VZCZCXYZ0224
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNE #0318/01 0501236
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191236Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9540

UNCLAS NEW DELHI 000318 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, S/GWI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KWMN IN
SUBJECT: Mission India's nominations for S/GWI Small Grants 
Initiative 
 
Ref: 09 STATE 132094 
 
¶1. Mission India is pleased to submit 11 proposals for consideration 
by S/GWI as part of the 2010 Small Grants Initiative. Mission India 
received dozens of creative proposals, formed a selection committee 
comprised of key sections to evaluate proposals and select those 
that meet mission goals and promote the political, economic, and 
social advancement of women in India.   The submitted proposals are 
from various NGOs that work on issues such as economic empowerment 
for underprivileged women, gender justice, and establishing trauma 
centers for victims of violence.  We have listed them below in 
priority ranked order.  Complete proposals will be sent to S/GWI 
through email. 
 
------------------ 
PROPOSALS 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  ACCESS Development Services (ACCESS):  ACCESS will organize 500 
Rajasthani women farmers who grow red chilies into Women Enterprise 
Business Groups (WEBG) in order to move up the value-chain from 
solely producing red chilies to providing better processing services 
and products, while selling, marketing, and distributing chili 
products.  The direct result of this project will be improved 
women's empowerment, increased income and earning power, enhanced 
agriculture productivity, and better food security.  ACCESS would 
use the grant money to conduct a market assessment, provide 
technical guidance in establishing WEBGs, assist these WEBGs in 
accessing financial support and linking with distributors and 
retailers, and establish a women-owned producer company to bring red 
chili products to the market.  The project will be sustainable by 
emphasizing the establishment of WEBGs to operate viable, 
self-sustaining, profitable businesses.  The model is also scalable 
as it can be used in other regions in India, for other agriculture 
products, and for other industries such as textiles.  Lastly, the 
project would have a strong multiplier effect as increased services 
and increased income will open opportunities for other local 
businesses.  ACCESS is a leading organization in India's 
microfinance sector with successful livelihood projects supporting 
100,000 households in seven Indian states.  Post strongly recommends 
funding ACCESS's work. 
 
¶3.  Bharat Vikas Sangh (BVS): BVS runs the only civil society-run 
shelter home in Haryana and receives support from the Government of 
India and State Government of Haryana.  The Home has capacity for 60 
residents, who are trafficked women and their children sent to BVS 
from various government agencies in Haryana; they have a strong 
connection to Shakti Vahini, an NGO well-known to the Embassy and 
funded by G/TIP for many years.  Haryana has seen an increase in 
human trafficking cases over the last decade as a result of female 
feticide and an ensuing shortage of eligible brides; the source 
states for many BVS residents are Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, 
Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.  This small grant 
opportunity would provide BVS with the resources to establish a 
much-needed trauma counseling center, staffed by trained 
psychologists and counselors, while strengthening BVS's skills 
development, helpline, medical and administrative programs already 
in place.  This initiative would ensure BVS's residents and their 
children the victim protection system they desperately need for 
survival, while also providing them with the skills to one day 
rejoin their former communities if they choose to do so.  Post 
strongly recommends funding BVS's proposal to expand our efforts on 
trafficking victim protection into Haryana. 
 
¶4.  The Practice: Nandita Lakhsmanan participated in the 
FORTUNE/State Department Global Women's Mentoring Partnership in 
¶2009. She is the Founder and CEO of The Practice, a public relations 
firm with offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. As the CEO of one 
of the top PR firms in India, Nandita has a proven and illustrious 
track record in media relations, corporate communications, issues 
management, internal communications and various other aspects of 
strategic communications to formulate holistic social marketing 
campaigns for clients. Through the grant, Nandita proposes to raise 
awareness about the importance and benefits of Folic Acid levels 
among women and doctors in the three states of Karnataka, Kerala and 
Tamil Nadu. The average Indian diet is deficient in folic acid. 
Additionally, most pregnancies in India are not pre-planned and 
little attention is paid to the importance of a proper prenatal 
diet. Folic acid deficiency during pregnancy causes neural tube 
defects. Nandita plans to generate awareness about the benefits of 
Folic Acid using multiple communication tools. The program aims to 
reach over 200,000 women in a span of 18 months. This impact will be 
measured using quantitative and qualitative tools along with third 
party perception audit. Nandita proposes to tie-up with 
People4people, a trust fund aimed at improving the lives of children 
and adults connected with them, for the project. Due to her 
successful track record in delivering successful media campaigns for 
India's best and biggest companies, Post strongly recommends 
Anuradha's project. 
 
¶5.  STEPS Women's Development Organization:  STEPS of Pudukkottai, 
Tamil Nadu, has developed a project that envisions establishing a 
 
State-level Resource Centre to support Muslim women to enable them 
fight discrimination, violence, build economic independence and 
personal autonomy.  Dissemination of information on a range of 
issues, from Quranic precepts on women's rights to Muslim Personal 
Law as it applies in India, file cases on behalf of Muslim women, 
work at consolidating case laws that safeguard the rights of Muslim 
women, information on government policies, and empower women, by 
giving them access to knowledge of their rights and health-related 
matters.  Post has not worked with project partner but is aware of 
organization's good work. Its President is an IVLP alumnus.  STEPS 
has presented a reasonable budget.  If executed by S/GWI, this 
innovative project will be the first resource centre on the rights 
of Muslim women in South India. 
 
¶6.  Guild of Service:  The Guild of Service, a prominent and trusted 
NGO, has submitted an innovative proposal that targets several 
important issues-women's health, economic empowerment, and 
environmentalism.  The proposal's objective is to provide sanitary 
towels made from waste materials to meet the hygienic needs of 
underprivileged women in three target areas--Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, 
and Delhi.  Since the Guild already has a presence in these areas, 
it is in a position to quickly implement the project with very 
little, if any, start-up costs.  The project will employ groups of 
women and train them in collection of old clothes, cutting them, and 
transforming them into low-cost, hygienically safe sanitary towels. 
The project would encourage the trained women to form self-help 
groups that can then become self-sustaining to address important 
women's issues such as health awareness, literacy, medical 
insurance, and microcredit as well as provide political empowerment 
for their members. 
 
¶7.  Health Education and Learning Programs (HELP): Dr. Sudha Sood 
participated in the 2009 IVLP on Women Medical Practitioners. She is 
a practicing physician with a passion for health education focusing 
on community health, especially of girls and women. Dr. Sood heads a 
non-profit organization, HELP, which is an initiative by a group of 
dedicated and motivated doctors and professionals who feel that 
health education is the best method of prevention. HELP works among 
the slum population in Delhi delivering free healthcare and health 
education. Through project "Sunflower," Dr. Sood proposes to 
leverage HELP's experience to bridge India's growing gender divide 
by building a women's clinic in one of India's poorest 
neighborhoods. The project will focus on a slum (lower income group 
population) in East Delhi and will aim to improve the physical and 
psycho-social health of women and adolescent girls in the identified 
slum community through health services, health education, and craft 
training workshops. Dr. Sood's past experience as master trainer for 
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF as well as the 
Government of India's Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) 
(the point ministry in charge of development schemes for women and 
children all over the country), make her more than up to the 
challenge. She also conducts numerous workshops all over India for 
health professionals, paramedics, teachers and adolescents. We at 
Post strongly believe that Dr. Sood with her support from HELP will 
be in the best position to make a difference in addressing the 
gender gap and bringing change to the lives of women in the 
identified slum community. 
 
¶8.  MYRADA Kaveri Pradeshika Samsthe (MYKAPS):  The MYKAPS project 
seeks to enhance social, economic and political conditions of poor 
women in both rural and urban areas of Mysore district.  The project 
will cover about 500 villages in the district.  It will increase the 
participation of elected women members in local government, 
including Gram Panchayats; enhance the awareness of women and girls 
about their rights relating to property, dowry, violence against 
women, abuse at work place; and build the capacities of SHGs 
organized by NGOs and government under Sthree Shakthi - a women's 
empowerment program of Govt. of Karnataka.  MYKAPS was promoted by 
MYRADA, a highly-regarded development organization working in 
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.  MYKAPS has good rapport 
with the community in Mysore district as it has been promoting 
Self-Help Groups, Watershed Development Associations, Community 
Managed Resource Centers and Village Watershed Committees.  MYKAPS 
has established local level institutions known as "Community Managed 
Resource Center (CMRC) which are managed by the representatives of 
the SHGs.  MYRADA is a strong, well-organized NGO which has had a 
positive impact in the areas where it has worked. 
 
¶9.  Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA): SEWA proposes to 
provide job and skill training to young women to improve economic 
opportunities in two locations: Delhi and the rural town of 
Bhagalpur, within the state of Bihar.  In Bhagalpur, SEWA would 
organize silk weavers into a cooperative, provide the silk weavers 
with training specific to enhancing their craft, help the women 
connect to both domestic and export markets to sell their products. 
In Delhi, SEWA would establish a training institute that would 
provide training courses specifically to women from underprivileged 
communities.  The project would engage an expert to design a 
curriculum and explore potential markets and employment 
opportunities for trainees.  SEWA is India's largest (in terms of 
membership) and most well-known women's empowerment organization. 
It has a long history with the U.S. Embassy and has been visited by 
 
many high-level visitors, including Secretary Clinton. 
 
¶10. Legal Services: Aparna Bhat is an IVLP alum who participated in 
a sub-regional program on Trafficking in Persons in 2009. She has 
been a practicing lawyer for over 17 years, advocating before the 
Supreme Court and other courts in India in the areas of 
socio-economic rights, civil and political rights, right to 
representation, criminal justice, and violence against women and 
children.  Through the grant, Aparna proposes to create 
multi-disciplinary support services for victims of sex crimes, 
particularly incest, in three states in India. Sex crimes have been 
growing in the country, with about 60,000 reported cases in 2007. 
Approximately 38% of these crimes were perpetrated by family members 
or known persons. The project will ensure effective prosecution of 
the perpetrator and also provide support services for the victim. To 
make the project a sustainable one, she plans to rope in local law 
enforcement agencies and state governments. Aparna has a proven 
track record in similar projects. She has in the past established 
legal aid offices for NGOs to provide legal services to the 
disadvantaged, and also set up temporary legal aid centers in 
disaster-affected area.   Aparna founded a National Child Rights 
Initiative that went on to become a key aspect of the Human Rights 
Law Network, to better protect child rights in India.  She created a 
national "Rape Victims Compensation Scheme" for the Central 
Government, and has challenged contradictory laws regarding the 
definition of a child, age of marriage and minimum age for 
consensual sex.  Aparna also founded "Rape Crisis," a 24-hour legal 
helpline for rape victims. Given her past relationship with Post and 
her successful history with similar projects, we recommend Aparna's 
project. 
 
¶11.  Stree Aadhar Kendra (SAK):  SAK is a reputable NGO that has 
previously worked closely with UNIFEM and USAID on gender justice 
and women's rights.  The project's goal is to help create an 
environment where Indian women and girls can live with dignity and 
without violence. The project seeks to bring together elected women 
officials and community leaders to generate awareness on gender 
justice.  Indian states are implementing a fifty percent reservation 
for women in panchayats (local village councils); it is thus 
critical to help local women become better representatives, policy 
makers, and decision makers so they can effectively advance issues 
important to women.  When Ambassador Verveer met Ministry of Women 
and Child Development Secretary Sikri to discuss the Women's 
Empowerment Dialogue in November, they agreed on the need to help 
women become more effective in village councils.  SAK's project 
would do just that and provide sustainability by developing a new 
cadre of Indian female leaders. 
 
¶12. Jagruthi:  Jagruthi's project will initiate community-centered 
responses to prevent violence against women in three districts of 
Karnataka.  The project's goals are to provide immediate and 
adequate relief to the victims of violence against women and to 
bring to justice the perpetrators and also promote cooperation of 
state agencies, civil society organizations and other opinion 
leaders to collectively address issues of violence against women 
through purposeful networking and to share strategies and build a 
social environment for women who suffer from hostile environment. 
Since 1995, Jagruthi has worked on preventing HIV/AIDS infection in 
Bangalore.  In addition, it works on the prevention and 
rehabilitation for children in the sex trade.  Jagruthi's Home Care 
Center provides medical and training facility for children victims 
of trafficking.  Post is aware of various successful community-based 
action projects undertaken by Jagruthi. 
 
¶13.  Mission India looks forward to receiving notification on 
whether any of these excellent proposals are chosen.  We stand ready 
to assist if the evaluation team needs further information from the 
NGOs.  If a proposal is selected, the office (i.e. POL, ECON, PA, 
and consulate) at the mission that received the specific proposal 
will be the one to manage the grant. 
 
ROEMER