The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Need for Govt-community partnership”

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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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New Delhi

“Need for Govt-community partnership”

Staff Reporter

Women leaders highlight struggles waged to gain access to basic services, in national consultation

Women leaders urge civil society to come
forward and share concerns
Tales of struggle by women living in jhuggi-jhonpri clusters of city narrated

NEW DELHI: It is necessary for the Government to create a partnership with the community as they can play a vital role in planning, designing interventions, maintaining facilities, linking up genuine beneficiaries to various schemes, women leaders representing urban poor communities across in Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Jaipur have said.

In the Capital as part of a national consultation on “Empowering Urban Communities on Accessing Basic Services Entitlements: Emerging Practices, Way Forward” organised by Centre for Advocacy and Research here over the weekend, these community leaders highlighted the struggles that they had waged to gain access to basic services such as water, ration, sanitation, free legal aid for battered women, maintenance of public toilets and the gains they had made in partnership with the Government in their cities.Inaugurated by Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna, the consultation disseminated key lessons from a two-year intervention to empower women to advocate on issues of urban poor across four cities.

Acknowledging the need to build a partnership between communities and the Government, Mr. Khanna said: “If we have to govern in an interactive mode, ensure rights of every section of society then I urge civil society to come forward, share their concerns and be part of a proposed solution to build more caring cities.” Officials representing the municipal corporations of Bangalore and Delhi, departments such as Women and Child Development, Food and Civil Supplies and Legal Aid Services participated in the event. Narrating the struggle of women living in jhuggi-jhonpri clusters established in the late 1970s in Delhi, to live a life of dignity and sense of self-worth, Usha — a community leader from Kalyanpuri — said: “For 30 years we had to beg for water from the neighbouring settlements, witnessing fights and brawls everyday. The formation of the Mahila Pragati Manch has helped change that. By collaborating with the Engineering Department and Jal Board we succeeded in prevailing upon the administration to provide one tap for every 45 households.”

Planning Commission member Syeda Hameedassured the women that the body was not only seeking to strengthen public-private partnership but was also trying to ensure that the norms of partnership are changed. She said that community leaders, in particular women, would be initiated in a dialogue and a relationship of equality and mutual respect would be forged.

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