The Civil Society Governance and Human Rights Grants.. the portfolio was created as a result of an internal strategic planning exercise conducted by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts in 2007. Around 20 projects that were supported by the Trusts at the time of the strategic review, were brought under one umbrella to create a portfolio dedicated to the protection of Human Rights as guaranteed under the Indian Constitution, strengthen civil society and to promote transparent and participatory governance at the grassroots.The Trusts support community-based and grassroots organisations to ensure that the human rights of marginalised communities are not violated and they are not denied access to public entitlements. Other programmes supported, include those that facilitate the access of the most marginalised communities to public services of food ration and employment; and address the declining female sex ratio through monitoring sex-selective abortions. Another stream of support is strengthening the civil society organisations (NGOs) by supporting capacity building of their human resources.Empowering Rural Women (ERW), a programme focusing on ensuring critical entitlements’ access to marginalised households, has reached over 100,000 homes in the high migration areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh. One of the longest standing areas of the Trusts’ engagement, has been to provide humanitarian aid to under-trials and engage with criminal justice institutions to work towards implementing provisions for prisoners. Addressing violence against women and atrocities against the Dalits are some of the other areas that the Trusts support.In the last financial year, the Civil Society, Governance and Human Rights portfolio supported over 100 projects.