| DATE |
AGENDA |
DISCUSSIONS |
| October 20, 2012. Samraksha Office, Bangalore |
- Sharing on the recent developments about sex workers’ issues in the country
- NNSW future plans and activities
- NNSW structure and management
|
- The member organisations shared about the Kolkata Freedom Festival which was held in Kolkata from July 22-26, 2012. Sex workers from South Asia representing their organisations participated in the meeting, engaged in panel discussions and meetings to discuss sex workers’ freedom of movement; access to health care facilities; freedom to practice sex work and recognise sex work as work.
- In July 2012 the Central government told the Supreme Court that sex workers should not be allowed to do sex work. Additional solicitor general PP Malhotra submitted before a bench stating that any such endorsement supporting sex workers will be against the mandate of the ITPA. In this regard sex workers met Justice Altamas Kabir and sensitised him on sex workers’ issues.
- Violence and violations faced by sex workers – Outcomes of the Pune stakeholder meeting were shared.
|
| April 3, 2013. SIAAP Office, Chennai |
- NNSW Issues
- Sex worker issues (legalisation/ decriminalisation)
- Structure of NNSW
- Advocacy issues (National program / prostitution pledge)
|
- Refusal to sign the USAID contract
- Need for a separate agenda while dealing with issues of legalisation and decriminalisation
- Roles of sex workers and non-sex workers in NNSW
- Discussions of various models of the NNSW
- Vote on Model 4 (Only sex workers’ Board and non-sex workers function as support group) for the NNSW structure.
|
| October 18, 2013. Sangama Office, Bangalore |
- CEDAW Report
- CEDAW Report
- Structure and membership of NNSW
|
- Sakina as NNSW representative for APNSW
- Sharing of information on various meetings for everyone at various platforms: discussions and emails
- Representation of NNSW at different forums
- Information about the CEDAW reporting cycle
- Discrimination within TI projects, faults in reaching out to women and still showing targets
- The criterion of membership was discussed. Suggestions about a ‘only community’ Board membership
- NGOs and other organisations adhering to NNSW principles and values can be members, but without voting power.
- Only community organisations will have voting power.
|
| January 7-8, 2014. SANGRAM Office, Sangli |
- Changes in Agenda
- Review of previous activities and meetings
- Membership Criteria
- Nominations and Elections
- Activities
- Proposal writing
- Future Steps
|
- Recap of the previous meeting
- The member organisations / networks discussed the vision / mission and guiding principles
- The structure of the NNSW, removal of members, NNSW membership process, role and responsibility of the Secretariat were discussed by the member organisations / networks.
|
| February 27-28, 2014. Indian Social Institute, Bangalore |
- Voting and finalising vision, mission, guiding principles and the structure
- Electing the new Board
- Update of APNSW
|
- NNSW had organised a general meeting to strengthen understanding of its members on transparent, representative election process
- 85 representatives from 6 community organisations and 6 support organisations participated in this orientation programme.
- The general body was oriented on some of the key areas of the ‘Pink Book’ while creating its structure and the policies. The General Body discussed having the ‘Pink Book’ as the guideline for constituting its structure, Board, policies and guiding principles.
- NNSW drafted and finalised its vision, mission and guiding principles in the meeting and elected its new Board.
- The Board decided to elect its office bearers in the Board meeting scheduled for April 2014
|
| July 19, 2014. Goa Workshop |
- Update on APNSW
- SWASA Project
- Opening of NNSW Bank Account
- Update of RUF
- Submission of reports and discipline
- Trainings / Board meetings
- Planning for the next 3 months
|
- Plans for registering APNSW in Thailand.
- Discussions about APNSW not being able to follow the NSWP guideline due to legal issues
- Supreme Court panel discussions for creating enabling environment for sex workers who wish to continue sex work with dignity
- Taking up of the SWASA Project and Meera (WINS) as an individual consultant.
- Reapplication for the RUF and it was suggested that the Board collect reports of trainings / meetings attended by the Board members before the next meeting
- The Board also discussed about utilising time and money in a better way by clubbing trainings and Board meetings and it was decided that the Board will organise trainings every month along with the Board meeting.
|
| August 13-14, 2014. Indian Society of Health Administrators, Bangalore |
- Leadership Training for NNSW Board members
|
- Leadership concept and leaders
- Role of listening in leadership, automatic listening vs committed listening
- Fact and interpretation and vicious circle
- Centering and somatic leadership
- Self-awareness and self-care
- conversation for clarity/ possibility/ opportunity and generating relationship
- Leadership styles: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire, ‘Lickert’ model
|
| August 19, 2014. Samraksha Office, Bangalore |
- Planning meeting of the Board of Directors of NNSW
|
- Discussions on the plan for the financial allowances and guidelines for NNSW
- Daily allowances for local travel and food and honorarium for translators and resource persons were fixed.
- The team chalked out budgets for the two-day training camp to be held at Sri Kalahasti near Tirupati on September 25-26. It was decided that the Board of Directors would meet a day earlier.
- A visit to Nalini at Kanyakumari was also planned to support Nalini for rebuilding the community network
|
| September 2, 2014. Sangama Office, Bangalore |
- NNSW Board members (Sangeetha, Sudhir, Sakeena, Bharathi, Alavelu, Balanagamma and Kokila) and supporters met SAWF Director Ms. Tulika and the Program Officer Ms. Anisha and shared the work progress of the network.
|
- The Board representatives shared the structure of NNSW and the process followed in setting it up. This included the role of the supporters and the secretariat coordinator.
- The Board and the supporters shared the decision making mechanism in the Board and how regular Board meetings contributed significantly to quick actions and democratic decisions and elections of NNSW Board members.
- Members shared that capacity building exercise enabled community members and the member organisations to contribute their inputs to CEDAW report and the Justice Verma Committee.
|
| September 27, 2014. Bangalore |
- NNSW press release: laws effecting sex workers
|
- The Board members of NNSW issued a press release demanding decriminalisation of sex work. (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-not-eradication-but-decriminalisation-demand-sex-workers-2023341)
|
| December 27-28, 2014. Hotel Pavana, Bangalore |
Board meeting , training and Annual General Body Meeting
- The Women's movement in India - Understanding the struggle for Women's rights
- Recent Initiatives related to sex work and the law
- Exercise to understand the needs of advocacy at the state and national level.
- Annual General Body Meeting and elections
|
- Sandhya Rao, a women's rights activists conducted a session on the history of the women's movement. She explained the importance of sex workers building alliance and solidarity with other marginalised movements so that the movement could get support and strength.
- Aarthi Pai, supporter of NNSW Board conducted a session on the recent initiatives related to sex work and the law. She explained the difference between decriminalisation and legalisation (regulation). She also explained the efforts with Supreme Court Panel and the response of the Panel. Sex workers were explained about the global trends on sex work and the efforts to encourage the Swedish model
- Identifying issues that are critical for advocacy at the State and National levels
- NNSW AGM was conducted on the second day. Representatives were nominated from each member organisation and 11 Board representatives were elected for the NNSW Board. The election was followed by a Board meeting convened to elect office bearers
|
| October 5-6, 2015. Indian Social Institute, Bangalore |
- Review of previous meetings, activities
- Appointment of Coordinator to coordinate the activities of NNSW
- Gap analysis ( major concerns - developing better coordination, administration and strengthening communication)
- Information sharing on different state and non-state legal service providers, cells, departments and provisions. (current issue with the NALSA scheme)
- Discussions on funding patterns and strategies
|
- The NNSW secretary read the previous minutes of the meeting and with suggestions the minutes were approved by the Board. Each Board member shared the progress of NNSW activities.
- The Board members and the supporters of the Board expressed a need to appoint a person to coordinate the activities of NNSW. With a detailed discussion Mr. Satish Joshi was appointed for this position.
- Post-lunch session Aarthi shared that NALSA with support from the anti-trafficking groups was planning to launch a rehabilitation scheme for victims of ‘sexual exploitation’. The definition of the scheme includes sex workers. There is a concern that many sex workers’ CBOs are unknowingly becoming part of this process. She urged that there is a dire need to educate the CBO on the difference between sex work and exploitation, voluntary sex work and trafficking.
- In the meeting the secretariat representative shared that NNSW needs additional funding to build the capacity of the member organisations. NNSW applied for RUF for funding but due to heavy competition the proposal got rejected. It is also important to reflect why the proposal was rejected.
|
| December 3-5, 2015 NNSW retreat, SANGRAM Office, Sangli |
- Session on justice and just society
- Review of vision, mission, bylaws, principles
- NNSW Registration (AGM/Bank Account/Signatories)
- Membership Criteria and voting power/spokesperson at state and national level discussions
- Information on platforms at which to represent NNSW, like WCD, NCW and different government committees
- Planning for major activities for NNSW; visibility and capacity building for member organisations
|
- The representative of member organisations of NNSW from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra participated in retreat meeting held at SANGRAM, Sangli to discuss future strategies at the state and national level to advocate for sex workers’ human rights and sex work as work.
- Meena Seshu conducted a session on justice and just society. Giving an example of blocks it was explained to the participants that everyone should dream for just society which thinks about all citizens equally instead of individual justice alone.
- Explaining the present thoughts of the government Manohar from KSWU explained that the government is pushing laws to criminalise the clients of sex workers and at the same time many anti-sex worker groups are talking about anti-trafficking with a hidden motive of stopping sex work. These groups say that sex workers are forced to do this business. He urged all the members to gather their thoughts and come forward to strongly discuss these issues with policy makers.
- All the members together finalised the vision and mission statements for NNSW. Groups composed the NNSW song and translated it into eight languages
- Board members along with the supporters discussed about registration of NNSW, opening of bank account, membership criteria, role of support organisations etc.
|
| March 22-23, 2016. Indian Social Institute, Bangalore |
NNSW Board meeting
- Brief discussion and preparation of presentation on the activities of NNSW for the Kathmandu meeting
- Half yearly activity planning
- Summary discussion of the Supreme Court Panel interim report
- Discussion on AGM, elections, annual report
|
- NNSW members were informed about the SAWF annual regional meeting to be held in Kathmandu from March 24-27, 2016. In this Board meeting a presentation was prepared about NNSW, advocacy activities and achievements in the meetings.
- The members discussed about focusing the advocacy efforts with the NALSA and with NACO. NALSA with the support of anti-trafficking groups is coming up with a rehabilitation scheme for sex workers which will affect sex workers who are practicing sex work voluntarily and at the same time the Central Government is also not very supportive of HIV intervention programs for the targeted communities. Delay in fund disbursement has hampered the intervention. Board took a decision to wait for a while and visit NALSA and NACO.
- While discussing the topic of the training, the Board decided to club this activity with the proposed AGM in May or June 2016. The members estimated the approximate budget needed for the AGM to bring about 200 community members in a place. Supporters suggested that NNSW could approach APNSW or NSWP for fund support.
- Board members discussed NNSW registration and after detailed discussion it was decided to register the network in Karnataka.
- Shyamala, supporter of NNSW shared the background of the Supreme Court Panel’s mandate and the reason for its constitution. The panel had civil society organisations from four metro cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. As per the ToR of the panel, the interim report was submitted with recommendations on: 1. Prevention of trafficking; 2. Rehabilitation of sex workers who wish to leave sex work; 3. Conditions conducive for sex workers who wish to continue working as sex workers with dignity. Shyamala said that she had looked critically at the recommendations on the third point of the ToR. NNSW expresses its sincere thanks and appreciation to the efforts taken by the Panel to understand the life situation of female sex workers and provided its recommendations related to legal status, care for children of sex workers and amendments to ITPA.
- Due to time constraints the agenda of AGM planning was not able to discuss in length and it was agreed to discuss this agenda in the upcoming Board meeting.
|
| June 20, 2016. Executive Development Centre, Bangalore |
- NNSW Board meeting
- Proposal for 2017-18
- Content for newsletter
- AGM: carried over from the last meeting
|
- The Board planned the Annual General Body meeting of NNSW. The Secretariat provided the update on the fund utilisation which helped the Board members to plan and decided the AGM. Given the available budget the Board decided to hold the AGM at Srinilayam, Sri Kalahasthi, AP on the July 25-26, 2016.
- The Coordinator shared that NNSW needed to submit ** proposal and the deadline is June 30, 2016. He requested all Board members to discuss the activities with the support of the supporters so that the proposal could be written and submitted to ** before deadline.
- It was shared that ** is working on it newsletter and has requested its partner organisations to share case studies, short stories and photographs.
|
| July 25-26, 2016. WINS Office, Sri Kalahasthi, AP |
- Review meeting update on the work progress from the last Board meeting
- Expansion of NNSW membership and membership criteria
- Briefing members on the election criteria
|
- Each Board member of NNSW shared the work progress in their respective states
- The existing members discussed on expanding the NNSW membership to the sex workers CBOs and NGOs who believe in the core principles of NNSW.
- The members were briefed on the procedures and criteria of election for new Board representatives of the NNSW.
- The annual activity report was shared with all members including the funding received to NNSW activities, with SIAAP as the Secretariat
- 86 members representatives from NNSW members organisations participated in the Annual General Body meeting and elected 11 Board representatives
- Vadamalar (through SIAAP) agreed to hold the Secretariat for another term and will continue its support for NNSW programs.
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