|
Our Programmes
>> Policy
Action
Advocacy & Research Center |
Communication &
Resource Generation | Alliance Building |
Training Programmes
\ National Alliance of Grassroot NGOs
Context
The World Social Forum held in Mumbai in January 2004 was an
opportunity for Butterflies to bring together NGOs and children who are part
of National Child Journalist’s Forum and Delhi Child Rights Club as well as
meet several people of varying beliefs in the area of development, like
minded organizations with which it had a long standing relationship and
others whose thoughts on development, children and their rights were same as
that of Butterflies.
 It was reflected by all that the enormity of the problems of children and
the challenges involved in actions for protection of children’s rights in
India cannot be addressed adequately by scattered efforts of NGOs operating
at the grassroots' levels, often without effective cooperation or
collaborative efforts among themselves. Their committed and well-intentioned
actions do succeed in reaching out to a limited number of children, their
parents and communities with services relevant to their needs but the
advocacy actions for a large scale change in the situation of the concerned
target group seem beyond the capacity and effectiveness of individual
initiatives. There was unanimous agreement that we should formalize our
alliance, build solidarity for the cause of children and move ahead unitedly
to ensure action on the ground for the protection of children’s rights.
Butterflies was asked to initiate a National Alliance of Grassroots' Level
NGOs (NAGN) for the protection of child rights and has 35 NGOs from 13
states as its members.
To formalize NAGN’s philosophy, objectives, structure, membership criteria
and activities, a National Consultation of all the member NGOs of NAGN was
convened by Butterflies at New Delhi on 17th and 18th August 2004.
 Objectives of NAGN
● To facilitate
representation of the cause of children and the most marginalized
● To undertake social and
advocacy actions to ensure that government and society fulfill their responsibilities
and obligations
● To work constructively with
government and other stakeholders at all levels for the cause of children, families
and communities
● To advocate and lobby with
media to recognize the work of grassroot NGOs
● To share
information, data and skills among alliance members
● To promote and advocate a
transformative perspective on the situation of children (accompanied by a
National database)
● To promote a code of
ethics among NGOs and funding agencies
● To make the alliance
an integral part of the socio-economic & political discourse of the country
● To regularly review
government policies and programmes of welfare, development and
rehabilitation and give feedback to government and share it with
civil
society and media
Structure
At National level there is General body, National Steering
Committee, National Convener and National Secretariat.
At State level, a Core Group exists that consists of founding members
from that state and 10 general members from the state
Membership Criteria
● NGO should have grassroot
presence in terms of
- Community activities
- Advocacy with panchayat / community/ local bodies
● Those who practice and
promote values of democracy, secularism and communal harmony and gender equality
● Any NGO to be eligible
should have worked at least for three years
● Should have a common
understanding on certain socio-economic, political and cultural issues
● NGO should be a Registered
organization (after a major discussion on whether member NGOs should be
registered or non-registered, there was an
agreement /decision on
non-registered NGOs.). It was decided that in the first phase the alliance
will be restricted to NGOs who are registered and
after that membership
could be extended to others. The state level committees will be vested
with authority to recommend names of other NGOs to the
National Steering
Committee to admit them as members
● Religious organizations
working only among its own community would not be eligible
● NGOs associated with
political parties/fundamentalist organizations would not be eligible
● Each member NGO to
contribute Rs 500 per annum as a membership fee
● For the time being membership
fee would be deposited in Butterflies account (Butterflies to maintain separate account, details of which will be shared
in National Steering
committee meetings)
● For the
time being membership fee would be deposited in Butterflies account Later NAGN account will be operationalised
Members, General Body, National Convenor and National Steering
Committee
Members: All the 35 NGOs who were present in the national
consultation are founding members of the Alliance. 6 new members have also
joined NAGN, thus total members are 41 from 13 states of India
(Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal.)
General Body: All Alliance members are part of the General Body
National Steering Committee: One NGO representing each state is
nominated for National Steering Committee thereby NAGN has 13 member
Steering Committee.
National Convenor and National Secretariat: Ms Rita Panicker
( Director , Butterflies) is the national convenor of NAGN for 4 years
and Butterflies is the National Secretariat of NAGN. It was decided
amongst the members that convenorship would be on a rotational basis
and National Secretariat would be based in Delhi.
National Steering Committee: NAGN has 13 members steering committee
consisted of one representative from each state.
 Plan
of Action
In the forthcoming years, Alliance members plan to conduct the
following activities
● Organize capacity building workshops at various levels
● Initiate a national database
on the situation of children
● Identify specific issues for
national level study and mass campaign and work on those issues
● Review Government Policies
and programmes for the welfare and rehabilitation of marginalized children
and
families
● Preparation of Annual
Situation Report on children and families
Immediate issue identified for study and mass campaign is Food &
Nutrition along with liveli hood issues and survival chances for
children.
Top |
