Over 2006-07 CFAR in partnership with other organizations has been setting up community-led forums in Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Jaipur. This is part of a Ford Foundation supported initiative that aims to build the capacities of civil society, grassroots organizations and development agencies to engage with other concerned stakeholders on issues of access to basic entitlements and services for the urban poor using the strategic tool of media.

For starters we spent time networking and learning from communities and organizations working with the urban poor and on exploring the possibilities of strengthening existing community initiatives using the tool of advocacy, particularly media advocacy. This entailed looking at the scope and nature of civil society organizations working with the urban poor. Identifying organizational measures and strategies that were enabling CSOs to mobilize communities and strengthen collective action.

Based on these learnings CFAR decided to create women-led forums. Informal interactions were held with the women to enable them to realize the benefits of coming together, articulating and strategizing on their concerns and interacting with local leaders. Certain simple and democratic norms were also framed regarding the conducting of meetings. The documentation and minuting of meetings and that issues be discussed in its entirety before taking it up as an activity.

As of March 2007 there were 24 forums in these four cities addressing issues of concern to them.

In Delhi which has four forums the groups have been addressing issues ranging from sanitation to water supply, electricity and domestic violence. They have also been using the Right to Information (RTI 2005), writing complaints to concerned officials, holding health camps on issues like Dengue, counseling workshops on domestic violence, half -day gender sensitization workshops to sensitize members to gender related issues.

• In Bangalore forums have been formed in 11 settlements and the groups have been focusing on getting Green Card facilities for all families living below the poverty line in the settlements, potable water supply, RCH health services, widow and old age pensions and improving services in ration shops. They have also succeeded in improving sanitation in the settlements by getting drains cleaned and ensuring the daily collection of garbage from waste bins.
• In Pune, which has 6 community led forums the women have been focusing on problems that effect their daily life like water, sanitation, electricity, alcoholism, domestic violence and maintenance of public toilets. Alongside they have been holding sessions on how to use the RTI, media literacy and the right to vote. In December a newsletter 'Pratibimb" was published which carried the experiences of grassroots level women leaders who have been fighting to stop child marriages.
• In Jaipur the forums are mainly in urban settlements and they cut across caste and economic stratas. Here again the issues being addressed are the public distribution system, substance abuse, unemployment, sanitation, and widow and old age pension. Training being given to members on use of RTI, information relating to various government schemes that they can resort to and substance abuse. Members have also been giving training on measuring kerosene to ensure they got the quantities allocated to them and these forum have also published a newsletter "Shakhi Samachar" in March 2007 as a knowledge tool that focused on the forums' activities.

In 2007-08 the focus of the forums will be on establishing accountability among service providers, strengthening their experience of building a collective leadership, strengthening their ability to make collective gains and enhancing their ability to dialogue and set the terms for such consultations and dialogue.

This will be done by:

• Building the capacity of core groups so that they become a permanent resource.
• The setting up a peer-group learning process for the exchange of information and learnings of any section to the larger community.
• Developing capacity building tools on advocacy that is designed in collaboration with community leaders so that they can be replicated.

CFAR will also initiate a process of external evaluation in all four cities to get an objective feedback on what strategies worked and what did not.