Forum for creches child care services (FORCES)

FORCES is a national level advocacy network which aims at ensuring child-survival and development, to ensure the well being of young children of working women from marginalized and disadvantaged communities in India. CHETNA is a member of the National FORCES and a founder core group member of Gujarat and Rajasthan FORCES. Since November 2006, CHETNA has been working as the Secretariat of the FORCES, Gujarat.

Some of the major contributions of FORCES Gujarat Shishu Sangh(GSS) since 2006 are as follows:

Capacity building for partners

  • Organised a training on Child Care and Parenting in collaboration with Bala Mandir Chennai and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).
  • Facilitated collecting community voices on strengthening of Anganwadis in Gujarat (Voices collected by 10 partners in four districts from 2000 people on ICDS ).
  • Collection and Compilation of data on status of children in Gujarat for Alternative NGO report on the status of Young Child in India
    Facilitated collecting community voices on strengthening of Anganwadis in Gujarat (Voices collected by 10 partners in four districts from 2000 people on ICDS )
  • Updated information on new schemes and programmes and provided to the partners.


Advocacy

  • Collection and Compilation of data on status of children in Gujarat for Alternative NGO report on the status of young child in India.

Contribution in preparing draft of State Plan of Action for Children (SPAC).

  • Recommendations for strengthening ICDS made by GSS shared with the Secretary Women and Child Development Department 2009.
  • On the occasion of completion of 20 years of FORCES, CHETNA, as a national core group member contributed in developing an operation plan for 2011-2015.

Networking

  • Partnering with other networks and alliances for advocating on the rights of the children below six years.
  • Collective advocacy at state/national and international levels for stopping sex selection and creating conducive environment for valuing the girl child.
  • Participation in GOA convention on ECCE rights and signature campaign-2009