Samata Adhikar Abhiyan (Samata Rights Campaign)

Empowering young people and local communities to collaboratively create civic justice solutions and enable them through active citizenship to access government entitlements like education, social welfare, and financial inclusion schemes.

Aim

The aim of the Samata Adhikar Abhiyan is to promote active citizenship, constitutional values. grassroots leadership and; create access to justice, information and effective implementation of social benefit schemes for students.

The Samata Adhikar Abhiyan aims to increase accountability, improve representation, and build a resilient democratic society by building a feedback loop between society and government.

Introduction

Samata Adhikar Abhiyan is an initiative of Samata Center that works towards ensuring the rights and welfare of marginalized and vulnerable communities. The organization's primary focus is on creating access to justice, information, services, and effective implementation of social benefit schemes for students, migrant laborers and training young people as active citizens committed to the cause of strengthening democracy.

Samata Adhikar Abhiyan employs a targeted approach that uses training young people and community leaders as Samata Adhikar Fellows, using paralegal training, communication and media advocacy; and technology to deliver services to local communities, enabling them to take ownership of their problems and work towards solutions.

The organization's work includes research, advocacy, and skill development programs, all aimed at empowering communities and creating a positive impact at the grassroots level. Through its various initiatives, Samata Adhikar Abhiyan has been able to create a platform for youth problem solvers and instil values of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst them. Overall, Samata Adhikar Abhiyan's work is focused on building a just and equitable society that upholds the rights and dignity of all its citizens.

Samata Adhikar Abhiyan trains young people and community leaders by providing paralegal training and developing their capacities and skills in the implementation of public policies - we call them as Samata Adhikar Fellow (Rights Associate), who serve as community resource persons, disseminating information and assisting the poor in applying for the appropriate Government Scheme. Samata Adhikar Fellow are passionate, well-informed individuals who want to make a positive impact in their communities, and we work with activist, youth-led organisations to ensure that these dynamic grassroots leaders are engaged in meaningful ways.

Samata Adhikar Fellows work to provide access to information and effective implementation of social benefit schemes for students. By collaborating with social leaders and conducting in-depth research, the program aims to diagnose key issues and problems faced by vulnerable students in India. The ultimate goal of the Samata Adhikar Abhiyan is to enable 10,000 vulnerable students and people in local communities gain access to legislated education and social security schemes that will help them lead a more secure life.

Key Highlights of our work

  • Samata Adhikar Abhiyan works on the concept of active citizenship and we train young people and local community leaders with paralegal training, we call the trained fellows as Samata Adikar Fellow who serve as community resource persons, disseminating information on access to justice and government entitlement schemes.
  • We engage community leaders and young people as Samata Adhikar Fellows where the implementation model actively guides them by strengthening their capacities and training them in implementation with toolkits, paralegal training and guiding them with technology and data capacity that will assist them to achieve maximum impact
  • We work to create awareness and disseminating information to the poor and marginalized students about the government education entitlement, scholarships and skills development schemes to bridge the gap between law and action at scale by working with citizens and government
  • Our fellows conduct mentoring sessions, mental health and career counselling with respect to academic, financial, social, and other matters for students.

The Problem We Are Trying To Address:

The government has announced a variety of programmes, including fully funded scholarship for students for graduation, masters as well as complete scholarships for higher education in abroad; along with free education entrance for children under the Right to Education, and so on. However, due to unequal resource allocation, corruption, and a lack of access to government schemes, people from low-income, marginalised backgrounds do not benefit from government schemes, creating barriers to living a quality life, access to greater civic services, and employment prospects. As a result, there is an urgent need to connect the dots in order to eradicate poverty and achieve equal access to opportunities.

 

SECTION OF SOCIETY WE ARE TRYING TO ASSIST:

The Challenges faced by Students from Low Income, Marginalised, Differently Abled and Challenged Background:

What We Do - This Is How We Are Addressing The Problem:

We strengthen community leaders by providing paralegal training and developing their capacities and skills in the implementation of public policies - we call them as Samata Adhikar Fellow (Rights Associate), who serve as community resource persons, disseminating information and assisting the poor in applying for the appropriate Government Scheme.

At Samata Adhikar Abhiyan, our Samata Adhikar Fellows play a crucial role in serving as community resource persons who are disseminating information, and assisting poor students in applying for the appropriate Government Scheme. The Fellows also work on the concept of active citizenship, access to justice empowering students and local communities to be problem-solvers and safeguarding their interests on the following fronts mentioned below. Samata Adhikar Fellow are passionate trained paralegals, well-informed individuals who want to make a positive impact in their communities, and we work with activist, youth-led organisations to ensure that these dynamic grassroots leaders are engaged in meaningful ways as mentioned below:

Samata Adhikar Fellows work with students and marginalized communities by providing them with perspectives, resources, skills, and tools to access justice.

We provide mentorship programs and guidance to vulnerable students for academic, financial, social, and other matters to ensure access to education benefit schemes for graduation, masters and Ph.D.

We work to safeguarding the interests of students on three crucial fronts

  1. Enabling young people as active citizens by training them as paralegals.
  2. Creating access to justice by making them aware and strengthen their capacities to access the government education entitlements, scholarships and social security schemes.
  3. Career and skill development opportunities

We also conduct legal literacy workshops for Zilla Parishad school teachers, civil society and local communities to build social movements for effective change-making focused on access to justice and access to entitlements.

We are currently working to create a scalable model of legal clinics for communities by collaborating with law colleges wherein law students from legal aid cells join us as volunteers to assist us in local communities on access to justice issues.

The Samata Center believes in the law as a tool for change and reimagines young people and local community leaders as catalysts for grassroots empowerment for tribal and marginalized communities.

We are using targeted interventions, communication, and technology to create awareness on various social security schemes accessible to localised communities.

We have been using innovative media communication material to amplify information on legal aid to a wider audience.

We have been conducting paralegal training and creating awareness on welfare needs of migration labour, a critical demographic in India.

We focus on identifying and addressing civic and environmental issues at a grassroots level, collaborating with stakeholders such as civil society and governance agencies to achieve optimal outcomes logical solutions and enable community-driven change.

Samata Adhikar Fellows ensure that students from disadvantaged communities, students from low-income and challenged backgrounds in India have access to equal opportunities:

  1. Identify the communities: The first step is to identify the communities that need support. This can be done by researching the demographics of the area and working with local NGOs and community leaders.
  2. Build relationships: Build relationships with the community by attending local events, meeting with community leaders, and building trust with the community.
  3. Organize information sessions, workshops, seminars : Organize information sessions, workshops and focused group discussions to inform the community about government welfare programs and social benefits that they are eligible for.
  4. Assess needs: Assess the needs of the community, especially those related to education, and prioritize the areas where you can make the most impact.
  5. Identify eligible beneficiaries: Identify eligible beneficiaries for various welfare schemes and social security programs and help them apply for these programs.
  1. Provide support: Provide support to the beneficiaries in the application process, including filling out forms, gathering documents, and submitting applications.
  2. Follow up: Follow up with the beneficiaries to ensure that they are receiving the benefits they are entitled to and that they understand the programs they are enrolled in.
  3. Collaborate with local partners: Collaborate with Universities, Colleges, local NGOs, community leaders, and government agencies to expand the reach of the program and ensure that eligible beneficiaries are informed about the programs available to them.
  4. Monitor impact: Monitor the impact of the program and make adjustments as necessary to ensure that the program is effective in providing equal opportunities to all.
  5. Document and report: Document and report the impact of the program to stakeholders, including donors, partners, and the community. This will help you to secure support for future initiatives and ensure that the program is sustainable over the long term.

In this way Samata Adhikar Fellows assist students from disadvantaged communities, students from low income and challenged background in India have access to equal opportunities.

We wish to democratise access to various welfare schemes for students from challenged background by supporting in applying for and benefiting from government-enacted social security programmes and social schemes by private entities . We are determined that every citizen has equal access to knowledge and justice.

We Catalyse Change Across Three Levels -

Individual, Community And Institutions.

We work with civil society organisations, educators, activists, young people, women who are change agents at a grassroots level within the community. Samata Adhikar Fellows work within their local communities and villages and with other non-profit community organisations to create awareness among people in the community to get access to these schemes.Our programme is designed to grow and scale the capabilities of grassroots leaders. We catalyse change across three levels: individual, community and intuitions.

Individual: We work at a grassroots level to identify and empower individuals as Fellow to challenge inequalities and transform societies.

Community: We develop community-based organisations and local eco-systems so that they can play an instrumental role in connecting citizens with their eligible welfare schemes

Institutions: We try our best to hold government departments/agencies/institutions accountable on social, economic and environmental issues.

We Enable Samata Adhikar Fellows in the following ways:

 Samata Adhikar Fellows assist in making sure that these schemes reach to the common people. And hence we take an integrated approach, by traning Samata Adhikar Fellows with public policy frameworks and skill sets such as critical analysis, public policy tools, advocacy, campaign skills, data journalism, evidence-based research, survey analysis, and adaptive leadership. Apart from these skills we also focus on development of conceptual awareness of diverse policy challenges for which we have pre-seminar assignments that includes book and academic journal readings, as well as information from documentaries and videos. And this is accompanied by interactive lectures with policy practitioners, distinguished professors, scholars, and leaders in law, social sector, media and politics. We believe that our public policy framework coupled along with Samata Scholars insights, creativity, lived experiences, skills, and commitment play an integral role in finding solutions to the entrenched and emerging development challenges in local communities.

  • Train and enable grassroots leaders as Samata Adhikar Fellows by equipping them with public policy skills to achieve measurable impact in areas of gender equality, civic issues,  health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women
  • Provide them with toolkits to disseminate information on government schemes
  • Strengthening their advocacy skills and ensuring that they have a substantive voice
  • Support them to fully participate and meaningfully engage in processes related to their role and responsibilities with other development stakeholders
  • Training them Modules on Adaptive Leadership, Public Policy
  • Interactive lectures with policy practitioners, distinguished professors, scholars, and leaders in law, social sector, media and politics.
  • Equipping them with Design and Survey Research Tools on Public Policies and Governance Module Training

The Impact We Achieve:

Samata Adhikar Fellows (Rights Campaign) enables common people with access to government welfare programmes and social benefits for which they are eligible in the community. Access to Infoirmation and Assistance in enrolment for social benefits schemes plays an important role in empowering common people in the process, such as assisting farmers in obtaining crop insurance, assisting parents with information and the process of obtaining education subsidies under the Right to Education, and other social security schemes designed for women, people living below the poverty line, and the informal sector. With the support of Samata Adhikar Fellows, we aim to achieve a positive social impact by reaching out to people in these communities to inform them about government welfare programmes and social benefits for which they are eligible. Our work also leads to achieve impact in the following ways

Increasing community awareness and knowledge on government welfare and social security schemes.

Increasing enrolment and creating access of people for government welfare programs and social security schemes.

Redressal of grievances related to welfare programmes and other social security schemes

Creating awareness on access to financial services given by the government for the poor and informal workers

Pre-seminar assignments that will include book and academic journal readings, as well as information from documentaries and videos

Preventing and combating violence against women by training local community stakeholders with legal mechanisms and advocacy tools.

Creating access to medicine and health care information

Creating access to education by equipping people with the right to education act

Creating awareness on land rights protection

Enabling persons with disabilities and mental illnesses by connecting them with social welfare department schemes

Providing free legal aid and access to justice with the assistance from Samata Adhikar Fellows

Capacity Building of stakeholders

Advocating for rights of marginalised communities

Enable communities by assisting them with support from Samata Adhikar Fellows

About Action For Impact Foundation

Action For Impact Foundation works through collaborative partnerships and advocacy initiatives with civil society organizations, government agencies, media and other stakeholders to promote public policy, access to education and sports, justice, gender equality and to advocate human rights of all individuals.

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