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Activities

Vividha Mahila Aalekhan evam Sandarbh Kendra is working for more than two decades for the empowerment of women mainly in the State of Rajasthan.  We have organised the following activities in the last year.

1. Ekal Nari Shasktikaran (Supporting distressed girls and single women)

As a Girl Child Rights Organization, Vividha works for the Education, health and upliftment of the children. With funds donated from our well-wishers and the interests accumulated, we look after the development of Girl children and single women. We have been at the forefront in helping them in case of health emergencies and in setting up small to medium self-employment activities. Over the last year, we have managed to touch over______lives. One of them is a girl named Neraj.

Neraj is an active member of the Rural adolescent girl’s group. She has been an excellent football player and exceptional in her studies. She also stood against her marriage at an early age however, she was detected with cancer and had to undergo treatment for over 2 years. Although she won the battle against cancer, her family had run into huge debts and Neraj felt helpless due to the situation. This is when Mamta Jaitly and Vijay Lakshmi Joshi participated in an online  meeting organised by Mahila Jan Adhikari Samiti (MJAS) to boost up the morale of Neraj. Trying to figure out the kind of support she needed, Vividha offered financial assistance for her family.

2. Translation work

To empower the villagers, Vividha translates Policy documents, Programs, books and booklets, Reports and Newspapers articles from  English  & publishes them in Hindi. Till now we have translated hundreds of  such Documents and other reading materials.

In September 2020, Mamta Jaitly translated a factsheet on Dalit and Adivasi Women from English to Hindi while Renuka Pamecha translated the fact sheet on the political participation of women. These were amongst the other factsheets that were rewritten in Hindi on the initiative of the National Campaign on,” Ham agar utthe nahin to”.

In March 2021, Renuka Pamecha and Gita Yadav translated the Report of Social work and research Institute (SWRC) Tilonia, Ajmer to Hindi.

3. Capacity building through online meetings

Through counselling, lecturing, reinforcing the constitution of India, highlighting democratic values, Vividha is involved in the capacity building of women, men, adolescents Government functionaries, distressed women and Ngo representatives. We impart knowledge & do Gender auditing about relevant laws related to women, communal harmony, violence prevention, right to information & work. Due to the Pandemic, our members learned the skills to organize & participate in online activities for the villagers.

  • Babulal from Vividha along with Mewar Media Resource centre organised a 5-day (11th to 15th May 2020) line training for Rural journalists. More than 101 journalists participated from 28 districts across 6 states.
  • On 4th October 2020, Mamta Jaitly Participated in the Academic Advisory committee meeting organised by the School for Democracy as a committee member. She discussed what programs SFD can take up for the capacity building of women and men on gender issues.
  • On 15th October, Mamta Jaitly attended a meet on the understanding impact of the amendments in FCRA by the Central Government. This was organised by an NGO – Vishakha, a recipient of FCRA funding. Mamta Jaitly is an Executive member of this group.
  • On 20th October 2020, Vividha organised a meeting with the members of the constitution fellow group who were college students. Funded by SFD, this program was conducted by Vividha on behalf of Jun Hita Trust in 2019-20. Due to the pandemic and closure of colleges, this program was discontinued. People from the far-away district of Rajasthan spoke about the issues they faced in continuing their education.
  • Vividha members extended their support to the people who were affected because of the lockdown. They supported the organisations and associations working in collaboration with the local administration.Babulal Naga from Vividha also distributed rations, masks and sanitizers in the Jobner town of Jaipur district. This assistance was successfully done without getting any remuneration (from the organizers) delete.
  • On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, Mamta Jaitly was invited by the law School of Kanodia college as a guest online speaker on 10th December. The theme of the lecture was on the Importance of Human Rights in Contemporary India.
  • Understanding Islam - Mamta Jaitly coordinated an SFD organised a 2-lecture series on understanding Islam as a religion – held on 5th and 12th January. The speaker was the Padmashri Prof. Akhtarul Wasey, President Maulana Azad University – Jodhpur.

4. Media Advocacy

Vividha has been supporting the publication of a monthly RNI registered Rural News Paper Ujala chadi since its inception. It also publishes a fortnightly news and feature service called ‘Vividha Features. The members are actively engaged in writing articles on current social issues that are printed in mainstream newspapers and alternative electronic media. The members also give interviews to electronic media on current topics that are of relevance and their interest, including:

ETV Programme recording on Child Marriage

ETV Rajasthan interviewed Mamta Jaitly in September 2020 on the Central Government proposed amendment on the age of adolescent girl child marriage and its impact on the empowerment of women. Opposing this move, Mamta Jaitly put forth the data that highlighted that the earlier act has not been able to stop marriages before 18 years, hence raising the age to 21 years will not help. She pointed that girls are deprived of education, employment and are subject to violence and sexual attacks.

She rejected the Government’s argument that increasing the age of marriage will help in decreasing the MMR and IMR rate in the state. She put forth the data which showed that IMR and MMR rates are already on a gradual decline. She expressed that providing good health services and other services is the only way to eradicate this issue. In her words, “To my mind, the hidden agenda of the Government behind this move can only be controlling the population growth”.

Mamta Jaitly highlighted that the only way to minimize the marriage of young girls is by making the community feel safe about their daughters. Providing safety, opportunities for education, hobbies, employments are some ways to help the community in this regard. She mentioned that various social groups have successfully implemented this idea. For example, Ajmer Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti encourages girls to play football in sports attire in their villages. The Samiti is working towards fulfilling their dreams by helping them to study and represent the state in the state and national level teams. So, the real question is – whether the Government will be prepared to go to this extent of empowering girls in a real way?

Participation in the Roundtable on the impact of lockdown on the girl’s education of Rajasthan and writing two articles for Media advocacy

Mamta Jaitly participated in a round table organised by the Institute of Development Studies Jaipur (IDSJ). The roundtable was organised to share the findings of a study on the impact of Covid-19 on the Education of School Girls of Rajasthan. IDSJ conducted this Study in collaboration with Development Solutions, New Delhi. The title was, Perception survey on understanding Barriers and Enablers to Girls’ Secondary Education in Rajasthan Post Covid-19.

The study was conducted in 4 districts of Rajasthan and adhering to the Covid-19 norms, only selected participants were invited. The study was also conducted on the parents and teachers of the girls belonging from the SC. ST and OBC girls studying in Government’s Secondary schools. The study revealed that the closure of schools had a huge impact on the physical and mental health of these girls.

Only 11% of the girls had the access to digital equipment’s to join the online classes. Even those who attended found it a bit difficult to comprehend the teaching materials and methodology of the teachers. The Closure of Mid-day meals and non-distribution of sanitary napkins also added to their problems and the distribution of Pre-Metric Scholarship was also found very inappropriate.

Mamta Jaitly accepted the request from the IDSJ team to write 2 Hindi articles that were aligned for the regional Hindi Media and press coverage. The 1st article was based on “Girls not bride” was circulated by Vividha Features and was published in a small fortnightly newspaper – The Women Observer Jaipur. The 2nd one was based on the IDSJ study and was published in the Rajasthan Patrika on 29th January 2021.

Ujala Chhadi Video

A video on Ujala Chhadi was prepared to reach out to a larger section of the society to make them aware of the importance of such a newspaper. It is posted on Social media.

RTI Video

A small clip on RTI was made on the occasion of the enactment of the RTI act on 12th October 2020.

5. Democracy Fellowship Program

Since 2016 Vividha has 2 fellowships. One to Babulal Naga, for regular publication of Ujala Chhadi a monthly newspaper registered with the Registrar of Newspapers since 1993. Vividha features fortnightly news and features service since 2001. The second fellowship activity was given to Mamta Jaitly for extending documentation support to SFD. Her responsibility was to help in the training of all the fellows in SFD and out of SFD twice a year. Additionally, she had to collect the monthly work reports of all the 50 fellows, identify the gaps, get them typed or edit and submit them to SFD. Due to Covid-19, the training was not organized.

To have a seamless connection between the Democracy fellows, an online meeting was organised on 18th November 2020. Nawaz from SFD and Mamta Jaitly from Vividha coordinated the meeting wherein the impact of Covid-19 on the work of the fellows was discussed. Non-receipt of the honoraria emerged as a major issue amongst others. They were asked to submit their Three monthly (July to October) reports at their earliest since they have to be submitted to APPI for renewal of this program.

Two more online meetings were organized – one on 4th January that was to create a plan for organizing the online programs for SFD. Another one was with the Democracy Fellows on 18th January that highlighted the organizational issues such as Report Writing. Fellows were asked to submit their review and self-assessment reports at the earliest and around 13 reports were submitted. 

6. Online Book Discussions and other Literary Programs

Vividha had organized an online book release meeting in collaboration with PUCL Rajasthan and SFD on 24th October 2020. The book titled ‘Kitani Kathputaliyan’, written by famous writer Bhanwar Meghvanshi was released. It highlighted the life and struggles of well-known communicator, puppeteer, theatre artist and human rights activist Shankar Singh who was also the founder member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). The program was streamed live on Facebook and was attended by well-known people.

Shankar’s close associates Tripurari Sharma (Former director of National School of Drama), Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh from MKSS, Renuka Pamecha (Vividha), Apoorvanand Professor Delhi University and Harsh Mandar a human rights activist, spoke about the book and Shankar Singh. The event was organized by Anant Bhatnagar, a writer and General Secretary PUCL Rajasthan. The event came to an end with songs sung by Shankar Singh and his team. Also, a feedback meeting was conducted on 25th October on this event. 

  • Vividha organized an online meeting on the Hindi book ‘'Bhoori Aankhen Ghunghrale Bal’ on 29th November 2020. Written by women activist Anupama Tiwari, this is a collection of short stories. Literary person and critic Rajaram Bhadu presented his expert views on this book.
  • Kavi Smriti – On 27th December, an online program was organized in remembrance of a well-known poet, writer and Journalist Mangalesh Dabral. Writer and poet Pankaj Chaturvedi and PremChand Gandhi recited the poems and prose excerpts from Manglesh Ji's writings and the event was conducted by Poetess Deviyani Bhardwaj.

7. Documentation

Preparing small booklets on the existing laws related to women in easy language so that even less educated can also read. Circulating it to various groups and individuals for better reach.

Our team has actively participated in drafting the bill on the prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at the workplace by the National Women’s Commission. 2 senior members of Vividha are the signatories of Vishakha PIL filed in the Supreme Court of India. Their wide experience in handling various Internal complaints committees in Governmental, non-governmental and semi-governmental departments has helped a lot. Currently, they are associated with: