ELECTION PROCESS OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: MANIPULATED STRATEGY FOR COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF FEMALE SEX WORKERS

[BEST PRACTICE DOCUMENTATION UNIT OF KSACS]

ELECTION PROCESS OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: MANIPULATED STRATEGY FOR
COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF FEMALE SEX WORKERS
====================================================================

An official obligation, democratic form of election process to choose
office bearers of a Community Based Organization (CBO) is not
sensational or distinctive news in India. But the election process of
‘Santhwanatheeram’, a Community Based Organization (CBO) of female sex
workers in Alappuzha District is distinctive as it serves the purpose
of community mobilization and community strengthening process. The
Santhwanatheeram is promoted by Jawahar Suraksha Project, a Targeted
Intervention (TI) Project of Kerala State AIDS Control Society for the
prevention of HIV/AIDS among female sex workers.

Community Mobilization is one of the major components of the Targeted
Intervention Programme, visualized by National AIDS Control
Organization (NACO) in its National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-III).
It is obvious that the involvement and ownership of ‘at-risk’
communities like female sex workers will be helpful in attaining
scale, coverage and quality of Targeted Interventions (TI). The
proactive role of female sex workers in TI implementation as Community
Based Organization (CBO) will certainly put the responsibility of HIV
Prevention on them.

However, mobilization and empowerment of female sex workers is not an
easy task, particularly in the Kerala context where sex work does not
have social sanction. The disguised and scattered nature of female sex
workers (FSWs) multiplies the impediments. The scholastic
backwardness, poor socio-cultural background, illiteracy, etc. of FSWs
hinder their strengthening as an Organization. The valid and sustained
memberships of many of the female sex worker CBOs promoted by Suraksha
Projects are hence disappointing.
Like other female sex worker CBOs in Kerala, ‘Santhwanatheeram’ at
Alappuzha too initiated several programmes to surmount these inverse
factors in community mobilization and strengthening. Facilities like
beauty clinic, mobile recharge facility, income generation programmes,
small saving schemes, etc., are some of the programmes supported by
the Project for fostering collectivization and empowerment of FSWs at
Alappuzha District. The Project tactically manipulated the election
process of office bearers of the CBO as one of the best strategies to
mobilize and empower the female sex worker population, disguised and
scattered across the district.

The very idea to employ the democratic election exercise as a strategy
to increase valid and permanent membership sprouted after the second
Governing Board election of Santhwanatheeram happened in the year
2008. The project team observed a kind competitive spirit among the
competitors while declaring the result of the election. After several
discussions at various levels, the professional team of the project
decided to manipulate this competitive spirit for community
empowerment.

Three months prior to the next Governing Board election in 2009, the
Project team tactically but professionally motivated all the
stakeholders who wish to become a candidate in the Governing Board
election to persuade their peers to join in the CBO as Full members
with voting power, as they can support them while voting for office
bearers. The result was encouraging; there were a sudden increase of
165 full memberships in the CBO during the two month membership
campaign. A total of 218 members out of 337 full members, casted their
opinion on the polling day. The same strategy repeated in the year
2010 also and a total of 188 new FSWs were inducted as full members
during this campaign. A total of 393 persons casted their votes for
the year 2010-11. As of now there are 526 full members and 978
associate members in the Santhwanatheeram. Only full members have
voting power in the CBO.

The election process of the Governing Board of ‘Santhwanatheeram’ is
well designed to nourish the perpetual representative democracy in the
CBO. It includes prior publication of electoral roles, declaration of
dates for nomination, withdrawal of nomination and canvassing the
voters through direct or indirect interaction by candidates, release
of election manifesto by panel of candidates, confidential casting of
votes at de-centralized polling booths and centralized counting and
declaration of the elected representatives, use of ballot papers,
scope for election petitions, etc.

It is being proved that the familiarization of the election process
through this election exercise itself is a capacity building attempt
for the female sex worker community. Direct interaction with several
people in a campaign mode improved the interpersonal communication
skills of the candidates and their decedents. The campaign provides
opportunity for public speaking, platform for leading advocacy, etc to
the candidates. All these exercises pave way for developing second
line leadership in the Organization. The positive competitive spirit
enhances the internal bonding of the members as a community.

It is observed that many of the newly inducted members through the
peer led pre-election membership campaign actively involved in the
regular programmes and activities of the CBO. The peer influence and
peer pressure employed in the induction process create a sense of
ownership among the stakeholders towards the CBO. The same feeling
empowers them with the freedom for self-expression. These in turn
foster the natural bonding already existing among the community
members. It will certainly boost-up the institutionalization process
of the community, as visualized by the NACP-III.