Caritas India has always been at the forefront in its continued effort to support the most marginalized sections of society by being involved in various humanitarian services. Peace is an important component for the sustainable development Goal of the United Nation and ‘Samvaad’ is a catalyst that paves the way to holistic development.

The Caritas India ‘Samvaad’ Program aimed at stabilising and rebuilding communities, while promoting medium to long-term development. The objective is to educate the community and make them conscious and concerned about peace for social justice, equality, dignity, cooperation, and self-reliance. It is a long-collaborative process that involves changes in attitudes, behaviours, and norms. The idea of Samvaad revolves around empowering local communities to initiate and sustain their peace and development process.

The outcome of the communal riots left many displaced from Saharanpur & Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. Samvaad pilot project was first initiated in Meerut to bridge the gap in the community. The success of the project helped to replicate the same in the other 5 districts of Uttar Pradesh namely Agra, Bareilly, Bijnor, Jhansi and Lucknow.

Covid-19 pandemic followed by the State elections has slow-down the program implementation, but all the six partners worked with the community through their detailed implementation plan. The key initiatives were mainly centred on the community-led development program in a peaceful environment in which sustainable development is done.

Caritas India organized a refresher training on 9-10 March 2022 at New Delhi for its coordinators and animation to reorient them with the program objective and approaches. The resource person shared his experience on the initiation of the peacebuilding program conducted by them. He shared that it is very necessary to research the area, understand the situation and situational analysis, hardships associated with political, religious background to make out whether to enter into the peace process activities in the surveyed areas.

Taking the reference from Maslow’s theory of needs, he shared about the primary needs of human beings and ways to fulfil or achieve those needs for social security and development. It is widely accepted as a theory of motivation because to achieve these needs a person moves from the bottom to the top. Through Maslow’s theory, the resource person tried to convey that the person who is not self-contended can create trouble for the community or wherever he/she lives resulting in disharmony in the society.

The interactive discussion was done on the issues that encompass while interactive with the community like lack of education, awareness, discrimination on the bases of caste, creed, religion, inequality, political, unemployment, healthcare etc. The discussion brought out the reasoning capacity and logically put up the issues of discussion in the participants.

Apart from this, the resource person led the participants on constitutional rights and legal approaches. He explained the need for constitutional rights and legal approaches for the establishment of peace. In society, it was observed that there are hidden powerful sources that ultimately leads to the cause of the rise in conflicts. And was seen that community people fall prey to it unknowingly. So, if we already have a shield or a weapon, that can establish peace without causing any harm, then it is important and becomes an obligation to make people aware. That weapon and the shield is our “constitution”.

Key concepts of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) was touched by the WaSH expert from UNICEF. He introduced it as an entry point and correlated with nutrition, communication skills while going to the field, challenges, behavioural change, and how to adopt creative ideas to make it more impactful and easier to understand. This was followed by a group activity, on the components of Wash & its Importance, F- Diagram in wash and MHM. Through this group activity, the participants got to learn a lot not only about the topics given but also enhanced their leadership and teamwork quality.

The communication tools and strategies were discussed in the groups which becomes the entry point in the community through – visuals, IPCs, games, skits, street plays, paintings, wall writing, IEC materials etc. at the community, male, female, children, PRI members, ASHA, AWW, ANM, stakeholders etc.