Place: Hyderabad
Date: 28 Jan 2005

Lok Satta's experience in assisting

Elected Women Representatives (EWRs)

form 'empowerment federations' in seven districts of Andhra Pradesh

The following text is a documentation of Lok Satta's experience in assisting the Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) get federated in the study districts of Andhra Pradesh.

A. The positive experiences with networking:

In the pilot phase, invitations were sent to all the EWRs, within each district, and 80-90% (on the average, across all study districts) of them enthusiastically attended the initial meeting. Thus the 'network of EWRs' in each district was shaped. The primary reason behind the successful establishment of this network was the timing of the invitations. The initial meeting of the EWRs was held only a few months after they had been elected to their offices. Naturally, these newly elected EWRs showed high levels of enthusiasm about learning their rights and responsibilities, a considerable degree of motivation to do a good job while serving in their positions and eagerness to meet (and establish relations with) their fellow EWRs. Hence, nearly all the EWRs attended the initial meetings, inspite of their (perceived) differences in political leanings, etc.

B. The challenges/hurdles/constrained experienced during networking:

1. It was observed that the apparent differences in party affiliations/sympathies were a significant hurdle in bringing the EWRs together on a single platform. In general, the EWRs who were sympathetic to the opposition parties (in the state assembly) generally showed greater enthusiasm in coming together and forming the federation than those EWRs who shared sympathies with the ruling party. Quite possibly, the former group perceived the formation of EWR federation an opportunity to raise their combined voices "against the ruling party and its representatives." Thus, political differences significantly damped individual/collective enthusiasm for coming together. Also, these apparent political differences expressed themselves more strongly during the run-up to the AP state assembly elections in April-May 2004.
2. Right now, the elected representatives are already federated into groups based on positions; for example, the sarpanches association, the upa-sarpanches association and the MPPs' association. Therefore, the EWRs too were distributed among such existing associations. This too might have acted as a hurdle that did not permit easy or immediate federation of the EWRs across different tiers of local government.
3. It was observed that travel and related expenses was a barrier for some EWRs in attending the meetings.
4. A related logistical hurdle was observed: several EWRs had to seek permission of a male family member (typically, their husbands) to attend the meetings. In cases where travel outside their places of residence or over significant distances was involved, interested EWRs additionally had to seek active assistance (particularly, with transport) from their male family members. Thus, those male family members had a significant say, whether an EWR would attend the meetings or not.
5. While bringing the EWRs together at a single venue was a big challenge in itself, formation of the EWR Empowerment Federation was a bigger one! In the districts of Andhra Pradesh, significant quantities of inputs and energies went into the formation of these district-wise federations themselves. Following this commendable achievement, the pace of activities could not be sustained at the same level due to the time gap between the phases where the federation was formed and where its activities were initiated.
6. During the course of the present study, the initiative to the EWRs to come together and get federated towards their empowerment, came from outside. Following this external encouragement, the EWRs themselves have yet to take up the lead and progress towards genuine empowerment by designing appropriate activities.
7. Lok Satta's representatives, being volunteers involved part-time on this project, faced time and resource constraints while working for federating the EWRs.

Suggestions/Scope for Improvement/Scope for Further Work:

8. It is suggested that district-wise representatives (preferably a lady) working full-time on this project, could inject higher levels of attention and commitment to the combined efforts towards federating the EWRs and/or helping the federations function effectively.

9. Also, full-time state level project coordinator(s) would be necessary for assisting the state-level EWR federation conduct its activities.

10. It might be possible to increase the participation rate among the EWRs by helping them towards meeting their travel and related expenses.

11. Two ways to improve the effectiveness in federation or functioning of a federation are by:

• Identification of leaders from among the EWRs and helping them take the initiative in collaborating with their colleagues. This internal initiative is expected to be the most sustainable and effective driving force behind their activities.
• Helping the proper identification of responsibilities among the federated EWRs and delegation of duties among them. This would result in increased group focus in the form of better identified "job duties" as well as improved individual accountability to the entire group.

12. Suggested Focus for the Future:

• Designing specific activities that can be taken up in the mandals where the EWRs hail from.
• Making Primary and Community Health and Primary Education as key priorities for the EWRs.
• Enabling better coordination between the EWRs and government officials and familiarizing them with the 'Tools of Accountability' (Citizen Charters, for example).

  13. Genuine empowerment of elected representatives in the local governments is one of the key steps that would lead to the over all empowerment of EWRs. The citizens and elected representatives of Andhra Pradesh.

  14. In the long run, it is suggested that the ideal and most sustainable way to the empowerment of EWRs is to make it a people's movement rather than let it stand as a movement for the EWRs that is run by the EWRs. Broadening it into a people's movement would necessitate the involvement of all key sections of the society and the political spectrum. Broadening the stakeholder group would positively impact the sustainability and continuity of this scheme.

The General Secretary of Lok Satta movement, Shri Bhandari Ankaiah, will be attending the Partners' Meet scheduled for the Feb 1-2 in Bangalore. During the meet, he will be presenting and discussing the aforementioned issues, in detail.

Sincerely,

Sd/-
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan