On 10th July, 1979, India - by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) - became a State party to this treaty body. Reporting guidelines of the Covenant require States to submit periodic reports every five years. After submitting the initial report, India failed to report to the Committee on Eonomic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee). Now, after almost two decades, India is scheduled to be reviewed by the Committee in May 2008.
India’s upcoming review also provides an opportunity to civil society groups in India to engage with our government, using international forums and spaces. This NGO Report to the Committee was prepared by the People’s Collective for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for May 2008 review process.
PWESCR (Programme on Women’s Economic Social and Cultural Rights) initiated a collective process under the broad umbrella of the People’s Collective on Economic Social and Cultural Rights to articulate the myriad voices from India’s civil society.
- The short term goal for the Collective was to develop an NGO Report in response to the Government of India’s Report.
- The long term goal, however, was two fold: to develop a core group of organisations to monitor women’s economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) in India, and to raise awareness around international human rights standards and their relevance to local and national struggles.
It has been a long and challenging journey for PWESCR to coordinate the process of developing this Report. The idea to form a Collective started with a core group of 12 members who met twice – once in Delhi and then in Mumbai. It was felt that it was important to participate in the CESCR review process and to develop a report.
With the help of these core group members, a collective process with extensive outreach was developed. By 12th December, 2007, when we had our first national consultation, the Collective already had sixty plus organisations on board. At that day long meeting clear guidelines, timelines were laid down and various subgroups were formed. The sense of shared responsibility was strongly expressed. People volunteered to work in various thematic subgroups to collect information/ evidence for the report. To make communication and information sharing easy, a listserv was set up and moderated by PWESCR.
For next month and a half, various activities were carried out in the different subgroups. Several meetings and outreach consultations were organised by leaders of these subgroups to connect diverse groups to this process. PWESCR continued to stage workshops to train these subgroups on treaty bodies, guidelines, reporting process, and so on. After weeks of hard work, draft chapters started to take shape.
The Collective then met on 4th February, 2008, in Delhi for a National Consultation. Presentations were made by all subgroups, with critical inputs from others. After discussions on various issues the draft chapters were then submitted to the drafting committee, a group of individuals responsible for ensuring the accuracy of data and evidence, as well as clarity in terms of arguments.
Additional research assistance was provided by a team of researchers at PWESCR. The draft chapters were also shared by various independent experts who provided very insightful advice. After spending over four weeks on the document, drafting committee members finalised all these chapters.
This report by the Collective has five sections divided into 20 chapters. The divisions of sections are based on grouping articles following the Committee’s review process. The last section was added as ‘Critical Concerns’, since these issues were indispensable for a Report of this kind. We would have wished to include many more issues and themes, but lack of time and other constraints came in the way. However, the absence of these themes does not in any way indicate their lack of importance or relevance to India’s ESCR scenario.
It was a great opportunity for PWESCR to engage with numerous very diverse groups and individuals who contributed towards making this Report possible. The biggest challenge was to keep to the deadline of time and the constraints of space in coming up with this Report.
Let me reiterate that it was a tremendous honour to work with over hundred groups and individuals to make this Report possible. The collective responsibility that the process generated gave us the encouragement to take on this immense responsibility.
Priti Darooka
Executive Director
PWESCR
Download the document
- Divided Destinies Unequal Lives - ESC rights and the Indian State
