Page last updated 11/22/2008
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Kopaye Social Change Society
The goal of the organization is to establish an egalitarian society that strengthens gender justice and equity, childhood development, livelihood development and self help initiatives.
The Objectives of the Organization Are:
- To provide basic and non formal education to children of disadvantaged community and mainstreaming in the civil society;
- To undertake community based basic health care programmes for prevention and control of diseases;
- To eliminate child labour system and rehabilitate through education and vocational training;
- To sensitize and make aware people about human rights, women rights, child rights;
- To promote women self help groups, motivate for thrift savings and link with micro finance support for poverty alleviation and livelihood development.
Kopaye Social Change Society (KSCS) is a registered non-government organization. The organization is also registered under FCRA. The society is located at village Ballavpur on the bank of the river Kopaye. In rainy season due to heavy rain flood occurs and the poor villagers suffer with miseries, food insecurity and acute poverty. Considering this critical situation a group of youth, both male and female under the leadership of Ashoke Goswami, a MSW of Viswa Bharati University, came forward to form a group for relief and rehabilitation work. Gradually it was felt that there are various uncovered areas that would need to address for solution. Thus the organization was founded in the year 1993 view to undertake comprehensive development initiatives for empowerment of poor and marginalized section of people, especially women and children of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and other backward communities of below poverty line families and for women and children at risk.
At present more than 200 women self-help groups incorporating about 1000 women have been functioning for their socio-economic empowerment. The organisation started its activities in the fields of education, health and nutrition and women’s empowerment for livelihood development. The rate of illiteracy, health hazards and poverty and exploitation on women are existing in the area at a high rate. So the organisation gives emphasis on awareness building among the target people at first. Health and nutritional status is very critical. Women are the most oppressed community in our project areas. So since inception emphasis has been given on women’s empowerment through promotion of self help groups and their capacity and skill development for sustainable income generation and poverty alleviation. CARE, West Bengal has been sponsoring the project Integrated Nutrition & Health Project to the organisation during the past six years. The main objectives of the project are to improve nutritional status and to reduce IMR and MMR. The organisation has been working at Bolpur, Illambazar and Nanoor blocks in Birbhum district with the strategy to develop and ensure four practices in 100% of the Anganwadi Centres (child development centres) of the target three blocks. Among the major activities under this project are (a) organisation of Nutrition & Health Days in the demonstration sites on a set day (b) ensure distribution of take home rations on the Nutrition & Health Days (c) ensure ANM visit in the Anganwadi Centres (d) provide health services, immunization, growth monitoring, counselling on ante natal services etc.
During implementation these activities community based monitoring system has been introduced with special thrust to empower the community people with management capacity of health and nutrition status of women and children. Family based self monitoring tools and village level social maps etc. are used to access the progress of behaviour change. Emphasis has been given to activate the community based organisation in awareness generation on health and nutrition.
The goal of the organization is to establish an egalitarian society that strengthens the gender justice and equity, childhood development, livelihood development and self help initiatives.
The objectives of the organization are:
- To provide basic and non formal education to children of disadvantaged community and mainstreaming in the civil society;
- To undertake community based basic health care programmes for prevention and control of diseases;
- To eliminate child labour system and rehabilitate through education and vocational training;
- To sensitize and make aware people about human rights, women rights, child rights;
- To promote women self help groups, motivate for thrift savings and link with micro finance support for poverty alleviation and livelihood development.
Women, particularly young girls, continue to be discriminated against all over the states in India and are subject to many forms of violence. Despite ratification of laws concerned to women human rights the civil society and administrations maintains laws and practices, which discriminate against women, especially young women and girls. Poverty begins when one child is denied his/her fundamental rights to education. This failure to uphold the dignity of one life often ends as calamity for the entire nation in diverse process like terrorism, peace-breaking actions. There is a constant challenge to the vested interests in society driven by enormous disparity of wealth and power with tradition of helplessness of disadvantaged community. The proposed project is meant for the prevention of trafficking and livelihood development of the young women and girls of most hapless communities live with vicious cycle of poverty and under the threat of trafficking. These young women and girls belong to families (i) Dalit, Scheduled Caste, Minority refugee from Bangladesh (ii) Dalit, Scheduled Caste displaced in the name of development from rural areas and migrated (iii) Dalit, Scheduled Caste uprooted landless from rural areas. These families of poorest of the poor have no access to shelter, education, health care, income generation and livelihood. They reside by the side of railway tracks between Prantik to Bolpur stations in juggies with abject poverty. The Tagores’ Shantiniketan is world famous and thousands of tourists from different corners of India and outside visit the place. At the same time people of vested interest, pimps are very active for trafficking of young women and girls from the area. Many hotels, lodges, wine shops and bars are mushrooming in this area. Adult members are day labourers and they cannot generate income even to live from hand to mouth. The local political power uses these people as their vote bank. Adult young male family members are involved in smuggling and pick pocketing, addicted to country liquor and drugs. Many young women and girls of these neglected families become victims of trafficking for sex work. Young girls of age group 16 + and above live in such environment at risks. There is none to think about this deprived section. It cannot be imagined the distress conditions of young women and girls who go outside for work as maidservant become victim sexual abuse many times by the hands of employers, anti socials. The fate of young women and girls of these families either deserted after few years of marriage or trafficked into sex work. They live in a critical status of health with water borne chronic diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and skin diseases.
During implementation of the ongoing Integrated Nutrition & Health Project we have identified more than 500 young women and girls live in critical environment and at risk.
The salient features of the survey report of the area and people is given below:
- No. of families residing beside the railway tracks and nearby slum areas: 978 families,
- Refugee families: 102,
- Displaced families: 167,
- Uprooted families: 309,
- Numbers of young women & girls 16+ to 35 at risk: 512,
- Literacy rate: 10%,
- Below Poverty Line: 100%,
- No of girls reported missing after marriage: 62,
- Victims of molestation, rape: 6%
- Occupation:
- Day labour,
- Rickshaw pulling,
- Shoe shining,
- Hawker,
- Small vendor,
- Servant / maidservant / sex work in tea stall,
- Road side eating house,
- Hotels and ballavpur forest areas.
Trafficking is by and large a ggenderphenomenon. The incidence of trafficking of women and girls over the past decade has increased considerably. The majority of trafficking in project area happens for the purpose of commercial sex work, and over 60 percent of those trafficked into sex work are adolescent girls in the aage groupof 14-16 years. The area is witnessing an alarming trend of increasingly younger women and girls being trafficked into the sex trade. One common myth fuelling the demand for a young girl in the area is that sex with a virgin can cure Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS. The multiple vulnerabilities to trafficking and HIV/AIDS faced by women and girl children in the area are further reinforced by socially sanctioned forms of violence, and skewed gender and power relations. These take various fforms including rape trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, dowry-related violence, female infanticide, domestic violence and violence in conflict situations. The lives of millions of women in this area remain defined by traditional practices that enforce disempowerment and endorse unequal treatment. It is difficult to be precise about the exact numbers of women and children trafficked. Estimates based on the reports of law enforcement agencies, researchers and groups working with survivors and communities indicate that hundreds of women and children have been or are vulnerable to being trafficked from the district. 35 per cent of them were taken on the pretext of marriage or with offers of lucrative jobs.
Trafficking of girls and women for various purposes including sexual exploitation is one of the most reprehensible and heinous crimes perpetrated against humanity. Because of a variety of reasons including non-reporting and secrecy there is no clear estimate about the magnitude of the problem yet. By all account in recent years the problem has only worsened. Trafficking has emerged as a low risk high return well organized criminal activity. Hence combating this menace is going to be a tough job for everyone concerned. What is very disturbing is that the available evidence indicates that one third of people exploited in flesh trade are adolescents and youngsters. Besides, over 60% of victims belong to the SC/ST/Backward Classes. Most of them hail from poverty struck areas and are unaware, illiterates.
The issues of trafficking and the Commercial Sexual exploitation of Women and Children have been increasing in the present time because of the following reasons:
- Increasing inter-state and inter-national trafficking of women and adolescent;
- Increasing commercial sexual exploitation of adolescent and young women;
- They have no access to awareness and information on rights;
- Trafficking and sexual exploitation of women /girls is directly related to the overall poor status of women in the society;
- Growing feminization of poverty;
- Growth of sex tourism, the entertainment industry, pornography in print, electronic and cyber media;
- Changing public attitudes towards sex and morality;
- Women victims of commercial sexual exploitation have not been organized themselves to access their rights;
- Acute poverty, food insecurity, migration from village town, weakening of the family structure, changing social and family scenario;
