Proposed programme have been implemented in 15 villages of Shankargarh Block of
Allahabad District situated 40kms away from the head office, having majority of population of scheduled caste and other backward caste.
Project Impact:
1200 SCs and marginalized households in Shankargarh block of Allahabad district have increased their
productivity by 25% through improved agricultural practices and effective functioning of government and Panchayati Raj.
Context:
Constant efforts and approaches are being carried out to bring awareness among the people and to mobilize them so that they can demand for their
entitlements’ and to develop a creative team that would work to mobilize community, strengthening Community based Institutions (like SHGs and Village
level committees). For effective Community Based Monitoring System and people’s participation, various community based organizations is being formed.
In the meetings, training programs special emphasis is being laid towards sharing the progress being made, on the part we are lacking and on what we need
to improve and also highlighting on the future plan of actions that’s too in a better way to take stock of what have been our strengths and weaknesses which
will help us in playing an effective role in managing the development to the desired direction which could also be seen at various levels. After the implementation
of the project the women and the socially excluded communities are encouraged to assert themselves and work for their rights. Community based institution are ensuring
that women and the socially excluded communities will have collective bargaining power to resolve issues related to livelihood; health and education, access to various
schemes that are available for them to live a quality life. Various training programmes have been conducted so far during the reporting period to make them aware of their
rights as women and citizens.
Details of the activities being conducted during the reporting period
Conducted 100% house hold Survey in the targeted Project area.
With the coordination of the team a baseline survey format was prepared in Hindi language so that it could be easily understand by the
community members. This is the first time that the 100% analysis has been done in 15 villages under 10 Panchayats of Shankargarh Block of
Allahabad district. It was found that the community members gave their active participation.
This engagement helped the communities to mobilize themselves to act autonomously. It took more the entire month or even more to do the situation analysis and baseline survey.
Data Compilation :
Data compilation was done after when the survey of 100% HHs were over. It took almost a week to compile the data and to complete this specific information document.
Analysis of the Data and findings :
For the purpose of situational analysis a team visited to our new project villages of SAKSHAM Project.
A team discussed the problems with villagers and also about the possible solution for it. A HP team also interacted with
few of the sarpanch and tried to find out the work of PRI in the targeted villages.
The role of community in the situation analysis was of both as a facilitator and as source of information. Successful communication to
and with communities helped us to analyse the contents more briefly., the situation analysis based on observation,
interviews and FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) was done by the project partner team. Several FGDS interviews conducted in
the villages for engaged local people and to map their situation] Qualitative information has been collected by means of focus
group discussions (FGDs) with various community sub-groups.
The team encountered such conditions of extreme destitution and grave denials of access to the right to food in families of community,
the team also enquired whether food, work and social security schemes, such as PDS, ICDS, pensions and MGNREGA actually are accessible to the
affected families and communities. In case they are not, then what are the reasons for the failures of these programmes to protect the right to
food and life of the affected families and communities.
Based on these investigations, the team proposed the affected community or SC families as a whole, measures for strengthening the functioning and reaches of the food,
social security and livelihood schemes for the effective protection of their rights to food and life.
Apart from this some of the information’s have also taken to bring out the ground reality in 15 project villages of 10 Panchayats, Shankargarh block in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Orientation program- SAKSHAM Project.
A Project orientation program with the village community has been organised in Basi village & in
which more than 200 total no. of participants were present. In this program we mainly focused on sustainable
agriculture methods, organic farming, MGNREGA & other government Schemes. We motivated the community to file
written application to avoid all problems occurring in MGNREGA. We imparted them different option of IGPs and
community member also discussed with us what option should be better for them. We provided all the details related
to the other govt. schemes including Old age pension, Widow Pension, Disabled pension, we also provided them the
application forms of these pension schemes & provided them the all information related to it. We have also assured
them to provide training on how to make organic pesticides & various ways of doing better .
Many PRI members, SHG and Farmer Club members have been participated at this event and shared their problems and achievements with leaders.
Problems, like late payment of MNREGA, improper functioning of PDS, Mid-day meal payment to SHGs, were in focus and community raised their concerns
about it very strongly. Mr. Jang Bahadur Singh, Project Coordinator listened their problems carefully and promised to take action, as soon as possible.
Mr. Jang Bahadur Singh informed villagers about organic farming and also requested villagers to participate in PRI system. He also warned people that it
is their ignorance, which destructed the shape of this system. Their ignorance about PRI and grass-root governance gives chance to do corrupt practices.
Villagers understood the concern and praised us for our innocent and true guidance.
Meanwhile, villagers have been told about organic cum traditional farming and health issues. They have been motivated to take leadership and lead a movement in their own villages.
One positive thing has been seen through this program is increased women participation. Beyond all expectations about 60 % participants were women. Villagers seemed excited about event and promised to increase direct participation in project activities.
Sensitization program
We identified the poor and needy farmers in the village, who are the target group of SAKSHAM-2 project. We went house to house
and requested farmers to come and participate in the meeting. Further our cluster coordinators contacted the target group and convinced
them for the need of farmer’s club in the village. Thereafter we organised sensitization program in 3 villages namely Basi, Mavaiyya Kala
& Badgadi. Apart from this the aims and objective of project SAKSHAM was also discussed with farmers
During the sensitization meet we listen to the farmers and tried to understand their needs related with agriculture.
A range of issues emerged during interactions with them. Then we discussed how to solve the issues. And by the end of gathering they
were convinced of the opinion that farmer’s club to be formed to solve the agricultural crisis in their village. During the period extra
focused given toward sustainability of the project activities as a result farmers are enough sensitized and independently practicing the
sustainable agriculture methods even disseminate the same to respective villagers, sharing
their experience, knowledge and information with others. Furthermore trained farmers have been engaged practice of sustainable agriculture,
using vermi composts, information disseminate to other farmers. Besides, inception of vermi compost and cultivation pits reflected as replicable
model for villagers that minimized the dependency of use of chemical fertilizers, improved seed protection methodology through seed bank. In addition,
networking with likeminded farmers and concerned line department were improved.
Training on Panchayati Raj
Diocesan Development & Welfare Society under the aegis of Manos Unidas conducted two days “Training Programme on
Panchayati Raj” on 24-25th August 2017 at Janhit Sadan, Naini, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. All the project staffs took part in the
training. Resource Person for the training Programme was Dr. Chandra Shekhar Pran.
Elaborating Panchayati Raj the Resource Person said Panchayati Raj is a system of local self government where in the people takes
upon themselves the responsibility for development. It is also a system of institutional arrangement for achieving rural Development
hrough people’s initiative and participation.
Altogether the training program was successful in delivering out the objectives to the participants. The positive outlook of all
the participants involved was seen. They expressed their satisfaction with the facilitator and the participative methods used during the
training programme. The training program came to an end with vote of thanks given by Mr. Jang Bahadur Singh
From this training programme SAKSHAM team gained more knowledge about PRI, Govt. schemes and SAKSHAM team will do good advocacy for
community development. SAKSHAM team is taking account of their plans and planning for the most suitable and right investment. SAKSHAM team is
spreading awareness on women empowerment in Panchayati Raj and encouraging women to participate in the upcoming Gram Sabha.