LIFE-Rajasthan

LIFE PROJECT IN RELATION WITH    

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING (CST)

With LIFE project in Rajasthan, we are able to bring out change not only in terms of securing entitlements and enhancing agriculture production but also women empowerment  in highly male dominated society of Rajasthan. Along with all this changes the basi principles of catholic Social teaching has been considered as the core values for all the development through the LIFE project in giving new life to the people as:

No discrimination in caste, creed, religion during selection of project of beneficiaries & context and Reaching to the poorest of the poor: In LIFE project we are working with 1552 target households out of 2500 total households. This 1552 target households are mainly of deprived community with have poor living status in terms of no livelihood source, maximum land up to 10 bigha, no access to entitlement and families with no two time full meals. While targeting these 1552 neither religion nor creed and not caste system has been adopted, only focus has given to the status of the community, although it has come out that tribals and SC community people has more status and thus more importance has given to them , but in the target community beneficiaries are also from the poor and marginalized families from OBC and other categories.

Respect the dignity & culture of people and promoting human values: Rajasthan is known for its culture and in LIFE project the two project districts-Ajmer and Banswara has two unique and different cultures one has entirely tribal culture ( at Banswara) and another has entirely Marwari culture( Ajmer) and  in LIFE project we have consideration and respect for both this culture and have intiated concept seeding of LIFE project in the local dialect and even implementation in the same. LIFE has celebrated the tribal festivals as “Hariyyali aamwasya” ( a festival for worshiping trees) and also has seeded the concept of conserving tribals identity by moving back to natural cultivation, creating new forests and promotion of local breeds.

Care for creation for natural resources: It is impotrrtant to know that in the state like Rajasthan, where water scarcity is there, production of agriculture is low and more than 99.6% of farmers practice synthetic fertilizer based cultivation , with LIFE project more than 30% of its target families practice 100% of organic cultivation. Also It is worth to note that with LIFE we also focused on environment security and 70% of the programme we have used cloth banners, rather than plastic or flex banners. Used of clothe banners itself has created the attention of mass and stakeholders

Promoting peace through collective action: In LIFE project community collectiveness has been promoted to take action for the development of the entire village, either in the form of adopting low cost agriculture or demanding for entitlements or initiating income generation activities as sustainable source of livelihood all this is to give a better life to each and every individual not to disturb the society. Even in terms of demanding for entitlements all the movements either by the women collectiveness or by the farmer’s collectiveness it all peaceful movements in a Gandhian way to demand their due rights. Also it is worth to know that with LIFE project the collective actions by the community in Naulakha Panchayat ( the LIFE project panchayat) has become the best  panchayat in implimnetation of NREGA, which has  secured 100days work for 95% of households which means the community has better earning to live a peaceful life! And 95% people rights have been secured!