Appointment of the New Executive Director

Congratulations to Ms. Margaret Sampath who has taken over as the New Executive Director of SICHREM from today- 1st June 2020. The SICHREM team wishes her all the very best for her position at SICHREM. We take this opportunity to appreciate her great job and all the hard work that led to her promotion. We know you will do great things in this position, and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for you.

We wish you to bring more positive changes in the lives of the people. Best of luck as you advance in your career.

Advertisement for Mobile App Development

MANASA Centre for Development and Social Action, a not for profit organization, in its ongoing engagement with human rights defenders and victims of human rights violations, plans to develop Mobile Application to strengthen its interventions.

We aim to develop a technological tool – at this juncture a mobile application-for the defenders and victims we engage with. Towards this, we invite expression of interest from organizations. We expect the organization to develop a secure mobile application and undertake its maintenance for minimum two years. We expect the mobile application to be a tool for defenders and victims of human rights violations to report instantly a violation, hence allowing swift intervention actions. We also expect the mobile application to contain materials on human rights, allowing for human rights education and awareness.

We prefer to engage with an organization which has the capacity to turn our ideas into possible technological solutions, while fully respecting and adhering to the laws and ethics of privacy and respect. The origination needs to develop a customized hybrid App embracing a range of software effective for different devices.

The features and services which we require in the Application are:

• Works across all platforms.
• Works on multiple devices such as desktops, mobiles, and tablets seamlessly.
• Secure and guarantees user data protection and privacy.
• Simple, user friendly and easy navigation.

Interested organizations should mail their expression of interest on email manasacrprog@gmail.com by September15, 2020, and enclose the following documents:

• Proposals for development of the Mobile Application with the timeline required for the completion.
• Cost or budget for the development of the Mobile Application and two-year maintenance.
• List of features into the Mobile Application
• Security and Safety measures for the Mobile Application
• Terms and Conditions of agreement for the development of the Mobile Application.
• Letter of appreciations and references of the NGOs and Companies who have been your customers for development of similar products.

Human Rights Mobile Clinic June 2020

Human Rights Mobile Clinic was conducted on 12th June 2020 at Kalyan Nagar, the women in the community were given free legal advice and also awareness was given on Covid-19, Hand-Wash and Hygiene. Topics like Domestic Violence, Women Rights and Child Rights were discussed.

Press Release on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour, June 12, 2020

CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD LABOUR – CACL

Central Secretariat, C/o SICHREM, No.35, Anjanappa Complex, Lingarajapuram, Bangalore – 560084; Phone : 9845001338

The Campaign Against Child Labour calls upon the Central and State Governments not to adopt any measures due to Covid -19 crisis, that will backtrack the country from its commitment in the ‘sustainable development goals’ to eradicate Child Labour totally by the year 2025.

The statistics of the volume of child labour in India is still a matter of dispute as different agencies report different figures, varying between 44 million and 115 million. However there has been a claim that there was a reduction in the volume between the Census in 2001 and 2011. If this is true, certainly that provides a relief and gives further hope that there will be further reduction during 2011 to 2021. But the fear is that the Covid – 19 induced lock down is causing increase in the number of children getting into labour. There are already reports from the field that confirms this fear. It should be noted that mechanisms like Child Line, Child Rights Committees and Child Rights Commissions report that there is an increase in the calls for help.

In this context the Campaign urges the Governments to retract from the efforts to dilute the Labour laws because that can put the families of workers into greater insecurities and further impoverishment. This will push more children into the labour market. CACL upholds the need for providing incentives to Employers and Investors to rebuild the economy. But allowing cheap labour and child labour is a counter productive measure.

CACL is anguished by the proposal from certain quarters to grant amnesty to Employers of child labour as it is giving a wrong message and will encourage the Employers to take things for granted.

The tragic incident of a poor tribal girl studying in the 10^th std committing suicide when the Kerala Govt. Introduced online education, should be an eye opener. The poor family did not have access to a smart phone and the old TV set in the house was under repair. It is a reality that a large number of children in India have no access to any digital media and those children will stop education. Any child out of school is a ‘potential laborer’. Therefore online education cannot be a substitution for a long time for schooling.

It should not be forgotten that a large number of children are also migrant laborers. Most often, the whole family with children migrate in search of work. The tragic death of Jameela Magdum, the 12 year old girl child migrant laborer during her long walk to her native place is a reminder for giving special focus on preventing children from migration. Providing employment for the migrant laborers with the guarantee of minimum wage in their own native place is an urgent necessity.

It maybe a fact that extraordinary situations demand extraordinary actions, but extraordinary actions shall not be at the cost of human rights especially of children.

 

Mathews Philip                                                          Ashok Jha

National Convener – CACL                              Convener – Advocacy Unit

 

Campaign Against Child Labour is a nationwide coalition of NGOs, Civil Society Organisations and individuals for eradication of child labour. This Press note is issued in the context of World Day Against Child labour on 12^th June 2020.

Job Posting

DATES FOR ALL POSITIONS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TILL JULY 3, 2020.

MANASA Centre for Development and Social Action (MANASA) invites applications for multiple vacancies for an EIDHR project. This document mentions all details regarding the current openings at MANASA. For more details about MANASA, please visit – www.sichrem.org.

MANASA believes in affirmative action and encourages applications from women, LGBTIQ candidates, candidates from Dalit and Adivasi communities, religious and ethnic minorities, and persons with disability.

Position 1

Position: Finance and Administration Coordinator (full-time salaried)

Division: Finance and Administration

Location: New Delhi

Experience: Minimum 10 years’ experience in overall project management, finance management and donor compliances

Qualification: Post-graduation in finance, administration, management or any other relevant field

Language: High level proficiency in English

Overview:

• Overall financial and administrative management of the program
• Finalise periodic financial and narrative reports to the donors
• Undertake mandatory legal compliance checks and adherence to all mandatory donor guidelines
• Coordinate with partners on financial management as well as narrative reports

Apply: Interested candidates should send application to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position and last held position
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of three referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘F&A Coordinator’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

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Position 2

Position: Finance Officer (full-time salaried)

Division: Finance and Administration

Location: New Delhi

Experience: Minimum 3 years’ experience in finance and accounting

Qualification: Graduation in finance, accounts or any other relevant field

Language: Proficiency in English and Hindi

Overview:

• Maintain periodic finance reports
• Monitor financial variances in budget lines
• Maintain daily books of accounts
• Coordinate the periodic audits
• Maintain online database for all finance related documents
• Support programs team with budget and accounts for activities

Apply: Interested candidates should send applications to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position and supporting documents and last held position
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of three referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘Finance Officer’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

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Position 3

Position: Administration Officer (full-time salaried)

Division: Finance and Administration

Location: New Delhi

Experience: Minimum 3 years’ experience in project administration and management

Qualification: Graduation in administration, management or any other relevant field

Language: Proficiency in English and Hindi

Overview:

• Draft periodic reports
• Maintain database of reports and documents
• Maintain compliance reports and updates for staffs and consultants
• Support Finance and Administration Coordinator with daily tasks
• Support programs team with all logistics for activities

Apply: Interested candidates should send applications to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position and last held position
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of three referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘Administration Officer’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

—xxx—

Position 4

Position: Program Officer (full-time salaried)

Division: Programs

Location: New Delhi

Experience: Minimum 5 years’ experience in project coordination and implementation

Qualification: Post-graduation in social work, social sciences or any other relevant field with exposure to legal / human rights work

Language: Proficiency in English and Hindi.

Overview:

• Coordinate with partner organisations and other civil society organisations on activities
• Organise activities in collaboration with partner organisations and associates
• Compile and develop materials and handouts for the activities
• Prepare media briefs on activities and interventions
• Manage website and social media handles and pages

Apply: Interested candidates should send applications to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position and last held position
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of three referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘Program Officer’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

—xxx—

Position 5

Position: Regional Consultants (full-time consultancy) – 5 Nos

Division: Programs

Location: Flexible. One for each geographic region.

North: J&K, HP, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, UP and Ladakh

West and Central 1: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, DNI and DD

East and Central 2: WB, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh

North-east: Sikkim, Assam, AP, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur

South: Kerala, TN, Pondicherry, AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa, ANI and Lakshadweep

Experience: Minimum 3 years’ experience in law, human rights, media or related field.

Qualification: Graduation, preferably in social sciences, law, media Studies and social work

Language: Good proficiency in English. Understanding of additional languages, including reading, in the respective regional languages of the region will be highly preferred.

Overview:

• Daily media and social media monitoring in the respective region
• Verify and obtain additional information in relevant cases from local contacts
• Prepare briefs and reports, including periodic follow ups
• Support activities, initiatives and other project interventions in their respective region

Apply: Interested candidates should send applications to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position and last held position
• Three recent writing samples (less than 1500 words)
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of two referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘Regional Consultant – (Name of the Region)’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

—xxx—

Position 6

Position: Researcher (output-based consultancy)

Division: Programs

Location: New Delhi

Experience: Minimum 5 years’ experience in research

Qualification: Post-graduation in social sciences, journalism, media studies or law. Research experience in social sciences will be an added advantage.

Language: High level proficiency in English.

Overview:

• Undertake a review of the literature and prepare a baseline study on research subject
• Hold meetings and conduct interviews with experts on the research subject
• Conduct primary data collection and analysis (interviews, review of documents, etc.)
• Submit chapters periodically and finalise the studies in consultation with the Project Director.

Apply: Interested candidates should send applications to manasacrprog@gmail.com by June 20, 2020. The application should comprise the following documents:

• One page (max 500 words) covering letter mentioning suitability for the position
• Resume highlighting qualification and experience for the position
• Two recent writing samples (less than 5000 words) – research work preferred
• Expected Salary (per month)
• Details of two referees to be contacted

Please mention ‘Researcher’ as your email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to share relevant supporting documents.

Joining: Latest by August 1, 2020

—xxx—

For downloading this advertisement – MANASA-Job_Advertisments-June2020

Human Rights Mobile Clinic June 2020

Human Rights Mobile Clinic organised by SICHREM at Janaki Ram Layout Slum today.  Facilitated by Adv. Shashikala and Adv. Mercy.  Coordinated by Smt. Usha.  The women in the community were given free legal advice, Hygiene, Hand-wash  and awareness was given on Covid-19. The Participants were also provided with face mask.

Mr.Mathews Philip, Executive Director, SICHREM, Bangalore has been elected as the National convener of ‘Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL)’.

Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL)

Mr. Mathews Philip, Executive Director, SICHREM, Bangalore has been elected as the National convener of ‘Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL)’. Launched in 1992,  CACL is the largest network of child rights organisations & individuals, having its chapters in 15 states. The Campaign has more than 3000 members. It’s main objective is total eradication of child labour upto the age of 18 years. CACL believes that making free & compulsory education for children is the most effective strategy to prevent children from getting into labour. Apart from education, lobbying for appropriate legislative measures, taking actions on violations of child rights, documenting & facilitating development of alternative education system, raising general awareness on the issues & taking up advocacy with UN & other international mechanisms are the other strategies used by the campaign towards its objective of making India a Child Labour free country.

Media report- KSHRC ORDER- On Custodial death-dated 27/06/2019.

MEDIA REPORT IN The Hindu dated 27-06-2019, page 5. The same article also published in Deccan Herald pg 3A and Deccan Chronicle pg. 3. Dear Friends, Karnataka State Commission has ordered CID investigation into the death (alleged torture by Jail wardens) of Syed Fairoz (21) who was an under trial prisoner in Parappanna Agrahara Central Jail, Bangalore. Commission also ordered a compensation of Ten Lakhs to the victim’s family. Commission has also ordered strict action against the errant officials. Syed Fairoz S/o Syed Munna who was a resident of DJ halli in Bangalore and was an under trial prisoner died at Victoria hospital on 23- January, 2019. The postmortem report said the death is due to septicemia consequent upon injuries sustained on his body. South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) is one of the complainants to Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) in this case.

International Day in support of victims of Torture on 26/06/19.

 

On the Occasion of International Day in support of victims of Torture on 26/06/19. SICHREM in association with St.Joseph’s College(Autonomous) organised a Debate on Different means of Torture, the students and the Program officer Prof. Selwyn Paul from the NSS unit-1 actively participated and created awareness on the issue.

Students views on the issue was discussed and the students were in solidarity with the victims of Torture. “ANY MEANS OF TORTURE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE”.

 

Sichrem Team addressing the Media on Torture.

The team from SICHREM, addressed the media on the 25th June, 2019 in solidarity with the victims of Torture. As 26th of June every year is observed as the “International Day in support of victims of Torture”

25th, June, 2019

PRESS STATEMENT

June 26th– World Day in support of Torture Victims

SICHREM calls upon the Govt. of India to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT)*.

Though India signed this convention on 14th October 1997, it is regretted to note that we have not ratified it till date. We also urge our Parliamentarians to pass the long pending Prevention of Torture Bill, 2017. Though the Law Commission of India in its 273rdReport recommended ratification, the same is not complied with by the Indian Govt.

Though torture has no sanction in the Indian Constitution and Statutes the Indian Police Stations and other custodial Institutions in India turn out to be ‘Torture Chambers’ often. Being in the Police custody is a nightmare for people, especially for those who are poor and not influential politically or economically. Torture is extensively used on political opponents and prisoners of conscience who are in custody. Absence of a specific and stringent law against Torture makes those in uniform impugn to punishment for the crime of torture.

Apart from torture in custodial centres, Sichrem defines Domestic violence and Corporal punishment on children also as Torture. We are in solidarity with those NGOs who intervene in such cases and fighting for justice to those victims.

We call upon the National Human Rights Commission of India to appraise the Govt. Of India, the need to ratify CAT and to pass the Prevention of Torture Bill.

*’The UN Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment’, was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10th Dec 1984. This treaty came into force on 26th June 1987. Hence this day is observed as ‘International Day in support of victims of Torture’. India signed this Convention on 14th Oct, 1997 but not ratified yet.

Yours Sincerely

Mathews Philip Margaret Sampath

Executive Director Deputy Director – HRE

9845001338 9342163539

Encl.

1. Text of CAT
2. The Prevention of Torture Bill 2017

Media report dated 26th June 2019 on UdayaVani.