Mahatma Gandhi NREGA completes 5 years, 4.1 Crore Jobs till 2010

Referring to the steps taken by the Government to address the concerns of MGNREGA workers, the Prime Minister said wages under MGNREGA have been hiked by 17-30% this year and the transparency and accountability in payment of wages would be ensured by the help of modern ICT enabled techniques like Biometric hand held devices. He made it clear that the time has come to improve the delivery mechanism of the Act so as to extend the employment benefits to the genuine persons. Highlighting the achievements under MGNREGA Dr. Singh said so far under this programme a total of 880 crore person days work has been generated of which 52% beneficiaries are from SC/ST while 47% beneficiaries are women. Efforts are being made to chalk out Micro-Plans at rural level by involving the local people. These plans will decide the category and place of works to be done under MGNREGA besides involving rural masses in the implementation, monitoring and social auditing. 

Under MGNREGA in the financial year 2010-11, upto December, 4.10 crore households have been provided employment and 145 crore persondays have been generated. The average wage earned has risen from Rs 65 per person day in 2006 to Rs 100 by 2011. To further give fillip to income of the MGNREGA workers wage rates have been revised. The notification has linked MGNREGA wage rates to CPI-AL with a corresponding annual increase. The notified wage rates have led to enhancement of wage rates by 17-30%.

source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=69533

The nation this year witnessed successful completion of five years of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Addressing a large gathering at Vigyan Bhawan on this occasion in New Delhi today, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh called upon the states to strengthen the Gram Sabhas for rural empowerment. He said the Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Panchayati Raj has jointly chalked out a plan to strengthen the Panchayats. Technical Units will be set up in Gram Panchayats and to improve the managerial efficiency every unit will have a Panchayat Development officer and one Junior Engineer. Focus would be on Left Wing Extremism(LWE) affected districts and the districts where more than Rs.100 crore have been spent under MGNREGA. 

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Know Janani Suraksha Yojana for SHG members!

Janani Suraksha Yojana

The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)  is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality rates and increasing institutional deliveries in below poverty line (BPL) families. The JSY, which falls under the overall umbrella of National Rural Health Mission, covers all pregnant women belonging to households below the poverty line, above 19 years of age and up to two live births.

The JSY, launched in 2003, modifies the existing National Maternity Benefit Scheme  or NMBS. While the NMBS was connected with providing a better diet for pregnant women from below poverty line (BPL) families, the JSY integrates help in the form of cash with antenatal care during pregnancy period, institutional care during delivery as well as post-partum care. This is provided by field level health workers through a system of coordinated care and health centres.

for more information log on to: http://india.gov.in/citizen/health/janani_suraksha.php 

LIFE in the life project villages at Banswara after rain!

India achieves record output of wheat, pulses in 2010-11

New Delhi, July 19 2011 (PTI) India produced a record quantum of wheat and pulses in the 2010-11 crop year, ending June, at 85.93 million tonnes and 18.09 million tonnes, respectively, on the back of a good monsoon and higher support prices for farmers.

According to fourth advance estimates prepared by the Agriculture Ministry, the country is estimated to have harvested 95.32 million tonnes of rice and 42.22 million tonnes of coarse cereals in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June), sources said.

The country''s total foodgrains production is estimated at 241.56 million tonnes in 2010-11, as against 218.11 million tonnes in the previous year.

Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar announced that foodgrains production has increased to 241 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year, compared to the third advance estimate of 235.88 million tonnes released in April.

Foodgrains comprise rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses. In the 2009-10 crop year, wheat production stood at 80.8 million tonnes, rice at 89.09 million tonnes, coarse cereals at 33.55 million tonnes and pulses at 14.66 million tonnes.

NABARD Natural Resource Management Center

NABARD Natural Resource Management Center

While the human life is depends on natural resources, they are also depend on humans for their sustainability. In nature there are ways and means, which ensure a balance between the various natural resources. However, advancement of human activities and excessive use of natural resources.  Natural resources are basically land, water, air, minerals etc. Their use / exploitation has far exceeded their natural replenishment rates. Industrialization and various other developmental processes have added to the problem by enhancing pollution and global temperature and today the very future of mother earth is at stake. The most important resources affected are water, land and air. While planned development of resources brings in prosperity, the indiscriminate exploitation of nature leads to destruction of environment and degradation of resources.

In India, an estimated area of 146.82 million hectare suffers from various kinds of land degradation due to water and wind erosion and other complex problems like alkalinity/salinity, water logging, soil acidity. In addition to erosion, salinity and alkalinity, our soils are losing soil carbon and micronutrients due to irrational and unbalanced fertilizer use. This must be addressed urgently since nearly two-thirds of our farmlands are in some way either degraded or sick.  Droughts and floods are also a common feature in many parts of the country. A large part of the country depends on rains for agriculture. Due to heavy deforestation and denudation of soils, the rainwater received does not percolate much in many areas for replenishing the aquifers and is lost in runoff. There is also over exploitation of available ground water for agricultural and other uses. Management of natural resources is one of the most critical aspects in the economic development of any country. In Indian conditions, it assumes more importance, because the limited natural resources have to be judiciously used to feed the ever-increasing population.

NABARD and Natural Resource Management

NABARD being apex institution directly and indirectly has been facilitating processes to address the above challenges. NABARD‘s policy on NRM envisages “enhancing livelihoods and quality of life of the rural community through improved resource conditions”. The policy indicates that NABARD would direct its NRM interventions towards achieving structural impact on the NRM sector for livelihood enhancement, poverty reduction and ecological sustainability.

NABARD has done pioneering and innovative work in NRM sector through its various programs like Watershed development, WADI program under Tribal Development Fund, Rural Habitat Programs, Environment Promotional Assistance, Rural Innovation Fund and Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund (FIPF) etc. NABARD has also experimented with Farmers Club (FCs), Joint Liability Groups(JLGs), Self help Groups (SHGs) as means of peoples’ participation in development. Through these interventions, NABARD has been able to prove the success of the experiment and successful models have emerged. The larger replication on a wider scale requires more partners and public and private investments. While NABARD would take up the policy advocacy and capacity building needs, it looks towards the financial institutions to come forth for financing the NRM based livelihood interventions and towards the technical institutions for appropriate technology.

To give focused attention and facilitate NRM activities on a larger scale, NABARD has set up a Natural Resource Management Center (NRMC) at Kolkata.  NRMC is visioned as a brand institution of NABARD and an institution of excellence, which will facilitate the thematic leadership role of NABARD in NRM sector

Objectives and Functions

The overall objective of NRMC is to facilitate improvement in livelihoods of rural poor through sustainable management of natural resources. For achieving this, the center would undertake following initiatives,

•          Identify appropriate technologies available and ready for transfer

•          Awareness creation among and capacity building of communities and other stake holders about the need and utility of appropriate technologies

•          Identification and documentation of successful models.

•          Facilitate replication of successful models in NRM and transfer of technologies

•          Facilitate NRM based livelihoods integrating technology and credit

•          Promote CDM technologies and facilitate C- credit earning

•          Take up/ facilitate special studies, meets, workshops, Action research/ research in NRM

•          Networking with academic institutions, research organizations, policy making institutions, technical institutions, financial institutions, livelihood promoting institutions.

•          Adopt a multi sectoral and multi disciplinary approach.

•          Policy feed back and advocacy.

•          Publish relevant literature for various stakeholders

•          Maintain comprehensive database on resources, technologies and approaches in NRM

•          Establish and maintain information and knowledge systems(IKM) for various stake holders

•          Serve as NRM development technology clearing house

Focus Areas of NRMC

The centre’s core functional areas would relate to land, water and biotic resources including forestry. The agricultural production subsystems and renewable energy will also be the focus along with national priorities / global concerns / eastern & north eastern regional concerns  like,

•          Food Security concerns

•          S ustainable agricultural growth @ 4% p.a.

•          Climate change (proofing, adaptation, mitigation)

•          Disaster Management (Special focus on flood control in Eastern Region).

•          Energy Security – Need for renewable energy (Bio-fuel, solar, wind)

•          Evolution / dissemination of NRM based livelihood approaches

•          Financial Products development suited to NRM Sector

•          Other related areas (e.g. delivery models, gender issues).

Activities of NRMC

(1) Workshops and Meets

•          Celebration of Earth day

•          Workshop on Opportunities in Green Finance on the occasion of World Environment Day

•          Seminar on Community based NRM to mark NABARD’s foundation day

•          Meet on post Aila livelihood NRM based promotion

•          Meet with KVKs, research organizations

•          Consultative Meet on Impact of Climate Change On Agriculture and Farmers’ Adaptation.

•          Training programmes on new Jute retting technology

(2) Networking with National Afforestation and Eco-development Board, NIRJAFT, WWF, NAIP etc.,

(3) Action research on the way- Alternate Livelihoods for the Fringe villages of Ayodhya Hills, River embankment strengthening in Sundarban areas with Vetiver plantation

 (4) Publications- NABARD’s Initiatives in NRM, Wadi in Bengali, Innovative Jute Retting in English, Bangle and Hindi, Opportunities in Green Finance, Community Based NRM

(5) Exposure Visits- Chemical free villages, rain water harvesting, watershed , wadi etc.,

Contact Us:

If you have any new technology related to NRM- water saving, efficient land use, energy efficient, recycling, reuse etc., which is ready for transferring, if you need information on any specific technology on NRM, want to collaborate with us on NRM issues, have ideas for action research, how to combat climate change, what kind of adaptations farmers need to adopt, how to prepare farmers etc., contact at,

Smt. T.S. Raji Gain (OSD & General Manager) / Shri M K De,

AGM, Natural Resource Management Center,

C/O NABARD R.O. West Bengal, Abilasha, 6,

Royd Street

, Kolkata-700016

Email: nrmc.nabkol@gmail.com 

Ph Nos. 033 22290865, 22552126, 22552108,

Fax. 033 22494507

Major Progress in LIFE project at RCDSSS-Aajmer in month of June 2011

·         One day training mobilized from KVK, Ajmer for selected farmers for demonstrating horticulture units. All logistic expenses were born by KVK, Ajmer under the signed MoU of promoting Organic Farming and sustainable agriculture practices.

·         Results, Activities and indicators are finalized and freezed for Life project under Result based management approach. Performance Monitoring Framework will help us in effective monitoring of results as well as the activities.

·         14 Community members have applied for different government schemes alike MGNREGA Job Card, Palanhar Yojana, Widow Pension, Old Age Pension through liaisoning, facilitation and followup of Life project staff among which 10 have got approval of the same schemes and started receiving benefits. Thus Rs. 56,900/- have been mobilized from the government schemes and programs.

·         Organized district level Bankers Meeting for 20 villages of IDEA, ABLP & Life project in which district level bankers and NABARD representatives shared their schemes and subsidies. Farmers are motivated to maximize the use of banking services like KCC and other schemes.

Government Sponsored Subsidy Schemes administered by NABARD

To know in detail log on to: http://www.nabard.org/investmentcredit/govt_sponsered.asp

LIFE @ Ajmer: Now Pratapi have shelter….and security for food!

Pratapi wife of late Ghasi has no idea about her age, but village people said that she has crossed 80 years. Now she is not able to see properly, but somewhere she is happy!...Pratapi is from Luxamipura village (Mavashiya Panchayat, Shrinagar block, Ajmer, Rajasthan) and live in a small mud house along with his disabled son Ranga. This family is one of the targeted family of the LIFE project in Luxamipura as they marginalized farmer with mere 3 bigha of land that too rain-fed.

 To strengthen the livelihood option of the Pratapi family LIFE team has intervene with the family to make her aware about different government social security schemes like old-age pension, disability pension , Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and make the family to apply for all said schemes.

 Pratapi and her son has applied through the LIFE project intervention and now they have received amount to construct house under IAY, also Prati son disability pension has started as monthly Rs. 500 and Pratapi oldage pension is also in pipeline. Now Pratapi is happy…she is sharing that last night it was heavy rain, and we were not able to cover our self in this tent shared mud house, now within few months our own house would be there and we would get the shelter to save our self from rain and other calamities…also with the Ranga pension amount now there is some support for their food security…..Pratapi is thankful to LIFE project and its staff…

Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods (RMoL)

Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods (RMoL) is an initiative by the Government of Rajasthan to cater to the challenges of creating a large number of livelihood opportunities for the poor, increasing labour force and to increase the income levels of working poor in the state. Under the patronship of Honorable Chief Minister the mission is striving hard to design and implement the appropriate livelihoods strategies for the poor and the vulnerable.

For detail log on to: http://rajasthanlivelihoods.org/

…moving together, making together a better tomorrow…

Vishwakarma Self Help Group (SHG), at Kesarpura village (Mavashiya Panchayat, Shrinagar block, Ajmer, Rajasthan) has started one year back with the support from LIFE project. Group has started with the initial membership of 15 women of the Kesharpura village with the monthly saving of Rs. 100 and still after one year they have 15 memberships and saving of Rs. 100. at present they have the saving of Rs. 20000 with a bank account in Cooperative bank at Mavashiya Panchayat. Although till now they have not received any bank, but they have applied for it.  At present they conduct their meeting once in a month on every 25^th at 7.00 pm and during the meeting they discuss about the different development issues like agriculture, education and health and do the collection of saving amount and inter loaning among themselves. For inter-loaning they charge 2% interest rate per month.

Within the year all the members have taken loan once and also repaid it, they have taken loan basically for the purpose of agriculture and livestock…..when we have asked them about the leadership of the group, they have selected Ms. Kamladevi (45 years) as the president who is illiterate, they said she is able to manage the team of we all members and is enough bold to represent the group, to do the documentation of the group there is a qualified (9^th pass) secretary in the group and she do the all documentation part…..also they have the concept of rotational leadership, but it is on need and demand of group members. This group has its own bye laws regarding saving, loaning, attending meetings and point of discussion during the meeting, if some one is absent in the meeting , she has to take permission from the president and in next meeting she has to pay Rs. 10 as fine for the absenteeism!

When we have asked them that why they came together to form the group, they said we all work in NREGA , and are able to do some saving, so we thought its better if we would be in a systematic structure of group formation, but all this has been seeded by the LIFE project staff during frequent visits to the village and interaction with the village target families women….now apart from these 15 members other women also wants to join their group by seeing the progress of the Vishwakarma group…..they have given the name Vishwakarma, because the name represents the meaning of …working hard!...now these women are happy and their family members are also happy to see their progress…now they are able to spent some good amount on themselves and on their children education….now they wear neat and clean sarees, go for health check-ups and send their children to schools…in words of Kamladevi…project has changed their life!

Atma Manthan: LIFE project-Review Meeting

Atma Manthan

LIFE project-Review Meeting

23, 24 & 25 June, 2011

Venue: Disha- RCDSSS-Ajmer

This time review meeting has been given a name-Atma manthan-meaning ‘self-analysis, for not only for the partners, but also for the supporting agency Caritas India to see and analyse the pace of the LIFE project. The participants were Mr. Nelson ( HOD, Caritas India), Mr. Prakash (from Ask India) , Mr. Vinod Pandey (from Caritas India) and the entire LIFE project staff of both the SJVS-Banswara and RCDSSS-Ajmer  along with the Directors .

The process of atma manthan i.e has started with the prayer ‘Hamari hi muthi mein akash sara’ i.e. the whole sky is in our fist!  After the prayer there was a brief presentation on the process and the key decisions taken during the last review meeting (been held at SJVS-Banswara from 21^st-23^rd Feb 2011).

Later on Mr. Prakash and Mr. Vinod along with guidance from Mr. Nelson has facilitated the three day process based on discussion on PMF, activities, budget spent and result achieved   ( a brief process report has been prepared by the RCDSSS-Ajmer team).  At the end of the three day both the team presented their progress of last three months. From the review process following are the key points:

• Both the partners of LIFE project have PMF well developed and has been translated in the local language in Hindi, even there is sort of understanding on PMF at field animator level.
• Sustainable agriculture has become the central part of the agriculture component of both the projects. Clarity on sustainable agriculture has been seen amongst the staff and are interested to work on same.
• Both the partners have done quite well in terms of developing monitoring tools and its application of to all the HHs.
• This time, first time field animators also given presentation of the progress of their own village and on PMF
• Analysis of monitoring tools has also done in  better way keeping clear cut targets on the basis of certain criteria’s which targets the poorest of the poor in the target villages.
• Both the SJVS-Banswara and RCDSSS-Ajmer partners are open in terms of implementation of activities based on results for making the LIFE project to achieve the set results.
• With the support from caritas India, now two staff (one from each partner) has sent to CESSS-Amravati and both has been trained on sustainable agriculture. Also Caritas India with the inputs from the partners have developed the common demo-plot guideline in both Hindi and English for one of the key activity-agriculture demonstration plot.

At the end meeting has ended with the vote of thanks by Mr. Vinod Pandey.

Release of a Video CD accentuating on LIFE project by Caritas India ED...

A video CD on LIFE project has been released by Fr. Varghese (Caritas India ED) on 3oth June 2011. The video CD is an effort from the LIFE team of Caritas India to accentuate the ground changes in LIFE projects from the field of Banswara and Ajmer. There are 8 video documents in the CD and are shot by mobile camera, laptop web cam and normal cameras...