The perspective building and strategic planning workshop of the Pravasi Bandhu program took place on 26th May at the Indian Social Institute of Bangalore and there were 45 participants who participated in the training session. The program is implemented to assist, support and protect internal migrant workers and to create awareness among the potential migrant workers  in Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Fr. Paul set the context and purpose of the training program and discussed some takeaway points with the participants of the national conference. The discussion established a brainstorming amongst the participants which will be taken forward.

The whole training was moderated by Ms. Seeta Sharma, Migration Technical Expert & International Development Specialist. She stated the current migration trends involve intra and interstate migration whereas the intrastate migration is more compared to interstate migration and very less percentage constitutes international migration.

The training session was divided into groups to discuss the access to services and involvement with the stakeholders. This discussion culminated in developing a plan of action. The training highlighted some key services to work in the domain of migration i.e. areas of work,  collaboration with stakeholders like working media could be one of the strategies for utilising our own benefit of the organisation as well as the program that will also serve as a good relationship with the government. As a conclusion, she raised some of the action points:

We should collectively demand Govt externally on one side and also build a good rapport to provide solutions.

All the agencies who are working with migration should collect their data and share it with Govt. for making changes in the policy. Emphasis should be there on sharing data with Govt so as to make a larger shift in policy changes for the migrants.

Caritas India will focus its intervention on the below points:

1. Focus more on utilising contractors’ goodness in connecting us with employers and migrants because they build a bridge into bringing migrants to the employers.
2. Linking source and destinations both at intra and interstate locations.
3. Mapping government services and finding ways to provide accessibility to the migrants as per the requirement.
4. Focussing on alliances buildings and networking.
5. Access to services
6. Skilling or employment
7. Communication and documentation
8. Dialogue and policy engagement
9. Social inclusion
10. Networking and alliances building, creation of a consortium of like-minded stakeholders

Fr. Jolly took a session on the accountability framework. The discussion focussed on implementing the partner director’s program leadership, human resource management, best finance practices, program implementation partner’s performance assessment in the program, and partnership with the implementing partners.

Caritas India and its staff act as accompaniers, co-travellers and co-strugglers.  While internalising the liberating mission of the organisation, Caritas personnel at all levels seek to practice the principles and values of mutually benefiting and enriching program collaboration and partnership. Caritas Staff will play their roles as true facilitators and catalysers, not enforcing agents so that there is incremental gain in the organisation’s efficiency and programme effectiveness at the partner level.

He discussed key accountabilities at the Caritas India level that included Program Accompaniment/Facilitation, Partner Relationship & Communication, and regional level Coordination & Synergy. The Annual Review meeting focussed on the outcome level work for the last year of the Pravasi Bandhu program in which all the partners presented their work. The review meeting addressed all the gaps and opportunities and set goals for future work of action.