Community Development in Rural India Rural Dynamics Blurring
Community Development in Rural India
Rural Dynamics* • • • Blurring of Rural-urban boundaries Small holder farming Increase in Agrarian commercialization and risk Rise in rural non-farm employment Declining role of the Agrarian Economy-Caste and Gender Exploitation of Natural Resources Contours of Regional inequality and Social Deprivation Gradual but irrevocable movement towards political decentralization Failure in public provision of vital social services *India Rural Development Report 2012 -13
Why focus on Rural communities • Underdeveloped community ▫ Low status of literacy, health and nutrition ▫ Livelihood challenge-agriculture is often dominant and some times exclusive economic activity ▫ Low returns from economic activities • Populations sparingly disperses ▫ inadequate opportunities for realizing their goals/development ▫ Low access to information/technology ▫ High costs and difficulties in providing goods and services required, effectively ▫ Dwindling natural resource base-quality/quantity
Why focus on rural community • Politically marginalized: leaving little opportunity for the rural poor to influence government policies • Tax base is limited, hence development is dependent on transfers from state-central government schemes • Some other arguments ▫ To ensure inclusive development-opportunity for development ▫ Overall growth-GDP of the country ▫ Avoid unrest-extremism
Community Development “ A process by which the efforts of the people themselves are united with those of government authorities to improve their socio-economic social and cultural conditions of the communities in the life of the nation and to enable them to contribute full to national programme” United Nations
Community Development • Local communities as units of action • Combine external assistance with organized local self initiative and leadership Community development provides a larger umbrella under which all the people engaged in such work of community organization, community relations etc. , can gather in a better way
What it involves. . • Identification of an area, group, institution-community based organization/PRI • Preparation of a profile as benchmark or reference point • Knowledge of needs, problems, potentials, resourceshuman/financial • Conscious, planned and sustained action ▫ In collaboration with primary/other stakeholders ▫ Search for alternatives/innovations ▫ Reorientation of action strategies if needed • Use agency and community resources for meeting obstacles faced in the delivery of services • Assessment of effectiveness, efficiency and impacts of the action/programs/service • Plan for termination of action-withdrawal
Faiths behind CD • Rural communities have the capacity to improve, if helped • Peoples’ participation is significant-peoples’ own cooperative action is critical/essential • Programs close to community-mutual helpfulness/mutual confidence-intimate relationships form basis • Democratic approach: dignity, respect to people and freedom of choice to people, right of free expression
Faiths behind CD • Faiths in science and technology- application of new and traditional technology • Faith in social justice: help all classes with particular attention to weaker sections of the society-must promote cohesion in the society
Expected Outcomes Objectives of Community Development programdevelop the resources of people • General: Farms, housing, public services and village community • Specific: Bring improvement in production of crops, animals, health, education • Overall development, behavioural change among People: Men, Women and Youth • Development of change agents: Voluntary local leaders and professional community development workers
UN Asia Pacific Development Institute: Expected Outcomes 1. Higher productivity and increase in production 2. Distributive justice or equality in sharing or distribution of benefits of development ▫ ▫ Towards elimination of abject poverty To meet basic minimum needs-all primary economic and social needs-minimum standard of living 3. Employment: use of labour resources and provide wages/income for people
Expected Outcomes 4. Peoples’ participation-local level: ▫ Touchstone for unified/integrated approach to development ▫ Decision making and all other levels ▫ Democratic system, which will allow the poorest/smallest to participate-directly or with genuine representation ▫ Devolution of political powers and decentralization of administrative authority –political power to the smallest village 5. Self reliance: reliance on own resourcesoptimal/best use of domestic resources, external aid is supplementary
Good Governance Three major components: 1. Process: Transparency & Accountability 2. Content: Justice & Equity 3. Deliverables: Basic needs and life with dignity (for the citizens especially the poorest) Local Communities engaged in Audit of expenditures, Monitoring the performance of Programs is backed up with Right to Information Act and processes such as Social Audit
Community based Organizations. Community participation
Range of informal groups • Affinity groups were better suited for savings and credit and for social empowerment. The Mahila Vikas Mandals and women’s SHGs are good examples. In a few cases SHGs had ventured into micro-enterprise and in one case an industrial unit was registered in the name of the SHG • Area groups were formed when land based activities compelled farmers of the same contiguous area to come together for a particular treatment or for creation of a common asset. These are generally found in watershed development interventions
Range of informal groups Common interest groups of Producers are formed by producers involved in the same productive activity. The CIG becomes a forum for sharing and exchanging experiences and learning from each other. In addition members can plan together, and aggregate inputs as well as outputs while dealing with the market
Savings and Credit groups of Women A small group (15 to 20 members), voluntarily formed and related by affinity for specific purpose, it is a group whose members use savings, credit and social involvement as instruments of empowerment Functions • Meetings: Regular, compulsory attendance, all transactions in the meetings itself, fixed day and common place • Savings and Credit: Internal resource mobilization, internal lending • Keeping of accounts • Bank linkage: Resolutions to pass in the meetingsmanage SB A/C, & all bank transactions
Federations • Federation means organisation of organisations • Registration is necessary to become a formal entity (body corporate status), an identity with which it can. . . ▫ hold properties/Assets. . . Instead of in the name of individuals ▫ To sue or to be sued
SHG federations SHG members at the base and village/Taluk/cluster of villages level in the next tiers and mandal/block at the apex level. In AP and a few other states we have district federations as apex.
Roles-Function of SHG federations- IKP-SERP • Support services to VOs/SHGs • Create public goods MS • Linkages with market/ with Govt. Dept. • Social security & risk management • Support services to the SHGs • Arrange line of credit to the SHGs • Implementation of NRM and LH • Collective procurement/marketing VO • Thrift and credit activities • Micro credit planning • Group level poverty reduction plans SHGs SHGs
Structure of Nested Institutions Women’s savings & credit groups (Primary Groups at village level) 15 -20 members Local Bank Cluster development Association (15 -20 groups) 4 -5 near by villages Federation of Groups 150 -200 groups (At the Block level)
Functioning of SHG federation • Functions accordance with a Memorandum of Association (specific to the Act of Registration) • MOA-sets outs Aims, Objectives & Governance • Representatives of SHGs form Governing Board • Individual Members of SHGs form the General Body of the federation • Annual General Body meeting-functioning/ audited financial statements shared with GB • Change of leadership/articles of association in the AGM
Roles/Function of SHG fed. • Convene Annual Convention of all SHG members and organizing events of importance • Pursue Social agenda: better civic amenities, action against those who have committed offences against women/errant officialsdirect action such as marches, gheraos etc • Maintenance & facilitation of SHGs: training of members, bank & other external linkages, Book keeping and audit services • Monitoring & supervision of SHGs: support in appraising loan requests, overseeing documentation, monitoring loan recoveries
Roles/Functions of SHG fed. • Forming and nurturing new groupsformation to 1 st bank credit linkage • Sources of funds-financial intermediation • Intermediaries for Insurance services • Collective procurement and marketing services to its memers • Identifying appropriate livelihood options for members & promote group enterprises • Information dissemination centresinformal capacity building centres for SGH members • Advocacy on social issues
Principles in federating • Women create SHGs and SHGs create federations: SHGs are agents of their members. Federations are agents of SHGs. Not vice versa • The services that a federation provides its member SHGs, such that majority of members will stand to benefit from them • SHG federations exists for its members-Its business should not be at the expense of its member SHGs- ex. federations shall not get in to providing savings and credit services to members of SHGs: business of SHGs
Principles in federating • A service best provided at a point nearest to the member, ought to be provided at that level, and not at the more distant federation • A federation’s survival should dependent on the use of its services by member SHGs • A federation should have as members, as many as possible from a small, contiguous area • Leadership of federation should mean responsibility and accountability not privilege • Staff of federation, including the CEO shall be drawn from its membership
Role of promoting institutions • Guiding federations to ▫ be more responsive to the needs of its members, ▫ accountable and responsible to members • Promote a culture within federation that encourages free sharing of views and an insistence of being heard • Ensure members representatives alone have a strong voice in the federation (but not the staff) • Promote the identity of federation in all relevant fora • Develop strong/mature leadership in the federationcapacity building: training, exposures, coaching/mentoring
Cooperatives • Collectivization of informal institutions at the grassroots through federations of people’s institutions or through cooperatives as the most important strategy for scaling up • Co-operatives continue to be most preferred alternative for self managed community based enterprises-requires large scale grass roots capacity building • Cooperatives shall follow the six normative principles (espoused by the International Cooperative Alliance)
Anand/amul Model • Milk Producers' Co-operative Societies, popularly known as Anand Pattern Co-operatives, a large number of semiautonomous organizations (where the individual producers are themselves the members and are hence known as Primary Co-operatives) operate within a limited geographical area. • The primary co-operatives are located in various villages and are manned by the employees of the producers from the village, who are the owners of the organization. • Milk is collected in most cases twice a day with appropriate measurement of the quality at the collection point. Prices paid to the producers are linked to the quality of the commodity supplied by them.
Anand/amul model • All these primary cooperatives are affiliated to a district level co-operative union, which owns the infrastructure required for making the milk available to a wider market. • The primary goal is helping the dairy producers to market their produce, after converting it into products which have a wider market and is not as perishable as milk itself. • The technology used for increasing the shelf-life of the commodity is capital intensive, and requires a minimum size of operation to be viable, making them beyond the reach of the primary co-operatives. • The technology adopted, necessitates use of fairly skilled manpower and are employed by the Union.
Maharashtra Model • Mahrastra sugar co-operatives also purport to assist the sugarcane farmers to market their produce after converting sugarcane into products which have a better market • The area of operation of the primaries is spread over a geographical territory with a radius of about 25 to 50 kilometers, with as many as 10 to 50 villages in its area of operation • The primary itself owns the infrastructure acquired for converting the cane into the marketable form of sugar. The primaries are manned by hired hands qualified to operate the processing unit
Maharashtra Model • The primaries are themselves fairly large in size, in terms of geographical spread, number of members, number of employees, capital employed and many such other measures • Collection, which is done once a year/cutting season, is coordinated from the plant itself. There are no collection centers at the village level. • Quality is measured at the plant and payment to the producers is rather linked to the quantity of the produce supplied and not quality
Livelihood Promotion Approaches Spatial approach: Promoting livelihoods in a specific geographic area, tackle all segments and sectors within �Irrigation: command area, watershed areas Segmental approach: Cover a section of the population-marginal farmers, land less, tribal, SCs, women �Through micro finance services �Through human and institutional development �Rights based: demand rights and entitlements
Livelihood Promotion Approaches Sectoral approach: • Promoting livelihoods along a sector of the economy such as agriculture, or a sub-sector* such as cotton, or a Vector-Water, Energy, Credit *All along the network of farms and firms that supply raw materials, transforming (value addition and distribute finished goods-market) Contingency approach: • There is no one way of doing things, have plans in place to respond to the challenges and situations including the un-anticipated-flexibility • Holistic approach: wide variety of services-across segments and sectors
Cluster Development Cluster • Sectoral and geographical concentration of enterprises, they could be of any size (micro or small or medium) • facing common opportunities and threats Cluster Development • Efforts to enhance overall performance of the cluster • through targeted joint action of stakeholders and supporters
Advantaged with CD • Key problem faced by micro enterprise is isolation rather than its size • Isolated enterprises ▫ lack in negotiating power, ▫ unable to achieve economies of scale ▫ Limited access to credit & other resources, information, technology and markets • CD reduces this isolation by strengthening linkages among all the stakeholders in the cluster (SMEs, large enterprises, support institutions) and pool the resources
Advantages with CD • • • Cluster attracts various suppliers as it provides economies of the scale Strong competition attracts consumersassured of choice, competitive quality and price Availability of skilled workers Growth of clusters attract policy attention Ability to cope with changes would be higher with greater information flow
Thank You srinivas. suri@gmail. com srinivas. surisetti@tiss. edu
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