Campaigns

Campaigns initiated by ROSHNI foundation are evidence-based advocacy campaign that calls for better policies, programming, and support for girls and women. Along with our network of partners united in a shared commitment to advocate for gender equality. Together, we are building a movement fuelling concrete action and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a gender lens at global and national levels.

OUR ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN STRATEGY IS BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:

  1. Mobilise Stakeholders:

We believe in bringing together individual and organisations with diverse expertise and resource which is imperative to progress. We mobilize diverse stakeholders to collaborate across:

  • Issues
  • Sectors
  • Generations
  • Geographies
  • Communities
  1. Evidence Base Support:

We work to get diverse stakeholders to collectively commit to redefining the narrative around girls and women, from being described as victims and vulnerable, to being recognised as powerful agents of change. This is done by:

  • Building the Evidence Base
  • Using Shared Messages
  • Amplifying Solutions
  • Spotlighting Change makers voices
  1. Inspire Action:

Together with stakeholders we intent to execute advocacy and communication strategies urging decision policy maker to prioritise girls and women. With a unified voice. Advocates hold government accountable to more gender sensitive action including

  • All necessary Support
  • Programs
  • Political Will and Policies

WHAT WE DO:

  1. CATALYZE ACTION: ROSHNI Foundation with the help of its civil society partnerships works to spark political commitment and support for girls and women everywhere. We consistently keep the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women at the forefront where it belongs. We bring the best ideas forward, highlight what works, and call out the gaps.
  1. COMMUNICATING: From storytelling to the hard facts, from Instagram to press releases, our communications strategies are aimed at reaching advocates and change makers from all walks of life.
  1. CONVENING: We try our best to create the physical and virtual spaces for diverse voices and stakeholders to share solutions, build coalitions, and drive progress.
  1. CAPACITY BUILDING: We try our best to engage influencers and advocates from global development, research, media, government, and the private sector for advancing progress for girls and women.

1. CAMPAIGN FOR FAMILY PLANNING

WHY TO CAMPAIGN FOR FAMILY PLANNING?

As a part of this campaign, we are working for communities and individuals. We work towards a world where women, men and young people everywhere have control over their own bodies, and therefore their destinies. A world where they are free to choose parenthood or not; free to decide how many children they will have and when; free to pursue healthy sexual lives without fear of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. A world where gender or sexuality are no longer a source of inequality or stigma. We will not retreat from doing everything we can to safeguard these important choices and rights for current and future generations

Governments have agreed on a range of commitments to advance sustainable development, including promoting women’s and girls’ health and protecting human rights for all. Global commitments are important as they set a framework to influence national development strategies and programming.

We support the rights of women and girls to decide, freely, and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have. We advocate and liaison with governments, civil society, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and the research and development community to enable women and girls to have access to rights-based family planning services and supplies.

WHAT WE DO:

As a part of our Campaign, we do the following

  • Strengthening advocacy message for policy and implementation commitments to SRHR;
  • Helps coordinate civil society efforts to advance SRHR and family planning.
  • Urging the government to ensure civil society participation in the planning and decision making at district administrative level when it comes to family planning awareness is an important way to accelerate progress towards family planning goals.
  • Increasing access knowledge about contraceptives among young people.
  • Creating awareness on the positive impact of Family Planning

Drawing administration’s attention to the commitments they have made around the same issue.

2. MEDIA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

WHY TO CAMPAIGN FOR MEDIA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?

ROSHNI believes in the strength of media and communication towards achieving sustainable development goals and with a mission is to strengthen citizenship, local governance and social justice by enhancing the media and communication resources of NGOs and grassroots communities.

Media play important roles in society. They report on current events, provide frameworks for interpretation, mobilise people with regard to various issues, reproduce predominant culture and society, and entertain.

 

WHAT WE DO:

  • For us at ROSHNI, Media advocacy is also an important aspect which we focus; which includes campaigning, training, communication and alliance-building activities which seek to advance women’s rights and gender equality in and through the media.
  • Using different media and communication technology we intent to advocate for the rights of marginalised communities.
  • Media for Sustainable Development Campaign aims to create a network of grassroots partners, media functionaries, and civil society organisations which will further this cause in disseminating knowledge among people about gender equality and reproductive health rights.

3. FIGHT AGAISNT AIDS CAMPAIGN

WHY FIGHT AGAINST AIDS?

AIDS is a life-threatening disease caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. HIV makes it difficult for the body to fight infections. There is no cure for AIDS until now.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. An HIV-infected person receives a diagnosis of AIDS after developing one of the CDC-defined AIDS indicator illnesses. An HIV positive person who has not had any serious illnesses also can receive an AIDS diagnosis on the basis of certain blood tests (CD4+ counts). A positive HIV test result does not mean that a person has AIDS. A diagnosis of AIDS is made by a physician using certain clinical criteria (e.g. AIDS indicator illnesses). Infection with HIV can weaken the immune system to the point that it has difficulty fighting off certain infections. These types of infections are known as "opportunistic" infections because they take the opportunity a weakened immune system gives to cause illness. Many of the infections that cause problems or may be life-threatening for people with AIDS are usually controlled by a healthy immune system. The immune system of a person with AIDS is weakened to the point that medical intervention may be necessary to prevent or treat serious illness.

 

WHAT WE DO:

  • We advocate for the human rights of HIV + affected people and for access to information about HIV and SAFE Sex. The Fundamental Rights embodied in the Indian Constitution act as a guarantee that all Indian citizens enjoy rights such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights. It does not matter if an individual is affected or infected by HIV. There can be no valid or effective response to HIV/AIDS without respect for human rights, fundamental freedom and the dignity of human beings.

Three of the most important rights in the HIV scenario include:

    1. Right to Informed Consent
    2. Right to Confidentiality
    3. Right against Discrimination
  • We focus on disseminating information, education, and communication on HIV/AIDS prevention. We believe HIV infection is entirely preventable by raising awareness, about its occurrence and spread is very significant in protecting the people from the epidemic.

4. END CHILD MARRIAGES CAMPAIGN

WHY END CHILD MARRIAGES CAMPAIGN?

Child Marriage is defined as a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18 and refers to both formal marriages and informal unions in which children under the age of 18 live with a partner as if married. Child marriage affects both girls and boys, but it affects girls disproportionately, especially in South Asia.

Child marriage violates children’s rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. India has the largest number of brides in the world – one-third of the global total.

Child marriage is the result of the interplay of economic and social forces. In communities where the practice is prevalent, marrying a girl as a child is part of a cluster of social norms and attitudes that reflect the low value accorded to the human rights of girls. At the global level, child marriage is included in Goal 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” under Target 5.3 “Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation”.

Ending child marriage and supporting married girls require work across four areas:

  • Empower girls
  • Training Teachers AND Youth as agents of change
  • Mobilise families and communities
  • Implementing laws and policies

 

WHAT WE DO:

We at ROSHNI Foundation focus on approaches needed to address child marriage, and the role everyone has to play to end the practice. And so our intervention when it comes to End Child Marriages is to strengthen the network of organizations which are working for the cause to end child marriages. We also in our training with Teachers and Youth make sure to motivate them to act as change agents in the community to end child marriages. It is important to stress importance on long-term, sustainable interventions that are coordinated, well-resourced and the result of shared learning.

5. YOUR BOOK, THEIR FUTURE

(ROSHNI BOOK DONATION DRIVE)

Your Book Their Future is a Notebook, Storybook Donation Drive which we conduct in June – July. Books play an instrumental role in our life. However, many students do not have access of notebooks/storybooks. We believe that every child has the right to have notebooks and enjoy good storybooks in languages they speak and learn in. At ROSHNI our dream is to see our country where every child has access to books. A student who read more, learn better and are more likely to succeed at school as well as in life.

 

Your Book Their Future” is an initiative by ROSHNI to help bridge the gap between those who want to help and those students who need books. We all by making these notebooks/storybooks accessible to children will help to achieve the dream of reading India and will spread the joy of reading and learning. In June and July, we collect storybooks/notebooks and distribute them to students in need. Formerly “Your Book Their Future” was known as Kitaab Express. If you want to contribute by giving notebooks or storybooks you can call or email us, see our contact details in the Contact Us page.

6. TAX FREE SANITARY NAPKINS

Tax-Free Sanitary Napkin Campaign was initiated to request the government to remove GST Tax on Sanitary Pads, the campaign was started in 2016 and was concluded in 2018. A woman’s body shouldn’t be treated as fair game to tax. All women on an average menstruate from the ages of 12 to 51. Despite it being the biological and hygienic requisite of more than half the population, current legislation systematically discriminates against women by taxing basic commodities such as sanitary napkins. On an average, a woman spends approximately 65 days menstruating ever year. Only 12 percent of India’s 355 million women use sanitary napkins. Over 88 percent of women resort to cloth, ashes and husk sand. Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) are 70 percent more common among these women. Taxing sanitary napkins creates economic obstacles for women from getting easy access to them: a commodity that is not optional, but a hygienic requirement. By taxing these basic commodities, and putting them in the ‘luxury’ category, we are discouraging an improved standard of life and encouraging discrimination based on sex. This is unacceptable given that the right to sanitation and healthy life is a fundamentally guaranteed right under the Constitution of India. Women have to use sanitary napkins every month. They are a necessity, not a luxury.

Beyond affordability, Articles 14, 15, 21, and 47 of The Constitution Of India, guarantees Equality before the Law, Prohibits Discrimination based on Sex and Propagates State to improve the standard of living.

Before GST Tax, sanitary napkins are taxed up to 13.5 percent, based on the state you are living in. After GST Tax imposed, sanitary napkins are were to be taxed at 12 percent.

If condoms and contraception are tax-free to promote their use for health reasons, so should sanitary napkins, We cannot, as a country, talk about wanting to fight for gender equality if we fail to identify how certain policies targeted specifically at the female populate, adversely affect them.

We initiated Tax Free Sanitary Pads Movement on 16 Nov 2016 when our Founder spoke about ending Sanitary Pads Tax at Global Citizen Festival in Mumbai, in which he demanded 100% tax exemption for environment and health friendly pads (reusable cloth sanitary napkins and environment-friendly napkins).

Due to the efforts of all the social activist across the country and also due to the efforts of many civil society organisation, the government scrapped a controversial tax on sanitary pads in July 2018.

7. RIGHT TO A TOILET CAMPAIGN

Right to a Toilet Campaign was conducted during 2014-15. Initiated in 2014 till 2015, we students led the Right to a Toilet (RTT) which was for to advocate for free, clean, safe public urinals for women and also in college campuses and public spaces in Pune City. As a united front of student activists, we were committed to both confronting the insensitive system and collaborating with civil society, government to bring about impactful change.

Our demand to increase the number of clean and safe toilets during the campaign included the following aspects:

  1. Easy Availability of Toilets (public places, schools, college’s, workplaces, etc.)
  2. Accessible for All (to all, without discrimination)
  3. Free for Females
  4. Safe (free from health hazards, and in locations that are safe for all users, e.g. where women feel safe from harassment and violence)
  5. Acceptable (culturally and socially, and must protect peoples’ privacy and dignity.
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