Advocacy

National Advocacy for Women’s Issues and Broader Citizen/Peace Efforts

Streebal has consistently networked with other NGOs and educational institutions at the national level, forming issue-based coalitions for advocacy and citizen action.

80's :
Dahej Virodhi Chetna Manch

  • During the eighties Streebal was one of the eight leading women’s organisations in the capital that formed the Dahej Virodhi Chetna Manch to focus attention on dowry, female illiteracy, lack of women’s safety, obscenity and other problematic areas that led to the review and amendment of a number of women-related laws sch as the Dowry (Prohibition) Act, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act etc. etc.

Peace Efforts within Safdarjung Enclave during Anti-Sikh Riots

  • In 1984 anti-Sikh riots rocked Safdarjung Enclave which, lying in close proximity to AIIMS, was one of the earliest affected areas. Streebal played a nodal role in the community, spearheading the rescue and protection of a number of Sikh families and homes from rioting mobs: organizing a multiparty padyatra through the area that culminated in both Ardas and Aarti jointly performed in the main village square by several hundred Hindus and Sikhs, well before the cremation of the assassinated Prime Minister took place, restoring some semblance of peace in the riot-torn area. Streebal also organized the residents to undertake night security vigils to ensure neighbourhood peace. At the request of Streebal president the district was amongst the first to have the army brought in. Subsequently, Streebal President was requested to lead the police flag march in the area to ensure law and order prevailed.

90's :
Work in Communal Harmony, Corruption-Free Society, Women’s Reproductive Health

  • In the wake of the 1992, December 6th disturbances in the capital Streebal joined other NGOs in a fact-finding mission in Seelampuri and work for communal harmony.
  • In 1997-98 Streebal actively helped to initiate India Action Network, drawing in many organisations and eminent individuals to help promote consciousness of citizen civic duties, women’s equality issues and the need for greater political representation for women and a clean corruption-free society.
  • Streebal participated in a number of national and international meetings on population, health, women’s reproductive rights and health concerns, including The Safe Motherhood Initiative for South Asia in Lahore, 1990; the NGO Forum, UN International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo 1994.

99/2000:
Role in Post-Kargil Civil Society Peace Effort with Pakistan

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  • In 1999, in the wake of the Kargil war a Punjabi poem written by Streebal President Rami Chhabra: “Aasmaan Hai Sadi Sanjhi Sima” that appealed for peace and better sense to prevail on both sides led to widespread endorsement by women’s organisations from across countries of the subcontinent. A musical rendering of the poem was made by leading artiste Shano Khoranna who sang it to a large audience at Gandhi Smriti on 6th August 1999, Hiroshima Day. There, the large gathering took a pledge to further peace and cooperation across the subcontinent endorsing the words of the poem: Sky is the Limit of our Shared Ambitions.
  • The poem became the trigger for the resolve by womens' groups to proceed on a peace mission to Pakistan
  • End-March 2000 Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande led a women’s delegation on the historic Women’s Peace Bus to Lahore and the poem was spoken in the Faleti public square and on Pakistan TV, eliciting wide positive response from the local populace and press, including the Urdu newspapers.
  • The visit included an Indo-Pakistan Women’s Solidarity Conference where leading Pakistani women participated and the renowned peace activist Asma Jehangir led the discussion from the Pakistan side and Rami Chhabra from the Indian side to discuss the significant challenges and problems being faced by both countries and to build support for a constituency for peace between neighbours.

90's - 2000+ :
Campaigning to Stop Growing Vulgarisation of Media/Society

The late nineties also saw huge challenges to India’s established values and systems as the country globalized. Massive HIV/Aids donor-supported condom-and-needle-centred strategies were in play that inter alia pushed to virtually legitimize and normalise prostitution, homosexual promiscuity and drug-addicted groups as a critical component of change demanded in the Indian mindset. Huge commercial and corporate interests were allied as simultaneously the once closely-held government electronic media was overtaken by these interests. The media happily hyper-sexualised, breaking all restraints on sexuality issues in the name of HIV/AIDS awareness-building.

  • Streebal was in the vanguard, organizing women’s and voluntary social organisations cutting across political ideologies, to wage a collective battle against these mindless and unhealthy strategies that were triggering a coarse social change in Indian society in the name of sex-education, HIV/AIDS awareness and ‘sexually safe-behaviour’. The period saw an intensive battle against the open demand for pornography, including for permission to exhibit X-rated films, strangely made by men in key positions in the leading educational and censorship film-institutions. Women’s groups activated by Streebal were successful in ousting such unprincipled heads from national institutions at that stage. But although Streebal continued ceaseless efforts to focus attention on growing pornography through electronic and new media – as also increasing prostitution – it was unable to succeed in this mission in the longer run, as huge sums of external funds flooded the NGO, media and other communication circles and fractured the unity of women’s organisations. The later Women’s Alliance Against Pornography spearheaded by Streebal was unable to dent the issue.
  • Streebal assisted the formation of a Joint Action Front of Women consisting of over 100 organisations with Streebal as Convenor to tackle the misguided HIV/Aids agenda.
  • Amongst many other initiatives big and small to sensitise policy-makers It made a detailed critique of the proposed Immoral Traffic Prevention (Amendment )Bill 2006 including a presentation to the HRD Parliamentary Standing Committee where the conflict between government policies for women’s uplift and the National Aids Control Programme activities was highlighted.
  • But these efforts proved of little avail as the hugely funded donor-led HIV/AIDS national programme went from strength to strength, even as experts documented and presented the facts to policy-makers to no avail. The combination of funds and media patronage of those supporting the HIV/AIDS engendered view of women’s sexual autonomy soon fragmented the unity of women’s organisations which had till then formed a solid phalanx against obscenity in the media and perceived sexual autonomy as protection from abuse not license.
  • 2006 - National Aid Control Programme rolled into its third phase, now cornering huge national funds for its ill-designed, socially-destructive policies even as its figures were proven grossly over-hyped – at the cost of broader dire health needs. Streebal led in forging together a coalition of over 100 eminent individuals/leading social organisations across the country working with prostitution and related social issues to support a Holistic-Ethical Wholesome Paradigm of Aids Prevention. Again, although meticulously documented evidence was given to the highest levels – President, Prime Minister, Planning Commission - but to no avail.

1997 – 2023 :
Joining the Struggle for Women’s Political Representation and Presenting a Viable Alternative to Women’s Reservation Bill

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  • Joining in the advocacy for women’s political representation was another major women’s cause Streebal took up consistently from the late nineties when the Women’s Reservation Bill was first mooted. Several initiatives were pursued to highlight the dire need for women’s participation in the Parliament and State Legislatures to bring women’s perspectives and needs to the fore in the national agenda. In the interest of maintaining unity between women organisations Streebal worked alongside the women’s movement to demand passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
  • Towards this end:
  • Streebal presented key background papers: Women’s Unfinished Agenda I & II at meetings organized by the Joint Forum for Women in the Parliament House Annex to sensitise parliamentarians/ consolidate support of women parliamentarians; also, to the National Commission of Women.
  • Participated actively in innumerable women’s protest meetings/ lobby sessions/seminars to secure support for passage of the ill-fated Bill.
  • Simultaneously Streebal researched and prepared a less controversial alternative to it.
  • An alternative strategy was presented to the Parliament Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice entrusted to examine the 2008 version of the ill-fated Bill and was so seriously considered by the Parliamentary Standing Committee that Streebal was invited back to make a second presentation to it. Subsequently the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee indicated its viability and requested Streebal to ensure more public support to the idea.
  • The Chairman and Vice- Chairman participated in two meetings of leading individuals and organisations organized by Streebal at India International Centre and the Centre for Policy Research respectively to debate the issue. But soon after, the sudden change of the composition of the Standing Committee and replacement of its Chair with a diehard Women’s Reservation Bill supporter nixed the alternative. WRB continued its mired existence.
  • In November 2023 Rami Chhabra, President Streebal was invited to give a lecture as part of the India international Center Diamond Jubilee India @ 75 lecture series on: Affirmative Legislation for Women's Substantive Political Representation. WISCOMP brought out a monograph of the further research-amplifed lecture in December 2023. The Vice President of India Shri Dhanakar invited Smt. Rami Chhabra to discuss the same. But days later Parliment passed the Nari Shakti Vandana Adhiniyam.
  • On the positive side, in 2023, the Supreme Court of India responded through it's Registrar to the critique made by Streebal and some others to the Chief Justice of India regarding the inappropriate terms "sex worker and sex work" given in The Hand Book on Combating Gender Stereotypes published by Supreme Court of India and agreed these would be subsituted by "Trafficked Victim/Survivor or woman engaged in commercial sexual activity or woman forced into commercial sexual explotation".