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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Voice of People (VOP), UP alliance partner of NAFRE

 

 

Voice of People (VOP)

                                        जिसका मुद्दा उसकी लड़ाई, 

                 जिसकी लड़ाई उसकी अगुवाई

Voice of People (VOP) was started in Uttar Pradesh as a campaign to propose a constitutional amendment to the government for free and compulsory education to all children in 2002. The National Alliance for the Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE) was doing the same campaign at the national level. There was a clear difference between the NAFRE and VOP. The NAFRE was a national level alliance for ensuring every child get access to education as a fundamental right but VOP was a UP state level network working on child rights like education, health, nutrition and participation.  The alliance working under NAFRE disappeared after 2010 but the VOP is still working in Uttar Pradesh. 

VOP envisions a healthy, empowered, environmentally protected society, promoting social issues for behavioural change in Uttar Pradesh. Enhancing and influencing Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) in the intervention areas has been one of the core issues of the VOP. Education, health and nutrition has been the core area of the intervention of the network members.

Mission

        Advocacy and networking with government to ensure access to education, health services and nutritious food.

        Advocacy for opening of new schools, new ICDS centres and coverage of more communities under ASHA workers and ANMs.

        Enabling/Training villagers on kitchen garden concept to ensure that their children and pregnant women get nutritious food.

        Enable community mechanisms to manage common resources and needs to ensure happy and healthy childhood in their UP.

        Enable community people especially women and children to access health care facilities

        Inclusion of excluded and their entitlement in all Development activities/programmes.

        These are some of the important

 

VOP champions innovative methods and technology that enable its member organization to play a critical role in the policy making process for the most marginalised section of Uttar Pradesh. VOP regularly conducts primary research to understand views of the people directly affecting its interventions.  VOP seeks to give the people from its intervention areas a greater voice in government by promoting the use of new methods and technologies like public hearing, consultation of civil society and government stakeholders and also sharing the ground reports with the concern state level departments and ministries.

Under the leadership of the VOP different groups were formed at the village level between 1999 and 2008. These CBOs played critical role in the child rights movement in UP.  Important among them were Mahila Haqdari Morcha, Kisan Sangathan, and Bal Manch. These groups were empowered to the extent that they could influence village-level politics. They ensured that all the village heads (Gram Pradhan) passed a resolution to open government schools in their respective villages.

 

VOP is network of civil societies. It is not a registered body. Most of the members of the VOP are working for the development of the most deprived section of our society.

The Criteria to be member of VOP:

·         Understanding of Child Rights Issues in Uttar Pradesh

o   Right to Survival

o   Right to Development

o   Right to Protection

o   Right to Participation

·         Members should be from UP

·         Should have been working in UP for more than 3 years on child rights issues

 

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