The Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) is a non-profit organization, founded in January 1998 is committed to advancing the welfare of the poor and improving the quality of life of vulnerable and marginalized groups.
The Mission Statement – Voice for the Voiceless – is translated into collaborative action between various social sector departments and the community to deliver and secure welfare schemes aimed at improving the quality of life of unorganized workers, vulnerable women, widows, the elderly and persons with disabilities, among others.
Our platforms include Single Window and Help-desks which connect people – especially the most marginalized including persons with disabilities, widows and others – to social benefits and entitlements which they are unable to access due to lack of awareness, lack of documents and other reasons.
To cite one example, we found the Waghari community in Pune to be living in extremely distressed conditions. When the Department of Food and Civil Supplies learned about the challenges, they were facing in accessing ration, with the support of the Single Window team they sanctioned ration cards for 35 households on a priority basis. Such examples abound across the states of Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan, to name a few.
In states like Rajasthan, child marriage is a major challenge for all stakeholders working for the rights of girls. In 2012-13, supported by Department of Women and Child Development, we succeeded in preventing 28 child marriages in Jaipur. Later, we addressed issues like falling child sex ratio across the key districts which had reported a drastic fall in child sex ratio over the years.
Core Areas of Work
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
As part of the Central government flagship programme, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), CFAR enhanced community participation at many levels to not only end open defecation but also to leverage the programme to improve access to safe sanitation. This was done across cities.
Of the many breakthroughs we achieved, one worth recounting is the story of Jhalana Kunda, one of the 238 slums in Jaipur which made history of sorts by not only adopting the twin-pit toilet technique even before the SBM declared it as an ideal low-cost toilet model, but also by becoming open-defecation free. Within four years, 1,020 households have constructed twin-pit toilets, and for 30 households who could not construct these due to lack of space, a community toilet has been built. So impressed was the Department of Local Bodies (DLB) that it declared Jhalana Kunda as a learning site in August 2015 for the engineers and administrators of urban local bodies tasked with strengthening low-cost sanitation and strengthening community engagement in ending open defecation.
Strengthening Media Engagement on Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition and National Disease Control Programme
We provide support to Government of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, National Health Mission, and to Technical Support Unit in UP and CARE in Bihar in strengthening health communication and media engagement for awareness building on RMNCHA+N and National Disease Control Programme, including COVID-19 control, in 113 districts in both states.
We ensured that all small and big successes achieved in the area of RMNCHA +N were documented and change agents from the community and champions from the system were profiled and the information shared with the media.
As part of this process, we have trained IEC nodal officers at the district and block levels and built their skills in using different mediums to generate strong and purposeful health communication. We have been generating awareness among the media, both print and online, to engage with all aspects of health.
COVID-19 Response
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we responded to the need of the hour. Those who were already on the edge had lost their jobs and livelihoods and needed immediate financial, food and other forms of relief and support. Being on the ground, having worked closely with them over the past many years, we decided to serve them again, although differently this time. With our own team of dedicated frontline leaders and project teams and by connecting them with philanthropists and government agencies, we helped them connect to resources such as dry ration, cooked food, biscuits and milk for children. We supported women and girls by providing sanitary pads since these had become either exorbitant or disappeared completely from the market. We found migrant labourers without work and facing hunger and connected them to philanthropists and government agencies. Simultaneously, we worked closely with the departments managing government’s relief programme and connected them to people who needed them most in several cities of India.
In Bengaluru, we joined hands with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and are working on the frontlines of the health care system to facilitate testing and treatment while we raise awareness through plays and other vehicles to encourage adherence to COVID precautions and prevent transmission of the virus.
We continue to respond to emerging social development challenges of the urban poor, and retain our focus on welfare of the most vulnerable groups.
In 27 cities of 13 States, 3, 96,270 cooked food packets, 1,76,381 dry ration kits, 19176 supplementary nutrition kits for pregnant women and children, 21,301 sanitary pads, and 22,325 hygiene kits were distributed; additionally, 19,803 workers were linked to cash COVID assistance and 6,489 urban poor to social welfare scheme
Our Reach
