Sangat's mandate and non-negotiables

Over the years, as the geo-political situation in South Asia worsened, Sangat’s team and partners felt compelled to broaden its focus of activities to include work on human rights, justice, peace and democracy. Thus, cross-border dialogues through people-to-people contact, peace delegations, cultural exchanges, joint signature campaigns and so on were arranged, facilitated and co-organised by Sangat in the recent past.

Therefore, as per the expanded mandate of Sangat, we aim to:

• support women’s organisations, CSOs and people’s organisations 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 organisations, CSOs 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 perspectives 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 CSOs in South Asia 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 South Asian and global identities, perspectives, solidarity and cooperation and to strengthen networking at the South Asian and other levels.
•  strengthen/initiate networking between South Asian women’s groups, NGOs/CSOs with similar movements and networks in other parts of Asia and the world.
  

To reach out to  larger public on issues of concern, Sangat has made special efforts to work in partnership with artists, singers, theater persons, film makers and designers.

In its courses too, Sangat always includes, yoga, singing, dancing and films to energise the participants and strengthen all aspects of their lives.

 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, organisations and the state  
• Opposition to all opportunistic, patriarchal and right-wing erosion of democratic values and institutions
• Opposition to the present form of liberalisation, privatisation and economic globalisation which are unjust and unfair to the majority of the region’s people
• Belief in solidarity between like minded peoples of South Asia 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