World Mental Health Day
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day and National legal Aid week (10 to 15 October), a one-day workshop was organised in the premises of CUTS-CHD, Chittorgarh,Rajasthan, on October 15, 2005.
The theme of the workshop was ‘Legal and Social support to mentally retarded persons’. The meeting was held to discuss the ways to reduce the number of increasingly growing patients of mental illness because of tension and stress in the society and to disseminate the right information to mentally ill people about their rights and related laws.
RACHNA Programme
CUTS CHD, in association with CARE, India is implementing Reproductive and Child Health Nutrition and AIDS (RACHNA) Programme, during October 15, 2005 to March 31, 2006. The Project Launch meeting was organised at Bhilwara, Rajasthan, on October 15, 2005.
The objectives of the project are to improve the quality and coverage of maternal and child health services in Mandalgarh and Suwana blocks of Bhilwara district and to engage and strengthen the local government bodies for community engagement process.
Yuva Sammelan (Youth Meeting)
CUTS CHD is implementing ‘Youth towards healthy future/ Yuva Sukhad Bhavishya Ki Aur’ (Youth Intervention Project) in the city area of Bhilwara with the support of Care India. Under the programme, a Yuva Sammelan (Youth Meeting) was organised on October 30, 2005. About 500 people participated in the event, which included youth, men, women and children.
On the occasion, young boys and girls staged two plays, ‘Hamari Gudiya’ (Our Darling Daughter) and ‘Savdhan’ (Be Alert). Through the play, ‘Hamari Gudiya’, the audience were informed of the social ills like child marriage, gender discrimination, while ‘Savdhan’ depicted how lethal diseases, such as HIV/AIDS spread and what measures and precautions people can take to eschew from them. A signing programme, ‘Youth Idol’, was also presented. Other cultural programmes included Turban Wrapping competition among girls and Make up competition among boys. Babulal Pandit, the councillor of the area awarded the winners.
The Coordinator of the project, Gauri Rani, explained the objectives of the CHAYAN. In his address, the Programme Officer lauded the efforts of CHD in conducting such a programme in the village.
Launch Meeting of Expenditure Tracking Survey
CUTS Centre for Human Development (CUTS-CHD), in collaboration with South Asia Social Accountability Network (SasaNet) of the Word Bank (WB), has taken up a new project, ‘Participatory Expenditure Tracking and Survey on Mid-day Meal Scheme’ (MDMS) in Rajasthan focusing Chittorgarh district. The project Launch Meeting and orientation of surveyors was organised at Chittorgarh on October 21, 2005.
In the inaugural session, Ashutosh Gupta, District Collector, Chittorgarh addressed the meeting as the chief guest. Keynote addresses were delivered by Narabda Bhambi District Education Officer (DEO) Sunil Kumat Jha Additional chief executive officer, Zila Parishad, Chittorgarh, Pradhan, panchyat samiti, Chittorgarh, J V R Murthy WB representative, George Cheriyan, the then Assistant Director, CUTS International, K C Sharma and Dhanna Singh Rawat, the Project Coordinators.
The other distinguished participants included the Block Development Officers (BDOs), panchayat samiti/gram panchayat representatives, teachers, non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives, surveyors and other social activists. More than 100 representatives from all over the district participated in the Launch Meeting.
In the second session of the workshop, 28 surveyors (2 from each block) from all the 14 blocks of Chittorgarh district participated in the orientation programme. The survey will be conducted in 221 Government/Non-Government Primary Schools covering all the blocks of Chittorgarh district.