There are many Community Led Organizations (CLOs) headed by passionate leaders working tirelessly for the cause of social inclusion. Many of these organizations have managed to address and position critical community issues in the mainstream. While others continue to face internal and external barriers, often related to organizational capacity which limit their reach and impact.

Oxfam India in partnership with Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion (CSEI) and Praxis supports 56 Community Led Organisations (CLOs) run by Tribal, Dalit and Muslims across six states of India to enable them to play a more influential role. ‘By the People’ project helps the marginalized communities fight socio economic exclusion and demand their rights.

Identifying the capacity issues faced by the marginalized communities, ‘By the people’ supports the CLOs through technical and capacity building.

Using training manuals, workshops, consultations and other tools, this project aims to enhance the participation of organizations in local and national level development process.
 

Key objectives include:

• Enhance active participation of organizations led by women and youth from socially excluded groups in social and democratic spaces
• Strengthen Community Led Organisations (CLOs) and CSOs to enable them to collectively influence governance processes for inclusive development

Key result areas are: 

• Increased and improved capacities of target CLOs to better engage with and influence governance and development processes.
• Enhanced and well defined participation of target CLOs in governance and development processes, through holistic support and mutually developed strategic plans.
• Strengthened collaboration between different groups of CLOs/CSOs, civil society networks and other stakeholders to achieve common policy objectives.

Social inclusion is an emerging theme within Oxfam India. Under the theme, ‘By the People’ - a consortia based project supported by the European Union. Our work enables socially-excluded communities, such as Dalits, tribals and Muslims – particularly women – to exercise their rights of citizenship and live a life with dignity, free from discrimination.