The story of Single Window Models

Looking back at social protection for communities vulnerable to and affected by HIV/AIDS in India — 2011 to 2014

This is influenced by a number of socio-economic factors, such as poverty, illiteracy, migration, gender discrimination, urbanisation and more.

The communities considered most at risk to HIV/AIDS — Women in sex work, marginalised gay men and transgender people live in social and financial hardship and are vulnerable to violence and abuse — sexual, physical and emotional everyday. This affects their ability to take key measures and absorb social behaviour change solutions to address key issues of health and well being and break the cycle of poverty and violence.

It is recognised that the population infected and affected by HIV and AIDS have needs beyond HIV prevention and treatment services.

People Living with HIV (PLHIV) face job insecurity, poor access to health care facilities, low access to nutritional support and education for children. In addition, HIV-related social stigma and discrimination diminishes their access to work and medical treatment, and also lowers their self-esteem to an extent that even seeking government entitlements appear to be a difficult exercise.

Children affected by HIV/AIDS (CABA) are often prevented from benefiting essential health care, education and other social welfare services by their families or larger communities. Girls orphaned by HIV live in a state of multiple vulnerabilities.

Social and legal protection services ensures entitlements and benefits that apply to the communities — most of whom are below poverty level. It includes access to rights and entitlements which may be in areas spanning nutrition, healthcare, shelter, health insurance, legal aid, travel support, pension and so on.

Moreover, the offering social protection services functions as an avenue to ensure the essential partnerships within Government departments to identify and advocate for amendment/ adaptation of policies and schemes for betterment of the marginalised communities in particular and the greater society as a whole.

“Single window” refers to a single access point to avail the information on various social protection schemes and submit the application for social protection.

Envisaged to improve the accessibility of entitlements and schemes by the HIV infected and affected communities, the “Single Window model for Social Protection” intends to facilitate entitlements and schemes provided by the State and Central Government to all eligible vulnerable groups for the most at risk population (MARPs), People living with HIV (PLHIV) and Children Affected by AIDS (CABA).

At the district (province) level, the DAPCU Officer ensures that vulnerable groups are fully assisted in providing information on various entitlements and schemes, in filling the application through various help desks. The DAPCU officer plays an important role in submitting the filled in application to various departments, follow-up and its implementation.

In the DAPCU-led model, the various service centres under the NACP at the district like TI NGO, LWS, ICTC, ART, Link ART, etc. act as help desks to facilitate social protection. The DAPCU office acts as the apex body in the district to facilitate social entitlements and social protection.

The DAPCU directly advocates with the district administration through the District Commissioner with various departments (including legal services) in making necessary changes in various schemes to address the needs of PLHIV, CABA and MARPs. DAPCU will collect filled in applications from all help desks.

The bunch of applications is reviewed by the DAPCU and then submitted to the concerned departments with a covering letter. The follow up with respective departments for clearance of application and receipt of benefits is undertaken by DAPCU in support with the counsellors in the service centres.

So how was the DAPCU led Single Window Model for Social Protection intending to help?

Key take aways from Swasti’s implementation of the DAPCU led Single Window Model in 2011–2012:

Drawing from sectoral and implementation learnings, in 2014, Swasti established learning centres in Bangalore for the Single Window Model, facilitated by community organisations, trusts and networks and supported by the initiatives for S2S (South to South) by United Nations Development Program.

The learning centres catered to implementors, advisors, community organisations, non profits and researchers alike, and added significant value to the prevention of HIV/AIDS programme in India.

As for the communities, that social protection benefitted, here is the story of a member from Swathi Mahila Sangha —

For vulnerable communities, social protection is a life saviour and looking back, we are glad we have been part of the story since the very beginning.

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