy.