Activities
The activities of the foundation in India are an attempt to contribute towards sustainable development through capacity building aimed at supporting local governance, women empowerment, creating safety for women and children in urban and rural spaces, as well as environment protection and water conservation.
The foundation works with partner organisations primarily in the field of:
Strengthen Federal Structures
Despite federal tradition and constitutional anchorage, the goals of democratic decentralization or ”Gram Swaraj” of the 600,000 villages in India are far from achieved.
By having a politically educated and motivated local population, who know their rights and responsibilities, the vertical separation of powers can function as foreseen in the Constitution. Through state-level discussions and political seminars with local partner organisations in Rajasthan, the Foundation builds capacities on the ground, thereby strengthening the bottom-up approach in the local federal structures.
In Rajasthan, a model panchayat is developed in the project phase 2018-20. In 2021-23, the structure built in developing a model panchayat in terms of procedural trainings shall be taken forward to the district, state and national level. The intent is to establish it as a sustainable model over a period of time.
In Karnataka, a project is started in 2021 for the youth to promote their understanding on the values of federalism, principles and structures of decentralized governance in India.
The approach in India is complimented by the publications and the events - Asia Federalism Dialogues as a series of online seminars; Talking Federalism, an online conversation and the International Munich Federalism Days, a conference for global exchange on development and research on federalism.
Provide Safe Cities for Women and Children
India is becoming less safe for women and children to live in; sexual crimes against this group are on the rise.
A well-trained and citizen-friendly police force as well as a working cooperation mechanism with state prosecution, judiciary and the civil society help to provide a more effective exercise of justice and safety for India’s citizens.
Hanns Seidel Foundation facilitates a cooperation between the Bavarian and the Karnataka State Police under the existing Memorandum of Understanding between both states on community-based policing, practice-oriented education and stress-resilience.
Together with the Government of Karnataka, State Police, NGOs and Human Rights Commission, we support a cooperation of all stakeholders on women and victim protection in Karnataka.
Improve Communal Water Management
Water is quickly becoming the most concerning issue in India’s rural areas and a potential source of conflict. With the impact of climate change, the growing population is facing various issues such as droughts, floods and shrinking predictability of rainfall.
Along with its partner organisations, Hanns Seidel Foundation endeavours to create awareness for the changing water and climatic situations and thereby inculcate a change in behaviour at the community level both in rural and urban areas.
Through trainings, technical demonstrations and educational excursions, our partners are enabling villagers to anticipate their water situation, to discuss solutions and to appeal for development with local and state-level authorities. Technical demonstrations help the villagers to tackle water problems themselves. The underlying concept is a training of trainers utilising internally-created material.
With its international conferences in varying countries, the Foundation also offers a cross-national South Asia forum for scientific and political exchange on a common approach against regional water issues.
Support Regional Understanding
With increasing ravages of nature coupled with rising demand from the population, South Asia is facing severe challenges in the availability of water. This has further led to conflict between Indian states and obstructs regional understanding. Only a joint approach can achieve resource efficiency: Through cooperation and understanding between the countries, the regional stress on water resources can be mitigated.
In this context, the Foundation offers cross-national dialogue-forums on water resource management that serve as a neutral platform of scientific and technical exchange on transboundary water problems. Scientists, bureaucrats and policy makers, especially from South Asia, utilise this forum in order to intensify transnational cooperation. On a national level, the Foundation supports the dialogue on water federalism.
International Conference on Himalaya Water: Highland-Lowland Interactions, Dhaka 2019