The Government of Delhi has launched the Mission Convergence project to better serve vulnerable citizens by converging various social welfare programs across different departments. It aims to simplify access to benefits, improve coordination between departments, and enhance service delivery at the grassroots level. The project is working to bring 45+ welfare schemes onto a common IT platform to strengthen implementation and make the enrollment/service distribution process more efficient. The overall goal is to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged citizens through a more coordinated, citizen-centered approach.

1. Delhi begins counting its Homeless
O
n July 2, 2010, the process to
provide comprehensive institu-
tional safeguards to the Home-
less citizens in Delhi formally com-
menced with Chief Minister Smt. Sheila
Dikshit flagging off the Homeless Survey
from her residence.
The Chief Minister filled up the first
form of the Survey with the details of a
physically challenged homeless woman
present on the occasion. Health & WCD
Minister Prof. Kiran Walia, Chief Secre-
tary Shri Rakesh Mehta, UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Repre-
sentative in India Mr. Patrice Coeur –
Bizot, Country Director UNDP Ms. Cait-
lin Wiesen and other senior officers were
present at the venue to set off this land-
mark survey. Delhi has become the first
state in the country to survey its Home-
less and the exercise is scheduled to be
St Stephen’s Hospital, New Delhi is the
Chief Coordinating Unit implementing it.
The Survey is being conducted by 150
enumerator teams in 500 zones in the
Capital city, mainly at night, to ensure that
no one is left out and that the particulars
of each person are recorded correctly.
Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Dikshit
said that the Homeless Survey has been
integrated with National Population Reg-
ister and Census-2011 exercise. She la-
mented the fact that in absence of a per-
manent address the homeless had hitherto
remained excluded from the Census but
assured that with this enumeration they
would find a place in the ongoing Census
and benefit from a number of social wel-
fare schemes of the government.
The first of its kind – the Homeless
Survey in Delhi is part of the UNDP sup-
ported project ‘Innovation Support for
Social Protection’.
Mission Convergence Team
pants presented a Puppet Show on the
theme of the Survey. Puppetry forms an
integral part of the awareness pro-
gramme.
Samajik Suvidha Sangam is the nodal
agency for the Homeless Survey while
completed in the next two months. A
month-long Roadshow by homeless
physically challenged persons to sensi-
tize the target population was also
flagged off by the Chief Minister. Before
setting off on the Roadshow, the partici-
On July 2, 2010, the Government of Delhi formally took cognizance of the need to enumerate its people living on
streets in order to reach out to them and include them in the mainstream society
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in India Mr. Patrice Coeur – Bizot speaking on the occasion.
Seated on his left are Chief Minister Smt. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Secretary Mr. Rakesh Mehta, & Secretary Social Welfare Mr.
Manoj Parida. On his right is Country Director UNDP Ms. Caitlin Wiesen. Also in the picture (extreme left standing): Ms.
Rashmi Singh, Director, Mission Convergence
Taking to the Roads: Roadshow participants riding out of CM’s residence on the
awareness drive (left); puppetry (right) forms an integral part of mass sensitization
programme
GO!: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit with Health & WCD Minister Prof Kiran Walia flagging off the Roadshow (left) and (right) filling up the first Survey Form at the launch
Pix:MNGOforDelhi’sHomeless
J U L Y 2 0 1 0MISSION CONVERGENCE NEWSLETTER * VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1I
eaching Out
http://streeshakti-sss.org
Yielding Rich
Dividends —
Success Story
of Saraswati
Ghosh
3
Basket of Benefits:
Focus SJSRY—
Where creativity
finds expression
& employment
5 7
SSS inducts
150 Sathi,
strengthens
grassroots
outreach

2. P A G E 2
Mission
Round-up
Hardware Verification
Field level verification for hardware delivered and installed
by System Integrator at Gender Resource Centres was
carried out and demonstration of Prototype of Gender
Resource Centre module of system integration project has
been finalized.
Resource Manual
A compendium of guidelines/
orders/code of conduct
issued from time to time to
the Gender Resource Cen-
tres has been compiled in
the form of a Resource Man-
ual and is being provided to
the GRC-SKs & MNGOs for
their reference with regard
to operation, administration,
financial conduct, etc., desir-
able in the functioning of the centres.
Bio-sustainable Canteen Waste
A meeting was held with the Environment Department on
July 2, 2010 to discuss the modalities involved in waste seg-
regation/supply and utilization of the bio-gas generated from
waste of the Delhi Secretariat Canteen.
NGO Selection Concludes
NGO selection process for running the GRC-SK project in
unserved areas was concluded after a rigorous process of
selection by the Committee headed by Smt. Syeda Hameed,
Member, Planning Commission.
Social Audit Team Training
A two-day training programme was held on July 8 & 9,
2010, to train a team that would be conducting social audit.
The training was conducted at GRC PRAYAS at Bawana. A
team of about 10 members has been trained in both the
qualitative and quantitative tools that are being used for the
Pilot Social Audit.
Meet on Field Functionaries’ Role
A meeting was organised under the Chairmanship of Princi-
pal Secretary to the CM to discuss the roles and responsi-
bilities of all field level functionaries working with the vari-
ous departments of Government of Delhi. Formats for
taking information from different Departments were pre-
pared.
Workshop on LFA
Workshop on finalization of an LFA for Mission Conver-
gence was held at the PMU facilitated by Mr. J P Mishra,
(Advisor) and Mr. Denny Hamilton, UNDP.
Survey Update
Survey of vulnerable population is almost complete in
North East and East district but is ongoing in North West.
Survey has started in Central district on July 13, 2010. Map-
ping and survey is going on in West and South district.
About 50,000 forms have been digitized under data digitiza-
tion process so far. Under Homeless survey, area mapping
and survey is in progress in North West, North East,
North, Central and New Delhi.
Training of Trainers
Under the short term partnership with Institute of Secre-
tariat Training and Management – Department of Personnel
& Training (GOI), 13 days training was conducted with 341
participants including Project Coordinators, Self Help
Group Mobilizers, Community Mobilizers, SJSRY team
within the Mission and Community volunteers. Project
design covered the TNA (Training Need Assessment), Pilot
Run, Training of Trainers with 22 potential trainers and the
final run of practical trainings as skill practice.
Training to Combat VAW
On the request of Ministry of Women & Child Develop-
ment, GoI, a nine-day training programme on Violence
Against Women was held to train 85 Gender Resource
Centre Coordinators.
Mission Convergence Team
M
ission Convergence was formally launched on
August 14, 2008 as an innovative endeavour
of Government of NCT of Delhi to improve
the quality of life of its citizens especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
sections of society in the state of Delhi. To reach the masses and spread its message
of serving the disadvantage sections of society and to network with other organisa-
tions, the official website of the Mission was launched by the Hon’ble Chief
Minister of Delhi on February 27, 2009.
Although the earlier website contained all relevant information about Mission
Convergence and time-to-time updates were carried out to keep it relevant and
fresh, but an increasing need was felt for a new portal to satisfy the new and grow-
ing demands of the Mission as also provide the platform for Convergence Applica-
tion being developed for System Integration.
Hence, the IT team held several brainstorming sessions for conceptualising and
designing a new web portal along with different players at the Mission and the re-
sult was a distinctly vibrant and interactive web portal — www.streeshakti-sss.org
— with dynamic web pages and many advanced features which were not incorpo-
rated in the earlier version. For example:
• Left menu panel for easy navigation
• Photo gallery of events
• Event Calendar of Mission & its partner organisations
• Streaming video playback for documentaries
• Use of Gmaps for locating MNGOs/DRCs/GRC-SKs with distance and
routing features
• Separate space for Newsletter, Success Stories, Case Studies, etc.
• Media Room
• Publications & Reports and many more
This newly developed web portal is designed in such a way that the CMS technol-
ogy (Content Management System) can be implemented on it without any trouble
and this makes it even easier to maintain the portal. This web portal will become
the first interface for knowledge sharing and to access the convergence application
for entitlement disbursement.
The new-look portal has also been provided a new domain address and an easily
identifiable logo — streeshakti — from which derives the domain
name.
Durgesh is Program Officer (MIS) at Mission Convergence.
He can be contacted at progme.sss@gmail.com
Our New-look Web-
By Durgesh Kumar
http://streeshakti-sss.org

3. P A G E 3V O I C E S O F T H E U N H E A R D : S T O R I E S F R O M G R A S S R O O T S
Yielding rich dividends
Saraswati’s well stocked shop (left) has a faithful clientele (right)
S U C C E S S S T O R Y
After the interview I was told that a loan of
Rs. 95,000 had been sanctioned from the State
Bank of India , Chandni Chowk. The bank told
us about the entire procedure on the repayment of
loans and asked us to come with the quotation.
After that I went to Sadar Bazaar, Govind
Puri, Chandani Chowk for quotations but I
failed to get them. Then I approached to DRC and
GRC. With their help I was able to get quota-
tion from Sangam Vihar and Harsh Vihar and
once I submitted it I received a cheque of Rs.
40,200 to start interior work. They also gave me
information regarding repayment of the balance
money. Now I have received all balance amount
and inaugurated my new cosmetic shop on 13
July 2010. Now I hope that my life will settle
down and further education of my children will
also get completed.
”
Saraswati Ghosh
Girija is District Resource Centre
Coordinator (South).
She can be contacted at drcsouth@gmail.com
“M
y name is
Saraswati
Ghosh. I am 25
years old. There are five members
in my family. My husband runs a Cosmetic
Shop. I have three daughters – Shavarna
(10), Shervani (6) and Diya (1).
Because of my family’s poor economic
condition there were problems regarding
my children’s education. So my husband I
decided to take a loan to expand our busi-
ness. In the local market, the rate of interest
on loans is very high; between 5% to 10%.
One day, I heard about Sakaar Outreach -
Stri Kosh Suvidha Kendra. I went there and
discussed my need for a loan. They told me
about the Ladli and SJSRY schemes. I filled
a form for the above schemes. After that I
was called for an interview where they
asked me questions regarding my work.
As told to Girija Kumari Sahu
Calling All GRCs & MNGOs!
This page is devoted to Community Voices. All our partners are
invited to contribute articles, write-ups, thoughts, quotes, etc. for
this page
Mission to take up safe water and
sanitation issues in community
P
rovision of safe potable water and sanitation solutions to the
community is a matter of concern for many governments. The
poor have little or no access to safe water and hygienic condi-
tions and voluntary organizations play a major role in strengthening
such services at the grassroots.
Mission Convergence, sensitive to these issues is exploring various
avenues in order to ensure basic amenities and services to the people.
Under one such initiative, it will be working with voluntary organiza-
tions to spread awareness on potential hazards of unsafe water and on
the importance of cleanliness.
The Stree Shakti-Suvidha Kendras are being sensitized on the utility
and the need of tying up with voluntary bodies to expand their scope
of services to include such issues. The GRCs will be working towards
sensitizing the community and making it more responsive to its gen-
eral health and hygiene.
Camps in the catchment area of various GRCs will be organized
beginning with GRC-Amba Foundation and will mainly focus on
creating awareness on safe water solutions, waste management and
personal hygiene. It will also help awaken the community to their
rights to safe water and sanitation solutions.
The purpose of the camp is to look at all the contemporary issues
involving domestic water, sanitation and hygiene through community
involvement and experiences. To gain the full benefits of safe water
and sanitation, communities also need to know about the links be-
tween diseases and unsafe and unhygienic practices.
Suruchi Aggarwal is Volunteer Coordinator at
Mission Convergence. She can be contacted at
vol.suruchi.sss@gmail.com
A
complaint was received from Ms Kiran Arora, Project Coordinator –
CASP, a GRC-SK in Madanpur Khadar on March 22, 2010 against Ms
Manju Upadhayay an official in CASP relating to differences during the
camp organized on March 20, 2010 in filling up of the forms for birth and caste
certificate registration.
The case was taken up in the Grievance Cell where the committee heard her in
person. The committee was of the view that the matter deserved serious interven-
tion on behalf of the PMU-SSS. The case was escalated to the CASP head office in
Pune. A team of the senior officials from CASP visited PMU-SSS to look into the
matter in detail. The entire matter was taken up by the team who on their own con-
ducted separate meetings with Ms Upadhayay and Ms Arora. The officials at PMU
-SSS informed the CASP team that such behavior will not be accepted in the field
office as GRC-SK is the extended hand of the Government of Delhi. “We are
working for empowerment of women in the community and if the same is not de-
picted through action then the same needs to be viewed seriously.”
Thereafter a meeting was held in the PMU-SSS with the Chief Functionary of
CASP Dr. Ranjana Kaul on May 20, 2010. Both the complainant and the ag-
grieved were given a hearing in front of the committee and the Mission Director.
On hearing both the parties on the matter, it was felt that Ms. Arora has been per-
forming her duties well and the camp she organized was under the direction of the
DC office. Therefore, justice should be done to Ms Arora. Since both Ms Arora
and Ms. Upadhayay were not willing to work together it was decided to place both
of them in separate offices.
Now Ms Kiran Arora has been posted as Project Coordinator in CASP Plan at
Sangam Vihar.
Rachna Gahilote Bisht
THE CASE OF CASP
Grievance Redressal

4. P A G E 4
SMART steps towards e-inclusion
T
he Government of National
Capital Territory (GNCTD) has
taken the unique initiative of
reaching out to the urban poor and under
-served sections of the city-State Delhi
by initiating mission mode project called
Mission Convergence.
For the needy citizen, who should have
been the beneficiary of the Government’s
welfare thinking, such a situation translated
into hardship of running endlessly to various
government Departments as there were no
converging nodes close to the point of service
delivery. The most vulnerable also lacked the
capacity to engage with the Government and
follow complex procedures to access
entitlements.
Therefore, there was a pressing need to
simplify government procedures, increase
inter departmental coordination and
information sharing, enhance effectiveness of
service delivery at the grass root level, and
increase citizen involvement. Government of
Delhi (GNCTD) was of the view that it needs
to reorient its strategic thinking with respect
to implementation of social sector programs
in order to improve the quality of life of its
citizens especially the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged sections of the city.
As we are aware that, there are over 45
welfare schemes being implemented by 9
different departments of the GNCTD. The
Mission Convergence is focused on bringing
this plethora of welfare schemes on a
common platform and strengthening the
implementation machinery at all levels of
enrolment/service distribution using IT.
The concept of Mission aims at
convergence of various departmental efforts
for bringing about constructive change in
the lives of the urban poor communities it
intends to simplify mechanisms of
government schemes, enhance and increase
citizen’s involvement. Mission
Convergence attempts to tackle this through
multi-pronged, a multi-disciplinary
convergence of services covering welfare
schemes of the following departments of the
state of Delhi:
1. Health & Family Welfare Department
2. Education Department
3. Women & Child Development
Department.
4. Social Welfare
5. Food and Civil Supplies
6. Labor
7. Urban Development
8. Information Technology
9. SC&ST /OBC/Minority/ Backward
Class Welfare Dept. and Corporation
10. Divisional Commissioners’ Office
A System Integrator has been
identified for integration of the
various Welfare Schemes of the
government. All these efforts are the
part of the “e-governance initiatives”
of the government of NCT of Delhi
being executed by Principal
Consultant (IT) under the guidance of
Misson Director, sss. The progress
of the IT initiatives of the Mission
Convergence is being monitored by
chief secretary, GNCTD.
Sandeep is Principle Consultant
IT at Mission Convergence. He
can be contacted at
prconsultant.it.sss@gmail.com
THE CONVERGENCE MECHANISM: Making access easy
Mission
Convergence
aims at
bringing
constructive
changes in
the lives of
the urban
poor
community
by simplifying
mechanisms
and making
access easy .
And in this
process,
Information
Technology
has a major
role to play
By Sandeep Saxena
Mission Convergence joins hand with
DLSA to reach legal aid to Delhi’s poor
O
n April 23, 2010 Chief Minister Mrs Sheila Dikshit, an-
nounced the partnership of Samjik Suvidha Sangam and
Delhi Legal Services Authority with the objective of pro-
viding “access to justice for all” so that justice is not denied to citi-
zens by reason of economic or other disabilities. The goal is to se-
cure justice to the weaker sections of society, particularly the poor,
vulnerable, downtrodden and socially backward women, children
and disabled, etc.
Under the partnership DLSA will not only provide services of
lawyer and counselor under its empanelled list to the NGOs but
will also rate the performance of the lawyers and counselors al-
ready empanelled with the NGOs. This is to attest their suitability
or otherwise and the quality of work done by them so far in the
community and facilitate the decision regarding their retention or re-
placement in view of their performance. In addition to it, the DLSA will
hold free of cost Lok Adalat at the GRCs on need assessment basis to
settle the disputes regarding entitlement validation, matrimonial dispute
and development issues. DLSA will also provide free legal aid wherever
appropriate for filing cases in the court. Publicity material to generate
awareness in the community will also be provided by DLSA free of charge
to the GRC-SKs.
Keeping up with the spirit of partnership DLSA has sent its law students
to identify 1500 people in the community who are in dire need of free
legal aid. In addition to this, 100 students visited the 60 GRC-SKs run by
the Samajik Suvidha Sangam in June and interacted with 9500 people to
assess the problems of the marginalized urban poor. The main issues
which emerged from this investigation were of gender discrimination,
women’s empowerment and need to spread legal awareness. Nearly 1500
people came forward for legal aid and 646 women complained of domes-
tic violence by their husbands or in-laws. Services of lawyers were pro-
vided in 17 GRC-SKs in the month of July.
Rachna is Specialist (Community Mobilisation) at Mission
Convergence. She can be contacted at commspl.sss@gmail.com
By Rachna Gahilote Bisht

5. Reaching Out to the Unreached
“
Personally I see myself as a citizen volunteer of
Mission. I am delighted by our effort and the
amazing possibilities of outreach that the Mission
umbrella brings for potential volunteers like myself. I
think we have made a good beginning which should
inspire more GRCs into activating their volunteer
accounts.
”
Q U O T E
U N Q U O T E
Poonam Srivastava
A Dedicated Volunteer
YES YOU CAN
VOLUNTEER TOO!
P A G E 5
B A S K E T O F B E N E F I T S : F O C U S R S B Y P A G E 5B A S K E T O F B E N E F I T S : F O C U S S J S R Y
coordinate, monitor and guide the
livelihoods promotion and conduct
skill development training activi-
ties.
With a target to identify and
train 8000 beneficiaries in FY
2010-11, the SJSRY programme is
poised to take immense leap into
urban poverty alleviation in Delhi.
Shweta is
Project Officer (MIS)
SJSRY at Mission
Convergence.
She can be contacted
at proff.sjsry.sss@gmail.com
Nisha is
Programme Officer
(Admn & Finance)
at Mission Convergence.
She can be contacted at
projectofficer.sjsry.sss@gmail.com
I
n April 2009, Mission Conver-
gence became the implement-
ing agency for the Swarna
Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojna
(SJSRY). Selected by the Ministry
of Housing and Urban Poverty, the
nodal department for the scheme,
the Mission was on the right track
of social development with focused
programmes for urban poverty alle-
viation.
As such, SJSRY, a centrally spon-
sored scheme with the primary ob-
jective of urban livelihood promo-
tion and poverty alleviation, came as
an added impetus to Mission Con-
vergence programme .
With the nod of the Ministry of
Urban Development, Government of
NCT of Delhi, Mission Conver-
gence took up the implementation
challenges of SJSRY and within a
span of a few months tangible re-
sults were visible.
The SJSRY programme addresses
the problem of urban poverty by
providing gainful employment to the
urban unemployed or underem-
ployed poor. For this, the pro-
gramme first engages the target
population in skill development and
training programmes, so as to enable
them to access employment oppor-
tunities available in the market or
undertake self-employment.
Mission Convergence, with its
vast and dedicated network of com-
munity based organizations (CBOs),
has been able to make a remarkable
difference in both quantifiable and
qualitative terms.
Its network of GRCs, DRCs and
MNGOs are working in tandem
with the Community Development
Services (CDSs) of the SJSRY to
reach out to the urban poor.
A market-driven approach has
been adopted by the Mission in the
identification of skills keeping an
eye on the demand. Thereafter link-
ages with professional institutes of
repute are being sought to bring in
the desired level of finesse and
quality to enable products and ser-
vices get a fair competitive edge.
VLCC is one of the training insti-
tutes selected by the Mission and is
currently training 120 girls in beauty
care and wellness.
Since the Mission came on board,
the project reached out to 20,00,000
people in less than a year as com-
pared to 14,00,000 who benefitted
between December 1997 to April
2009. A similar leap has been ob-
served in the number of loans sanc-
tioned, where a total of 1032 loan
applications under USEP Compo-
nent were forwarded to banks for
sanctioning and disbursement of
subsidies thereof. In group loans
category under UWSP Component
too several groups were supported
by banks with community women
benefitting from it.
A state level UPA Cell was insti-
tuted last year to provide suitable
policy directions on poverty and
livelihood related issues, to facili-
tate convergence of SJSRY with
other programmes impacting urban
poor and to liaise with State Level
Banker’s Committee to ensure
credit flow to urban poor micro-
entrepreneurs and Self Help Groups.
Proposals have been invited from
Technical and Program Support
Agencies and Training Service Pro-
viding Agencies for SJSRY to plan,
Where creativity finds expression & employment
Crafted with love: Painstakingly created items by community beneficiaries under Mission programme
By Shweta Chugh &
Nisha Raneesh

6. P A G E 6
Journey to EMPOWERMENT
W
omen are considered as weaker section
in our society. Our socialization process
makes them submissive in nature. Gen-
der discrimination, due to son preference is the root
cause of patriarchal social system leading to unequal
social status of women in soci-
ety.
The Government of Delhi has
consciously framed women
friendly policies, schemes, programmes and laws to
promote gender equality and empowerment.
Women Empowerment is one of the major compo-
nents being implemented at the Gender Resource
Centres through different ongoing activities focusing
on basic sectors like — Education, Health, Liveli-
hood and legal knowledge and rights awareness and
maximizing community participation . However,
there still exists the challenge to maximize access of
women and girls to the services.
In a view of the fact that the journey of a woman’s
empowerment starts from individual to the family to
the community to society and to Nation, individual
and family are the major challenging areas to address
the issues of women and girls. Community as a
whole can play a vital role to hammer gender ine-
qualities and bring about positive attitudinal and
behavioral changes towards the issues of women and
girls which cannot be taught. Open dialogue with the
community and organizing the community by maxi-
mizing participation is one of the possible ways to
deal with the gender issues.
Most of the time, economic empowerment becomes the priority to pro-
mote women’s empowerment. However, it has its own limitations. For
example, if a woman’s family members do not allow her to go out of the
four walls of her house, how can she come to attend the vocational train-
ing classes or go out to work? We see a lot of women
who have the capability to be self dependent but they
are not allowed to take any decision about themselves
and even if they are economically empowered/self
reliant, they have no control over their earnings.
The empowerment of
women occurs in reality
when women achieve in-
creased control and par-
ticipation in decision mak-
ing that leads to their hav-
ing better access to re-
sources, and therefore,
improved socio-economic
status by which they
achieve increased control
over public decision mak-
ing. Information, Aware-
ness, Training, Opportuni-
ties and Access to opportu-
nities are the major tools
to make women’s empow-
erment a reality which
Mission is determined to
work on.
Women’s
Empowerment is
a journey from
self to society, &
from community
to nation.
Mission
Convergence has
a dedicated
mechanism to
help women
from the most
marginalized
communities
march onwards
in this journey.
Reaching Out will
bring its readers
regular updates
on their
progress...
STREE SHAKTI
B y N a s e e m K h a n
P A R T N E R S H I P W I T H
I S T M – D O P T ( G O I ) :
Formation of Self Help Groups is a tool to
promote Women Empowerment and Commu-
nity Empowerment which is an important com-
ponent in GRC-SK. Mission Convergence’s en-
deavor is to give concrete, meaningful and uni-
form direction to this progress with its huge net-
work of GRC-SK in and around Delhi.
Mission Convergence entered in a short term
partnership with the Institute of Secretariat
Training and Management (ISTM) – Department
of Personnel and Training” (DOPT) for the Pilot
Project - Capacity Building for Poverty Allevia-
tion programme under the DFID Project of GOI
(AR). This pilot project covered two major issues
— ‘SHG-Microfinance’ and ‘Water, Sanitation
and Health’. It started with need assessment with
the team of GRCs – SK and ended with modules
on both the issues. Formal trainings started from
May 3, 2010 and ended on July 3, 2010 (2
months) It was a package of 13 days training with
341 participants including Project Coordinators,
SHG Mobilizers, Community Mobilizers, SJSRY
team and Community Volunteers. Project design
covered the TNA (Training Need Assessment),
Pilot Run, TOT with 22 potential trainers and
the final run of practical trainings as practice.
Output of the Partnership:
• Module on SHG – Micro finance
• Module on Water, Sanitation and
Health
Outcome:
• Developed basic understanding on the
issues
• Learning on Strategies to work on the
issues
• Identification of 22 potential trainers
• Training of Trainers (developed per-
spectives and learnt skills of training)
• Practical training under the final run.
Future Plan:
• Copies of modules to all the GRCs to
strengthen the component of women’s
and community empowerment.
• Concrete, meaningful and uniform di-
rection to the program
P A R T N E R S H I P W I T H N I P C C D
A N D “ W E C A N ” C A M P A I G N
Violence against women is now accepted as a
reality. GOI has also accepted its existence by
ratifying the CEDAW and making the law “The
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence,
2005”. Violence Against Women (VAW) is a
major hurdle in the way of women’s empower-
ment.
A partnership was established with “We Can”
Campaign, initiated by Oxfam – Great Britain
(G.B.) in six countries initially. Currently, the
campaign is present in more than 18 countries
and aims to bring positive changes in attitude and
behavior and promoting equality in all relation-
ships. The empowerment of women occurs in
reality, when women achieve increased control
and participation in decision making that leads to
their better access to resources, and therefore,
improved socio-economic status by which
women achieve increased control over public
decision making.
This was the time when NIPCCD contacted us
with the letter issued by the Minister of Women
and Child Development (GOI) to conduct the
training with all the GRCs on “Violence against
Women”, which completely matched with our
requirements as we were entering in the partner-
ship with “We Can” Campaign.
A three-day training in three batches package
was designed in consultation with NIPCCD for
all the GRC Coordinators. Last session with each
batch was on “Building Strategies to take the
issue forward”. It is a meaningful move towards
women’s empowerment to enhance community
participation and community responsiveness
which is the mandate of Mission Convergence.
Outcome of Partnership:
• Project Coordinators of all GRCs are
trained on the issue.
• They will train their own team first by
using the training material provided by
NIPCCD and “We Can” Campaign.
• The in turn will conduct the sessions
with their own target groups
• Will register a cadre of minimum 400
active change makers to work as volun-
teer with the GRC on the said issue.
• By October 10 onwards, a cadre of
34,000 (400 x 85GRCs = 34,000) active
volunteers will be registered.
Naseem is Manager Programme at
Mission Convergence. She can be
contacted at trgspl.sss@gmail.com
Waiting in Hope: The door to empowerment
is now open!

7. P A G E 7V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E I I
150 lkFkhCommunity getsO U R
P H I L O S O P H Y
“I will give you a talisman.
Whenever you are in
doubt, or when the self
becomes too much with
you, apply the following
test. Recall the face of the
poorest and the weakest
man [woman] whom you
may have seen, and ask
yourself, if the step you
contemplate is going to be
of any use to him [her].
Will he [she] gain anything
by it? Will it restore him
[her] to a control over his
[her] own life and destiny?
In other words, will it lead
to swaraj [freedom] for
the hungry and spiritually
starving millions? Then you
will find your doubts and
your self melt away."
Mahatma Gandhi
grammes. The Community Organisers (CO) who are the main link
between the urban poor community (represented through CDS) and
the implementation machinery would be required to guide and
assist the community in assessing its needs, developing vision and
formulating community development action plans. Their role
would also entail coordinating slums, households and livelihood
surveys and maintaining the database of urban poor.
SJSRY Team
S S S I N D U C T S 1 5 0 - S T R O N G S A T H I C A D R E T O R E A C H O U T T O T H E V U L N E R A B L E
F
or effective implementation of the SJSRY Scheme under
Samajik Suvidha Sangam, Mission Convergence, it was
decided to create 300 posts of Community Organizers to
strengthen the scheme at the district as well as the headquarter
level.
Under this plan, in the first phase of recruitment, 150 Com-
munity Organizers were appointed at the district/headquarter
level. Due preference was given to women and other factors
such as vulnerability, previous experience of working at the
grassroots level for community empowerment, good communi-
cation skills, gender sensitivity, basic reporting skills (both oral
and written) etc., were taken into account.
The COs were given week-long training by the District Project
Officers at the districts to make them understand the system,
their role, the district and their area of operation/work.
At a formal induction programme organized at the headquar-
ters on June 15, 2010, the Chief Minister, Smt. Sheila Dikshit
formally announced their induction into the SJSRY field func-
tionaries cadre and also introduced their new name i.e. ‘Sathi’.
Chief Secretary Sh. Rakesh Mehta, Smt. Rashmi Singh, Mission
Director and other senior officials of the Delhi Government were
present on the occasion.
The Chief Minister interacted with the Sathi and answered
their queries, emphasising that for the newly formed cadre to be
effective in their roles, a proper training should be held to bring
out clarity in their understanding regarding their responsibilities.
She spoke about integrating field level workforce of all depart-
ments to ensure better implementation of government run pro-
R E A C H I N G
O U T T O T H E
U N R E A C H E D
Clockwise from top left: Chief Minister introducing
COs to their new name, inaugurating SJSRY handbook
for Sathi, audience including officials; newly inducted
Sathis airing their doubts to CM; and CM answering each
one patiently
O U R V I S I O N
E M P O W E R I N G
T H E M
A N D

8. Samajik Suvidha Sangam (Mission Convergence)
Govt of NCT of Delhi
Room No 403, IP Estate
Delhi Secretariat, New Delhi
Phone: 23392408
Fax: 23392408
E-mail: samajik.suvidha.sangam@gmail.com
Website: http://streeshakti-sss.org
R E AC H I N G O U T
A M I S S I O N C O N V E R G E N C E P U B L I C A T I O N
Email: spldc.sss@gmail.com
E D I T O R , D E S I G N & L A Y O U T
S a n g i t a T h a k u r V a r m a
C O P Y S U P P O R T
V i n i t a S i n g h
Reaching Out to the Unreached
Reaching Out to the Unreached
Y O U C A N C O N T R I B U T E T O O !
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Survey:A unique exercise
V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1 I
J U L Y 2 0 1 0REACHING OUT
MISSION CONVERGENCE
P A G E 8
of vulnerability- the place of residence.
People living in notified slums, non-
notified slums, resettlement colonies
and homeless are identified as vulner-
able were covered in a census measure.
Social-The second step involves looking
at socially deprived groups, including
women or children headed households,
households and families having old peo-
ple, differently-abled persons and those
suffering from debilitating illness.
Occupational-The third type i.e., the
occupationally vulnerable includes
among others people earning their liveli-
hood as rag pickers, construction work-
ers, street vendors, casual domestic
workers and cycle rickshaw drivers.
With the help of a large number of
NGOs the SSS, hence, is conducting a
door-to-door survey to identify all the
potential vulnerable households/
population in Delhi.
So far, survey has been completed in
two phases, and the third phase of sur-
vey is under progress. Phase 1 and Phase
2, covered approximately 9.24 lakhs
households residing in notified and non-
notified slums and resettlement colonies
falling under ‘F’, ‘G’ and ‘H’ categoriza-
tion of colonies of the Municipal Corpo-
ration of Delhi (MCD). During the on-
Mission Convergence repre-
sents a paradigm shift in
Governance. The outcome
of a process of deep introspection on
the part of the Government, the basket
of initiatives undertaken by the Mission
Convergence is a fine balance of demand
side interventions and institutional re-
forms. The guiding philosophy of the
Mission is to “bring Government to the
Citizen Doorstep”, specifically the poor
and the vulnerable. The Mission today is
a platform that re-engages with defini-
tional issues, steers horizontal and verti-
cal integration across schemes and De-
partments, and most importantly, leads
the process of forging responsible part-
nerships with community bodies and
civil society organizations. In doing so, it
has combined the facility of thinking
from the bottom-upwards and embrac-
ing new technology platforms. Identifica-
tion of poor and other vulnerable popu-
lation in the city has been one of the
initial and important activities of the
Mission.
Mission has developed a set of non-
income criteria to identify such commu-
nities and bring them under the umbrella
of social security programmes of the
GNCTD.
Survey Criteria
Influenced by the ‘Kudumbashree
model’ in Kerala, income proxy indica-
tors for identifying poor based on their
vulnerability have been developed.
Spatial-The first level is a spatial or
geographical parameter for identification
By Dr. Deepa Ahluwalia going third phase of survey an additional
of approximately 5 lakhs ‘potential vul-
nerable’ households residing in other
areas (scattered across the city) is under
progress and will be completed soon.
To make the process of identification
of vulnerable households a comprehen-
sive exercise and include the Homeless-
who are most needy and vulnerable
among the urban poor. The mission has
undertaken the mammoth exercise to
identify all homeless covering entire
Delhi. The survey for the homeless is
also in progress simultaneously in all the
nine districts and is likely to be com-
pleted within two months.
The mandate of the third phase of
survey, i.e., to cover all left –out slum
areas/households so as to prepare a
comprehensive register for the vulner-
able. The processes in Phase III have
been strengthened considerably in terms
of better training, approach based on
the learning from the previous two
phases. The survey in first and second
phase followed cluster wise house-to-
house approach. Moreover, in the third
phase of survey, three approaches,
namely, door to door, camp based, GRC
-SK extension counter based and mobile
vans have been include for maximum
coverage.
Presently the survey is in progress in
all the nine districts of Delhi. The third
phase is the final phase of survey and is
aimed to cover all the uncovered and
left out areas during the earlier phase
under Mission Convergence Scheme.
We expect, that this phase would lead
to completion of the exercise with no
left out areas/households and would
facilitate in a complete central database
of the vulnerable households of Delhi.
Deepa is Research Analyst
& M & E Expert at
Mission Convergence.
She can be contacted at
ra.mne.sss@gmail.com