In 2009, the Centre for Social Research along with WomenPowerConnect and supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund, designed and implemented a training program for women leaders across India. In the world's largest democracy, women hold a mere 10% of seats in India's parliament. Women’s slim percentage in Indian Parliament also reflects their lack of participation in decision-making process. The goal of our project, "Enhancing the Role of Women in Strengthening Democracy", was to enhance the capacity of women to contest elections, sensitize state and national political parties in order to remove barriers for women, and strengthen the network of women across India in order to advocate for women's issues. Drawing on expertise from seasoned women politicians, as well as our own in-house gender experts, CSR prepared a substantial and thorough training module which was executed by 108 trainers in 30 trainings across India. The training was comprised of 13 modules covered over three days. In addition to the in-person trainings, the CSR team designed and launched an online certificate course in leadership, which can be found at www.womenleadership.in The core strategy of the project was “Train, Contest, Win”. Women’s leadership capacities were built in order to reduce the gender deficit by imparting training to create a pipeline of 1,000 women leaders who would be motivated to contest elections for state legislatures & national parliament. Participant women were selected from across India, with proportional regional representation. Special emphasis was placed on building leadership amongst the marginalized women belonging to Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe and backward classes. It is only a matter of time before the Women's Reservation Bill is passed, reserving 33% of seats in state and national government for women. When this day comes, the need for programs to build the capacities of women who want to contest will become even more urgent than it is today. We are proud to have helped 1,000 women in their preparations for contesting elections and we will continue to provide support and encouragement for these women leaders as they pursue their careers in the years to come. But the work can't stop there. Our goal is to provide training and support to as many women as possible at local, state, and national levels, across party lines, and regardless of caste or class. If the serious issues facing the women of India are to be confronted, women themselves must take their rightful seat at the table.

1. “ Enhancing the Role of Women in Strengthening Democracy ” A joint collaboration by: Centre for Social Research (CSR) & United Nations Development Fund (UNDEF)

2. Women in Politics ( SOUTH ASIA) Bangladesh 64/300= 18.6% Bhutan 4/47= 8.5% Sri Lanka 13/257= 5% Pakistan 76/342= 22.2% Afghanistan 69/250= 27.7% Maldives 5/50= 6.5% Nepal 197/601= 33.2%

3. Women in Politics (INDIA) “ CAN WE ENSURE GENDER JUSTICE ???” 7514 ( 93%) male contestants 556 ( 7%) female contestants 34,06,58,936 ( 48%) 37,60,17,127 ( 52%) 59 Women MPs (10%) 483 Men MPs (90%)

5. Major Activities 1. Formation of Project Team and Advisory Committee 2. Alliance with regional partners Organizing capacity building trainings A compendium profiling 1000 women A list of probable women participants Training Needs Assessment Situational Analysis

6. Major Activities 3 . Training Module 30 Capacity building trainings for 1000 women 4 TOT interactive workshops with 60 identified trainers Designing and introducing online course on political leadership 4. Lobbying and advocacy for passage of bill 5. Experience sharing at South Asia Level

7. Project Strategy 15

8. Regional Partners – Universities Uttar Pradesh ( North India) Lucknow University Rajasthan ( West India) University of Rajasthan Karnataka ( South India) Mysore University West Bengal ( East India) Jadhavpur University Tamil Nadu ( South India) Bharathidasan University 16

9. Regional Partners – NGOs Punjab - Voluntary Health Association of Punjab New Delhi- Centre for Social Research Uttar Pradesh - Suraksha Gujarat - Chetna Maharshtra – Resource and Support Centre for Development Madhya Pradesh – Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences Karnataka– Mahila Samakhya Kerala– SAKHI Tamil Nadu– Women’s Collective Andhra Pradesh – Centre for World Solidarity Andhra Pradesh – Padmavati Mahila Vidyalayam Orissa – SANSRISTI Chattisgarh – SIRSA Jharkhand: Shramajivi Mahila Samity Bihar : Centre for Social Development and Studies Anuranchal Pradesh - Impulse NGO Network 17

13. The deliverables: TOTs Discussion on Training Session Plans and implementation strategy 15 resource person per region 4 x 1 day workshop

14. The deliverables: Capacity Building Trainings 30 trainings completed Trainings organized in association with Universities and NGOs 1000 women leaders from political parties , MPs, MLAs, ULBs, PRIs, advocates, business women, Gender, elections, campaigning, Leadership, communication,Resource mobilization, advocacy, Media mix of theory, experience sharing & practical exercises 30 x 2.5 day workshop

25. THANK YOU