We Care – Civic Engagement Internship

Final Project Report

Social Action for Knowledge building & Awareness

Raising (SAKAR), Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh

Organization Mentor: Ms. Shilpi Agarwal

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Amita Shivhare

Location: SAKAR, H.No.25/3 Rajat Vihar near M.E.S. Colony, 100 Futa
Road Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, 243001

www.sakarngo.org/

Submitted by: Ishita Gupta B024

Ameet Joshi H027

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr. No Title Page No.

1 Plagiarism Report 3

2 Acknowledgement 4

3 About SAKAR 5

4 Project Handled 9

5 Project Methodology 11

6 Findings 13

7 Challenges Faced & Recommendations 14

9 Internship Learnings 15

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are very thankful to the following for their constant guidance and encouragement
throughout the internship:

 Ms. Shilpi Agarwal- Organisation Mentor, Director, Social Action for Knowledge
building & Awareness Raising (SAKAR), Bareilly
 Ms. Nikita Pant- Secretary, Social Action for Knowledge building & Awareness
Raising (SAKAR), Bareilly
 Mrs. Mamta – Field Coordinator
 Mr. Vijay Tiwari- Program Manager

We're also thankful to Prof. Amita Shivhare, our SBM faculty mentor, NMIMS Mumbai, for
her continuous moral support.

A special thank you to the “We Care team” at SBM, NMIMS Mumbai and the staff at
Social Action for Knowledge building & Awareness Raising (SAKAR), Bareilly for making
this internship an unforgettable experience.

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ABOUT SOCIAL ACTION FOR KNOWLEDGE BUILDING &
AWARENESS RAISING (SAKAR), BAREILLY

SAKAR is located in Bareilly Uttar Pradesh. SAKAR is registered as a Society at Haldwani

of state Uttarakhand with Ngo unique registration ID 'UP/2009/0003292'. The NGO
registration was done by Registrar of Societies with registration number 468/2005-2006 on
the date of 21-11-2005. Its parent Organisation is Paul Foundation. The Chairman of SAKAR
is Ashok Singh.

The organization is presently working in the tribal belts of two districts of Uttar Pradesh
namely Bareilly and Rampur. Currently the NGO is working on six major projects under the
guiding mission and vision statements as depicted below.

VISION

The vision of the NGO Sakar is to be a non-profitable civil society organisation. Social
Action for Knowledge Building & Awareness Raising (SAKAR), in the same pursuit,
envisages a society based on the foundations of knowledge, awareness, justice and gender
equity.

MISSION

We at SAKAR believe that knowledge, understanding and passion for better performance is
an evolutionary process and leads to change in society. There is a need to lift the voice of the
unheard and marginalized, so that equal opportunities are available and caste and gender
imbalances are reduced. As a voluntary development organization, SAKAR strives to make
life more meaningful for the marginalized, especially women and children, by helping them
engage in the process of change. The key to this is to satisfy information needs and develop a
sense of unity / togetherness within them. The organization's main focus has been on
developing women's leadership, with a right-based approach, providing Muslim and Dalit
women with a platform and promoting their network. There are 2000 women in this network
who focus on women's social, economic, political rights.

OBJECTIVES

Women's political, social and economic empowerment, with a primary focus on their
increased involvement in decision-making processes, and their growth as community leaders.
Work for improving children's lives and concentrate on their basic rights such as the right to
education, safe / safe and healthy childhood. Context specific information generation and
dissemination to various stakeholders, specifically at community level, to gauge the
knowledge gap. Promoting justice and equality between the sexes by avoiding biases and
taboos towards women and girls. These may apply to health, education, and work, thus
promoting equal opportunities for both sexes. Taking up socially relevant and context-
specific problems related to health, health, education, the system of government, and fighting
for their redress.
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 Building holistic and positive change process models where the target groups are a
participant in the process and not just a part of it.

The various programs undertaken by SAKAR, Bareilly are-

1. Women Rights
SAKAR believes in an inclusive approach wherein it works with women of Dalits, ati Dalits
and minority women with the aim of bringing them to the upstream society with special focus
on dignity, identity and security rights of women. The NGO deals with issues ranging
from domestic violence, early marriage, female foeticide etc., to access to government
schemes by women, their participation in local governance and their emergence as
leaders. Advocacy at the block and district level, as well as being part of different state-
level women's issues networks, is also a significant area of work where women leaders
come to the fore and lead this initiative.

2. Adolescent Rights on Gender and Sexuality

The program began in November 2013 with a focus on enhancing the girls ' analytical ability
and developing a deeper understanding of themselves and issues related to their sexuality and
adolescent health in them. For the girls, the use of various games / sports and activities is
organized, thus making them more mobile and confident, conscious of their physical changes
and body. This curriculum is rigorous and it becomes difficult when girls start questioning
the taboos and constraints placed on women and children, just because they are girls! The
initiative has helped strengthen the foundation of the community, consider teen health issues,
instil feminist empowerment in them and make their voices heard. The girls are taking
leadership, challenging the ANM in the village, questioning different taboos at home,
interacting with the panchayat so they get a playground and being safe in the village.
Meetings with the children, with their parents, health service providers, awareness meetings,
leadership residential camps, football training as a sport, etc., are just a few events that were
started with them.

3. Equine Welfare Program

The equine welfare program addresses the issue of the equine owners ' wellbeing by working
directly on issues related to the equine welfare. The curriculum talks about five freedoms
(freedom from pain & suffering, freedom to feed, freedom from injury, freedom from fear,
freedom to move freely in groups) and collective action advocated by community-based
equine welfare organizations. Quick access to quality service delivery relating to equine
health is an important aspect of the programme. Therefore, the Organization partners with
government vets, farriers, hair clippers, local health care providers and para vets, so that
equine protection becomes a duty of all rather than just the equine owners.

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 For the past six years, SAKAR has been working with this community to try to develop
women's identity as equine owners. As a result, participation by the increased and special
presence of women equine owners was planned for them.

4. Strengthening Women Leadership in Panchayats

This initiative seeks to strengthen female political leadership. The women, some of whom
belong to the Mahila Shakti Sangathan, are members of the ward and members of the BDC in
present local government. Building these women's capacities is important so they don't
remain leaders of proxy panchayat. SAKAR's intervention to support these women also
focuses on building the capacity of Self-Help Groups. Alongside promoting women's
political leadership, the emphasis is also on women's reproductive health. Recipients receive
training on women's empowerment and reproductive health. In order to make the sessions
informative and interesting, various IEC (Information, Education, Communication) materials
such as Ludo, case studies, flip charts, and posters are used.

5. Young Women Leadership Program

The YWL program as it is commonly called is a program to build intensive movement. It
aims at promoting second line leadership within the organization and also strengthening
women's leadership in the field area so that they can challenge patriarchy and personally,
politically, and socially make structural changes. This would strengthen the building of
protest, and boost women's voices as well. The emphasis is on bridging the gap between
‘personal is political' and contributing towards the feminist movement with a very
concentrated approach.

6. Promotion of Self-Help Groups

Since the inception of SAKAR, the NGO has been in the process of empowering women
economically and for this has been working to facilitate women's Self-Help Groups. Till now
90 self-help groups have been facilitated. The endeavour is in high spirits and women now
have some power over their income. Some of the groups have also been linked to the
government's NRLM scheme. The women made inter loans, took loans from the bank,
opened shops, reared goat used in their fields, bought autos, etc., and contributed to the
family's income.

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VARIOUS PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN BY SAKAR

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 PROJECTS HANDLED

As a part of our We Care internship at SAKAR, we were

assigned the following project-

DOCUMENTATION OF SUCCESS STORIES OF YOUNG WOMEN LEADERS

UNDER THE YWL PROGRAM

This project operates in 229 villages of two districts of Bareilly and Rampur of Uttar Pradesh.
The project aims to identify the leadership traits of the women that the NGO is working with.
All these women are thereby personally nurtured and trained to amplify their leadership traits.
This is done with the thought process to develop a second line leadership that can work on
the NGO’s mission and vision in their respective and nearby villages.

The scheme aims to achieve both technical and human development by ensuring that the
selected ladies are equipped with requisite guidance and information to come out as a
representative from their village. Various workshops and training sessions are conducted
keeping the same thing in mind. The progress is regularly monitored and in case of any
trouble, personal mentorship and guidance is provided to these ladies.

INTERVIEWING WOMEN UNDER YOUNG

WOMEN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

1. Interviews

 To conduct in depth interviews on the entire journey of the young woman leaders
across the villages
 To better understand the various problems faced by these women in execution of their
duties and responsibilities

2. Self-Help Groups

 To form new Self -Help Groups by disseminating the various benefits and advantages
of being a part of a Self- Help Group
 To promote the existing Self- help groups in the villages

3. SAKAR representatives

 To nurture the selected Young Women Leaders to act as a representative of the NGO
 To facilitate any workshop, training or meeting in the village
 To propagate the various government schemes by the state and the central government
and also the information on basic rights to girls and women

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PROJECT METHODOLOGY

The project given at SAKAR was documentation of success stories of young women leaders
under the YWL Program. The main idea was to understand the perspective of these leaders
on how they had progressed in their life and what the positive changes due to this program
were. We choose to take on a qualitative approach as it required to evaluate people’s view
and understanding. We took nine interviews of girls and women under YWL program.
Following is the process adopted to conduct this survey-

1. Field Visits

In the starting of the program, we were taken to four locations that are Dhabora,
Jatavpura, Bhojipura and Sagalpur. The main idea behind these visits were to understand
the different areas where the NGO works and the situation of people in rural areas. We
got to know about the different programs that are undertaken related to Equine,
adolescent girls and their education and self-help groups for women. We also understood
that under what circumstances are girls and women living in rural areas.

2. Formulation of Questionnaire

After understanding various issues that SAKAR address and the condition of rural areas,
we formulated the type of questions we would like to include in the questionnaire. We
decided to understand the past history of the interviewee before asking questions related
to current situation. It helped us to clearly identify the impact of the program on their
lives. We also included questions related to future like what do they expect in future and
how they want to bring a change in society’s thinking and mind set. We got it approved
by the organisation mentor and took into consideration the changes suggested by her.

3. Interviews

We decided to adopt both structured and non-structured approach to take the interviews.
Because we thought that the interviewee might feel uncomfortable and shy to answer if
we kept on firing questions at her. It was necessary to understand them and ask follow up
questions on whatever they were telling. We went to four locations that are Kalyanpur,
Karampur Chaudhary, Grem and Ghanghora Ghanghori to conduct the interviews. We
recorded the audio while taking these interviews after taking permission from the
interviewee.

4. Formulation of transcripts

After completing all the interviews, we started to work on documenting them. The major
task here was to differentiate between the necessary and unnecessary information. The
interviews were long and had redundant data which needed to be identified. The main
idea behind this project was to get out a personal story from each interviewee on how
they had emerged as a leader and what were their personal experiences. So, we adopted

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 the technique of listening to each recording and forming transcripts which included the
highlights of the interview and few quotes that we would like to mention in the story.

5. Design of success stories

After forming the transcript, we started to work on writing the success story. The main
idea was to tell about the journey of that person. It should come out as a story which
included the past, current situation and future aspects. We converted those audio
recording into written documentary of each person describing the condition of their
personal life and village from past to now.

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FINDINGS

IMPACT ANALYSIS OF SAKAR’S YWL ON THE LIFE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS

RESIDING AT THE 229 VILLAGES COVERED UNDER THE NGO

Before intervention by SAKAR’S Young Women Leaders, the women and girls at villages-

1. Lacked access to basic sanitation facilities due to lack of toilets and even if there
were, the doors didn’t exist.
2. Were practising open defecation.
3. Were subjected to domestic violence.
4. Were unable to raise their voices against lack of education, against gender inequality
and against violence.
5. Were dependent on their spouse or family for money.
6. Were not allowed to play, sing or dance.

After intervention by SAKAR’S Young Women Leaders, the women and girls at villages -

1. Have protested against open defecation ad have constructed several hundreds of

toilets making use of the Swachch Bharat Mission.
2. Discuss openly about menstrual changes.
3. Raise their voices against any atrocities or/and inequality.
4. Discuss about the welfare of the village and raise their concerns to the respective
Pradhan at village level and BDO at the block level.
5. Financially self-dependent because of the SHGs and to the contrary are helping their
spouses or/and family.
6. Are going to playgrounds, stadiums, and dance classes.
7. Are well informed of their rights and about various government schemes.

IMPACT OF SAKAR’S YWL ON THE COMMUNITY

The patriarchal society has always seen women as weaker sex and thus has time and again
subjected them to behaviours including gender inequality, quality of life and freedom of
expression among others. These Young Women Leaders have played an instrumental role in
bringing a paradigm shift in the mind-set of the society.

They have successfully changed the views of both men and women in the way they earlier
used to see the women and girls. Various families are wholeheartedly sending their girls to
schools, treating the ladies appropriately and most importantly contributing to creation of a
safe environment for them.

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 CHALLENGES FACED

Below are the challenges we faced while working on the projects-

1. Use of Vernacular languages

Often while conducting interviews there was miscommunication from either side in terms of
language. The dialect also created issues in understanding what was being said.

2. Reluctance to discuss taboo issues

Things such as inter-cast marriage and menstruation are still a taboo in urban India and while
conducting the interviews, we felt the reluctance to openly talk about these issues. The
women in the villages were very reluctant to share any of this information with us. They were
not free in talking to the male intern.

3. Lack of Unity

When it comes to individual issues the women are raising their voices but when it comes to a
societal issue, they are not very participative. They lack unity in that sense and do not stand
up together for issues like the construction of a secondary school in the village etc.

4. Lack of awareness

By the interviews and discussions that we had with the girls and women, we have realised
one similarity across, which is that they know how to answer the question “What to do” but
face difficulty to answer the question “How to do it”. They lack awareness about whom to
approach, how to approach and what to say/write to the authorities above them to solve their
issues.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Presently the various villages where SAKAR is operating, people have been sending
their girls for education. But due to unavailability of the secondary schools their
education is limited to only 8th standard.
th th
Recommendation: Tie up with secondary school from 9 to 12 standard to cater to
the girls from various villages in and around district Bareilly

2. Tie-up with Hospitals - The girls after passing out from the senior secondary school
could be sent for vocational training (Nursing/receptionist) to the tied-up hospital
where based on the performance of the individual the girls could be absorbed there
itself

INTERNSHIP LEARNINGS

1. Understood the various critical issues that a woman/ girl still has to face in the rural
India in this 21st century
2. Learnt about various government schemes that exist for the poor villagers and the
timeline and mode of availing the same
3. Understood the various ill treatment that an equine is subjected to in villages
4. Realized how Self Help groups has been empowering women and helping them
financially

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