Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha [SANGRAM]

SANGRAM is a voluntary organization that works at the grass root level with a lot of activists, volunteers and paid workers. It is slowly gaining importance as a practical training ground for other NGO’s and GO’s interested in working on HIV/AIDS in a rural context. SANGRAM started its work with women in prostitution and sex work from South Maharashtra and North Karnataka way back in 1992 and has since fanned out among diverse populations. SANGRAM is based in Sangli district, which has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in Maharashtra after Mumbai.

The organization works to create a collective consciousness among women, to increase their ability to negotiate safety independently, and strengthen women to assert their rights. Women’s Rights are particularly difficult to talk about, because they question traditional patriarchal structures. It also helps discuss official policies, legal and ethical issues which affect stigmatized and marginalized groups and to create spaces which these groups can use The organization helps to discuss the rights of women, people with diverse sexualities and people living with HIV/AIDS.

A COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE TO HIV

15 years after it started work, SANGRAM responds to HIV/AIDS through a comprehensive strategy of prevention, care and support. The strategy covers the full continuum of the epidemic – before, during and after. It reaches sex workers and married women, clients, husbands and lovers, teenagers and truck drivers, orphans and widows, panchayat heads and policemen.

This comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS is carried out through:

• A peer education and condom distribution programme among 5,000 sex workers that is managed by VAMP, a collective of women in prostitution and sex work
• An outreach programme that convinces truckers and auto-rickshaw drivers to treat sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV
• A district campaign, which provides information, treatment, care and support around HIV to rural women, young adults and teenagers in Sangli district
• A weekly support group for men who have sex with men
• A campaign to provide access to treatment.
• Programmes for children and women orphaned or widowed by HIV

This multi-pronged approach is rooted in two underlying philosophies:

• Health policies and systems are accountable to the people
• All individuals, be they sex workers, persons living with HIV/AIDS, people with diverse sexualities, truck drivers or widows, can be empowered to demand accountability from the system

“People should believe that they can change things.” “It is not about a few activists fighting for other people’s rights. Anybody who has imbibed this understanding should be able to go and fight for their rights. That is the model.”