Information on Ekta Parishad

 Information Sheet On Ekta Parishad

May 18, 2021

 

About EP: Ekta Parishad is a mass-based organization working in 150 districts of India. EP mainly focuses on youth leadership, nonviolence, mass mobilization and policy change in the interests of the poor and marginalized populations. The main strength of EP is that it has a very strong community base in thousands of villages.

 

 Structure of EP: Ekta Parishad has district coordinators and a support team in every district. A select group from the district are represented in the State Committee. The State representatives get nominated into the national committee. The national secretariat of Ekta Parishad is operating from Bhopal. There are coordination points and training centres in different states.

 

Decision Making in EP: The main decision-making body is the national committee but decisions related to the state or the districts, are made at these levels. Generally this is a consultative process between different bodies. Decisions are generally made through a bottom-up process. Only in emergency cases like Covid19 does it become top-down because of the urgency

 

Communication in EP: Communication is a two-way process. The national committee takes responsibility for international communications and to bring information back  to the state and  to the districts. There is a flow of information that comes from villages to district and to state and then to the national level. This is the information from the bottom that is generally used for external communication and advocacy work.

 

Bank account of EP: In the previous round of Covid-19 relief work during the year 2020, we received about 80 lakhs from our international support groups and this money was shown separately as Covid fund. At the end of the year we had a balance of about 10 lakhs and that is the money being used for the relief work this year. All foreign contributions can only come to one bank account operated by MGSA in Morena, Madhya Pradesh. For Indian money we have identified three organizations within Ekta Parishad circle and the contributions will be used only for Covid19 related activities.

 

Covid operation in the field: We have selected 72 districts out of 150 as our immediate operational area. (Lists of these 72 districts are attached). Soon we are going to add some more districts from the southern part of India. EP workers, volunteers and village level leaders are all active in reaching out to the people and helping them in whatever way we can.

 

Coordination with state: As a well-known mass-based organization, EP is connected to the governments at the state and district level. In the case of Covid relief, we need full cooperation of the government, just as governments need the cooperation of organizations that are credible at the village level. Because of extensive outreach, EP related organizations are able to work with government(s) without any difficulty.

 

National/international dimension of EP: Because of various important activities of EP during the last 30 years, this organization is known in many circles nationally and internationally. We have a support association in Europe and it is called EP Europe. Nine countries are participating in this forum at the moment. Jai Jagat global campaign launched jointly by EP and other organizations has also given much broader reach to Ekta Parishad globally. The very fact that we are connected globally gives us an opportunity to be heard, and to seek support when there is an urgency like the Covid relief.

 

Covid-19 Operation in Phase 1 and Phase 2: In Phase 1 because the impact was felt on urban life, EP took up the responsibility for finding work and food for migrant labourers who had returned to their villages or lost their employment. We were able to organize distribution of relief materials, work (shramdan) camps to create community assets and also encourage tree plantation in many villages. In Phase 1, we have reached nearly 100,000 (one lakh) families.

 

Phase 2 is more challenging in term of area to be covered and demands to be met. To begin with we are encouraging communities to use local herbs and medicines as well as to use masks and sanitizers as preventive measures. Apart from Home Care and other preventative measures, EP is setting up isolation centres with the support of Govt. for affected people.  In addition we are sending volunteers with the medical teams to villages for holding of vaccination camps. Other than these actions we are also providing a medical kit with essential medicines and mask to thousands of families.

 

Soon demand for food items may increase as there is no employment, especially for landless populations. During the monsoon (July, Aug, Sep) this will be particularly acute.

 

Transparency/Accountability:  EP has been careful about transparency and accountability and this is especially important in any disaster situation. EP is trying to use every rupee for the people and avoid unnecessary overhead costs.  There is an internal auditing system to begin with and the financial statement becomes public after external auditing. All major donors will receive a copy of the audited report and will be free to cross-check for details. We have an accounts department that is fully dedicated to this task.

Long-term Partnership with Ekta Parishad:

1.     Covid19 is a special situation and we have accepted to face this challenge. Relief is not our basic character. We are more into the ideea of building a self sufficient community rather than a dependant community. In-order to achieve this we need long term partners and long term support in the following areas.

 

2.      Training rural young people into community organizers.

 

3.     Scholarship for trained rural leaders (They have to devote major part of their time in community organizing).

 

4.     Working on local nonviolent and sustainable economy. This will mean small initiatives (land based, forest based, labour based) and each initiative will require small start up support.

 

5.     Networking with other initiatives and organizations.  To build a broad alliance to create a better impact support for communication, travel etc.

 

6.     Advocacy action for policy change. Policies need to be made in a way that will allow communities to have greater control over natural resources and also have power to decide about their own future. Ekta Parishad has already demonstrated that large scale community mobilization and advocacy can go hand in hand.

 

7.     Producing educational materials out of experiences on the ground. We have many documents, reports and films that are generally used as educational material. More such materials need to be created in the larger interest of all those who are trying to transform the society into a better place.

 

 Rajagopal.P.V

18^th May 2021