Empowerment on Wings

Bihar Rural Livelihoods ProjectAn initiative of Government of Bihar and The World Bank

Key Features Saturation Approach: The thrust of the JEEViKA is to bring all the target women of a village under its fold. Hence, instead of remaining content with the formation of few Self Help Groups (SHGs), it pushes its drive to saturation point. Broadly speaking, a village is called saturated if 80% of the target population comes under the fold of the Jeevika Samooh.

Multi-Tiered and Multi-Sectoral Institution Building: The core strategy of the project is to build vibrant and bankable Women Self Help Groups and their federations, and nurture them in such a way that over a period of time they emerge as self managed and financially sustainable community institution.

High Investment in Institutional Development and Capacity Building: JEEViKA believes in Institution development and building capacity of its members. A large number of training programmes, exposure visits, village immersions etc, are designed and delivered to strengthen these community institutions.

No Subsidy Component: JEEViKA believes in mobilizing the SHGs to work for the betterment with their own initiatives instead of offering subsidies. The project provides grant to community institutions but no subsidy at individual member level.

Graduation Indicator based flow of Community Investment Fund (CIF): The main objective of the CIF is to improve and diversify sources of livelihoods and quality of life of the poor. The flow of fund is not time bound; rather it is on Graduation based indicator or triggers. The 57% of total project cost is CIF which will go directly to the bank account of community institution against the micro plans prepared by them.

Special Technical Assistance and Development Fund: The main objective of this fund is to develop partnership with the technical support agencies having expertise in enhancing livelihoods, facilitation in providing financial services, supporting community for accessing services & entitlements and experience in developing an innovative and sustainable organizations of the poor.

Developing Cadre of Community Functionaries viz. CRP, CM, Para

Professionals: A core organization strategy is to create a large cadre of Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and Community Mobilisers (CMs), who will act as resource persons for mobilization of community into SHGs and VOs. The community cadre also includes book keepers, para professionals such as women outreach worker (WOW) and village resource persons (VRPs) who support SHG members in promotion and strengthening of their livelihoods.

Need Based Partnership Building: JEEViKA always seeks to benefit its target population with new ideas that have the potentialities to bring about qualitative change in their life through scalable interventions. For this, it has built partnership with different agencies, civil society organizations and private companies.

Initiation into poverty alleviation

TJust three months after we had formed the Samooh, Bakra-e-id came. We decided to buy sewai collectively. We bought a cartoon of 10 kg sewai. This saved us Rs. 10 per Kg. Again on Moharram we bought a tin (15 litres) of mustard oil collectively. This saved us Rs. 8 per litre. The Samooh members took the items as per their need. They repaid the amount in two instalments,' said Taria Khatoon, President, of Alhamdulilah Samooh at Khanwa village in Dhamdaha block of Purnea district.

'I would not have got compensation of Rs. 65,000 had my Samooh not launched a social campaign against the erring Munshi and exerted pressure on the Mukhiya and other influential persons of the village,' said Saraswati Devi of Radhika Samooh of Sony Village Organisation in Maidapur village of Bochaha block in Muzaffarpur district.

here have been several such instances of

social and economic mobilization among the

poor in the state of Bihar where Bihar Rural

Livelihoods Project (BRLP) also known as

" ” is working with the poor and poorest of

the poor. BRLP was launched in 2007 with

support from the Government of Bihar and the

World Bank for poverty alleviation in the state. To

meet its objectives Bihar Rural Livelihoods

Promotion Society (BRLPS), an independent

society was established. BRLPS promotes rural

livelihoods and enhances social and economic

empowerment of the poor, particularly women.

The project has been making significant strides in

supporting and nurturing institutions of the poor, its federations, and their livelihoods.

JEEV KAi

* Exchange rate 1 USD=Rs. 42

East ChamparanSitamarhi

Madhubani(7 Blocks) Supaul

(1 Block) ArariaKishanganj

Purnia(7 Blocks)

Katihar

Darbhanga

Muzaffarpur(7 Blocks)

Sheohar

Saran

Siwan

Vaishali Samastipur Saharsa

Madhepura(1 Block)

Gopalganj

Bhojpur

RohtasKaimur

BuxarPatna

Jehanabad

Gaya(11 Blocks)

Aurangabad

Nalanda(7 Blocks)

NawadaJamui

Banka

MungerLakhisarai

SheikhpuraBhagalpur

Khagaria(3 Blocks)

West Champaran

Begusarai

Arwal

Objectives of BRLP

Spreading Wings: Expansion of BRLP

The objective of the project is to improve livelihoods and empower the poor through:

Building self managed community institutions of rural poor.

Enhancing income of the poor through promotion of sustainable livelihoods.

Increasing access to social protection including food security through greater voice.

After successful piloting in five blocks, the main project was launched in 18 blocks of six districts on 2nd

October , 2007. The project will now be expanded to 42 Blocks in 6 districts of Madhubani, Muzaffarpur,

Nalanda, Gaya, Khagaria and Purnia. Two flood ravaged blocks i.e, Kumarkhand and Chhatapur, one each from Madhepura and Supaul have been added in the list recently. These districts and blocks were selected based on the study of socio-economic profile and potential to intervene in livelihoods sector.

Project Cost and Financing

The total estimated Project cost is US $ 73 million. Out of this, the the World Bank contribution is US $ 63

million, that of the Government of Bihar is US $ 7 million and the expected community contribution is US $ 3 million.

Source Rs. (Crores)* $(Millions) %of Total Cost

World Bank (IDA Fund) 264.60 63.00 86%

Government of Bihar 029.40 07.00 10%

Community Contribution 012.60 03.00 4%

Total 306.60 73.00 100%

Institutional Arrangement

State Level The State Project Management Unit (SPMU)

oversees and manages various functions of

JEEViKA project at the state level with the support

from various functional specialists such as State Project Managers (SPM) and Project Managers (PM) under the leadership of the Chief Executive

Officer of JEEViKA. At the state level, the society

focuses on designing policy, planning interventions and framing operational strategies/ guidelines for the project.

The Executive Committee, comprising of senior

government officials and representative members

from civil society organizations as its members,

guides the project and approves policy framework.

The Development Commissioner is the President

and the BRLP Project Director (CEO) is the

Member Secretary of this Executive Committee.

District LevelThe District Project Coordination Unit (DPCU) is

responsible for coordinating, implementing and

managing project activities across the district

under the guidance of the District Project Manager

(DPM). DPCU is now functional with thematic

positions and suppor ted by finance and

administrative staff.

Block LevelBlock Project Implementation Unit (BPIU) is a key

unit of the project. It is the quality and effectiveness

of this unit that determines how effectively the

Project rolls out in the field in partnership with

community institutions. The Block Project

Manager (BPM) is the functional head of this unit. S/he is supported by Area Coordinators (AC),

Community Coordinators (CC), finance and

administrative staff. BPIU is mainly responsible for building strong community institutions of the poor and subsequently intervene with well designed

social and livelihoods activities.

Executive Committee

CEO

Block Implementation Unit(Block Project Manager)

Community Resource Persons

Block Level Federation

(BLF)

Village Organisation

(VO)

Self Help Groups(SHG)

Livelihood based Producer's Group

Team of Empanelled Consultants for extending specific support to the project

Training CellTM & TO

District Project Coordination Unit(District Project Manager) DLCC

Finance(Manager)

Livelihood(Manager)

MF(Manager)

SD(Manager)

Accounts and Office Support Team

OSD to

CEO

IBCB

Liveli-hoods

MicroFinance

Social Dev.

M & E Commu-nication

HRD Finance

Unit(SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (SPM & PM) (CFO & FO)

Producer's Company/Co-operative

Village (Community Coordinator)

Cluster(Area Coordinator)

Admin. Unit

Procu-rement

Unit

Winning the trust of the people'Wake up and leave the village,' shouted a group of angry villagers in front of Thethar Yadav's house in

Asari village where the group of JEEViKA field staffs were sleeping. They tried to calm them down but

in vain. They exerted pressure on Thethar Yadav to drive away the field staffs. They even called the

police to drive these suspected persons out. The officer in charge, however, asked them not to do

anything in the night and that the next morning the Mukhiyaji would talk to them and then the police

would take an action. 'Next morning, the Mukhiyaji came. Impressed with our objectives, he persuaded

the villagers to let us remain in the village. Next day we launched cleanliness drive in the village.

Gradually, the villagers also participated in the drive. To mobilise the community, we also began to

teach small children in the village. Gradually we won over the villagers and the groups were formed,'

recalled Shailesh Kumar, the Area Coordinator of Dhamdaha block of Purnia district. This is just an

example of the challenges that the field staff undergo and how they got over it in the initial phase.

Community CadreJEEViKA Mitra or Community Mobiliser (CM)They are preferably woman, Identified from the same village community to act as a facilitator for conduting timely and regular SHG/VO meetings and also maintain their books of records. They work towards building and nurturing of community institutions. Apart from that they also facilitate the community institutions in writing applications, filling up forms of entitlement programmes of government on behalf of them.

JEEViKA Jyoti or Community Resource Person (CRP)We believe that community to community cross learning approach is the best vehicle for social mobilization and sustainability. The community Resource Person (CRP) strategy is a proven strategy for formation and nurturing of SHGs and its network at scale, thus adopted in JEEViKA. These CRPs are community leaders, who have long experience as members of organizations and have developed the faith that SHGs are strong tools for empowerment and eradication of poverty. These successful women have emerged as CRPs in this project to replicate the community institution building process in the new areas with experiential learning and best practices.

Where Ordeals Motivate"Pahale hum satate the, ab log hamen satate hain lekin ismein anadd ata hai"( Earlier we used to avoid CRPs, now as CRPs we get the same treatment, but overcoming resistance has its own pleasure), said Taria Khatoon, President of Alhamdulilah Samooh at Khanwa village, in Purnia district. She has worked as CRP in various villages. With her oratory skills and dramatics, she is the most popular CRP. However, it has not always been easy. Taria and CRPs like herself had little support from the village in the early days.

A Community Mobiliser who leadsBaijanti Devi, aged about 30, is a Community Mobiliser (Bhusia village in Gaya district). She was instrumental behind opening of the bank account of the Self Help Groups, when it was challenging to break the barrier of opening bank accounts for the poor. She even persuaded the women of VOs to implement food security programme. Baijanti Devi has mobilised women to convince the contractor to make road properly and link it with the main road. As a result of her commitment, the women of the village have complete trust in her.

Nothing succeeds like success"Why should we adopt this method of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for planting paddy? What will we eat if this fails? People used to ask me to which I responded by assuring 'I will pay the penalty if there is no yield'", said Sunita Devi , a VRP of the Nama Panchayat. "I will be here all the time to explain you everything, I would say. It was after intensive discussions that some agreed to adopt SRI. I would even carry the seedlings to their fields to help them plant the paddy. However, the high yield through SRI Vidhi last year has changed the mentality of the people. Now they are complaining why I do not visit their village more frequently."

JEEViKA Saheli or

Women Outreach Worker (WOW)In order to protect SHG members from health hazards and thus help them to improve their economic condition, JEEViKA Sahelis or women outreach workers (WOW) have been identified by village organisations. The major task of these Sahelis is to identify latent health issues such as reproductive health of women and to suggest ways to mitigate these issues. However, before doing this they have been given a rigorous training on these routine health check ups by Janani (A partner organization working on health). They are fur ther supported by expert doctors visiting the villages on for tnightly basis in mobile clinics.

Village Resource Person (VRP)Village Resource Persons are the local resources identified from the same or nearby villages, who have either worked in their own agriculture field or have been active farmers and have interest to disseminate the new agricultural methodologies among the small and marginal farmer. These VRPs are trained in system of Rice Intensification (SRI), System of Wheat Intensif icat ion (SWI) and Par ticipator y Varie tal Selection and Promotion (PVSP) programme and are instrumental in extension of agriculture services such as SRI, SWI and PVSP to small and marginal farmers. Introduction of VRPs is a sustainable strategy where VRPs provide quality services to the farmers at affordable prices.

10-15 individual Members in a

Self Help Group

SHG Membersfrom a

Producers Group

Around 8-15 Self Help Groups form a Village Organisation

Around 25-35 Village Organisations form a Block Level Federation

100 Block Level Federationsin Six districts

A critical number of producer groupsform a Cluster

Clusters form a Producer's Organisation

Commercial Sector, CooperativesBanks, Service Sector

Building Social and Financial Capital for the Poor

Thrift savings, inter loaning credit access and

repayment

Converting Social Capital into Economic Capital

Assetization, forming activity groups, developing

technical, business and management skills,

forming partnerships and links with the market

Formation of

Self Help Group “What do we do if you go away with our money? How can we save money - even Rs. 5 - if we have hardly anything to eat? How will the saving of Rs. 5 or Rs. 10 help us?”

These are some of the questions asked when JEEViKA team visits villages to motivate women to form self help groups. JEEViKA Community Resource Persons were subject to disparaging remarks and suspicions in the beginning.

The first task of the team is to overcome poor people's apprehension, their skepticism about the benefits of weekly saving and their bitter experiences with other agencies in the past. The team, therefore, resides with the poorest families and tries to build rapport with them. This helps the team understand their socio-economic conditions and also win confidence of the communities. The team has launched village cleaning campaign, literacy campaign and several such campaigns in order to overcome community's apprehension towards the project team. The CRPs target, mobilise and organise poor communities. They also prepare village profile and perform social resource and livelihood mapping of the target village, and encourage formation of SHGs accordingly. The task, however, becomes easier once a group is formed. The functioning of the first group motivates others to form groups.

The foremost task of the SHG is to improve the quality and creditworthiness of its members. This helps the Samooh emerge as a transparent and profitable organisation. The SHG meetings are held every week on a fixed day. The issues affecting the welfare of the women or the means to promote their livelihood are discussed at the meeting. Any issue that needs the attention or the support of the higher agency is referred to the VO at its monthly meeting.

Role and operation of SHG

These are some of the samples of the diverse roles the SHG promoted by JEEViKA are plying at the village level. However the foremost task of the SHG is to improve the quality and creditworthiness of its members. This helps the Samooh to emerge as a transparent and profitable organisation. SHG meetings are held every week on a fixed day. The issues affecting the welfare of the women or the means to promote their livelihood are discussed at the meeting. The SHG members who are engaged in productive activities are encouraged to form a producer group. They are given every support to enable them to develop into commodity-based producer organisation.

PANCHSUTRAS (Five principles to be followed by SHGs)

1. Weekly meeting

2. Weekly saving

3. Regular lending and borrowing

4. Timely repayment of the loan

5. Maintaining the books (records) regularly and accurately

1. Send their children to school and Aanganwari. 4. No one will pay bribe for any welfare services.2. No women should use tobacco. 5. Washing hands before and after meals. 3. SHG women should clean their respective 6. SHG women should immunise their children and

houses and the area surrounding it. pregnant women as per immunisation schedule.

Non-negotiables for Social Change: Niyam or non negotiable norms for their social up-liftment. Each group decides their Aniwarya Niyam and some of them are--

The Samooh women are encouraged to follow Aniwarya

Four children of a family fell sick after eating adulterated sattu. Their parents were not at home. The mother of the children was a member of Kaushalya Samooh (Das Tola, Dhamdaha, Purnea). Ramdhani Devi, the secretary of Kaushalya Samooh, along with some other Samooh women, took the children to hospital. The Samooh instantly provided Rs. 2000 for medical treatment.It was a police case, and they were able to defend themselves against the suspicion of being the culprits. Ramdhani Devi said to the police 'We are Samooh members and I am the secretary of the Samooh. Since the parents of the children are not here, it is our duty to look after the children of our Samooh members.' The police were convinced and did not interfere.

'A woman died at Salaha village in Muzaffarpur. Her husband was not able to purchase her kafan. Even the Mukhiya did not do anything but the SHG took initiative and promptly gave Rs. 350 to perform her funeral rites,' narrated Seema, the CM in Sarfuddinpur (Muzaffarpur).

Nurturing the 'Future Hopes' 'Sabke banal bhaia kothwa Atari/Bhuiyan bhai ke kuchho na thekanawa ho/Bhaiya bhuiyan na parhle (All have built majestic buildings but the Bhuiyans have no residence; Bhuiyans have not learnt at all.)', sang Seema, a five year girl, in chorus with Rinku, Sanju and Guriya – all Musahar children, depicting the plight of their community. The little children aged 3-7 years were studying under a shehajan (drum stick) tree at Maraha village in Dobhi block (Gaya district). These children would not have been initiated into learning had the BRLP not accepted their demand to run a Balwari (day care center).Parents were not willing to send their children to the government Schools which were 2 kilometers away. 'In most of the seasons the children had to wade through water to reach the school,' said Devarani Devi, the mother of Seema Kumari. 'Besides, there is also a pond which they had to cross before reaching the school; so there was every possibility of their falling in the pond,' she added. Sunita Kumari, who teaches these children, is given Rs. 700 for her services. Of this, Rs. 400 is given by the Vishnu SHG and the rest Rs. 300 is borne by other institutions willing to support this activity. If the teacher is on leave, the CM – Amita Kumari – teaches the children. Within one year the children have been able to recite and write 'A-Z', '1-100', 'Ka- Gya’ (in Hindi). In Dhamdaha block of Purnea district, the Balwari is set up in a bamboo house. The VO takes care of the expenses on thatch-roofed bamboo shed, blackboard, chair, and part of the payment to the teacher if the collection from the children is not enough and the parents pay a small fee for service

Village Organisation

To establish or promote SHGs as social service providers, forum for social empowerment, business entities and valued clients of the formal banking system, village level federation known as Village Organisation (VO) is created which usually has representatives from 10 -15 SHGs. Three members from each SHG - preferably President, Secretary and Treasurer find representation in the VO Executive Committee, which monitors and supervises all its constituent SHGs. Sub-Committees are formed to discharge specific functions of VOs. These sub-committees include Bank Linkage Commit tee, Social Action Commit tee, Repayment Committee and Social Audit Committee.

Social Audit Committee investigates the use of bank loans among the members. The repayment committee ensures that the members repay the loan - whether from the VO or from the Bank - on time. The Social Action Committee oversees the activities in the village. Food Security Committee is a need based and works towards ensuring food to all SHGs households round the year.

In many instances VOs have been linked with line departments to avail the benefit of Government programmes for their members and play the role of service provider on behalf of Government agency, such as managing the Public Distribution System (PDS) shops, implementing total Sanitation Campaign etc.

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Block Level Federation Block Level Federation (BLF) is formed after the VOs have properly been nurtured. The first BLF of JEEViKA has been formed in Bodh Gaya block in Gaya district. Three members from each VO find representation on the BLF. There is a fixed date on which the BLF meeting is convened in every month irrespective of holidays or Sundays.

BLF Meeting: Role and Operation

The main objective of BLF is to strengthen SHGs and VOs. Any issue concerning the VO is raised and discussed at the BLF meeting. It also liasions with the government officials and other agencies to avail of different schemes for the poor to help them promote their livelihoods and improve their socio-economic condition. They may also take up the role of policy advocacy in favour of poor.

Signature literacy :

A step towards empowerment 'Dastakhat na kartai ta sab taka

buriye jatai (if they do not learn to sign their money will be lost). The Samooh women at Dastola (Purnea) were teased in order to goad them to signature literacy, said Bijali Devi of Rupa Samooh. The result was wonderful and all the 15 members are signature literate now. In fact, the number of women putting their signature has gone up after their association with the Samooh. Take f o r ex a m p l e D u r g a VO i n Muzaffarpur district. Out of 180 members of the VO, 179 have been capacitated to put their signature.

'Why did you not attend our meeting in May?,' asked Narayani VO representatives to the Project Resource Person (PRP). They arranged a discussion around it so that the PRP had to provide an explanation and apologize. Such are the ways how the BLF ensures accountability. The incident not only reflects the empowerment of the women but also the role and operation of the BLF.

Micro Planning Micro Planning is a powerful mechanism to repose faith in community and facilitate a process to identity their own needs and come out with a suitable investment plan, amidst constraint resources. This is a five stage open ended process through which the SHG members come up with a list of activities that they would like to take up to improve their livelihoods. In the beginning of the process the SHG prepares a profile (e.g. land, cattle, high cost debt, sources of income etc.) of each SHG member and based on their wealth and vulnerability-ranks each member under the category of poor, not so poor and the poorest of the poor. Further, members are given one week time to think about the ways and means through which they could enhance their livelihoods and reduce vulnerability. They are also suggested to discuss the issue with their family members. Finally, the group appraises each loan request, prioritizes them and determines the terms of loan like amount, installment, repayment period etc. Most importantly, in this whole process, the needs and requirements of the poorest of the poor are given due priority and all kinds of plan and demands are given due considerations. Eventually, this is a step towards building a vibrant and self managed community organization.

Objectives of Micro Planning

To strengthen the capabilities of the individuals and institutions of poor

To meet the credit needs of all the members in the group

To explore the ways and means of development by identifying and assessing the available social resources individually and group wise

To meet temporary and long term needs

To avail loan facility from other institutions

To utilise the limited resources in meeting the needs of the members on priority basis

To improve the financial management skills of SHG

Shakuni Devi of Durga Samooh under Roshani VO (Musahari tola of Amari Kukraun village in Kukaraun East Panchayat in Dhamdaha block, Purnea district) did not know what to do. Blood had been coming out profusely from her son's mouth for several days. She asked for loan from HRF which was promptly sanctioned. With Rs. 10,000 from HRF, she took her son to Purnea for treatment.

Health Risk Fund

(HRF)Health shocks are one of the major livelihoods shocks for the poor households. Micro planning has revealed that a large number of family borrow high cost loan from money lenders for health purposes. To address this, Health Risk Fund (HRF) has been initiated. The HRF is provided to the VO only when the members of its constituent SHGs show commitment to save for their health. Each member pays Rs. 10 per month to her concerned SHG for HRF and the SHG leader deposits the collected amount to the VO at its scheduled meeting. Once convinced of SHG member’s commitment of saving money for their health, a proposal is sent to the state for one time grant to HRF. For example, Chandani JEEViKA Gram Sangathan and Durga JEEViKA Gram Sangathan in Muzaffarpur and Roshani VO in Purnea were granted Rs. 50,000 each in March 2009.

The community investment fund is one of the key components of the project, which accounts for about 57 percent of the total project cost. It is designed to transfer financial and technical resources directly to the community based organization i.e. SHG, VO & BLF etc. on a demand driven basis through a participatory micro planning process. As this money is no way large enough to help out all the households covered under the project from the poverty this is used as a catalyst and builds the credit history of the institutions of poor so that they can leverage bigger amount from mainstream banking & financial institutions. The purpose is to improve the livelihoods of poor and build their institutions, sustainably.

Community Investment Fund /

Initial Capitalisation Fund

Community Investment Fund (CIF) is used by the community institutions to support :

A. Initial capitalization or consumption smoothing (including food security) of CBOs.

B. Investments in livelihoods (incl. assetization and working capital needs) and skill building/re-tooling for jobs/employment sector.

C. Fund social services such as Health and Education needs of the Community members.

Providing Rs 20,000 each to Anand Tara Samooh and Roshani Samooh in Muzaffarpur in 2009 is an excellent example of supporting entrepreneurship. These groups purchased and sold litchi and earned twice the investment. Encouraged with this, more groups have been pressing for support from CIF. Another fine example of the utilisation of CIF is providing fund - say Rs. 75,000 to VOs for purchasing rice to deal with food scarcity when the work is not available to the poor for months.

Small Initiatives Supported

Through CIF

Weaving Blanket with an eye on future

Several women like Sudha Devi of Tulsi Samooh and her sister-in-law Mamta Devi of Laxmi Samooh at Bishunpur village (Muzaffarpur district) have been doing blanket business at their home either with internal lending from the Samooh or with loan from CIF.

Running their fate with Petty Shops

Several women, as in case of Mamta Devi and Nirmala Devi in Shekhwara village in Gaya district, are running such shops with support from JEEViKA.

Keeping pigs to dispel financial gloom

Loans have been taken to purchase pigs for business purpose as did Fulmati Tuddu of Jeevan Prakash SHG in Purnea district.

Rewriting their destiny with the reclaimed

plots of land

With loan from CIF several women have reclaimed their lands which were held by their moneylenders. Shobha Devi of Shekhwara village (Gaya district) reclaimed 11 kattha of land from the moneylender. Kunti Devi, another woman of Shekhwara village reclaimed 50 decimal of her land from the money lender. Likewise, Surajmuni Murmu of the same village got back her plot of 6 kattha with a loan of Rs. 2,000 from her SHG (Om Prakash Samooh). In fact, there are hundreds of women who have been able to reclaim their lands from the money lenders after their association with the SHGs.

HH/ SHG-LEVEL PROCUREMENT

FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM

CONVERGENCE WITH SRI and PVSP Mechanism

CONVERGENCE WITH PDS

COMMUNITY / VO LEVEL PROCUREMENT

Food Security

Food Security program is a community managed credit and food distribution mechanism. It is an innovative approach that helps in ensuring food availability in the house even during lean seasons when wage opportunities are limited. The food grain is procured with grant from the JEEViKA and given to the VOs on credit as per their demand and its subsequent assessment. The VOs give the food grains to the SHGs on credit as well and the SHGs to the members on credit for a reasonable price. The payment has to be made in three installments after lean period. The first installment has to be paid two months after they lift foodgrains.

Important livelihood

initiatives

A VO that can take initiative 'Who will pay? Who are you buying for?' asked the farmer at Bardela village (Purnia) when Ravina Khatoon, the President of the Nirala VO of Khanwa village, negotiated with him for 46 quintal of rice. He did not believe that these simple women could buy such a huge quantity. Even when the rate was finalised and truck was hired, he did not believe that they would pay him then and there. He was taken aback when a VO member paid him Rs. 58,650 at the rate of Rs.1275/quintal. The triumphant women came back on truck, unloading bags at different SHGs on the way. The rice was packed in 50 kg bags to avoid difficulty in weighing. They provided the rice to the SHGs at the rate of Rs.1300 / quintal, benefiting altogether 92 families of nine SHGs. The market price was Rs. 1400-1500 per quintal. Significantly, the rice was purchased from the CIF with VO. It was the initiative at the VO level much before the food security plan was launched officially. Nirala VO was inspired by the collective purchasing in practice by one of its SHG - Alhamdulilah SHG.

Commodity Procurement

Centre (CPC)

The key objective of Commodity Procurement Centre is to ensure a competitive price of farm produce of SHG member. The CPC is formed at the VO level in order to promote livelihood opportunities of the women as well as ensuring the storage of food grains at the village level by the SHG women. The task of the centre is to find out which Didi (SHG woman) is selling out her paddy or wheat, as the case may be, and at what rate. They also find out the market rate and decide where to buy the foodgrains from so that it is the cheapest without making any compromise with the quality.

A PDS Shop by the women for the Masses A drum beats announcing the arrival of the allotment of ration at the PDS shop run by the women of the Annapurna JEEViKA Mahila Gram Sangthan at Shekhwara village in Bodhgaya block of Gaya district. The drummer also announces which tola or hamlet will lift the ration on which date or day. This has been done to avoid unnecessary rush at the shop. This is a pleasant deviation. The poor villagers earlier were denied their share of allotment even after going to the PDS shop repeatedly. The distribution is run by different SHGs in turns.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI)

'My husband was not at all convinced with the idea of adopting System of Rice Intensification (SRI). "What will we do if it fails?" he asked. But I was convinced. We had a plot of two kattha which had been parati (uncultivated plot) for years. I, along with my son, dug that parati and made it cultivable. We prepared bed as directed, did treatment of the seed using salt solution, prepared the nursery of the seed and on the 12th day planted the seedling. "You will be responsible for wasting the field and energy," my husband used to taunt me till the growth became visible on the eighth day of plantation. As the growth continued, the people became impressed. Finally, we got the yield of 4 maunds/ kattha which was four times greater than we used to get even from the best of our plots. My husband acknowledged that SRI method is useful for paddy plantation,' narrated Sunita Devi of Bhusia village in Gaya district.

SRI on paddy productivity enhancement has been piloted in Bodh Gaya (Gaya district) and Harnaut (Nalanda district) blocks with technical support from PRADAN, an NGO supporting the programme. SRI vidihi is being used also in Khagaria and Purnia with technical support from ASA, a Bhopal based agency.

Livelihood Initiatives

through partners

Participatory Varietal Selection and Promotion (PVSP) Programme

In order to enhance the production by selecting preferred varieties of seed in the major crops; BRLPS with support from Action for Social Advancement (ASA), a Bhopal based agency, has launched PVSP programme in different districts. PVSP is a method intended to understand the felt and perceived needs of the farmers for suitable crop varieties and allow them to test, identify, and adopt/spread the suitable "farmer preferred" varieties from a "basket of choices" provided to them. Identification of Farmers' Preference, Search Process for Varieties, Trial in Farmers' Field, Evaluation by Farmers through Focused Group Discussion, Dissemination of Preferred Varieties are the important components of the programme. Wheat, Moong & Paddy are taken up under this programme.

Varieties such as GW 273, GW 366, UP 2526, HD 2824 in wheat and TM-9937, HUM-12 in Moong are preferred by farmers in Purnia & Khagaria.

System of Wheat Intensification (SWI)

JEEViKA has initiated System of Wheat Intensification (SWI) for Wheat Productivity enhancement in Nalanda, Gaya and Purnia. Around 400 farmers were benefitted from this in the pilot phase. The expected yield of wheat through SWI is around 56 to 90% more than what farmer gets through conventional methods. Ratanmala Devi of Bindi SHG in Purnea district sowed wheat using SWI method in 4 kattha and got a yield of 2.25 maund per kattha.

Jobs for Jobless Youth

Is this project serving to women only? Perhaps not. This project intends to bring holistic livelihood development in the poor's family. That is why unemployed youth from the family of SHG members are targeted to place with sustainable employment opportunities in service sector. Partners like AeA, G4S and Vardhman Yarns have collaborated with the project to identify, train and place youth, and hence, enable the poor's family to have regular cash flow.

Sujni : A non farm initiativeThe Sujni art of Bihar is a simple expression of women's daily lives. Proper refinement and packaging can develop this traditional rural arts into an up market product. Sujni is being

promoted by JEEViKA in two villages in Bochaha block in Muzaffarpur district - Sarfuddinpur and Madan Chaupar - through two VOs in order to help the women of the deprived class earn their income and thereby alleviate their poverty. The women make Sujni on saree, carpet, bag, lamp post etc. Their works are on high demand and several buyers to purchase the art work.

The financial mainstreaming of groups is the key for the sustainability of community institutions. JEEViKA has made numerous effor ts to improve the supply side response of banking institutions, particularly in the project blocks towards Self Help Group financing.

MOU with Bankers : To ensure better banking services for the target beneficiaries, JEEViKA has entered into MOU with different commercial and regional rural banks. They include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank, Central Bank of India, Utter Bihar Gramin Bank and Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank.

Account opening : SHGs are encouraged to open their bank accounts in order to embolden them to deal with their financial matters and thereby march towards empowerment. This is an important step towards building financial literacy among SHG members. The bank account is opened in the name of SHG and is jointly operated by any two of three office bearers.

Credit linkage : Credit linkage is an important strategy to make the SHG women self reliant. This helps in leveraging resources from mainstream financial institutions and brings in financial discipline among SHG members. It also helps them to be aware of the facilities and programmes available for them.

State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) : JEEViKA joined SLBC as a member for raising and addressing issues related with SHG at priority basis in order to make this committee pro-poor. Accordingly, JEEViKA is also represented in the District Level Co-ordination Committee (DLCC) and Block Level Bankers Committee (BLBC) of the project blocks and districts.

Bankers' Exposure visit : In order to create enabling environment, different bank officials from Bihar were taken on an exposure visit to Andhra Pradesh where similar program as JEEViKA has been well institutionalised. The bank officials had a meeting with the bankers of Andhra Pradesh and visited successful SHGs and their federations. They were also exposed to community based recovery system, etc. This had led to quite positive results in opening of bank accounts and credit linkages of SHGs.

Asserting their right "Women power long live! Don't avoid

us. Open our accounts immediately,"

a strong demand raised by about 300

women in a bank. The women were

determined on that day to finalise the

process for opening of their SHG

bank accounts. The date for opening

their accounts was postponed

several times for various reasons.

They were finally successful. The

forms of the SHG women for opening

bank account were accepted at

seven at night. SHG turned

instrumental in convincing the

Branch Manager to appreciate the

need of financial inclusion of poor

women.

Financial Mainstreaming

Bihar Innovation ForumThe 1st Bihar Innovation Forum (BIF), a two-day event, was organized by Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) on 27 -28 September 2007 in Patna. The 25 innovations which were mainly from the areas of income generation, production enhancement, increased social security and better service delivery were prepared for showcasing during the forum by putting up exhibition stalls. These innovations were selected after several rounds of screening and field validation out of more than 150 applications.

The objective of the innovation forum is to support innovations by individuals, enterprises, organisations and institutions in the public and private sector aimed at improving rural livelihoods which have been tested or need to be tested and have the potential for being scaled up in Bihar. This forum would support all activities to empower the rural poor holistically with innovative interventions.

Social Mobilisation

• Promoting inclusive and equitable growth through participatory targeting

• Building social and economic capital through institutions and federations

• Generating voice and scale

Livelihoods Enhancement

• Skill building

• Food Security

• Productivity enhancement and extension services

• Assetization and Income Generation

• Access to financial services

• Reduction in costs for accessing services such as health and insurance

• Fair terms of trade through links with commercial sector

• Making the poor participate in and profit from upcoming growth sectors

Framework for Project Interventions

Entitlements & Accountability

• Enhancing access to information

• Amplifying voice

• Making public and private services more accountable to the poor

• Increased participation in and strengthening links to local government

Role of BRLPS

• Mobilization and capacity building

• Facilitation links to commercial banks

• Fostering partnership with public, private and NGO sectors

• Creating a favorable climate for the poor

• Promotion of innovation in rural livelihoods

Information, Access and AccountabilityFacilitation & Livelihoods Promotion

Supporting Sustainable LivelihoodsSocial Mobilisation Investment in self-sustaining institutions and

federations of the poor

Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion SocietyVidyut Bhawan, Annexe - II, Bailey Road, Patna- 800 021, Bihar, India

Tele/Fax : +91 - 612 - 2504980 / 60, Email : info@brlp.inwebsite : www.brlp.in