Protection mainstreaming is incorporating protection principles and promoting meaningful Access, Safety and Dignity. Ensuring effective protection of populations is increasingly viewed as the main concern of agency and cluster practice in humanitarian response development programs. It is no longer considered acceptable for humanitarian actors and development professionals to focus on material needs without considering the safety, dignity and rights of individuals, groups and affected populations.

Caritas India organized a 2-day Empower Asia training program conducted on 15^th and 16^th September 2022 at Don Bosco Institute Guwahati for Caritas India staff on Gender and Protection mainstreaming under Caritas Institute of Development, Action and Learning (CIDAL). A total of 21 Caritas staff participated in this training, facilitated by CRS to ensure all activities carried out across all programs are seen through a “protection lens” and consist of protection principles.

Fr. (Dr.) Jolly Puthenpura, Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India in his opening remark reiterated the values of the organization and how it is important to be sensitized about the need for protection and gender mainstreaming. Caritas India being a humanitarian agency engages directly with the community; hence, it is important to be careful about violations of human dignity. He urged everyone to follow up with the leanings and to create a safe environment at all levels.

“Protection measures need to be in place to ensure safety of the community and also the ones engaged with them,” shared Fr. (Dr.) Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India in his inaugural address. He requested everyone to have mutual respect and remember the objectives of the training i.e. Safety, Accessibility and Dignity. He concluded by pointing out that it is important to keep learning at every step.

The facilitators for the session Ms. Vijayalakshmi Arora and Avik Dey from CRS were then introduced, who took the opportunity to point out that Protection is not just a one-day training but a journey. It is not only important for the humanitarian response but also for development work. Ms. Viji mentioned broadly what the 2-day session would consist of, like, identifying and relating the topic to our humanitarian/development work and what actions are necessary, the close connection between protection and gender, the difference between training and ToT, what facilitation skills are required and after the 2-days, a discussion on the key points of what Caritas will undertake to improve around those areas.

Mr. Ghanshayam, Head of Programmes, Caritas India thanked the facilitators for their time and efforts to train the Caritas staff on such a crucial topic. He pointed out the importance of gender equality both in our office as well as in our personal life.

The training was conducted over a period of 2 days. On the first day, the key concepts of Gender, Gender mainstreaming and integration and protection – the initiation were discussed. Followed by a continued discussion on protection on the second day along with Adult Learning Principles and Facilitation. The training was closed with feedback from the participants and vote of thanks to Ms. Viji and Mr. Avik. The training was successful and gave immense knowledge to all the participants for implementing various programs on the field and actively strive to examine, question and change harmful gender norms and correct power imbalances in order to reach development and gender equity/equality objectives.