INFOSEM : Coming together for Equality

[Guest guest]

Introducing the Integrated Network For Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM)

 

Coming Together for Equality

 

1. Vision: A collective national effort by sexual minorities in India to ensure equality for themselves in all spheres of life, free from discrimination

 

2. Mission: A democratic platform of organizations for joint action in capacity building, research, advocacy and resource mobilization on issues of gender, sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and human rights in order to create a better understanding of sexual minorities

 

3. Legal status: Registered as a Society in Mumbai with Registration No. Maharashtra State / Mumbai / 436 / 2009 / GBBSD dated February 25, 2009. INFOSEM is a network of organizations and not individuals, who are however welcome to play a supportive role. Being a collective itself, INFOSEM cannot include other collectives, but can collaborate with them on common initiatives.

 

4. Dateline: The idea of a national collective of sexual minorities in India was debated and attempted several times by different self-help initiatives in the decade of the 1990s. Prominent among these efforts were the Humsafar Trust-Naz Project conference for MSM and gay men in Mumbai in 1994; a workshop on furthering sexual minority rights organized by Stree Sangam, Counsel Club, Forum Against Oppression of Women and India Centre for Human Rights & Law again in Mumbai in 1997; and LGBT-India (conceived of at a conference in Hyderabad) in 1999. In May 2000, Humsafar Trust took an initiative to hold an all-India consultation of community-based organizations (CBOs) that were organized around sexuality issues and working with persons belonging to diverse sexualities. At this consultation it was resolved that a national network of sexual minorities would be set up. It was in October 2003 that a breakthrough was achieved. Several CBOs and NGOs working with sexual minorities joined in launching what was then called the India Network for Sexual Minorities at a media conference in Mumbai.

 

Subsequent consultations of INFOSEM were held in August 2004 in Mumbai and another in June 2005 in Kolkata to build upon the momentum. In 2006-07, INFOSEM received funding from Department for International Development (DFID) to further develop INFOSEM, including conducting capacity building activities for members of the network, and developing an advocacy strategy. Addressing growth and sustainability of INFOSEM through designing a business plan was a specific output from that project.

 

After its last planning meeting in Kolkata in early 2007, the latest milestone for INFOSEM has been its registration as a Society in Mumbai in March 2009. Here onwards, the network will be moving to streamline its governance and administration structures, consolidate membership procedures, and establish a Secretariat in Mumbai. In the long term, a Secretariat in New Delhi is envisaged.

 

5. Key objectives to achieve the mission and vision:

 

INFOSEM has six key objectives to be achieved through three main activity areas:  

 

 

A. Activity area: Capacity building

 

Objectives:

 

i). To increase knowledge on sex, sexuality and gender among the sexual minority communities and national level stakeholders

 

ii). To increase access to quality HIV/AIDS continuum of care services for sexual minorities

 

iii). To help member organizations as well as other groups of sexual minorities by providing inputs and training in setting up and managing activities addressing health, social and legal issues faced by sexual minorities

 

B. Activity area: Research

 

Objectives:

 

iv). To collect adequate and reliable strategic information for evidence building on health, psycho-social and economic issues concerning sexual minorities

 

C. Activity area: Advocacy

 

Objectives:

 

v). To repeal all discriminatory legislations that criminalize same-sex sexual behaviours between consenting adults in privacy, which include Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (with suitable provisions / modifications in other statutes / laws to take into account child sexual abuse and adult same-gender sexual assault)

 

vi). To work towards clarifying the legal status of transgender / transsexual persons

 

D. Three supportive activity areas are also included: (a) Information dissemination; ( Networking; and © Resources mobilization and fund raising

 

All the objectives can be subject to periodic revision in keeping with changing social, cultural, political and economic circumstances and developments.

 

6. Current membership and governance structure

 

INFOSEM has three categories of membership:

 

a) Primary members: CBOs of sexual minorities

 

Associate members: NGOs with strong sexual minority components / programmes. Representation in INFOSEM must be from these components / programmes and the representing individual must be from any of the sexual minority communities. Ideally, in the long run, it is hoped that the components or programmes will grow into independent CBOs and the parent NGOs will be replaced by the CBOs they have fostered in INFOSEM

 

c) Individual friends-in-support

 

Primary and associate members will have equal voting rights – one per agency. The friends-in-support will not have voting rights but will be able to play advisory and technical roles

 

Membership is by invitation only. Applications can be made by organizations, but the INFOSEM Management Committee will review them based on a set of objective criteria and then invite the qualifying organizations.

 

Governance structures: INFOSEM aims to have a Managing Committee of 13 individuals: Three from each of the four regions of the country – and in each region, one representing lesbians and bisexual women, one transgender people, and a third MSM. The Humsafar Trust has the convener membership in the committee.

 

7. Coming together for equality

 

As of March 2009, INFOSEM has 27 agencies and a few friends-in-support from 11 states associated with it as informal members, many right since the network’s inception in 2003.

 

In the coming months, we look forward to the membership ranks growing significantly, to make INFOSEM more and more representative of India’s myriad sexual minority communities – in terms of culture, geography, genders and sexualities!

 

We invite various CBOs of sexual minorities to become part of INFOSEM. Membership forms can be downloaded from our website www.infosem.org or send us a request at the e-mail address given below and we would send the form to you. As mentioned above, membership to INFOSEM is through invitation that would be extended once a basic assessment of the application has been done by the Managing Committee of INFOSEM.

 

8. Our donors and supporters through the years: Various national and international funding and technical support bodies as well as individual donors have been instrumental in the growth of INFOSEM till date. We would like to acknowledge (in alphabetical order): Department for International Development, Elton AIDS Foundation, Mumbai District AIDS Control Society, National AIDS Control Organization, Swedish International Development Agency, UNAIDS India and UNDP.

 

9. Contact information

 

Address: 3rd floor, Transit Building, Vakola Market, Nehru Road, Santacruz East, Mumbai, Pin 400 055, India

E-mail: infosem2009@...

Website: www.infosem.org