Challenges in ‘Translating’ Human Rights: Perceptions and Practices of Civil Society Actors in Western India

Abstract

Rights-based approaches have become prevalent in development rhetoric and programmes in countries such as India, yet little is known about their impact on development practice on the ground. There is limited understanding of how rights work is carried out in India, a country that has a long history of indigenous rights discourse and a strong tradition of civil society activism on rights issues. In this article, we examine the multiple ways in which members of civil society organizations (CSOs) working on rights issues in the state of Rajasthan understand and operationalize rights in their development programmes. As a result of diverse 'translations' of rights, local development actors are required to bridge the gaps between the rhetoric of policy and the reality of access to healthcare on the ground. This article illustrates that drawing on community-near traditions of activism and mobilization, such 'translation work' is most effective when it responds to local exigencies and needs in ways that the universal language of human rights and state development discourse leave unmet and unacknowledged. In the process, civil society actors use rights-based development frameworks instrumentally as well as normatively to deepen community awareness and participation on the one hand, and to fix the state in its role as duty bearer of health rights, on the other hand. In their engagement with rights, CSO members work to reinforce but also challenge neoliberal modes of health governance.

Service user and family participation in mental health policy making in Timor-Leste: a qualitative study with multiple stakeholders

“…Although the study identified many of the same barriers to mental health service user and family participation reported globally, it highlighted the need for theoretical and practical focus on the role of family within mental health system development. While the human rights discourse was identified as an enabling force for participation in Timor-Leste, its individualistic formulation has been criticised for ignoring familial and relational factors that shape life and health in many LMICs [59][60][61]. The study findings also challenge the positioning of participation as a panacea to mental health system strengthening in LMICs when people's priorities are informed by broader and more urgent development concerns.…”

Service user and family participation in mental health policy making in Timor-Leste: a qualitative study with multiple stakeholders

“…Although the study identified many of the same barriers to mental health service user and family participation reported globally, it highlighted the need for theoretical and practical focus on the role of family within mental health system development. While the human rights discourse was identified as an enabling force for participation in Timor-Leste, its individualistic formulation has been criticised for ignoring familial and relational factors that shape life and health in many LMICs (59)(60)(61).…”

Who Should Be at the Top of Bottom-Up Development? A Case-Study of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission in Rajasthan, India

“…Implementation of large-scale poverty alleviation programs in the state of Rajasthan is affected by the state's distinctive and cohesive sub-national identity. Though the landlocked, arid and sparsely populated state is often regarded as a late democratiser whose pace of development has lagged behind other states, more recently, civil society organisations have been very successful in social mobilization (Singh, 2016;Unnithan & Heitmeyer, 2014).…”

“…Over time, some organisations expanded the scope of their activities even further to include political mobilisation of the rural poor (Bhargava, 2007;Unnithan & Heitmeyer, 2014). A particularly notable organisation in this regard is the Social Work and Research Center (SWRC) in Tilonia.…”