GENDER FORUM-In Anantapur
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GENDER FORUM-In Anantapur
Ms. Battulla, 50 years, Buddappa Nagar
“I am a house wife. I run a small business out of my home, while my husband works for the LPG Gas Company. We have three children – two sons and a daughter. I have been a member of my SHG for the last 13 years. After becoming a member of the Gender Forum I am able to support the community, in the settlement, to maintain good sanitation.
“Earlier, when we had problems we were only talking to PH Workers or complaining to our Corporator when there was a problem with street lights and water supply because we thought he was responsible for providing us with such services. But now we know who to approach and we are able to talk to senior officials by submitting petitions, as per the procedure. Recently, we initiated the process of providing IHHLs to the Shikari community. As of now three IHHLs have been sanctioned. A letter was also sent regarding street lights and they were fixed in two days. Now we have organized a door to door campaign in the settlement on solid waste management. I am happy to see the change in the settlement”.
In Anantapur, CFAR is partnering with the Centre for Study, Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), under the Inter-sectionality-Informed Gender Mainstreaming Framework (IIGMF) project in water, sanitation and hygiene (WSH). CSTEP is a non-profit organization which aims at science and technology enabled policy options for inclusive and equitable economic growth.
Under this project seven Gender Forums (GFs) have been constituted in seven settlements with approximately 25 core groups and 35 facilitators, who have been drawn from the community. As of March 31, 2018 GFs have collected 603 sanitation related complaints and resolved 575 problems with the support of ULB and Gender Resource Centre (GRC) across the seven settlements. The complaints are mainly filed through Pura Seva App and written petitions but some deal directly with the ULB and ground team.
GF members organized six (6) slum level meetings between January 14, 2018 and February 22, 2018 and a door-to-door campaign on solid waste management, at Navodaya Colony, on February 25, 2018. They also organized for the first time a meeting that brought together women, girls, Transgender, elderly and persons with disability, at Azad Nagar, on March 8, 2018 on the occasion of International Women’s Day to explore the relationship between different aspects and identities within gender and how sanitation was impacting them. One of the issues that was discussed by the community and health officials was that of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).