R E F L E C T I O N S

And the Way Forward


T
he distinctive MS approach to building an effective grass
roots women's movement is to situate it in the larger fabric
of the institutions and processes within MS. Thus, MS is
not a movement of raging protests for a cause with popular
mobilisation against forces of establishment. Neither is it
designed as a cadre-based organisation like unions or political
parties. This is a multifaceted bottom-up movement with
components of learning institutions (MSK-KGBV), justice delivery
institutions (Nari Adalats), leadership development processes
(Panchayat Literacy Programme, Data Exhibitions),
consciousness raising processes, pro-active and re-active
collective actions against all forms and expressions of patriarchy,
systems of preparing the next generation (of adolescent girls),
and assimilating them (through the Kishori Manchas or the Bala
Sanghams), amongst a myriad of other initiatives coming from
women themselves. The most important features that distinguish
MS include: A horizontal management structure, in contrast to the
representational-bureaucratic structure (as seen in trade unions,
cooperatives or even SHG Federations), a strong human rights
based egalitarian approach in contrast to a clientelistic approach
(in trade unions-political parties and increasingly in SHG
Federations), a spontaneous, locally contextualised approach in
contrast to a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach.
The mass-based, moral, collective strength of the Sanghas and
Federations provide the backbone of the movement. They are
organised not with any service delivery intent but with the aim of
creating collective empowerment and a collective identity of
grassroots women. This empowerment manifests itself in
everything MS does, be it the MSKs, KGBVs, the Nari Adalats,
the Kishori Manchas, the Data Exhibition, or the Panchayat
Literacy initiatives.
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R E F L E C T I O N S
And the Way Forward
This inquiry began with the fundamental question of effectiveness
of the MS model towards empowerment of women and girls
through education and related interventions, and the reasons
underlying it. The
primary success of
Mahila Samakhya lies
first and foremost in a
large, mobilised
constituency of poor
women which has
provided the base for
many institutional and
other practices and
innovations over the
years and will continue to
do so in the future. The
second major success is
through the
demonstration of a model
for education for poor women which has been tried and tested
and has been shown to work better than traditional literacy-
numeracy models. The third has been the range of innovations
that have emerged to address women's and girls' needs,
designed in ways that are practical, many of which have been
reproduced across districts and states, and to that extent, are
robust, time tested and replicable. Fourth, though to a far lesser
extent than its potential suggests, is the impact on state policies
and programmes some of which have been designed based on
these innovations such as the KGBV and the NPEGEL. The
basic model and its philosophical framework combines strategies
such as mobilisation, capacity building, and awareness of rights
and entitlements which, in turn, have led to women's overall
empowerment. The MS programme has thus set the stage for
other national and international programmes aimed at women's
and girls' empowerment to imbibe and learn from.
Strategies and Impact
The cross cutting framework examined three sets of impacts,
those related to building the women's movement, empowerment,
and education. To have reached this level of impact, a wide
range of strategies have been employed by MS across practices,
some common and others, specific to the practice and the local
context (Table 8.1). Refer to Annexure 1.5 for a brief description
of these strategies.
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D

Table 8.1: Strategies Used to Achieve Impact

Strategy Federation Panchayat Data Nari Adalat ALP KGBV/MSK JJK/KM/BS

Literacy Exhibition
Movement Building
Consciousness raising
Building institutions
Pressure groups
Internal linkages
Outreach to women
Empowerment
Leadership skills
Building change agents
Running campaigns
Citizen participation
Political participation
Information on government
programmes
Monitoring local institutions
Building community support
and ownership
Economic activities
Education
Literacy and numeracy
Teaching methodology
Education on rights
Raising awareness on issues
Capacity building on
Democratic processes
Gender education
Life-skills
Vocational exposure
Broader Impact
Institutional linkages
Resource mobilisation
Advocacy

Strong Impact Medium Impact Low Impact

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R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
Building the Movement
Table 8.1 shows the interrelatedness of strategies employed
across initiatives with each and every one of them targeting and
strengthening the institutional base first, namely the sanghas and
federations. The largest and most wide reaching evidence of
impact is seen through these institutions of poor women. Thus,
the key movement building strategy employed was mobilisation
and consciousness raising towards building a collective identity of
sisterhood. The federations being the face of the movement, act
as pressure groups to advocate women's rights and challenge the
multiple manifestations of patriarchy. It is the forum that
articulates women's demands and negotiates with institutions at
higher levels to ensure that women can access their entitlements
and exercise their rights. In this context, leadership, networking,
negotiation and political skills of women are built as well as their
conceptual understanding and philosophy to represent the
movement externally. Internally, the federation functions include
identifying issues across sanghas, running campaigns and
fighting social evils and practices that are harmful to women, for
which skills to link to various aspects of the movement, and at the
same time to expand the movement, are built.
The federations provide women the basic capacity to run
institutions that are both democratic in their functioning as well as
robust in their management. They are democratic in a number of
ways from their structure where sangha representation ensures
basic accountability to women and their collectives, to their
participatory methods of running meetings, tabling agendas, to
carrying out collective action, building transparency and finally
holding government to these same standards. The management
structure is also designed in ways that women themselves can
sustain the federation, its activities and perform its functions and
do so in a manner that is transparent, needs based, efficient and
accountable first and foremost to its constituency - the women's
collectives. The functions, plans and activities themselves center
136
around women's needs. Their management capacities are built
with the intent of autonomy such that women can manage the
federation activities and functioning themselves, create and
execute plans, run contracts, submit proposals, raise and
manage funds. In several instances federations themselves are
managing other institutions, running the MSKs and Bal Shikshan
Kendra in Bihar, and the Shishu Vikas Kendra in Assam. The
federations and sanghas today have developed strong monitoring
capacities where internally they monitor the Nari Adalat, the
Mahila Shikshan Kendras, Bala Sanghams and externally they
monitor local institutions and services. In fact, the federation
plays multiple roles, acting as channels to mobilise young girls for
the MSKs, Kishori Manchas, as monitors to the Nari Adalat, and
as resource mobilisers and negotiators for sanghas to arrange for
literacy and education initiatives for women, to name just a few.
Finally, the federation is the key motor for growth of the
movement by building new collectives and spreading awareness
among women in new areas on their rights.
A second icon among practices that build the movement is the
Nari Adalat which is the epitome of an institution that upholds
women's rights and dignity. It is the one institution that in practice
is accessible to poor rural women and is able to implement laws
in favour of very poor women and ensure that they access gender
justice. Along with the federation, the Nari Adalat also acts as a
pressure group and organises campaigns on social issues and
practices that are harmful to women such as violence against
women, trafficking in Assam, devadasi dedication in Karnataka,
anti-alcohol movements in Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the
country. These two practices – the Federation and Nari Adalat –
build support and an enabling environment for women's
collectives by challenging and changing community norms and
patriarchal practices. It sets new standards and precedents both
for how women's issues are dealt with as well as for how new
laws are implemented like the Domestic Violence Act. Both these
institutions through creating a mobilised constituency who is
organised institutionally and in terms of a critical mass have,
through their collective action and through a long history of
achievement that has spanned two decades, empowered women
in multiple ways. Work with the adolescents also reaches out to
the next generation, raising consciousness and making them
aware of their rights and builds the second line of leaders needed
to take the movement forward.
Impact on Empowerment
Empowerment is one of the declared goals of MS, through all its
interventions. The impact of empowerment can be seen first at
the level of the individual woman and girl through increased
mobilisation capacity, leadership, managerial skills, capacity to
act as a strong advocate for the weak, and being able to apply
their agency to advocate for change in affairs of family,
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D

neighborhood and society. All the practices covered under the Impact on Education
study, has resulted in thousands of empowered women and girls.
Education is indeed broadly defined in MS as evidenced by the
range of strategies that go beyond mere literacy and numeracy.
However, empowerment in the context of MS has another
These include information and awareness on rights and social
dimension - collective empowerment. In all the institutional
issues, gender education, life-skills, vocational exposure to non-
processes within MS, there is clear evidence of empowered
traditional trades and knowledge of government programmes.
collectivities of women and girls, ready to take on the world on
The strongest impact on education is witnessed in the Adult
their own terms. In some cases like Nari Adalats it has taken the
Literacy Programme and the initiatives with adolescent girls. The
shape of an institution (of justice delivery), while in the case of the
distinguishing feature of the ALP, unlike other literacy drives, is
Kishori Mancha, we see an empowered collective of young
first the leadership and democratic citizenship skills it provides
adults, who by their shared understanding and actions are the
women. The relevance of the ALP is firmly established for
hope for the movement in the future. The Panchayat Literacy and
women when they are able to use these skills to become more
Data Exhibition initiatives simultaneously generate individual
effective in their roles either as Nari Adalat judges or as monitors
women leaders, besides developing a great collective strength
of government programmes or as panchayat leaders. It is this
capable of engaging and challenging institutions of power and
wide applicability of the literacy skills that has sustained the
authority.
interest of women in the ALP, retained them more than typical
literacy initiatives and has led to greater demand for education in
This individual and collective empowerment has been
some cases. The MSKs and KGBVs provide poor, rural young
accomplished through a combination of practices, innovations
girls a second chance to enter the mainstream, widening their
and strategies implemented with the intrinsic support and
future horizons and choices. In concrete terms, education in MS
presence of the federation. The campaigns, pressure group
is providing the women and girls with an array of weapons that
tactics to uphold women's rights, and intervention on social issues
make them confident, skilled, reflective, analytical, vocal, and
wherever sanghas require support have been shown to result in
organised - capable of applying the agency and leadership of
the voices of women being heard. The Nari Adalat is the only
women to its fullest extent. MS does it with a creative
forum for gender justice that provides rural poor women an
combination of functional literacy, panchayat literacy, legal
opportunity to raise their voice against injustice and discrimination
literacy, leadership development, Kishori Mancha, among other
against women. Simultaneously, women have successfully
elements.
fought and exercised their rights to entitlements on health,
education and other social issues through the federation, Nari
Adalat and the Kishori Manchas. These institutions along with Lessons Learnt
educational initiatives like the MSKs and KGBVs have resulted in
A movement of this nature with its vast complexity and with
the emergence of strong articulate leaders as change agents.
innovations that are constantly expanding and evolving into new
These leaders have then challenged existing power relations
terrains requires an inquiry that goes beyond just a one time
externally by putting pressure on local institutions of governance
assessment. However, some clear lessons learnt and a vision for
as well as internally by becoming part of these institutions.
the future emerged from these case studies.

The two initiatives that have facilitated the engagement of women

Future of the Movement
leaders with local government, namely the Panchayat Literacy
MS has played the role of initiator, nurturer, facilitator, planner,
and the Data Exhibition both increased women's political
executor, fund mobiliser, capacity builder, a developer of linkages
participation but more importantly these women have brought into
for Sanghas, Federations, and their institutions. However, in a
the panchayats a more transparent and accountable mode of
span of 20 years, federations are already emerging as the future
functioning, learnt through the federation. The PLP fosters
of MS, in many ways. The important lesson learnt is that the
leadership both for individual and collective action in local bodies
separation of the two institutions, while retaining a mutually
and Gram Sabhas respectively. The greatest impact on
reinforcing complimentary relationship, needs to be crafted
leadership is seen in the Panchayat literacy initiative, where in
through a process of serious discourse. It is evident now that the
one stroke, women are made aware of their entitlements and their
federations have begun to see themselves capable of doing many
roles and responsibilities vis-à-vis Panchayat, and at the same
things that MS was doing earlier. However, the clarity on the
time, they develop the confidence, and governance skills to
institutional separation between MS and federations and retaining
become effective leaders in the Gram Panchayat. All these
this mutually reinforcing relationship has become all the more
initiatives have helped women access resources, and at the same
challenging. Other international experiences such as that of the
time expanded women's base of information and therefore their
Slum Dwellers International described later may provide some
spheres of influence through collective action.
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R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
insights in this regard. The process of this separation must start
with a capability analysis of the two institutions and future desired
capability sets, and then plan a roadmap towards that goal.
Ways to Institutionalise Best Practices
The best ways to institutionalise select innovations and best
practices within the mainstream will require judicious planning.
The two examples illustrating this lesson are the Nari Adalat,
which still run on the back bone of MS-Federation and have
become an accepted practice within the community and the
development administration. On the other hand the KGBV-
NPEGEL experiment has been institutionalised across the board
in all the states without the MS backbone, resulting in very clear
dilution of MS' core strengths and objectives. The critical lesson
learnt is that while seeking all the avenues of mainstreaming the
practices, it is important to retain their core strengths and
attributes. This would imply that the institutionalisation process
should clearly have within its guidelines a role for MS or MS type
institutions, and MS itself would have to gear up to perform this
task at state and national levels. Institutionalisation therefore,
needs careful analysis and crafting of the advocacy messages
that both promote and safeguard an MS practice, as well as the
replication processes and tools.
Gender Education for Men and Boys
Engaging men and boys as a part of the movement,
empowerment and education programmes, is still a matter of
great debate within MS, in relation to the level of investment, and
even about whether this should be a concern for the women's
movement at all. This is viewed by several as a mission drift.
However, there appears to be a general consensus that engaging
boys and men is important because the demand has emerged
from the sanghas themselves. The initiatives of the three
southern states on gender education for men, have been
implemented to create an enabling environment for women's
138
participation and to that extent furthers the goals of the
movement. Since MS, its institutions and practices are extremely
process intensive, time intensive, and human resource intensive,
how much of these resources can it spare for engaging men and
boys? Here strategic thinking is necessary to respond to the local
need and demand voiced by the sanghas, as to what would be
the most cost- and time- effective way of engaging men and boys
without watering down the mission of MS. Another option would
be to innovate the mechanisms for working with men and boys
but let the responsibility for replication lie outside MS.
Lateral Networking and Bonding
Lateral networking and bonding of MS Federations across the
districts and most importantly across the states has enormous
untapped potential to make it a nationwide movement of
grassroots women, and adolescent girls and a force to reckon
with for all gender related issues. The potential lies in national
and international visibility, cross learning, additional sources of
funds, organisational consolidation, and universalisation of
practices across the board to the desired extent.
Visibility
MS and its institutional practices documented here have proven
to be extremely effective in their goals and objectives. However,
these achievements remains mostly confined to the “MS World”
and are not known to the larger development community.
Visibility and advocacy on the basis of concrete evidence is the
key to larger credibility and legitimacy of the movement. While
the present work partially fulfills this gap, systematic tracking of
activities and results through improved monitoring systems -
designed and implemented with the full participation of sanghas
and federations - are needed to show the world the potential
benefits of these models. Armed with this information, both
qualitative and quantitative, advocacy can then be crafted into the
movement in a holistic and systematic way, directed towards the
state and civil society at large.
Forward Looking Strategies:
Sustaining MS in the Future
The evidence of effectiveness and impact of the programme,
being informed by a best practice methodology, was witnessed
mainly among the icons of the practices but not necessarily
across the board. Very few federations, for example, have
reached the status of full-fledged autonomy but a large number of
federations are in the process, with the bulk of them already
having registered as independent entities. The conceptual clarity
on autonomy of the Andhra Pradesh programme, being the
forerunner in building autonomous federations, is not seen in
other states. In this context, a great deal of strategic thinking and
sharing across states is required for federations to actually
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
achieve the status of autonomy. Lessons learnt from people's
organisations that have grown nationally and internationally like
the National Slum Dwellers Federations (NSDF) can inform this
transition to autonomy. The Society for Promotion of Area
Resource Centres (SPARC) helped start people's organizations
like Mahila Milan and the NSDF and within the first few years,
quickly changed its own identity from an institution that mobilised
the poor to that of a support organisation. These people's
organisations then grew autonomously spreading across many
cities, becoming a national presence, and then across nations to
become an international force, outgrowing its mother institution by
leaps and bounds. Likewise, Mahila Samakhya too, would have
to change its own role towards becoming more of a support
organisation and less of an implementation agency. In turn, the
federations will need to develop a unified independent collective
identity apart from MS and build the voice and visibility of the
movement at state, national and international levels. Such a
vision can only evolve through peer learning and horizontal
exchanges among federations at various levels, particularly state
and national levels. Thus, the time has come for federations from
within and across states, to meet to ignite the movement's next
avatar and build their own mission and vision. This, in turn,
should bring women's voices into decision making arenas beyond
the local level, and towards challenging larger structures and
power relations. Only a process that radically expands the vision,
scale and spheres of influence of the movement can force a shift
in the roles of both MS and the federations to bring about real
autonomy. In simple terms, the institutions of poor women will
now have to take the lead and the reins of the movement into
their own hands.
Strategies and Dilemmas of Institutionalisation
Each initiative also requires separate advocacy and visibility for
greater reach and to impact on the larger community, for instance
the Nari Adalat. The genesis of the Nari Adalat has been through
MS in the Education Department whose objective is education
while its own mandate of gender justice is not the best fit. This
mismatch reflects in the initial investment and then subsequent
cuts, in the capacity building of the Nari Adalats, the one practice
whose very functioning and survival depends on women having
updated information on the law. Therefore for replication as well
as for sustainability, a clear advocacy strategy targeting the
Women and Child Department, where there is a better mission fit,
would greatly enhance both the reach and sustainability of the
Nari Adalat. Synergies with the WCD in Gujarat and Karnataka
already serve as precedents to mobilise the much needed
resources required to spread and sustain the model. Such an
investment across states in the Nari Adalats, would require new
strategies starting with greater investments in impact and
outcome evaluation to feed into advocacy efforts to replicate the
139
practice more broadly at state and national levels. With a toolkit
now already in place for replication, the Nari Adalat is well
positioned for both national and global advocacy. Gender justice
being a major need of poor women and courts being unaffordable
in most countries, this model has vast applicability and relevance.
Having innovated such a solution, the onus for its spread now
rests squarely with MS. The federation once it has a state or
national identity can well play this advocacy role.
The success of the Mahila Shikshan Kendras lies in the girls
getting varied inputs in the form of life skills, gender education,
literacy and vocational exposure. Life skills such as cycling or
karate allow greater mobility, but more importantly increases their
freedom of physical expression. These elements which were
earlier built both into the KGBV and NPEGEL model have been
reported by several respondents to be steadily compromised to
the point where in many states MS is no longer willing to run
these programmes. Having got its innovations mainstreamed into
the larger system, the MS National Resource Group has a
defined role to play, which incidentally is written into the
guidelines and involves monitoring the functioning of the KGBVs
and providing conceptual inputs. The guidelines also specify MS'
responsibility to run the KGBVs in its operational areas. The
same is true for the NPEGEL where MS is expected to play an
identical role as per the guidelines. This puts MS in a unique and
influential position of being able to ensure that these
mainstreamed programmes remain true to the original
innovations, and the recommendation is that MS strategise how
to position themselves so that they are able to play this oversight
and “quality control” role.
However for the NRG to effectively play this advocacy role it
needs to be armed with both evidence and resources, which at
this moment it does not have. One possible strategy would be to
conduct a state by state comparative analysis of KGBVs run by
MS, those run by the state, and the original MSKs, to see what
elements have been retained and what has not, by the state run
KGBV programme. Using this evidence, MS could then more
effectively play an on-going policy role, (this being already written
into the KGBV guidelines) to intervene sharply in KGBV
programme implementation and thus ensure that the most
essential elements leading to women's and girls' empowerment in
its prize innovation of the MSK does not get lost in the echelons
of bureaucracy. Additionally, in non-MS areas, MS has a dual
role to play of working with civil society institutions and the
women's movement to embed the KGBV back into the
movement, the key success ingredient of the MSK. These
research and advocacy roles will need separate dedicated
resources and possibly could be placed in the institutional bases
of the state and national resource centres currently being shaped
and formed within MS.
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
While MS has instituted a localised, process-driven, evolutionary
approach to Kishori Sanghas, the national government's new
programme SABLA, that begins to unfold later this year,
continues with the disjointed approach of providing vocational
training, life-skills training and mid-day meals in one package.
This event based approach denies the girls the basic strength of
the creation of a social force of girls to apply their own agency to
engage in changing their future. While the MS approach is
anchored in creation of the Kishori Mancha as the backbone of a
series of interventions with adolescent girls, the government's
approach still considers training as the critical change process, an
approach tried many times over, with little success. Therefore
MS has a unique opportunity to advocate with WCD for a
thorough revision of its approach. The guidelines of SABLA are
being framed at this moment and if MS is to take advantage of its
vast and varied experience with this model it could play a major
role in shaping these guidelines.
The uniqueness of the Kishori Mancha and the Bala Sangham
models lies in the inclusiveness of this model which extends
beyond school-going girls to include drop outs and those children
not in schools. For starters to ensure that SABLA is inclusive,
would imply that it not be placed within schools. Further to
ensure that empowerment of young girls is the goal, the means
namely the rights-based approach of mobilisation, gender
education, legal awareness, and life skills that challenge gender
stereotypes, would need to have a central place in the guidelines.
MS could therefore advocate for movement building strategies of
its initiatives to be built into the SABLA programme.
For MS innovations on governance like the PLP and the data
exhibition, which have national relevance and applicability,
dialogue with the Panchayat and Rural Development Department
(P&RD) on social audits and the methods used would not only
help spread these types of innovations, but place the power of
monitoring local bodies through social audits squarely in the
140
hands of poor communities. The power from an innovation like
the data exhibition gives the community direct access and control
over public goods, services and entitlements. While social audits
of the government agencies and programmes are a civil society
mandate, getting the state to officially recognise the data
exhibition as a legitimate method for civil society to employ in the
social audit process would require publicizing the exhibition.
Like the KGBV institutionalised model of the MSK innovation,
there is an inherent risk of dilution or in the worst case, of
innovations being replicated only in form and not in substance.
To retain the spirit of MS which essentially breathes life into the
initiative, it must be recognised that some initiatives can
essentially be replicated and institutionalised by civil society only.
Thus, for innovations like the data exhibition it would be important
to distinguish between advocacy efforts aimed at the state and
those aimed specifically at civil society but seeking only official
sanction of legitimacy. Therefore, innovations of this nature
would require concerted networking and alliances with civil
society.
This is also true for the federations where advocacy is required
with both state and civil society. With state agencies like P&RD,
greater conceptual clarity, strategic thinking, and advocacy may
be required with respect to synergy with their federations, which
are focused primarily on livelihoods and credit. The MS model of
a rights-based federation is radically and fundamentally different
from credit based federations which are growing in popularity with
strong state support, as well as through the active intervention of
banks and micro-finance institutions. These agencies have the
explicit goal of improving livelihoods of families. However, their
federations, primarily economic in function, lack a women's
perspective, do not deal with social issues - like health or
education or property rights or gender - from a rights based
perspective and therefore fall far short of the goal of real
empowerment of women. Synergies and divergences between
the MS federations and credit based federations which address
the same population, namely poor women, need to be analysed
and clear strategies forged to expand the movement across both.
MS federations, for instance, in Andhra can and do act as
resource experts to credit based federations providing them the
social perspective they desperately lack. Alternatively MS and
their federations can advocate for their own rights based model to
be supported by government. This would also require strategies
of comparative impact assessments of MS federations and credit-
based federations, clear guidelines for replication of rights based
federations in the form of toolkits, and finally advocacy to
replicate the model itself. For federations to better service their
own functions as well, simplified version of these guidelines in the
form of vernacular pictorial toolkits would facilitate both the
growth and sustenance of federations. For building federations,
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
instead of targeting state agencies a better strategy would be to
build the demand for the MS model from below. Publicity about
MS federations could potentially increase access for women from
SHGs and other federations to institutions like the Nari Adalats,
which would then generate demand from women themselves.
Networking between MS federations and other federations would
be a key strategy to build visibility, legitimacy and consensus at
the grassroots as the relevance of these innovations begin to be
felt by groups outside MS.
The future looking strategies for each practice all weave a
common picture.
n The need for rigorous and strategic research on the impact of
MS models and the key elements contributing to impact, to
feed into advocacy, along with clear cut communications and
policy dialogue strategies at state and national levels aimed at
increasing the visibility and legitimacy of the movement.
n The need for horizontal exchanges and peer learning among
federations to enable them to build a strategic vision, mission
and a unified, collective identity of their own. Such a
mechanism if woven into a larger strategy of building
federation identity state-wide and nationally, could lead to a
completely new and dynamic phase of the movement that can
grow outside the MS umbrella.
n The need for MS to develop outward looking strategies both
with government and civil society to take the next steps
forward to expand the reach and spheres of influence of the
movement and in doing so, redefine its own role. MS has
already started this process in the form of the State Resource
Groups and the National Resource Group but would need to
play a proactive role in creating the opportunity now for the
federations to create their own identity and for that identity to
shape the role of these resource groups based on its own
needs.
MS' role also would have to expand at various levels. Within
each state, MS state offices would need to reach out and
advocate to other state agencies to establish the legitimacy of
their practices and to set precedents for collaboration - like state
offices in Gujarat and Karnataka have done with the WCD and
the Nari Adalats. Each state office would also need to play a
strong role in establishing the identity of federations at the state
level and build their capacities to take their rightful place at the
table in key policy and decision making arenas both within state
and civil society fora. Nationally a very clear cut advocacy
strategy, building on these state precedents and lobbying, based
on findings collected through MS' new results framework, would
1 Currently the MS structure is managed by the National Programme Office and the State
Programme offices. However, it is planned to have state resource centres and a national
resource centre that takes responsibility for research, advocacy, and training. The National
Resource Group is currently assigned the role of advocacy and monitoring of government
programmes like the KGBV and NPEGEL.
141
be an important step towards establishing legitimacy and building
visibility. To play these roles, several options can be considered.
The national office could be strengthened. Alternatively the
National and State Resource Centres of MS would have to be
structured to either play this role or to strategically anchor the
advocacy role currently assigned to the National Resource
Group.1
Internationally and nationally MS would have to strengthen the
role that the federations will have to play in the national and
global women's movements to ensure that the voices of
grassroots women influence these spheres. For a concerted
advocacy strategy a closer synergy would be required between
MS states and national offices and simultaneously between
federations within and across states.
Thus, as MS withdraws, autonomous federations will need to play
not just their implementation role of sustaining the movement but
also adopt new roles as the wider environment changes. They
too will have to evolve solutions to emerging issues that can be
replicated in other federations. For sanghas and federations to
explore new arenas and innovate new solutions, a role played
thus far by MS, they need to have the space to experiment, which
could take the form of an innovation fund. Such a fund could be
run by every state where federations can apply for support to
experiment on new ideas, followed by peer exchanges towards
replication of these innovations.
However, to build an enabling policy and programme environment
for its work, it is insufficient for MS to advocate its work with
government alone. It will need to widen its base of support and
broaden its constituency with like-minded civil society institutions
as well as with the women's movement. Thus, another major
sphere of influence to be targeted is civil society, national and
international, linked to the women's movement including feminist
groups working on the DV Act, violence against women, social
issues, and on empowerment. Such a dialogue with the larger
women's movement can inform their advocacy initiatives on the
grassroots women perspectives on these issues. For instance,
advocacy of feminist groups related to the DV Act for policy
intervention and implementation can be informed by how
grassroots women view and use this act. The global feminist
movements' stand against decentralisation, for example, is now
necessarily being countered by advocacy efforts of international
grassroots women's networks like the Huairou Commission
(Purushothaman et al., 2010). MS with its rich experience would
be able to add tremendous value to advocacy initiatives both
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D T H E WAY F O R WA R D
nationally and internationally, on a range of issues including
women's concerns, governance, by bringing the voice of
grassroots women into these arenas.
Groups working on literacy and education could be potentially a
strong ally for MS, provided they understand the conceptual
underpinnings of its educational initiatives. Specifically, the
concept of education for empowerment and the central role of
community mobilisation in making the educational intervention
relevant to poor women, needs to be clearly understood.
Alliances with civil society institutions working with women's
groups from a rights based perspective would be ideal but even
those working with sanghas and federations need to know and
appreciate the difference between a rights based federation and
issue based federations (created specifically to address issues
such as credit, natural resource management, disaster
management, livelihoods and so on). Many organisations
working with the broad objective of women's empowerment could
benefit from the MS approach. Interactions with these
organisations will help expand the spheres of influence of MS and
build consensus for long term policy and advocacy for this model.
Final Reflections
Therefore to capitalise on gains from two decades of work the
most fundamental need at this moment is for MS itself to take on
several new roles, the first being to capture these lessons from
experience on how to empower women, girls' - and their
collectives, and become a repository of knowledge and
assistance for the nation. This is vital to reach the vast numbers
of poor women in India alone who require the same opportunity
afforded to the 8,00,000 women MS has reached thus far, a mere
drop in the ocean.
142
A second crucial role for MS lies in advocacy for replication of its
most robust methodologies with other institutions, state or civil
society. The evidence needed for this advocacy is on the results
and effectiveness of the models vis-à-vis others that do not have
an empowerment focus. It can be generated by improved
tracking systems for MS practices, and by investing in additional
evaluations once those systems are in place. Being situated
within the government, the programme runs the risk of mission
drift or being slowly diluted by steady budget cuts or in the worst
instance, being wiped out entirely through policy changes, a fate
suffered by many government programmes in the past.
These complementary roles of research and advocacy fill a
pressing requirement of the movement today, that of visibility,
reach and legitimacy. Despite its track record and the obvious
relevance in women's lives clearly established by evidence
provided throughout this compendium, the programme still has
very little visibility nor does it have the recognition it richly
deserves. To summarise, providing the proof of concept through
impact assessments and other types of evaluation, guidelines for
replication through toolkits, wide publicity, advocacy and lobbying
with decision makers is now the need of the hour.
Decentralisation as a trend has been accompanied by the
devolution of resources and by a parallel trend of the growth of
community based institutions. At higher levels the separation of
institutions of state and civil society has been seen as vital, where
the state implements and civil society acts to provide the checks
and balances by monitoring government. At the very local level
however, the concept of self governance has emerged where
government does not have the capacity to implement all
government functions alone but needs the support of the entire
community. In this localised context, a mobilised community is
the one pre-requisite to prevent elite capture and to that extent
the sanghas and federations have a vital role to play in both
governance and development. Two decades of work with
grassroots women and many innovations later, the relevance of
MS' valuable experience can significantly inform women's
movements, educational initiatives and larger grassroots
movements, nationally and globally. The MS federation model has
much to offer the world as a real model for empowerment and for
women to exercise their agency.
C O N T A C T

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