Newly released MASUM's Publication

'Honour' and Women's Rights
South Asian Perspectives
Edited by
Manisha Gupte, Ramesh Awasthi and Shraddha Chickerur

ISBN No: 978-93-81352-02-1
Price: Rs. 575/- or US $30
This book brings together diverse feminist positions (some complementary and some differing)and viewpoints from South Asia and from groups working with South Asian communities in Canada, the UK and USA. The viewpoints range from wanting to name certain forms of misogynist violence as being 'honour' related, to feeling uncomfortable with using the term, especially in the context of racialised South Asian minorities living abroad.
Table of Contents
Section One
Structures, Codes and Women’s Agency
1 Location of Barbaric Crimes in Socio-Cultural Structures : Honour Killings in Haryana.
Shubha Sharma
2 Codes of Daily Conduct: Patriarchal and Caste Honour in Rural Maharashtra (India)
Manisha Gupte
3 Ideologies of 'Honour' and Prostitution of Women: The Bedia Case.
Anuja Agrawal
4 With the Will to Die : Agentive Defiance to Honour Codes in Pakistan.
Nazish Brohi and Afiya S. Zia
Section Two
State Responses to Women’s Rights and ‘Honour’
5 Of Crimes of "Honour" and Impunity.
Navsharan Singh
6 Blurred Boundaries: Sexuality and Seduction Narratives in Selected "Forced Marriage" Cases from Bangladesh.
Dina M. Siddiqui
7 Crimes Against Women in the Name of 'Honour': Strategies for Women's Rights and Citizenship in Pakistan.
Nasir Aslam Zahid, Mohammad Akmal Wasim and Faiza Haswary
8 Changing the Law? Current Developments in India Relating to Honour Crimes.
Geeta Ramaseshan
9 Civil Society Interventions and State Response in Nepal: Addressing Violence Against Women.
Rup Narayan Shreshta
Section Three
Addressing Violence in the Name of ‘Honour’
10 Claiming Choices Amidst Complicity, Coercion and Control.
Niti Saxena
11 Do only South Asians Reclaim Honour? State and Non-State Initiatives Against Killing in the Name of Honour in the UK.
Meena Dhanda
12 Between Model Minority and Barbaric: The Occurrence of, and Response to Domestic Violence in the South Asian American Community.
Saima Husain
13 Forced (Non Consensual) Marriage: A South Asian Canadian Context.
Deepa Mattoo and Kripa Sekhar
14 Honour Through Freedom: A Non-Heteronormative Take.
Shubhagata Ghosh
15 The Indian Women's Movement and Crimes Concerning 'Honour':A Review Paper.
Vibhuti Patel

Warm Greetings after a long break!

There has been a lot of action in the past few months.

Sec. 498 A was incorporated under the IPC after a sustained and long struggle by women’s organisations and others. However, dowry related torture and domestic violence has continued to escalate even after Sec.498A and Sec. 304 (B) (dowry death) were incorporated in the law. Currently, according to official NCRB statistics, about 70,000 cases of torture under Sec. 498 A are filed every year all over the country. However, very few complaints result in convictions. This is mainly because of the poor implementation of the law by the police and other authorities as well as certain loopholes in the Dowry Act. The government is attempting to dilute section 498 A by making it compoundable/ bailable and is trying to include it in the list of issues to be taken up by the tanta-mukta gram samiti. Any dilution of Sec. 498A will further weaken the efficacy of the law to deal with the issue.

MASUM under the banner of Stree Mukti Andolan Samparka Samiti is supporting the protest against making 498 A compoundable.

The Asia-Pacific Region and the Indian National Consultations on Violence against Indigenous Women with the United Nations Special Rapporteurs concluded successfully.

A Jan Sunwai was organized on 21^stOctober 2008 for Pune district under the NRHM community monitoring initiative. VHSC members, 3 NGOs (Dr. Abhaya Shukla, Dr. Hemlata pisal, Ms. Nandita Kapadia Kundu) and government officials (DHO, block surgeon of rural hospital, medical officers of the 3 blocks etc.) were among the 200 people who attended the event.Cases of denial of health care were presented before the panel. Nine PHCs were selected for community monitoring. Five villages in each PHC were chosen for implementing the community monitoring initiative . The VHSC members were given 2 day training. A workshop with local journalists was also conducted. Each NGO named the village meeting between VHSC members, PHC staff and NGO staff differently. The meetings were called “Jahir Sabha”, “Jan Samvaad” and “Arogya Sabha”. These meetings enabled the establishment of dialogue about PHC services and peoples needs.

Archana visited Prakriti organisation in Nagpur on 22 and 23rd October as resource person on Linkages between health and violence for an internal training of Presidents and leaders of Micro-credit groups of Bhandara and Nagpur districts.

The final examination for the students of the computer education class from Naigaon and Mavdi was held in October. New batches were started in November in Tekavdi and Mavdi.

The second training in a series of trainings on Chakrabhed (breaking the spiral of violence against women) was conducted for Saathis (para-legal workers) in the Hadapsar office on the 4th and 5th of November.


A meeting was organised by NAWO in Mumbai on 8th November to build pressure for implementation of 33% reservation for women in panchayats. The meeting was attended by Ravi and Jaya.


Vacha Trust organised a National Symposium on Girls and Girlhoods - At Threshold of Youth and Gender, in coordination with the post graduate departments of the SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. The symposium was held from 6-8 November at the SNDT University, Mumbai. The symposium was attended by two health workers along with 5 adolescent girls (from Waghapr, malshiras and Pimpri) who presented a case study of how adolescent girls and MASUM's activists addressed the issue of sexual harassment by a school teacher.

A-bhaya Abhiyaan, a campaign towards fear free learning was launched two years ago and aims to stop physically and mentally humiliating punishments in schools in Pune. The campaign will work towards having self discipline policy and practice in schools.

Childhood is about innocence and playfulness. It is about joy and freedom. Celebrating Children's Day is about giving children the right to enjoy and grow into healthy and educated citizens of the country. On the occasion of children's day, A-bhaya Abhiyaan organised a program on 13th Nov 2008 at Sambhaji, Pune where Street Play was performed by children on Corporal Punishment and a Poster Exhibition was Inaugurated by Child Artist Saksham Kulkarni. The program ended with a pledge by all participants to stop Corporal Punishment.

Abhaya Abhyan now has its community on orkut as well.


Rujuta Phadke, a student from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication joined MASUM on the 17 of November for a 6 week internship on Social communication.


Malavika attended the 12^th Asian Training and Study Session for Human Rights Defenders (ATSS) organised by The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) held in Bangkok, Thailand from 17 November to 1 December 2008. FORUM-ASIA has been organising the ATSS on an annual basis since 1997as part of its efforts to empower human rights defenders (HRDs) to meet challenges, strengthen the human rights movement and promote solidarity and cooperation among the human rights organisations in the Asian region.

Violence Against Women fortnight is an event that is celebrated the world over commencing in the last week of November. The event is being celebrated in Pune aswell for the past few years be several organisations. This year the theme of the fortnight was Engaging men in the implementation of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.

Some collective acitivities planned for the fortnight are as follows -
1) One day regional consultation on DV Act on 26 Nov. at ILS Law college.
2) Jansunwai on DV Act - 5 or 8 Dec. 08
3) Rally on Human Rights day - 10 Dec.08
4) Press conference on 24th Nov.

The day long regional consultation on the Implementation of the PWDVA Act held at ILS Law College, Pune on Wednesday,26th November 2008 was attended by Archana and Anupama. The consultation was organised by Centre for Social Research, Delhi in collaboration with Asmita Manch.

2 survivors from MASUM's feild area presented their cases at the public hearing on PWDV Act. The hearing was organised by CFAR and Asmita Manch.

The fortnight was also celebrated in 19 villages where MASUM is working. Awareness generation programmes where organised on protection of women's rights through PWDVA and main provisions of the same.

A group of about 40 students from Savitri Bai Phule Women's Study Centre, University of Pune visited MASUM (Malshiras and Hadapsar) for an exposure visit on 14th November.

Deepgruha Society, Pune is being restructured. 9 people including some program heads visited MASUM on 19th Nov to understand MASUM's structure and strategies as part of the preparations.

Preparatory meetings are being held for the Democracy festival 2009. Milind is actively involved in giving shape to the plans.


The training camp for Pre-school teachers was held from 17 to 20th November in the Hadapsar office.

A group of 7 grassroots activists from MASUM visited Sanchar in Kolkata for a training and exposure visit on Management of Disability

Bihar Floods - Help Required!!

Milind attended a meeting called by Ms. Medha Patkar in Pune on the 21st of September. Medha tai called upon all citizens to take part in the relief efforts for victims of the floods that have hit Bihar. The State machinery has failed in its efforts to provide relief to the people. More than 25 lakh people have been affected, though the Government is not coming forth with the actual death toll.

There is a dire need for funds, medicines - especially for skin diseases, medical professionals, para-medical staff and volunteers. Any contribution is welcome and may be channelized through Narmada Navnirman Abhiyan. Kindly read the appeal below :

GENEROUS RELIEF NEEDED

This is an Action Alert on Flood Relief in Bihar. Please circulate further

DAMMED KOSHI RIVER CHANGES COURSE: FLASH FLOODS IN BIHAR
MILLIONS MAROONED: IMMEDIATE AND GENEROUS RELIEF NEEDED

Immediate Relief Needs:

Clothes: In Good condition, for adults and children of all ages, – bed
sheets, woollen clothes, umbrellas, rain coats etc.

Medicines: A list of the requirements is given far below

Financial help: Necessary. Please withhold for a very few days, until we are
able to give you the account details of where the money must be send.

Volunteers: We would also need to have many young and active volunteers, who
have the experience of working in situation of calamity (such as Tsunami, earth
quake etc).

We will soon be leaving for Bihar with a team. Those who want to volunteer and
are willing to work hard, in a situation of challenge and adjusting to whatever
conditions, are most welcome.
Please consider the urgency of the situation and do all the needful

Contact:
Pervin Jehangir Medha Patkar Raj Kumar
022- 22184779, 09820636335 07290-222464 09424385139

….
Annexure
List of Medicines needed urgently

1.Ciprofloxacin tablets and infusion
2.Levofloxacin tablets
3.Chloromyecetin capsules and injections
4.Ceftriaxone Injections
5.Chloroquine tablets and injections
6.Metronidazole Chloroquine tablets, suspension and infusion
7.Paracetamal tablets and suspension
8.B Complex tablets and syrup
9.Phensedyl DM cough syrup
10.Ranitidine tablets and injection
11.Antacids tablets and suspension
12.Cetrizine tablets and syrup
13.Ibuprofen tablets
14.Dexamethasone injections
15.Hydrocortisone injections
16.Deriphyllin injections
17.Electrol, Glucose and ORS Powder

• Pre school training was postponed due to inability of staff members to attend.
• NRHM-CM Block coordinators and facilitators' orientaion on Training of PHC Samitee was held on 16th September 2008 at Masum's Pune office. Block coordinators and facilitators from Khed (1), Velha (1) and Purandar (7) taluka attanded the training which was conducted by Dr. Hemlata (District Coordinator-Masum) and Dr. Nitin Jadhav (State Coordinator-Sathi). The main purpose of training was to orient staff regarding PHC samitee members' training, data collection at PHC and RH, and preparation for Jan Sunvai.Topics like Logistics of oraganising a PHC training, Tools for data collection and information required to be gathered for Jansunwai were discussed in details.

• Archana and Anupama attended a training on NGO management on 21st September 2008.

The past few weeks have been very busy. Therefore they delay in uploading the events taking place in MASUM.

• The three activists co-ordinating the Children's programmes - Shrikant, Raju and Madhuri have been holding meetings with the Bal Panchayat members of Malshiras and Tekavdi, Waghapur and Vanpuri and Naigaon, Pargaon, Piserve and Mavdi respectively to review tha work being done and to address problems being faced by these "child activists" in their villages. It has also been decided that all the Bal Panchayat committee members will be visiting the local Gram Oanchayata to learn and observe how these function.
• Organisational dev meet
  
• Archana visited Swati Organisation in Ahmedabad. This organisation is a part of the Aman network, a network of feminist organisations that has been working on the implementation of the PWDV Act. Archana was in Ahmedabad to conduct a two day workshop (4th and 5th Sep) on review of impementation of PWDV Act, followed by a strategy planning meeting on the 6th of September.
  
• A series of four capacity building trainings has been planned for the para-legal workers - Saathis on Chakrabhed - a Domestic Violence intervention model. As a part of the series, a training was held on the 11th and 12th of September which was conducted by Manisha tai and Archana.
• Several organisations working on gender issues have been meeting to increase men's involvement in gender equality. A meeting of organisations working for the same in Maharashtra was held in MASUM on 12th Sept and it was decided that for the Violence Against Women fortnight, celebrated from the 25th November to the 10th December - the theme would be men's involvement in implementation of PWDV Act.
  
• A preparatory meeting of the second Maharashtra Mahila Arogya Hak Parishad was held in MASUM on the 13th of September.
  
• Audit of Streedhan accounts is also in progress.
• A 5 day training of Pre-shhool teachers begins today (16th Sept) in Hadapsar.
  

Last week we had a meeting with the activists working on the Political Participation of Women program. With the number of notified SEZs increasing by the day, the threat of one coming close to us is not too far away. Dr Awasthi discussed with the activists the current situation prevalent in the country. they were also shown a documentary film on the issue.

Today (2nd Sep), certificates were awarded to the girls from Waghapur who successfully completed the Stitching and Tailoring Program.

Hey All,

I was off to Delhi for a week to obtain permission from the Ministry of Women and Child development for the Regional Consultation in October. Now that I'm back, its time for some more news from MASUM. Here's what I am aware of !!

• A new accountant - Yogita Pole joined MASUM in place of Pratibha tai. Pratibha tai has started her own law practice after completing her LLB while at MASUM. Even Archana completed her LLB recently -juggling her many roles very adeptly! :)
• We also had a small farewell party for Rikke who left on the 16th of August after completing her two month internship. She is a student of Anthropology and had recently completed another internship at United Nations. At MASUM she was studying how the Human Rights framework gets translated from the policy making level to the grass-roots. A very bright and promising person - we wish her luck in her future endeavours.
• We participated in the Maharashtra State level Training of Trainers (ToT) on Community Based Monitoring which was held from 7th to 11th August, 2007 at YMCA in Pune. The objective of this training was to conduct training on Community based Monitoring activities for the master trainers from Community Monitoring project districts of Nandurbar, Thane, Amaravati, Osmanabad and Pune. Two masters’ trainers from Public Health Department, trainers from NGOs, CBOs, People’s Organizations from respective five project districts were participated in the ToT. Experts involved in training field were also invited as Resource Person to conduct this ToT.
• Milind is away for a Regional Training of Trainers (Asia Pacific Region) on Promoting Equality & Rights for Women in the context of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women organised by International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific from 25 to 31 August 2008 being held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• About 20 people from Convergys are visiting Waghapur village today to conduct a Creativity Workshop with children and also to have a look at the Mobile Computer Van initiative that they are supporting.
  
• Archana is busy preparing for a two day Review and Strategy Building Workshop on Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDV Act). The workshop is being held in collaboration with ILS Law College, Pune at the J.P.Naik Center from the 25th to the 26th of August and will be attended by about 25-30 participants from various Organisations all across Maharashtra who work on the implementation of the PWDV Act. The aim is to review the work done and prepare a strategy to pressurise the Government to implement the Act better.

Swati