A key challenge facing the overall women’s rights scenario in any remote region like Northeast India is availability of trained lawyers in local courts to assist the aggrieved women to fight their rights violation cases or otherwise guard their interests in a dispute. Such legal services, embracing both individual access to justice and public interest law transcending individual needs, contribute to the rule of law, good governance, human rights, empowerment of the poor and poverty alleviation.
CoEPPG has been instrumental in producing a resource book that may be used as a Women’s Rights Lawyers’ Handbook or a manual which is readily available for adoption by law schools to conduct similar programs and also act as a ready-reckoner for the lawyers, police officers, administrators, corporate human resource managers and chief executives of organizations. The contents of the resource book contains training materials used at the training workshop, individual research studies by the authors and a compilation of some important reference documents from difference sources. The Book mainly covers issues like social security legislations, free legal aid, constitutional remedies, marriage laws, separation, divorce, maintenance, offences of dowry, violence against women, rights at work place, sexual harassment at work place, Vishaka Guidelines etc.
Environmental Assessment Capacity Building In South Asia
(Proposed Augmentation Of The Post Graduate Program In Management At IIM Kashipur)
Background and Rationale
Economic development activities while improving the quality of life, could lead to negative impacts on environment and natural resources. It is important that these negative impacts are addressed in a timely, comprehensive and sound manner across the project cycle on a proactive basis. In response to above, Environmental Assessment (EA) is used by national governments all over the world as a tool to ensure a balance between development and environment.
The challenge of environmental management and regulation is immense in a country as large and diverse as India. Over the years the legislative framework addressing environmental management has evolved, with the enactment of the Environment Protection Act 1986, which is an umbrella act encompassing air, water, land and natural resources management. The framework is completed through various Policies, Acts Notifications and Regulations/Rules. As a result, India has a credible policy and legislative base to foster environmental sustainability. However gaps are evident in the institutional mechanisms - primarily in enforcement and compliance, as well as implementation and mainstreaming of environmental issues across various sectors of the economy. The operationalization has not been as effective or at par with the evolution of legislation and policy.
The institutional entities (the governance mechanisms and entities, implementing agencies, educational institutes, other formal and informal groups) in their current form seem inadequate for responding to the emerging and critical environmental challenges adversely affecting public health, services and infrastructure. There is no end in sight for river pollution; generation of wastes, hazardous substances and plastics; chemical contamination, and so on. Although the number and complexity of projects received for environmental clearance by the MOEF has increased several fold in the recent years, its capacity has also remained limited. In the same token, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) are limited in their capacity or resources to ensure compliance with various environmental regulations.
Environmental sustainability (including wise use of natural resources and social responsibilities) is the most important consideration if India needs to continue on her growth path. Business as usual: where unchecked pollution, depletion of natural resources, low-quality processes were all acceptable practices, today appear as risky, due to improved public awareness and expectation, judicial and civil society activism, and above all a national agreement to avoid long-term disasters. Businesses at every level, projects or programs, individual activities, business and manufacturing processes all will need to change to be able to grow and expand. This will require improved application of various EA methods and tools to improve the stages of planning, designing, implementation and operation of projects and programs.
There is a notable shortage of basic skills in the country and specifically at the state levels to conduct quality environmental impact assessments and to develop environment management plans. To begin with, there is a dearth of graduate level programs dedicated to environmental impact assessments, and very little exposure of future infrastructure specialists to the theory and practice of environmental risk analysis and management. Whereas basic skills (among a moderate number of professionals) and specialized skills among the few (regulators and advisors) were seen to be sufficient a few years ago to prepare and accept EA reports of projects and programs, the complex realities mean that (a) skill levels among the professionals will need to improve; (ii) the number of expert professionals needs augmentation. Further, the global advances in techniques, newer subjects to be covered (climate change, cumulative impact analysis to name a few), and expectations from general public continuously require augmentation of capacity to carry out robust EAs across the entire spectrum.
However, there is a b need to build capacities of key stakeholders on EA in India. These stakeholders include regulators, policy planners, project proponents, consultants, contractors, investors, environmental NGOs, research and academia. Building of capacities should essentially address the stakeholder "ecosystem". Importantly all these efforts need to be carried out on a sustained and strategic basis.
Objective
The objectives of this assignment are as follows:
1. To develop a sustainable program within the mainstream two year Postgraduate Program in Management (PGP), which is equivalent to an MBA, to systematically address the dearth of environment management skills in India by offering specialized environment management courses and onsite internships.
2. To develop curriculum, elective courses and training modules for specific target groups in areas like Cumulative Impact Analysis and Climate Change related impacts.
3. To deliver modular training programs by various modes (regular/distance learning) of various duration: short courses, Management Development Programs (MDPs) and workshops on thematic areas.
4. To build a centre of excellence in the country with its network of partner institutions and training faculties, for delivering effective training on Environment Impact Assessments on regular basis to the stakeholders from government, industry and civil society.
5. To support experience exchanges across sectors and across the region and to foster communities of EA practice in the South Asian Countries.
6. The overall vision is to develop the IIM Kashipur as a Regional Centre of Excellence for EA and to expand the program to other countries in South Asia subject to successful completion of the activities in Phase I (2014-2016) and availability of support from the World Bank and the Government of India.
Scope of Work
The entire program is proposed to be carried out in two phases:
Phase IA: Establishment of the EIA Training and Knowledge Hub (June 2014- May 2015):
Following activities will be covered under this phase:
• Establish the academic mechanism within IIM Kashipur for EA training / capacity building activities.
• Identification and development of collaboration agreements with partner institutions working in environment management areas.
• Preparation of an EA curriculum, courses and training modules and prepare a calendar for the regular training programs of various durations for different target groups.
• Identify faculty, experts, and academic panel to develop and finalize the required curriculum, specialized (elective) course content, pedagogy and delivery mechanisms for the proposed for 2 year PGP and other training and capacity building activities.
• Develop an implementation plan for sustainability of training and capacity building program
• Planning for the web-based and other forms of distance education.
• To undertake content review training modules and conduct at least 4 (four) Short Courses and 2 (Two) thematic workshops.
• Identification and development of collaboration agreements with industry and corporate houses for internship of the PG students in various environment management functions/areas.
Phase IB: - Operation of the Selected Training and Knowledge Hub & Planning for Long-Term Sustainability (July 2015 – March 2016)
Following activities will be covered under this phase:
• Content review of elective courses prior to the launching of the “environment management” concentration / specialisation in the second year of the PGP in management at IIM Kashipur.
• To undertake content review training modules and conduct at least 4 (four) Short Courses and 2 (Two) thematic workshops.
• Operationalize the web-based and other forms of distance education;
• Assessment by collating feedback from trainees;
• Reports for each training event and one final report with recommendations;
• Review of the implementation plan prepared for sustainability of the training and capacity building program;
• Preparation of a business model to ensure financial viability of the long-term training and capacity building program;
• Incorporation of the two year program as a regular institutional program within the IIM Kashipur academic plan so that the Institute can take over implementation of the long-term training and capacity building program based on the experience, feedback and operating procedures and business model developed during the Phase I.
• Revisit the scope of the Institute as a center of excellence; and establish support linkages (e.g., with MoEF, NABET, NSDC etc.) as relevant;
• Facilitate development of Business and Operational Plan of the program for the institute;
• To put in place all the prerequisites, academic as well as administrative, to ensure sustainability of the entire long-term training and capacity building program in environment management.
Phase II: - Support to Long-term Operation of the Training Hub and Experience Exchanges across South Asia (April 2015 – March 2017)
Following activities are envisaged to be covered under this phase:
• Full-fledged operation of the web-based and other forms of distance education;
• To implement the entire long-term training and capacity building program scale it up across sectors / countries;
• Create platforms for collaboration of the Community of EA Practice; and facilitate such communities to develop regular interactions;
• Support experience exchange among the stakeholders in the countries of South Asia.
For further details contact:
Dr K M Baharul Islam
Professor and Chair, Center for Public Policy & Government,
Program Director, The World Bank Program on Green Management,
Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
Kashipur 244713 (Uttarakhand)
Tel (Direct) Off: +91 63997-63997
Fax: +91 5947 262177 / 262820
Cell: +91 83928-11111
Alt Email: bislam[at]iimkashipur[dot]ac[dot]in, islamb[at]un.org
Skype ID: kmbislam
