Saturday, September 27, 2014

Harit Prayas - 2 Situation of Gram Sabha in Sankargarh Block of Allahabad District


Gram Sabha Ya Kuch or/ Gram Sabha or Something else.........







Harit Prayas Team Interacting With Community






Gram Sabha a real planning commission of India from ground zero but Is it real a planning commission or just corom is being fulfilled in the name of Gramn Sabha. Under Ministry of Panchayti Raj, Gram Sabha has been given special power and after the implementation of 73rd amendment in Panchayati Raj act its power increased but what is its real identity. It’s always shared that any work is done for the development of villager should be passed through gram sabha but is it actually happening.
1.      Gram Sabha has following major responsibilities while functioning in a panchayat:
2.      Conducting development work in the village through MGNREGA
3.      Special Gram Sabha on Nutrition Issues
4.      Special Gram Sabha on Child Sex Ration and Domestic Violence
5.      Special Gram Sabha on Women Empowerment
While initiating the process of baseline for Harit prayas- 2 in Shankar Garh block of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh I interacted with lot villagers in different villages like “Takai, Quari No 4, Quari No 5 etc’ to my utter surprise whenever I asked villagers “KYA AP GRAM SABHA KI BAITHAK MA JATE HA” Do you go to the meeting of Gram Sabha. They counter me by asking Gram Sabha KYA HOTI HA. What is Gram Sabha. We say every work in village has been done through Gram Sabha, but people don’t even know what Gram Sabha is. How can we expect about Gram Sabha meeting but I am saying this too that on papers meeting must have happened  and villager  have even signed on the proposal that would have been fictitiously passed and so called Grabha Sabha “KA MEETING HO GYA”.
But “Do we Desire for Change” I believe just by sitting like this Change will not come. Caritas India Harit Prayas Project has initiated its Journey of Change  


 Regards
Alok Tripathy

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Position vacant: HARIT PRAYAS 2!!!

Do you think to bring CHANGE?
Do you want to be the part of one of the most innovative development programme?
Do you want to live with change?

IF YES!

Read the below challenging role!

Caritas India is a lead development organization as well as the largest networked organisation in country would be soon starting 2nd phase of  her development programme-HARIT PRAYAS in Bundelkhand region in three districts –Allahabad ( shankargarh), Jhansi , and Sagar.  For the same we invite applications for the position of Programme specialist to be work with our partner organisations in Allahabad, Sagar and Jhansi .
About HARIT PRAYAS: Caritas India, Caritas Spain and Caritas Italiana entered into a partnership agreement to jointly work for the development of BPL SC, ST and OBC community living under the most vulnerable situation in Bundelkhand region, India. This commitment is translated in to a project titled ‘HARIT PRAYAS-a participatory approach for securing livelihood in 64 villages of 23 districts ( Sagar-MP, Chatarpur-MP and Jhansi-UP) of Bundelkhand region’ implemented by the local partner MVSS-Sagar ( in Sagar) , SSSS-Satna (in Chatarpur) and JCSS-Jhansi (in Jhansi) with funding support from Caritas Spain ( for Chatarpur and Sagar) and Caritas Italiana (for Jhansi)HARIT PRAYAS as a result based programme till Dec 2013 able to achieve 91% of total set results and also able to contribute .099%  in  the development of Bundelkhand region. In terms of reach although programme is being implemented in 64 villages, but its impact is been reached to more than 200 villages and impact could be largely seen in terms of following:
1. A village (Majhota)  in Chatarpur has officially changed its name to HARIT PRAYAS Majhota        
2.A village ( semlapur) in Sagar is 100% CFL electrified village ( 1st in MP)
3.         A village (Kota ) in Chatarpur 100% household practices 100% organic cultivation
4.         A village in Jhansi, where community and panchayt banned veil system
5.     A village in Jhansi where a CBO of Rajputs and Dalits formed 1st time in region and broken all walls of caste system
6.     1st Team where in recruitment process Caritas India has been the part of process and supported her valuable partners for hiring capable team
7.    1st development project in region where social audit of the project has been done
8.    1st project to initiate a concept of leaning cycle with other projects, community, government officials and others NGOs 
9. 1st project to be socially audited by community in India

Position: Programme Specialists

Locations: For three locations: Sagar ( with MVSS-Sagar organisation) , Jhansi (With JCSS-Jhansi organisation and  Allahabad (With Janhit sewasadan organisation)

Functional Area: Programme Management

Qualification & Experience:
·         Post Graduate in Rural Management, Rural Development, Social work, Development Management, agriculture, Horticulture, Sociology, forest management, enterprise development, sustainable development and other related subjects (social sciences) from a reputed institution with at least  60% of marks.
·         Experience in the area of community development especially in sustainable agricultural and government schemes (NREGS) activities through CBOs.
·         Experience in the area of government Liasioning
·         Ability to undertake unaccompanied travel in interior rural areas.
·         At least  1-3 years of experience in development sector

Other skills required
·         Effective verbal and written communications skills in English & Hindi.
·         Excellent command over MS Office ( especially on word, excel & power point)
·         Knowledge and experience of blog writing
·         Action Research

Expertise required (negotiable)
·         On Result Based Management ( RBM)
·         MGNREGA
·         FRA
·         RTI
·         Organic Cultivation

Responsibilities
§         Set overall directions/strategies of the project
§         Regular follow up on implementation and participatory monitoring of the project to attain desirable outputs.
§         Regular liaison with CARITAS INDIA for reporting and guidance. Implementation of overall plans within the district specific context and proper monitoring and reporting.
§         Extensive field visits to support direct actions field area.
§         Liaison with district administration for effective policy advocacy
§         Undertake capacity building initiatives at the grassroots for effective learning and support. Planning and conducting trainings.
§         Prepare best management of capacity building inputs through participatory monitoring and documentation.
§         Review the progress of activities at cluster of villages
§         Develop strategy for intervening with the marginalized sections of the village and provide handholding support to women/ dalit members as per needs.
§         Documentation of capacity building experiences for replication. Ensure timely completion of the activities and proper documentation
§         Providing access to information to Panchayat and Gram Sabha members

Salary and other benefits: 20000/- PM (depends on the individual qualities and experience) plus travel allowance, trainings and opportunity to be the part of an innovative project.


INTERVIEW Detail

Date: 26th Sept 2014
Time: 9.00 am
Process: Registration, Written exam, Group discussion and Panel interview
Documents required: CV, Masters marksheet photo copy
Place of Interview:

Jan Hit Sadan
Near Bethany Convent School
Naini - 211008
Allahabad 

What we look for
While assessing a candidate, we look for job specific skills, comparable experience, ability to work well with others, initiative, analytical & problem solving ability, ability to organize, plan and execute and most importantly, potential. It goes without saying that one must be passionate about working for the development of the people.








Monday, June 30, 2014

Historic move by Caritas India: A programme HARIT PRAYAS would be turning to a University Masters course!


Dear Friends,

Historic greetings from Caritas India!
Imagine an initiative started 3 years back, has now impact on community , policy makers and also to educational institutions!! Now stretch your imagination that FIRST TIME in INDIA ( in fact I hope first time in world) that there would be a Post graduate course based on ‘development initiative’ by a government university! Do you think could it be possible?

Yes! Now you can come out of your imagination, this is the reality that HARIT PRAYAS programme ( started in 2010 By Caritas India with support from Caritas Spain and Caritas Italiana with three partners in 64 villages of Bundelkhand region) would be soon developed and taught as Post Graduation course ( Probably Masters in HARIT PRAYAS & Rural Innovation) by India’s first rural University (Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday Vishwavidyalaya: www.mgcgvchitrakoot.com ). Interestingly it would be affiliated by the highest body of Education in India i.e. UGC-University Grant Commission (www.ugc.ac.in  ).

This is big news, It has never happened in India, even with the best performing NGOs and even with the best technically equipped NGOs. It’s worth to know how this happens with Caritas India? Or what makes Caritas India work different to reach up to this level? Here are some points:

·         Programme designed based on specific need of area (Bundelkhand is the most backward region of India. Source: 12th Five Year Plan- By Planning Commission of India)
·         Involvement of Community-Partner-Caritas India-Caritas Spain+Caritas Italiana in designing of programme
·         Designed with 100% baseline survey and based on result based management concept
·         With specific personnel support to be with programme , team, partners and community
·         In collaboration with all Panchayats, NABARD ( National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development: https://www.nabard.org ) and Krishi Vigyan Kenders (KVK)
·         Constant/regular support and discussion through various available online platforms ( Skype discussion-almost every week) by back donor agencies ( Caritas Spain and caritas Italiana)
·         Support from donor agencies ( Caritas Spain and Caritas Italiana) as a team member and reaching to communities and cluster coordinators
·         High quality recruitment at Partner level with joint effort of Caritas India
·         High level of transparency with usage of blogs and updating everyday happening of programme (www.haritprayas.blogspot.com ). Here also support by Caritas Spain for designing blogs
·         Branding of programme through local name and logo of programme
·         Best possible media linkages and result sharing in various leading national and local news papers ( about 450 media coverage in 3 years-Considered as highest media covered programme in India)
·         Presentation of programme result to planning Commission of India and accentuating issues of Bundelkhand
·         622 days in Field by Caritas India team in three years
·         Convergence based development programme
·         Review meeting in villages with communities
·         Newsletter of programme on 6 monthly basis
·         Rating systems on monthly basis for programme to improve quality

Some key impact which has made this programme different are:

·         Based on impact on sustainable agriculture a village has officially changed its name to HARIT PRAYAS Majhota (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY5dS9YpI-o)
\
·         A village named Kota has become 100% Organic

·         Input cost in agriculture has gone down to 70% of total cost

·         Zero farmers suicide in three years ( where as when started it was 12 in 64 villages and about 5000+ in Bundelkhand region)

·         Women first time in the region did cultivation with ploughing (In India women do not tough plough as they considered impure-but through HARIT PRAYAS it has changed)
·         Programme has become a movement rather than just a programme.

interestingly the above all said about the programme would take place as various subjects in the course and with the support from Caritas India we hope course in University would start from Jan 2015 session. Soon Caritas India would be engaging in MoU for the same. With this course students from backward regions from various parts of India would get chance to study and know more about HARIT PRAYAS and innovation.

We thank community who owned this programme and partners and team players especially clusters coordinators who cycled this programme in to a movement.

We thank the thought (in Hindi Soch) of our donors (Both Ms. Maribel and Mr. Beppe from Caritas Spain and Caritas Italiana respectively.) to imagine an outline of this programme design and worked with caritas India innovative and synergetic team to give it a shape! They contribute for one of the historic change in India and in world!

We thank community who owned this programme and partners and team players especially clusters coordinators who cycled this programme in to a movement.
Pope Francis quoted:
In your school you take part in various activities that habituate you not to shut yourselves in on yourselves or in your small world, but to be open to others, especially to the poorest and neediest, to work to improve the world in which we live. Be men and women with others and for others, real champions in the service of others. To be magnanimous with interior liberty and a spirit of service, spiritual formation is necessary. Dear children, dear youths, love Jesus Christ ever more! (6/7/13 Jesuit Schools)
With HARIT PRAYAS we are meeting some expectations…
This is matter of proud for Church Institutions not just in India, but throughout the globe and indeed the programme strengthen the values of Catholic Social teaching.

Read this news on CI website and CI news letter!

Proud Caritas regards
Vinod Pandey



Sunday, June 8, 2014

Hard lives for the Sahariyas of Bundelkhand-Hindustan Times

In January this year, hoping to make some money, 16-year-old Babu Lal Sahariya left his home in Sakara village in southern Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur district and headed for the jungles of the adjoining state ofRajasthan. It was his eighth trip. His new job would require him to walk 30 km every day grazing cattle in return for two meals and Rs. 2000 a month. Babu Lal is one of hundred children belonging to the Sahariya tribe from the district who work as bonded labourers in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan.

For more read on : http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hard-lives-for-the-sahariyas-of-bundelkhand/article1-1227259.aspx

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

NABARD VISIT IN HARIT PRAYAS FIELDS@HARIT PRAYAS Jhansi

NABARD OFFICERS first time visited Harit Prayas fields along with Director (BIRD) and AGM NABARD. As we were facing big problem for withdrawal and sanctioning of Farmer’s Club fund because DDM NABARD has not taken the charge but recently new DDM – Mr. A K Soni, has joined the charge and after having regular meetings with DDM; we finalized the dates for visit. On 24 DDM and Director (BIRD) visited Baghora, Ghisoli, Shekhar village and had interaction with community as well as SHG & FC club members. DDM asked the community members to read the monthly meetings and listened to 2 - 3 minutes of meetings and concluded the discussion. Meanwhile in discussion AGM advised Farmers to operate FC account for the savings and call subject specialist twice in a year for example  agriculture specialist, Animal husbandry specialist, government officials to benefit the community as their knowledge enhancement of income increment and can benefit them self. He also emphasized on collective farming, forming cooperatives and start small business for income generation. DDM advised them to conduct meetings regularly and start small savings and assured soon release of funds.       

By HARIT PRAYAS-JCSS-Jhansi team 

Impact of HARIT PRAYAS@ Jhansi

As the end phase of Harit Prayas first we have planned to organize grievance and interface meeting together in the end after having communication with the Block Adminstration as we have faced problems in approval of grievance meeting from Block level authorities because they told us that they are already having TEHSIL DIWAS for the same from government level on first Tuesday of every month. This time after having continuous meeting with Mr. Kaushalendra Singh, BDO Babina we are successful to put our concerns for getting access to rights and entitlement which poor are not able to. He was convinced and gave permission to organize it on 24 December 2013 at Block level and the information of meeting was disclosed the information of meeting via Cluster Coordinators at village level. Many villager promises to come in the meeting as they want their issues to be resolved as soon as possible.


On 24 here in Jhansi the weather was very vivid due to for and a bit rainy which caused farmers trouble as to reach there on time and save their crops 30 villagers gathered at block level office and HP team along with director JCSS reached there and had interaction with community members regarding their problems and asked to write it down in papers. Block administration came and had interaction and asked to submit all application at office. 22 people gave their problems in written and got assurance for redress the issues from authority. HP team thanked people for their cooperation and participation.     

By HARIT PRAYAS-JCSS-Jhansi team