MAINSTREAMING SOCIAL INCLUSION

Creating a strong voice for the Dalit communities in India is significant challenge which needs to be addressed if the marginalized and poor Dalit communities have to access a Fair Share in the national resources. NACDAOR has adopted two important strategies to address this. Firstly, it observed that the civil society sector, in general, lacks NGOs/CSOs formed/led/managed by Dalit community persons. Some enlightened Dalit individuals have made some efforts. But most of such cases lack professional skills, information and linkages to develop their organisations. As a result, the resources and space available to the Civil Society Sector are not adequately used by Dalit communities. Also, the mainstream NGOs/CSOs remain limited in their perspective and approaches as they do not have the inherent Dalit sensibilities.

NACDAOR has been working to support the Dalit CSOs so that their capacities are built to carry forward their mission of empowerment of Dalit communities. It started working with support agencies and non-Dalit CSOs so as to sensitize them on the issues of social inclusion and develop plans for mainstreaming the same in their regular work, organisational structures and staff teams. NACDOR advocates and provides inputs to the willing organisations for an inclusive organizational culture, planning/monitoring/evaluation of projects and budgeting. The process has taken a definite shape in Uttar Pradesh with UNICEF and its partners in Uttar Pradesh.

While the general civil society sector voices its concerns for the social development processes to be socially inclusive, NACDAOR adds that the civil society itself has to prove that it is socially inclusive in its internal operations.