Sangat Mandates and Non Negotiables
Mandate
- Support women’s organizations, CSOs and people’s organizations to build a strong gender perspective and shared commitment to sustainable development, justice, peace, human rights, pluralism and democracy.
- Conduct capacity building and leadership development workshops/trainings for mid and senior level staff and functionaries of women’s organizations, CSO’s and voluntary organizations.
- Help CSOs study and understand the impact of globalization, neo-liberalism and other macro policies on ecology, people’s livelihoods, gender relations, communal harmony, cultural diversity etc and to lobby for the inclusion of people’s and women’s perspective in policies and programmes.
- Build and strengthen skills in conducting training on gender equality, sustainable development, food security, justice, human rights, peace and other related issues.
- Support ongoing people’s movements and campaigns for justice, peace, human rights, gender equality, democracy, secularism, pluralism and sustainable development.
- Promote internationalism by strengthening existing cooperation and networking between women’s groups and CSO’s and other countries to share successful experiences of women’s empowerment, peace building, protection of human rights and protection and conservation of biodiversity, etc. and take up advocacy on these and other shared concerns and issues.
- Create, sharpen and/or develop citizen and global identities, perspectives, solidarity and cooperation and to strengthen networking.
- Strengthen/ initiate networking between women’s groups, NGOs/ CSOs with similar movements and networks in other parts of Asia and the world
Non- negotiables
Sangat’s credo is based on what we refer to as our non-negotiables:
- Opposition to patriarchal systems, ideologies and practices whether traditional or modern
- Opposition to all forms of gender, class, race, caste, religion, ethnicity, sexuality based discrimination and oppression
- Opposition to violence by individuals, organizations and the state
- Opposition to all opportunistic, patriarchal and right-wing erosion of democratic values and institutions
- Opposition to the present form of liberalization, privatization and economic globalization which are unjust and unfair to the majority of the region’s people
- Belief in solidarity between like minded peoples to build democratic, peaceful, gender just and secular, communities and countries
- Belief in and aspiration for democracy and democratic values and culture in all institutions, including the family
- Belief in secularism which means respect for all religions as well as for doubters, agnostics, atheists
- Belief in working towards a peaceful co-existence of all religious groups and challenging the political instrumentalisation and commodification of religion
- Belief in pluralism and diversity in all aspects of our life
- Belief in unity across differences of caste, religion and nation as a feminist goal, but not in a way that threatens cherished identities
- Belief in peace with justice, equality, dignity and human rights for all
- Belief in dialogue and persuasion