Village level camp on Government Schemes with special Focus on MGNREGA

Venue: Rajapur village, Babina Block ( 15th June 2012)

Organizer: Jhansi Catholic Seva Samaj, Jhansi

Introduction: Organizing village level camps in the project area is an attempt to bridge the gap between Government authorities and the target rural community members. Under the project Harit Prayas JCSS organized a village level camp on government schemes for rural development with special focus on MGNREGA.             

The Process: Five project villages (mini cluster) were planned to be covered by this Camp. As per the plan all the cluster coordinators went to their respective villages and motivated people to participate in the Camp at Rajapur village.

·         The Village Pradhan was invited, through invitation letter to participate in the camp

·         Cluster coordinators contacted CBOs members and other target people personally and motivated them to participate in the camp

·         Target community members were motivated to clear their doubts and confusion on the process and provision of getting their due entitlements

·         Instigating the target people to raise issues and problems related in implementation of MGNREGA and problems related to other welfare schemes of the government

The Resource person: For the occasion, it was important to have a resource person, who belongs to District Rural Development Agency. DRDA is the nodal agency for all 36 programmes/schemes, which are being run for rural development (in Jhansi district).

The Director, JCSS personally visited Mr.G.P.Gautam (Project Director, DRDA), at his office. He Introduced Harit Prayas project and explained the concept of the project to the official. He also explained about the planned camp in one of the project villages. Mr. G.P Gautam was invited as a resource person for the programme and he assured his presence.

Along with the Mr. Gautam, Mr. Mahesh Chandra Sahu, Dy. Director DRDA, also participated in the camp.

Abstract/summary:A farmer asking question at open session

The chief guest cum resource person for the occasion was Mr. G.P gautam, Project Director, DRDA (District Rural Development Authority), Jhansi, Mr. Mahesh Chandra Sahu, Deputy Director, DRDA and Mr. Naval Singh, Village Pradhan of Rajapur.

Community members from 5 different villages (Baruapura, Imila, Bamer, Bedaura & Rajapur) actively participated in the awareness generation camp. The number of people who turned out to participate in the camp was very high. 164 people participated in the camp, but only 107 community members signed the attendance register (due to high gathering and 47 minutes long speech by the resource person).

The chief speaker Mr. G.P Gautam,  said that the DRDA is running 36 different project (central and state governments, both) for people’s growth and rural development. In his 47 minutes long lecture he discussed about all the Government schemes and programmes. Few of them are Rani Laxmi Bai Arthik Madad Yojna, Old Age Pension Scheme, Widow Pension Scheme, SGRY, MGNREGA, TRYSEM, Indira Awas Yojna etc. The chief speaker explained the provisions and eligibility criteria for being beneficiary of these schemes, in detail. E.g the resource person explained that all those who fall in the age group of 18-35 are considered youth by GoI. He also explained that under Inidira Awas Yojna the beneficiary will get the sanctioned amout for building his/her house in two installments. Mr. G.P Gautam also narrated about all the facilities to be provided to MGNREGA workers at the work place, like drinking water, first aid box, nurse for child care etc.

In his address the village pradhan Mr. Naval Singh assured that he will extend his all support to the community members as well to Harit Prayas project in their effort for bringing change in the Panchayat. The village pradhan had arrange a water tank for the participants as a gesture.

The CBO members, Mr Vinod, secretary of Adarsh Kisan Club, Rajapur and Mrs. Ram Devi, President of Parvati SHG, Imilia, also shared their experiences with project Harit Prayas.

Support from DRDA: Impressed with the good work done by team Harit Prayas of JCSS, which was very much evident from the presence of community members and their active participation in the camp, the official announced that all the Self Help Groups (Mahila Mandals), formed under project Harit Prayas will be given due importance and the DRDA will facilitate their bank account linkages, grading and cash credit on priority basis.

The official also distributed his contact number among the community members and said that in case they find any difficulty, he must approach him directly. He motivated farmers, SHG women and youths to give him a written complain if their problem is not solved at village level.

He appreciated the efforts being by Jhansi Catholic Seva Samaj and its Director, along with his whole team, with an objective to bring positive changes in the lives of the poor and marginalized community members of Bundelkhand region.

Mr. G.P Gautam categorically suggested that the ongoing ‘socio, economic and caste census’ is very crucial for the community members. He appealed that each and every household must give the correct information to the census officer so that the new BPL list could be genuine and the poor are not deprived of their due rights.

In the open session a number community members asked questions with the official and got their doubt, queries cleared. SHGs women like Ram Devi (Imilia Village), Santoshi (Baruapura) got their queries solved. Farmers like Ramlal (Rajapur village) and Dhani Ram (Bedaura) asked about agricultural schemes, irrigation and MGNREGA. Many people complained about fraud in BPL list. In response to this complain the official instructed them to remain cautious in the ongoing socio-economic and caste census and give correct information to the concerned personnel. He also asked the community members to give written complains to him at his office.

Output:

·         For the community members: This was an awareness generation camp. The community members learnt about all governments’ schemes and programmes related with rural development from Project Director at DRDA. It was a different experience for them as they got few hours to spend with the District Department Head to discuss on various issues related to MNREGA and many other schemes. It boosted their confidence.

·         For the organization: A strong networking has been established with DRDA (District Rural Development Agency), which will be of great help in achieving the goal of the project. The Project Director, DRDA also assured that the JCSS will be getting a couple of Government projects, in coming days. Rest of the outputs has already been mentioned above, under subhead “support from DRDA”.

The way forward:

·         In this camp people from 5 villages participated. In next stage remaining 15 will be covered, as per the line item budget and activities.

Submitted By

Kumar Ratan

Project Manager

Harit Prayas

JCSS, Jhansi.