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Feature
Financial Inclusion Opportunities and Challenges M. Kalyanasundaram*
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here has been increasing realization about the problem of inadequate access to formal banking system particularly for small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers and other poor sections of the society, which accentuates the problem of exclusion from gainfully participating in the process of and sharing the fruits of economic development. The recent Survey of National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO 2003) on indebtedness of Farmer Households vividly highlight the problem of exclusion what with of the 89.35 million farmer households (forming 60.4% of total rural households) only 43.42 million households accounting for 48.6% have availed financial services especially credit. Similarly, the All India Debit and Investment Survey (NSS FiftyNinth Round) has revealed that the share of non-institutional credit in total dues of rural households has increased from 17.5 per cent in 1991 to 29.6% in 2002. In fact, despite impressive growth of branch network in India, the vast sections of the society remain financially excluded and continue to remain away from the formal system and thereby access to affordable financial services including savings, credit and insurance. The banking industry in India has shown tremendous growth in volume and complexity during the last few decades. We have an extensive
banking infrastructure comprising 33,411 rural and semi-urban branches of commercial banks, over 14,501 branches of RRBs, around 12,000 branches of District Co-operative Credit Banks (DCCBs) and nearly 1,00,000 cooperative credit societies at the village level. There is at least one retail credit outlet on an average for about 5,000 rural people, which translates into one outlet for every 1,000 households. This is remarkable and extensive work. Given this network the moot question would be “Are the financial services needs of the rural poor comprehensively met by this network?’ Frankly enough, the answer is not positive. What is Financial Inclusion? By Financial Inclusion, we mean delivery of banking services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of disadvantaged and low income groups. It is not just credit but include access to savings, insurance, payments and remittance facilities by the formal financial system to those who tend to be excluded. An open and efficient society is always characterized by the unrestrained access to public goods and services. As banking services are in the nature of public good, financial inclusion should therefore be viewed as availability of banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination of any type. In other words, the financial inclusion can be looked at in two ways, one is
exclusion from the payment system i.e. not having access to bank accounts, the second kind of exclusion from the formal credit market requiring the excluded to approach informal and exploitative market. Current status Though there has been widespread prevalence of exclusion, it is, however, important to recognize that in the policy framework for development of the formal financial system in India, the need for financial inclusion and covering more and more of the excluded population by the formal financial system has always been consciously emphasized by the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government not to speak of the initiatives of commercial banks. Access to Financial services is highly important to improve the quality of peopleÂ’s life. Only 59 percent of adult population in the country has bank accounts. And 39 percent of rural adults have access to accounts while in the urban areas the percent rises to 60. Only 14 out of 100 adults have loan accounts on an all India basis. In rural areas it is just 9.5 percent. The top six metros alone contribute 45 percent to total deposit and to credit 56 percent, indicating poor rural penetration. It is now one of the largest microfinance initiatives in the world
* M. Kalyanasundaram, Chief Executive, INAFI (International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions) India.
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with 2.30 million SHGs comprising approximately, 33 million women now to borrow from formal financial institutions. That means, now 33 million women are financially included through SHG movement by providing credit through formal financial institutions. Initiatives of Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India in its annual policy statement of April 2005 recognized the problem of financial exclusion and since then has initiated several policies aimed at promoting financial inclusion. To cite the major initiatives
Introduction of a basic no frills Banking account either with nil or very low minimum balances as well as charges that would make such accounts accessible to vast sections of population. Several banks have already come out with their schemes.
A simplified overdraft facility (OD) to be issued by the bank without insistence on collateral or purpose with a limit upto Rs.5,000 and the general purpose credit card (GCC) facility with a revolving credit limit of Rs.25,000 based on the activity pursued by the client.
Introduction of a Pilot Project for 100 percent Financial Inclusion in the Union Territory of Puducherry and one district each in all States/Union Territories. On the basis of the experience gained, the scope for providing 100 percent financial inclusion in other areas/districts would be considered. Policy initiative on Business Correspondents and Business Facilitators model for last mile connectivity between the banks
and the excluded segment of population.
In order to improve provision of financial services in the NorthEastern region and prepare an appropriate State-specific monitorable action plan, RBI has set up a special committee to advance financial inclusion.
Initiatives of Commercial Banks, NABARD, SIDBI, Civil Societies The SHG Bank Linkage programme since the 90s ranks, by far, the major programme initiative without parallel in any parts of the world for the financial inclusion. The uniqueness of the SHG Bank Linkage programme lies in the fact that it is not mere delivery of financial services but has an inherent design for promoting financial literacy. As the financial literacy increases, the financial inclusion gets more sustainability and stability in terms of being inclusive on a long haul. With more than 2.3 million SHGs reaching more than 30 million poor households the first small but significant step has been taken in financial inclusion. The engagement of commercial bank, NABARD and SIDBI with Microfinance institutions has proved to be a significant step forward with MFIs chipping in as effective complement for the banking system as a vehicle for delivery and connectivity. Interestingly, there have been many development interventions on livelihoods, watershed and tribal development in the country with the initiative of development NGOs, which have been furthering the financial inclusion by linking the programme participants with the banking system.
There is also a sobering realization that financial inclusion shall not degenerate as just opening a bank account. Beyond opening the account, how do we facilitate and ensure that the accounts remain alive and operative. Technological initiatives for Financial Inclusion Technology holds the key to further the process of financial inclusion, more so in the remote and far flung areas. It enhances access to financial services in a cost effective manner and over time with the increasing volume lead to more affordability. The challenge lies in making the technologies more friendly to the illiterate clients coming from the poor segments of the society, who are normally excluded from the financial system. Some of the initiatives which are currently under way on experimental basis are worth mentioning.
ATMs with operating instructions in vernacular language facilitating the access for the poor people with reading ability
ATMs with voice recognition for the illiterates for transactions relating to savings, credit and payment services
Bio metric enabled ATMs to bring more illiterate poor to the banking fold
Mobile teller / low cost ATMs in the remote areas
KIOSK banking using the internet facility
DHAN s perspectives and role DHAN is currently working with close to 7,00,000 poor families, of which more than 3,50,000 families are reached by Kalanjiam Community
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Banking programme. The Kalanjiam Community Banking programme is endeavouring to provide linkages for the poor women members with commercial banks through the SHG Bank Linkage programmes. DHAN s approach of organizing the unorganized poor in institutional frame work of SHGs and its federations provides the necessary fillip and facilitation for the process of financial inclusion. The members of the Kalanjiams are availing savings and credit facilities from the Kalanjiams, which in turn have linkage with the banks. It is important to recognize that the individual members having account with SHGs and operating it effectively is but an important part of the financial inclusion. The existence of the group and group transactions in fact reflect the active participation and the availing of financial services. Even though the individual members may not have direct account with the bank but the groups have account with the bank and thereby the linkage is established with the banking system for a greater financial inclusion over a period of time. Imagine a situation where the groups do not exist one can realize how distant the goal of financial inclusion is. The SHG Bank Linkage programme therefore needs to be taken as a part of the financial inclusion process because it brings to the formal banking fold the excluded category of poor segments of societies, who are not able to access banking services individually. Financial literacy and financial counseling The financial literacy and financial counseling for better financial discipline are the other vital components of financial inclusion besides the delivery and access. The Clusters Development Association
and the federations promoted under the aegis of DHAN Foundation by the Kalanjiams and Vayalagams are playing useful role in providing literacy and counseling to the members for effective utilization of the financial services, which include insurance also. In fact the insurance literacy initiated by DHAN Foundation through People Mutuals is a wonderful example of how the financial literacy campaign can advance the process of inclusion by greater expansion of micro insurance programmes. With more than a decade of experience of working with communities to enable access the financial services, DHAN Foundation is involved in designing and preparation of the educative materials for financial literacy. With outreach goal of one million families by 2010, DHAN is committed to expand the financial inclusion by reaching the financial services to the poor, who are the really excluded categories from the financial system. Role of Networks There is a greater role for the networks such as INAFI INDIA (Network of Microfinance NGOs) and INFOS (Network of Federations of Self Help Groups) in bringing together many stakeholders including clients, NGOs, MFIs, commercial banks and RRBs to promote and further the working of business facilitators and business correspondents for linking the excluded categories of poor with commercial banks. The facilitation role of network is spreading financial literacy among the MFIs and NGOs and through them with the clients can not be over emphasized. The networks need to involve in the policy advocacy and lobbying to put right kind of perspective for financial inclusion, which is the recognition for the SHG Bank Linkage
programme as a critical step for the greater financial inclusion. This means the financial inclusion will recognize the individual member s savings and credit account with SHGs and cooperatives and operated actively as essential element of financial inclusion rather than blindly insisting on individual accounts with the banks. Issues and challenges
The vast segments of population particularly poor segment of society are out of the formal financial system. The financial inclusion process should take the banking services to the poor rather than poor people coming to the bank for availing the services
For sustaining the financial inclusion, the financial literacy becomes a very critical component. There is a need to simultaneously focus on the financial literacy part besides the delivery / access
Penetration of insurance services Insurance services largely remain as the urban phenomena. It should reach out to the rural and remote areas and to the poor segments of the societies. Micro Insurance services should be given greater importance while extending the financial services
Cost effective technologies and applications in appropriate manner
Access to payment services through technology
Regional imbalances in the financial inclusion process are quite visible and there is a need for the microfinance movement to be broad based in North India to make the financial inclusion more meaningful & inclusive.
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Insights
Building Communities through Media Kalanjiam Community Radio Experience P. Krishnamurthi & V. Naguveer Prakash
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ommunication is about the human factor in development it gives people a voice, makes them visible, and helps them to learn and take action. Communication is most useful when it starts by listening to what people already know, what they aspire to become, what they perceive is possible and what they can productively sustain. There are many paths of communication ranging from folk media and traditional social groupings to radio and video to the Internet. Media can be used as a means for education, for motivation in the spheres of development action. If the media is owned and managed by the community it can reflect their insights, native wisdom, and heritage. It can act as a powerful tool to inform and educate themselves about new ideas and technical innovations for their own social, economic, and cultural development. With more than a decade of experience in working with the poor and disadvantaged communities on microfinance and water, DHAN Foundation has taken up development communication as a potential area for action. It is involved in promoting use of information and communication as a tool for development.
ICT for Disaster Management People need information as much as water, food, medicine or shelter. Information can save lives, livelihoods and resources.
Dysfunctional telephones and unwired remote villages often make the last mile reach a nightmare. The answer will be in strengthening and sustaining the local systems that work. Community radio initiatives and
Information, communication, and public participation become important aspects of a community s ability to recover from a disaster event. Men and women rely on different sources of information; a multifaceted approach to the provision of warnings needs to be implemented. Volunteer in Programme recording Disaster preparedness depends more on how information and services will be village information centres coming up facilitated during the aftermath of a along the coasts and their networking crisis. Since many of the choices and could help a lot in creating location preferences within the households are specific disaster mitigation strategies. still divided along gender lines The role of community radio would emergency preparedness needs to be very critical in disaster consider ways and means to ease the management. burden of these activities on women Communication for Rehabilitation who may be themselves sick or in other ways affected by the disaster. After the Tsunami devastation, in Women s unseen and unrecognized December 26, 2004, DHAN contributes to the household s ability Foundation started working in a big to recover from the disaster event way with the affected fishing and needs to be taken into consideration, farming communities along the coast while designing disaster preparedness with a long term development focus. Empowering the community in all strategies.
* P. Krishnamurthi, Team Leader, coordinating the Centre for Development Communication V. Naguveer Prakash, Project Executive based at Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu
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aspects, particularly in building capacity of the community for disaster management was felt as an important area of intervention. Applications of Information and Communication Technology were introduced through the Village Information Centres connected with internet facility setup in all the villages. To complement this ICT initiative, the Foundation has launched a Community Radio Station Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli with a vision of creating a Community Media Centre with mixed media model, combining radio with video and web based technologies. United Nations Development Programme provided resources under it s Tsunami Recovery Support Programme. Purpose The Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli has been established
To use information and communication as a tool for change in the areas of poverty reduction, gender and environment
To enable the communities in the disaster prone coastal areas to get prepared for managing disasters and strengthen their livelihoods to cope up with such disasters through Community Owned Media Centre.
To build skills of the community to prepare and disseminate audio programmes on the areas concerning their socio-economic and cultural development.
To aid in promotion and preservation of local wisdom, traditional knowledge and skills by encouraging communities to prepare programmes in these areas.
Location The Station for Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli has been set up at Vizhunthamavadi village of Keelaiyur Block in Nagapattinam District, Tamil N a d u . Nagapattinam district is a coastal district of Tamil Nadu; The Keelaiyur block of Nagapattinam is next in south to the pilgrimage and tourist spot Velankanni. The block is surrounded by sea in its east. Four hamlets located around Map Showing location of Vizhnthamavadi Kalanjia Samuga Vanoli village such as PR Puram, Kameswaram, Pudupalli and executive structure for managing the Vettaikaraniruppu are under coverage. radio station. This initiative is supported by the UNDP and technical The total population of the five support is provided by VOICES, a villages is 34,328 in 8,462 Bangalore based development households; except two villages communication NGO. Puthuppalli and Vettaikaranirruppu, in Production & other villages the female population Programme Dissemination is slightly higher. Facilitating Agencies The Keelaiyur Vattara Vayalagam, a federation of Vayalagam Farmers groups promoted by DHAN Foundation among the Tsunami affected communities owns the station. The Foundation works with the federation to set up governance and
Field recording
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Table 1: Areas of programme production S. No.
Village Information Centre for narrow casting
The Station is equipped with infrastructure needed for producing audio programmes. A team of trained volunteers from the local community are involved in programme production. The station is connected with the VICs set up by DHAN Foundation in the villages through Local Area Network. These VICs narrow cast the programmes produced and sent by the Station through the Public Address Systems fixed over towers. Presently programmes of 30minutes duration are presented daily. Also the Station has made an arrangement with the AIR - Karaikal FM Station to broadcast selected programmes once in a week for fifteen minutes. Community radio programming addresses local information and community needs that revolve around disaster preparedness, livelihoods, local best practices, women and children, health, education and farming. Application has been submitted to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to get a license for braodcasting.The station started functioning from August 2006. The Centre has made so far 2032 minutes of programme of varying
Type of Programme
Duration (Seconds)
Minutes
1
Tirukkural
4,445
74:05
2
Local information
3,029
50.29
3
Agriculture
12,051
201:51
4
Fishing
5,616
94:36
5
Livelihoods Best Practices
5,997
108:57
6
Women & SHG
13,002
217:42
7
Children Educational & Entertainment
25,217
421:77
8
Traditional Health Practices
10,854
181:54
9
Local Leadership
6,733
112:13
10
Awareness on development issues
16,419
273:39
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Government Programmes
7,736
129:56
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Local culture and Songs
10,818
181:18
1,21,917
2,032.35
Total
types and areas as detailed in the table 1. The chart (Fig. 1) shows that livelihoods related programming
constitutes about 20 percent of total programme produced, Similarly programming for children was 20 percent of the total duration of programmes produced. Traditional
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health practices, local culture and folk songs were the major areas of programming to fulfill the demands of the communities generated during need assessment. Moving into Mixed Media Model Community Media Centre To build on the community radio initiative, the concept of Kalanjiam Community Media Centre (KCMC) combining ICT based Village Information Centres (Thagavalagam), Community Radio and Community Video has been conceived to maximize the impact of information and communication on the lives of the local communities, especially women. The vision of the Centre is to inform, inspire and empower the community to speak and act on behalf of their fellow members, to use radio, television and the internet to create and distribute programs that promote and celebrate individual expression, local achievements, education, cultural exchange, arts appreciation and civic engagement. The KCMC works with the objectives of:
Combining the Audio, Video and internet resources and tools that can empower the communities to
Studio recording
be more conscious media consumers.
Enabling the community to tell, share and preserve their own stories by themselves Discussing the issues and challenges concerning their development and find out collective solutions for Gender inclusive development.
Media literacy is one of its core area of intervention. Media literacy is the practice of turning passive media consumers into critical thinkers and media creators. The centre enables the communities, particularly women to look for what is not in the media, and to ask why certain messages, viewpoints and perspectives are not
included. Its ultimate goal is Building communities through media. Governance The KCMC has been founded on the systems and community processes that would ensure the local management. The Management Committee of the KCMC has been drawn from the Keelaiyur Vattara Vayalagam. Panchayat level Cluster Development Associations of the federation have nominated representatives for the Committee. There are 21 members in the committee which works with a professional deputed from DHAN Foundation and a team of local
The boy stretches his neck to reach the microphone that dangles in front of him. But that does not break the enthusiasm. He eagerly narrates the story of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. This young storyteller comes from a rural village near Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. He is one of the many talents, staff and volunteers, who help in creating a very unusual radio programme for an unusual radio station Kalanjiam Samuga Vanoli. Currently staff of eight works for the radio station full time. I like doing the programmes , says Dinolya, the latest addition to the team. She and her colleagues know how to spot interesting topics, to do interviews, to edit and also how to narrate a programme. Every day they go out on
field assignments to collect new audio material. The topics range from agriculture, health, education, issues around Self Help Groups, events around festivals up to disaster preparedness.
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volunteers. Two third of the committee is represented by women. In addition, an advisory group consists of teachers, health workers, farmers, fishermen, women and children has been set up to advise on content. From the day one the community is involved in the management of the KCMC. The committee members attend regular meetings organised at the centre and approve the content and reviiw the progress. They guide and supervise the works of the coordinator deputed to the centre.
Challenges
Learnings
Organised social infrastructure sets the foundation for setting up and running CMCs. The community organised already around the disaster and livelihoods issues have set a platform for setting up the centre in Nagapattinam. Narrowcasting has several limitations with respect to reach and coverage of listeners. Natural and physical barriers prevent effective dissemination and distort the quality of audio material. Dissemination through tape recorders played during group meetings did not yield good results. Although the community gets an introduction and experience into the new media, only broadcast could be the solution for effective reach and coverage. Getting Government officials for content and programming was not that easy. With inadiquate understanding about this concept they are reluctant to appreciate and participate in the programming.
Children and elders are the potential resources for content generation that needs to be tapped. The responses from these groups were overwhelming for programme production.
Community participation Vs ownership: Since the communities have been accustomed with mainstream media, making them as part of designing and implementing media production becomes challenge. Investing time and energy in educating the members individually and as a smaller group is imperative. Much of the team members time is spent on it. Involving women in the core business of media management, within the male dominated local communities is the other challenge. Women s speaking through the media is always seen as threat within the families as well as in the villages by men. The KCMC has taken efforts to bring more women for the management of the cenre. Two third of the committee has been earmarked for women. Still making women as part of day to day management is a big challenge for the team. Sustainability: Setting up of Community Radio is a capital intensive activity. The setup of Community Radio was possible with the support of UNDP under its Tsunami Restoration initiatives. With the less number of Community Radio Stations run here and there by a few NGOs and lack of proven
models for sustainability, this is an area unexplored fully by the practitioners. The KCR need to face this challenge in the near future.
Community radio broadcast would be especially important in the education and warning roles. But having direct links to the authorities issuing warnings is a big challenge that is an issue that requires special attention.
Way forward The KCMC is working towards setting up systems for disaster mitigation and management. It is involved in the collection and consolidation of indigenous disaster mitigation and management systems being followed by the local communities with native wisdom. Also the Centre is working towards coordinating with authorized agencies of disaster early warning systems to establish institutional linkages. Ensuring community ownership and management is the focal point of all its activities. With the mandate of ensuring major stake and ownership for women the Centre is enabling the women to participate, own and manage the Centre to address various social, economic and development issues concerning them. The Centre is working on achieving financial sustainability in a phased manner. Number of areas and activities has been identified for achieving sustainability such as paid audio video services to the public, various internet based services, producing documentaries for voluntary organizations and educational institutions etc. It would invest substantial amount of energy to build capacity of the community and management team to work for it.
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Perspectives
Advancing Self Help Groups: Pathways M.P. Vasimalai*
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elf Help Groups, real constituency of people, became the vehicle of development process and it provides space for convergence of development programmes. SHGs are becoming effective demand system on the supply system of banking, District Rural Development Agency, Health and Education department and range of service system with the help of enabling system of NGOs and Government policies. Time has come to advance SHGs and pathways are presented below:
1. Practicing Basics: As a first step, SHGs as a primary people institution have to practice 7 S: Shared purpose, Strategies, Structure, Systems, Staff, Style and Schemes. Proper accounting and auditing system is the basics of basic for SHGs. There should be an internal auditing and statutory auditing of accounts of SHGs by the qualified auditor. 2. Ensuring Autonomy, no cooption: Each SHG has to have their own identity and autonomy to pursue their ambition and goals. It should not be totally identified with Government and they are part of the civic society. It is going to be a greater challenge to establish its own identity and autonomy. This second path way is the key to advance SHGs. 3. Viability of SHG operation: SHG as retail microfinance with bank
has to be viable with adequate turnover, cost coverage and to meet its transaction cost. Further it would accumulate reserve for improving the member services. It would be sufficient to have 6 percent spread to meet their cost and to have reasonable reserve for growth and diversification. But the loan outstanding has to be constantly around Rs.2 lakhs per group to generate Rs.12,000 per group to cover their transaction cost including accounts, auditing and to have reasonable surplus. 4. Affordability-Viable interest rate for members: There should not be any flat rate system of interest because it masks the real interest and does not give transparency. Hence the interest rate has to be declining balance and there should be a cap on the interest to the ultimate borrowers by the lending bank. Then only affordability would be ensured and monitored. A member of SHG should
* M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director, DHAN Foundation
not get the interest rate beyond 18 % declining balance with minimum savings interest of 9%. Many of the income generating activities undertaken by SHG members are not yielding more than 24 % rate of return. Hence the interest rate has to be in tune with risks and return of the livelihood activity from poor perspective. 5. Skill building: Few decades of continuous skill building of youth and resident adults is critical for credit absorption. Current skill base of poor is limited to agriculture and livestock. Service sector is emerging as a major activity in Tamil Nadu. Hence members are to be trained to utilize the emerging opportunity of business process outstanding (BPO). Skill building has to be dovetailed with employer of the skill and sustainable functional linkage. Every development block has to have a Community College to build
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training on many aspects-systems, financing, lending and others. 9. Activity Groups: Members doing the same economic activity across different SHGs would be grouped as primary producers and or marketing group to improve the productivity of the activity to generate substantial surplus and to handle market access. Same activity groups would also get federated for inputs and output marketing to get value addition and more benefits for members.
vocational skills on the line of Central GovernmentÂ’s JSS (Jan Sikhsan Sansthan). Atleast 500 persons would be trained every year with the support of Rs.5 lakhs per year. 6. Marketing support: Supporting existing activities would help in integrating the market with local economy. Any new activity would require long term external help to stabilize the local market, then only it would get integrated with local economy. Alliance with business houses is very important to provide marketing support. Substantial allocation should be provided to strengthen existing market infrastructure including weekly village markets and to establish new generation market malls for SHG products. 7. Facilitating Micro Insurance: Though microfinance includes
savings, credit and insurance, micro insurance in not practiced widely in SHGs. To address the issue of vulnerabilities and risks of poor, micro insurance products are vital and to get them out of poverty. Health insurance is emerging as a single dominate product to provide cost effective health services on time. Further, activity insurances are also required to address seasonality and production risks of the livelihood activities. 8. Continuous Capacity Building: SHGs would be given continuous exposure visit to the best performing groups and places to broaden their perspective and to perform better. Every member in a group should go through microfinance literacy so that they are not cheated by anyone. Every member and group would be invested with practical
10. SHG as a Development Institution: Present form of financial perspective of SHG has to transform in to development institution so that they could take-up many more development activities. When SHG perceive it as a development institution, it would unleash a great potential and move forward with many connected activities. But it requires different capacity building and exposure. 11. Partnership: Permanent partnership arrangements have to be made between Government, Banks, NGOs, business houses and SHG, and SHG Federations to advance the concept of SHGs. Explicit partnership arrangement with Banks would enable SHGs to get sustainable bank linkage for livelihood activities. Similarly NGO partnership would also bring social mobilization with federal structure. State Government would facilitate the partnership on a scale with Banks, NGOs and other relevant institutions. Pathways outlined above require operational details and it would get evolved with the partnership. Concrete action plan has to be developed to advance SHGs during XI plan and it has to be continued in XIIth five year plans.
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Interview
Making rainfed farming viable M. Karthikeyan* 1. What is the current situation of rainfed farming in India? There is an increase of gap in productivity between irrigated farming and dry land farming over years due to increased vulnerability to climate factors particularly rainfall. Rainfed farming has become a gamble with monsoon. The State channelises most of its resources meant for agriculture only towards research and extension of irrigated agriculture. Poor or inadequate attention on the research and extension of rainfed farming resulted in decline of farmersÂ’ interest towards rainfed farming. While the prices of inputs are on the increase, the prices of outputs have not increased proportionately, which has made rainfed farming increasingly a non-viable proposition. Ineffective extension mechanism, fragmented nature of extension agencies, lack of demand for the produces of rainfed agriculture due to change in consumption pattern of the average Indian have contributed for its decline. Degradation of lands due to long fallowing, decreasing practice of organic matter application, inadequate private investment, inadequate capacity of farmers to cope up with climate change have forced the rainfed farmers to shift to new crops and varieties in response to climate and market demand. They are unable to sustain their farming with these new crops and varieties which are often unmanageable with their indigenous
expertise that is well tuned for native crops and varieties. 2. In this situation do you think there is any scope for rainfed farming? In the recent past there has been a jump in policy attention given to agriculture sector in general, due to the alarming situation created by its very poor performance and its implication in terms of balanced development of the country. The XI Five Year Plan has a target of 4% agricultural growth. As rainfed farming is the major component of agriculture sector, accommodating nearly 50 percent of the total rural workforce and 60 percent of cattle heads of the country, it is also started getting the policy attention that is due to it. The other reasons for rainfed farming getting increasing policy attention are: 1) the growth of irrigated agriculture has reached a plateau and the ground water sources are dwindling very fast and so enhancing food security of the nation itself would depend a lot on enhancing rainfed farming in the long run and 2) a significant proportion of poor in India fall in this sector and so development of rainfed farming in predominantly rainfed areas of the country is seen as
the route for equitable development and as a solution to the current imbalance in development. The increased policy attention is expressed through substantial State investment in rainfed areas through watershed schemes and creation of National Rainfed Area Authority for promoting rainfed faming livelihoods. There is also widespread awareness about the nutritional qualities of rainfed agriculture produce, particularly among urban population and there by increasing the market demand for the same. 3. In what way Rainfed Farming Development Theme approaches poverty reduction? Have you come out with any model for impacting poverty? The Rainfed Farming Development Theme (RFDT) of DHAN Foundation has evolved six approaches to poverty reduction of
* M. Karthikeyan, Team Leader, Rainfed Farming Development Theme.
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which some of them are specific and some are cross cutting. The first approach is asset development and it involves (i) asset upgradation, like land leveling through which the farmers try to realize the maximum productivity from the small parcel of land they have, (ii) asset creation, like conversion of uncultivable land into cultivable one leading to increase in asset base, (iii) asset protection, like insuring milch animal and (iv) asset restoration, like reinstating the Cynadon dactylon infested land to cultivable status. The second one is reducing vulnerability in the existing livelihood through biological activities, like seed treatment & seed hardening, physical activities, like land leveling & silt application and financial activities, like credit services, livestock insurance, crop insurance and life insurance. The third one is improvement of existing livelihoods, through activities like supplying good seed stock and promoting suitable system of cultivation like Zero Budget Natural Farming and agronomical practices like nutrient spray and earthing–up in groundnut. The fourth one is diversifying livelihoods by diversifying from agriculture to livestock rearing, from annual crops to tree crops, from more water requiring crops to less water requiring crops and from more climate vulnerable crops to less climate vulnerable crops. The fifth one is taking up activities as a package which might bring significant benefits to the livelihood like plantation with farm pond. The final approach is increasing the employment opportunities on temporary and/or permanent basis.
Building Collective Individual Capabilities
and
“Enhancing viability of rainfed farming livelihoods through critical demand based support”. 4. You said microfinance can play a critical role in rainfed farming. Are you seeing this as a promising factor in making rainfed farming profitable and viable? Microfinance (MF) for rainfed farming development is a cross cutting component and it is expected to benefit the theme in at least four ways. Firstly it helps in meeting various general credit needs of rainfed farmers, secondly it serves as an important tool to implement various interventions of the theme like increasing the plough animals, by
meeting the pertinent credit demand, thirdly it also serves as a tool to motivate farmers to undertake new activities to which the farmers are reluctant like insurance. Finally the microfinance provides continuity to groups as many of the rainfed thematic activities are seasonal in nature. Five years of our experience in the theme very much validates these expectations. 5. Insurance industry is gaining momentum in India; do you find enough opportunities emerging for crop insurance, particularly in rainfed farming? The answer is yes and no. In the recent years many private companies have come forward to offer weather insurance and on seeing them Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) also has rolled out weather insurance products. Further AIC has
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also initiated the process of expanding the crop coverage. But the much talked about weather insurance has many problems like basis of risk, high premium, etc. and is in the initial stage of product evolution. It will need a lot of pilots to make it into an effective product. The coverage still remains very meager and supply driven. There is no investment on insurance literacy and without that there is no scope for making crop insurance demand driven. So the farmersÂ’ need for an assured crop insurance product to bail them out during crop failure is still not met adequately. 6. What lessons your team has learnt in enhancing the total factor productivity through experimentation? Learnings are many and I would like to mention a few of them here. Reducing vulnerability to losses is as important as increasing productivity. So risk management is seen as an integral part of all the activities. When cost of cultivation is reduced significantly it would reduce vulnerability and it can happen by using local resources and by owning necessary infrastructure. Rainfed agriculture development needs to be a multi-sectoral activity. There are enormous variations across rainfed theme locations in terms of soils, seasons, cropping pattern, land prices, source of soil moisture, risk taking ability of farmers and infrastructure and so on. So uniform activities across locations are not always possible; but uniform process of implementation is always
possible. Even within the location there is wider variation across families and villages. ‘Casino approach’, in which many activities are made available to members and the necessary ones are chosen by the member family based on their context, is found to be suitable to RFDT. 7. What are the research and development needs in rainfed farming (RF)? There is a dire need to increase the understanding on climate change at local level and its impact on rainfed farming, reducing vulnerability faced by rainfed farmers, increasing the demand for RF products and creating necessary infrastructure like transport and marketing of the RF produces. All these can be possible only when an exclusive focus is given for the research and development. Even when more than half of the net sown area in India is through rainfed farming, only recently the GoI has constituted a National Rainfed Authority. I hope in the coming years
it would focus on all such areas. 8. Can you list out areas in rainfed farming that the Authority should immediately look in to? The National Rainfed Authority should come out with a mission approach, involving all the stakeholders as done in other sectors. It should facilitate shifting from food security focus to livelihood focus in all the pertinent implementing bodies. It can create a favorable market environment for increasing demand for RF products and facilitate better farm gate prices by positioning them well. Large scale promotion of context specific low cost high benefit technologies as a package is the need of the hour to reduce vulnerability of rainfed farming and maximize net returns over short and long term. All these can be possible only when necessary infrastructure are created and the capacities of the rainfed farmers are enhanced to use such infrastructures effectively.
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Dialogue
Future Directions of NGOs and Civil Society The whole scope of voluntary work in India is changing radically in terms of funding patterns and higher levels of professionalism. Civil society is becoming more participatory, on the other hand the weakness is lack of network philosophy, although accepted theoretically, does not seem to have been put into practice; each NGOs seems to work in their area of interest and specialization and mostly in isolation. In this context, the Centre for Policy and Planning of DHAN Foundation has initiated dialogue on the future direction of NGOs and civil societies with practitioners, academicians and donor agencies and hopes to continue such dialogues periodically.
A
ll civil society organisations have inherent core competency and we should appreciate their strengths. Many of them work on a sectoral basis and we should come together functionally and forge an alliance for policy advocacy - says M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of DHAN Foundation in his opening remarks at the brainstorming session organised with NGOs and Civil
Society Organisations in Chennai on November 30, 2007. He further emphasized that there is a pool of high quality human resources available and we need to share human resources and expertise among ourselves. D.K Oza, I.A.S. (retd.) in his opening statement raised an important issue which worries everyone and asked where the civil society organizations are heading? We need strong citizen action and many civil society groups are fairly strong in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Many groups started as a movement but the movements were not transformed into institutions for carrying forward the work efficiently. We need to study them more closely. In many states in India, State Human Rights Commission is practically non– existent. Even if they are present they are not very effective. He further stressed that there is a strong patron–client relationship between the donor and the recipients. This kind of attitude strangles civil society organizations. We need to foster a relationship of partnership between various agencies. There is no equality among the Government and the NGOs. Civil Society is very strong in the U.S. followed by U.K. Though there are many networks but does not seem to work. Many groups have come out with a directory and these needs constant updation. Once in three months we should meet with the Chief Secretary for the general discussions and leads for strong and positive action can emerge from such meetings. Answers for
many social issues can come from the civil society organizations. Networking will be a good mechanism for sharing of ideas between NGOs and civil society groups, he added. A.K. Venkatasubramanian I.A.S (retd.) said there is no accurate data available on the number of NGOs/ civil society organizations operating in the country. It is high time we get a clear picture on this issue. Though there are informal networks available there is an urgent need for the voluntary organizations to be represented at the national level. It is irony that outstanding people do not seem to respect or stand each other. There is an abysmal lack of knowledge though with advanced technology available and knowledge revolution taking place, we some how have not pooled all the resources together for public consumption. If the right questions are asked backed with sound information we can raise the level of thinking among the common man. There is a general lack of apathy all around and we should strive to work for common good. Interest in public affairs is receding. It is generally observed that most public services, which the poor man uses are poor. It is the poor people who use the public utility services and they are put to lot of discomfort. Educated citizens should ensure to make a difference in the society. Knowledge and action should go together. There is a huge potential available in the society in the form of retired Government officials who can contribute to the welfare of the State, we need to exploit their resources in a positive way. Dr. Vaithyanathan, Professor Emeritus, while sharing his view points said tremendous amount of
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information is available and it is waiting to be picked by the right people for sharing. There are many movements being organized by individuals like Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar who are engaging in politics. We should also contribute to their good work. But if we confront the State apparatus we might get squashed. Getting people together for a common cause is very difficult. There has to be openness in experience sharing. Many institutions have gone through crises and come out strong. For example, CAPART is a much better organisation than it was few years back. They have come out with a rating system for NGOs which would facilitate easy funding from the donors. In a country like India there cannot be one single solution which would solve all the problems. A pluralistic society is very much essential to meet the aspiration of the people.
intervention programmes of the State and NGOs need to be studied and analysed.
He stressed on the need for tapping resources for nurturing Civil Society initiatives. Corporates have established corpuses for field action. We need to tap them and use this information and share among NGOs effectively. It is high time we need to develop a mechanism for sharing and retrieving information for common good. Another serious area which needs attention is the NGO State relationship. This does not pertain only to funding of programmes/ projects. We need to negotiate and articulate well with the State machinery. Generally NGOs tend to be defensive when they are questioned; such a kind of mindset should change. We need to study and learn from our shortcoming and mistakes. It does make sense when we learn to share our experiences with others. Academicians should also be involved and we should make our work interesting to them. Many
Dr. Markandan, former Vice Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural University expressed that many of the civil society organisations are selfish to the core, lack transparency and team spirit. They have become coward and do not present the actual facts to the people. They need to be trained and experiences should be shared freely among the NGOs. Traditional marketing concept like the weekly Santhai (shanty) needs to be revived. No doubt many NGOs are involved in health and education programmes and these can be strengthened. People s movement should be revived in a non violent way.
M.P. Vasimalai appreciated the views of the speakers and endorsed the plurality approach and the NGO GO interface. He suggested that we should organise a series of dialogues with various development actors such as Civil Society, Government, Banks, Academics and Business Houses. Education and Responsive Action (EAR) series will lead to shared understanding and collective action with a common agenda, for example, poverty reduction. There are excellent examples of alliances around shared purposes such as INAFI, SA-DHAN. Information, knowledge and wisdom are the pillars of the society. We need to create a climate for making this happen.
The brainstorm session has brought in a number of view points on the future of civil societies. The participants deliberated on the need for educated and committed people to work with NGOs/CSOs. They raised concerns over growing insensitivity on common issues that are affecting
everyone and most of them are self made. They observed that there seems to be more competition than networking among NGOs and stressed on the need for Code of conduct for effective functioning of NGOs. Discussions were also revolved around the role of media. Participants felt that media by and large is not sensitive to issues pertaining to poor people. Need for interface between NGOs and Panchayats were stressed by every one. An idea of identifying 500 Panchayats in Tamil Nadu and initiating action through the elected Panchayat Presidents was mooted, where NGOs can work with these Panchayats on primary education followed by primary health care as an agenda for change. Ultimately the people should be sensitized about their duties and rights that should result in good governance at the grassroots level. The session was concluded with a decision of continuing such dialogues periodically with different stakeholders. NGO representatives from Amar Seva Sangam, Aykudi; Guild of Services, Chennai; Sundaram Medical Foundation, Chennai; DHAN Foundation, Madurai; Banyan, Chennai, Action Aid and department of social work, Loyala College, Chennai participated in the brainstorm session. The Centre for Policy and Planning of DHAN Foundation organised it.
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Visit
Tourism for change K.P. Bharathi*
T
ourism contributes to the income, employment and foreign exchange of the high priority goals of developing countries like India. Tourism is the primary source of foreign exchange earnings in 46 of 49 developing countries and in the last year alone they earned 203 billion USD through tourism. The tourism industry is growing rapidly due to increasing integration of the world s economies and societies and concern for the environment. The tourism sector greatly depends on heritage both man made and natural, culture and legacy of the community that serves as the tourist destination. Within the tourism sector, rural tourism is gaining momentum. Rural tourism aims to promote the salable or appealing aspects of the rural life and heritages with high emphasis on hospitality, which is the soul of the rural culture. DHAN Foundation has taken up rural tourism as a potential activity to generate employment, strengthen local economy, build tourism skills among the rural communities and revive artisanal skills. It works on packaging rural tourism to strengthen livelihoods of the rural poor and named it as Development Tourism. Development Tourism has been promoted with the objectives of
Promoting Indian villages, which have rich cultural, social and historical backgrounds as important tourism destinations
Unleashing the tourism potential of rural villages for the overall development of the community and the village. Increasing the employment and income generation activities in the villages and building requisite infrastructure Attracting international and domestic tourist to have a feel of rural life and ambiance. Creating value for the Indian handicrafts in the global market
South India-Village Immersion Program
Cultural
A development tourism package namely South India-Village Cultural Immersion Program has been designed by the team, which manages Endogenous Tourism Project in DHAN Foundation. This package is a mix of tourism activities and exposure to the best practices in development initiatives. A team of 16 Dutch citizens, including friends of DHAN, the Netherlands was offered a tour package in the second and third weeks of October 2007. The visitors were delighted to get unique cultural experience by way of
Understanding the system of farming, water harvesting and management
Witnessing the traditional performance of folk artistes such as karakattam, mayilattam, poikal kudirai, kummi and kolatam etc
* K.P. Bharathi, Team Leader, Development Tourism Project, Madurai
Tasting ethnic cuisines prepared with minor millets
Purchasing handicrafts such as terracotta, palm products, hand loom materials such as sunkudi and kandangi sarees etc.
Experiencing village environment and household chores
On the first day they were given traditional welcome and briefed about the tour schedule. On the second day they were taken around Madurai the gateway to culture and heritage of southern Tamil Nadu. They were taken to Meenakshi Amman temple, Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal, Pathu thoon (Ten pillars), Vaigai River and many places in and around Madurai. They had an experience of various livelihoods such as cane crushing, rickshaw pulling, paddy nursery making and transplantation. The tourists enjoyed walking on the field bund, and interacted with the people working at the paddy fields and other villagers. They were surprised about their way of living and appreciated the way of transferring traditional knowledge from one generation to the other. Then they visited Vathalagundu, where they interacted with the students studying in the remedial schools run by the federation and visited Karuanai Illam a school for orphans in Nilakottai. Chettinad Culture They were taken to Karaikudi on the third day, where they experienced
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dance, Kummi attam where the women tourists tried with local women. The men tourists joined the Kavadi attam performed by men. Also they tasted the local food. Visitors discussed with Village Coordination Committee members about the rural tourism Women visitors in Chettinad handloom sarees and DHAN s Chettinad heritage and stayed in a collaboration with UNDP, palatial mansion at Kanadukathan. participation of local people. They left They visited endogenous tourism sites for night stay at Kanyakumari. promoted by DHAN Foundation with the support of UNDP. Various features Kanyakumari of Chettinad such as fabulous The visitors were taken to various mansions with unique architecture, decorated teak wood with fine wood places of tourism importance in carving, stone carving, traditional Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari is also a handloom sarees with unique texture, place of Spiritual Tourism because of polished and reflecting walls with egg Vivekananda Kendra a centre with white, brass metal works have vast awesome details about the life of attracted the visitors. They interacted Vivekananda and a place for with the members involved in meditation, Vivekananda Rock handloom saree making right from Memorial, Saint Thiruvalluvar statue dying, weaving and packing for sale, at the confluence of the three great attankudi tiles preparation, making of seas. Sun rise and sun set was a great Chettinad Cuisine, and purchased a feast to the aesthetic senses of the collection of articles. They also had visitors. They also saw a museum with an opportunity of traveling in a bullock cart (Villuvandi), which is specific to the Karaikudi area. Kazhugumalai Then they were taken to the next endogenous tourism site Kazhugumalai on the fourth day. They saw rock cut temple (Vettuvan Temple) and its historic significance. This 8th century Jain s rock carving is also called as South Indian Ellora. They interacted with the communities involved in making palm leaf products. They enjoyed women s folk
a collection of statues of great personalities like Gandhiji, Mother Teresa etc and visited a herbal garden. The visitors enjoyed the rushing waves, and drenched themselves in the joy of getting together with nature. Conservation of Heritage Tanks Tanks in southern Tamil Nadu have thousands of years of heritage.They were built by ancestors, and managed by our forefathers and still serving the present generation. Visitors enjoyed seeing the intelligence and admired the engineering skills of our ancestors and appreciated their vision to conserve water and found means to provide drinking water to the villagers. They witnessed some of the renovation works carried out by the Vayalagams promoted by DHAN Foundation and interacted with the communities. They had an opportunity to see various water storage structures like filter wells, weirs, supply and drainage channels. They walked in the fields of the tank irrigated area. Spice Tourism
Kerala is known as God s own country . Visitors were enjoying these ecstasies for four days. Kerala is a green strip of land, in the South West corner of Indian peninsula. Sprawling mansions set in lovely locales-exotic islands, luxuriant game reserves, hill sides, backwaters, spice gardens with The team encircling the statue of Mother Teresa wide collection of in a museum traditional spices,
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plantations like tea, coffee, rubber, cardamom etc, waterfalls and open grasslands are few of the eye catching features of Kerala. They visited Grambi Tea estate. They purchased a good range of spices to carry back home. The visitors were made to stay (home stay) in homes of spice farmers and they witnessed cultural programmes. They enjoyed the Eco Tourism at Gavi Forest. Cultural programme by both men and women was a feast to the visitors as they displayed a wide range of traditional dances, playing different musical instruments and showed the glimpse of their culture. Tea making Sprawling tea plantations, thick tropical forest teeming with an assortment of wildlife, winding lanes and picturesque towns at an elevation of 1800m above sea level is typical characteristics of Peermade. During the stay the visitors had a closer view of a plantation labourer s life style walking in the tea estates and had
The Team in Tea plantation
experienced the art of plucking tea leaves two leaves and a bud. They traced each and every step of tea making from plucking to packing. They went to Stag brook Estate the only organic tea manufactures managed by Peermade Development Society (PDS). They visualized processes like drying of leaves, crushing, drying, grading and packing of tea. This trip to the tea gardens of Kerala is a lifetime experience through picturesque surroundings, but the most sought-after offering of the estates is the incredibly pure air. Picturesque village of Tamil Nadu On their way back to Madurai, they were taken to view various typical features of a village in Vathalagundu a village house (a hut), milking of a cow, one of the major activity in villages, woman fetching water, life of a flower vendor, shepherd with his goats, the cheapest and environment friendly transport in a bullock cart in the village roads, the art of decorating house yard with colourful rangoli in
the morning. They were taken to fields where paddy harvesting was taking place and they took part in the activities. After spending 15 days of traveling various places and learning different aspects of development and rural tourism, their sojourn ended after a warm wrapping session and they traveled back to their hometown. They carried a bulk of sweet memories and few handicrafts prepared by artisans. To learn more about the programme, contact K.P Bharathi Team Leader Development Tourism DHAN Foundation 18, Pillayar Koil Street S.S. Colony, Madurai 625 016. Tamil Nadu. INDIA Tel: +91- 452-2610794, 2610805 Mobile: 93441 02841 Email: tourism.madurai@gmail.com
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Events
Stand up against poverty
O
ctober 17 is the International day for the eradication of poverty, where people from all around the world come together & re affirm their commitment against poverty and human rights violations and for social justice for all. On 17 October 1987, 100,000 human rights advocates from around the world inaugurated a Commemorative Stone in Paris, France, in honour of the victims of hunger, ignorance and violence. The United Nations recognized October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in 1992. STAND UP and SPEAK OUT to make poverty history The Stand Up Speak Out initiative was planned to coincide with the international day for the eradication of poverty. On this day last year, 23.5 million people stood up against poverty in a 24 hour period setting a new Guinness World Record. This year the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and the United Nations Millennium Campaign have joined together to break the previous record, urging millions more to join this growing global movement and demand their governments to keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to end extreme poverty by 2015. From workers to students, women s groups to community groups, people have called on political leaders to deliver more and better aid to the poorest nations, implement fairer trade conditions, cancel debt, and ensure gender equality as well as
g r e a t e r transparency and . accountability from their governments. S TA N D UP and SPEAK OUT was a worldwide call to take action a g a i n s t poverty and A group of DHAN staff standing up against poverty inequality and during their meeting at Pulloothu, Madurai on October 17, 2007 for achieving and exceeding the MDGs. Seven years have passed for people living in poverty themselves to be able to testify since our leaders committed to reach to their daily efforts to fight the MDGs. Yet, every day, 50,000 poverty and live in dignity; people die as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider. STAND UP and SPEAK OUT proposed
to create a mass movement that has a direct impact on political decision makers so they are held accountable for their commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and to attain the Millennium Development Goals;
to inform people about the Millennium Development Goals and incite them to take concrete actions as citizens and demand that all
governments strengthen their contributions to eradicate extreme poverty;
for all of our voices to be heard around the world, directly to decision makers and through local, national and global media.
Standing up was a symbolic action to show the citizen s support of a speech, person or idea. It was not just an action but a display of solidarity. When millions of people around the world stood up together, it was a demonstration of the power of civil society to organise around a common goal. It showed the strength in our united struggle against poverty and inequality. DHAN Foundation s stand up against poverty DHAN Foundation, which works with a mission of enabling the poor communities for poverty reduction
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and self reliance for more than a decade in India, has joined the global movement of people to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT against Poverty with millions worldwide. In response to the call of the UN Millennium Campaign, DHAN Foundation along with its People Institutions and organizations organised its staff, members of the Peoples Organisations promoted by it, school children and general public to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT against Poverty and for the MDGs on 17th October 2007 from 9.a.m. to 9.p.m at various places across the country. Many of the Kalanjiam Movement leaders in their villages and regions organised the event with Kalanjiam members, school children and general public. Nearly 25,000 members have stood up for the DHAN s stand up against poverty event which included DHAN staff, Kalanjiam members, school children and general public.
Kalanjiam leaders of Ammapettai block, Tanjore district in Tamilnadu stand up against poverty
The events planned by DHAN Foundation in various places were registered online with specific details of the event. The participant who stood up as part of DHAN Foundation s stand up against poverty at various places had a white ribbon/ paper tied in their hands as a collective symbol. The participants during the event have taken pledge to raise their
voices and fight against poverty. All the events organised in various places have been documented and reported online along with photos and videos. The events of DHAN s stand against poverty at different places along with photos and videos can be seen in the official website for stand up speak out www.standagainstpoverty.org.
THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, all member countries, including Canada, signed a Millennium Declaration pledging to do their part to fight extreme poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by 2015. This declaration generated the Millennium Development Goals eight goals placing human well-being and development at the forefront of the global agenda. More specifically, the MDGs seek to: 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2: Achieve universal primary education 3: Promote gender equality and empower women 4: Reduce child mortality 5: Improve maternal health 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7: Ensure environmental sustainability 8: Develop a global partnership for development
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Events
Kalanjiam Movement Day Celebration 2007
O
ver the last decade, the Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme has moved through various phases of organic development. Initially started as a pilot project, and then moved to the status of programme , it has gone through various phases of development and has taken shape of a movement to reach millions of poor in the years to come with larger development agenda. The programme with the momentum gained over the last one decade got transformed into a Movement on November 16, 1998 as a result of the resolutions taken by the 25,000 women at their first meeting at Madurai. Today this movement has reached six thousand villages in 154 blocks spread over eleven states. Kalanjiam Movement has reached about 4.0 lakh poor families living in rural, tribal, urban and coastal areas. These families have been organised into more than 23,000 Kalanjiams. Kalanjiam Movement today spread over 11 states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry, Orissa, Maharasthra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkand and Assam. Kalanjiam Movement is nurtured and supported by DHAN Foundation to address the larger development issues in the society. The objectives of the Kalanjiam Movement are
Pioneering the growth path of the poor women.
Strengthening democracy of people and self management for eradication of poverty.
Promoting women s bank and making it sustainable for governing, relieving the poor from the clutches of money lenders, making the members self employed.
Fostering of humane Kalanjiam Community and inculcation of human values in the poor and abide by the value.
Movement activities The Kalanjiam movement has designed a number of programmes to reinforce the beliefs, values and culture. Programmes of the Kalanjiam Movement include Pidi arisi (fistful of rice), where the members show their concern for the society by way of collecting rice from members families and sharing it with needy, Kalanjia Jyothi, where each member contribute Rs. 11, every year as a gesture of thanks giving to support the promotion of new federations and movement programmes. The members of the Kalanjiam Movement have contributed nearly Rs.50 lakhs over the past nine years to reach out to more poor families. The Kalanjia Jyothi contributions made by the members have been used for the promotion of two federations in Tamilnadu namely Thoppampatti Vattara Kalanjiam in Dindigul district and Thalaivasal North Kalanjia Vattarm in Salem district.
The movement also publishes monthly vernacular newsletter, trains leaders at cluster and federation level on governance and self regulation aspects, builds capacity of field staffs for taking forward the movement activities and programmes to all the members. Movement Day Celebrations 2007 Kalanjiam Movement celebrates its Movement Day on November 16 every year, where the Kalanjiam members express their solidarity, unity, identity and internalize the benefits they got from Kalanjiams in various ways. This year the Movement secretariat prapared & sent celebration kits. Celebration kits sent to all the locations. The kit consist pledges (member s pledge, leader s pledge and movement day pledge), brochures, slogans, materials for signature campaign against usury, Kalanjiam lamp. The movement day was celebrated with great energy and enthusiasm by all the locations. The Movement day celebrations emphasized the basics of Kalanjiams, sharing of benefit realization by all the members of Kalanjiams, raising voices against social issues like money lending (usury), signature campaign for advocacy on usury, etc. Also the movement day was marked by celebration of Kalanjia Pongal and collective worship (Kalanjia Jyothi worship) in villages. The events were also documented&shared online at the www.enablingpovertyreduction.in,
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a new website launched by the Kalanjiam Movement. Highlights of the celebrations 8000Samuhika Deeparadhana programme at Vizag Around 8,000 kalanjiam members of five Kalanjiam federations in vizag region have come together at Indira Priyadarshini Municipal stadium, Vizag to celebrate the Kalanjiam movement day. Central movement leaders along with central movement associates made their presence in the event. Kalanjia jyothi (Villakku Pooja) was organised as part of their celebration. Local bankers, Government officials were also present for that celebration. A press meet was also organised as part of the celebrations at Vizag. Madurai celebration
urban
Padayathra by Kalanjiam members of Pudhur federation, Madurai
regionÂ’s
All the federations in Madurai urban region have organised Padayathra as a part of their movement day celebrations. All the Kalanjiam members took part in the padayathra. The padayathra started at 4 pm on November 16
Members in 8,000 Saamuhika Deeparadhana programme at Vizag
Kalanjia Jyothi worship in Pudur federation
simultaneously at all the clusters in the region. The procession passed through all the streets in the cluster and it was ended up by 6 pm everywhere. Bankers, general public and other Government officials have also participated in the padayathra. Members
raised slogans on safe drinking water, de-addiction, repayment discipline and the issues of usury. Kalanjia Jyothi worship was organized at the end to show their solidarity and unity. To find out more events and celebration across the country with photographs and videos, visit www.enablingpovertyreduction.in
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Update
Nurturing philanthropy for development Philanthropy is not about wealth, it is about sharing. It is a word that is often associated with the rich, but we can change that by making philanthropy a part of our every day lives regardless of the amount of money we have. Philanthropy is the long-term and strategic sharing, while charity is an immediate response of the heart. Both are good, but their investments in the future are very different.
D
HAN Foundation is working on promoting a sharing culture among the poor communities with whom it is working, the general public both in India and abroad, corporates through creating meaningful opportunities and partnerships. The Kalanjiam and Vayalagam members have initiated a Jyothi programme through which they have contributed nearly Rs. 30 lakhs over the past few years to reach out to more poor families in few exclusive locations.
members of the poor communities that DHAN is working with, engaging the general public in development work in a more meaningful way, building corporate partnerships for social development, setting up Friends of DHAN networks in other countries to support DHAN s work in various themes of microfinance, water, information technology, development management education, dry land farming, health etc.
Centre for Facilitating Philanthropy
All can contribute for the development
Encourage raising local resources for local development
Philanthropy for development, not as a charity.
All projects will be aimed at building self reliance and
The Centre for Facilitating Philanthropy has been set up to create meaningful opportunities through systematically sensitizing the social responsiveness among the different stakeholders in the society. The core areas of work for the centre are promoting philanthropy with the
The centre believes
collective efforts of the community and should be sustainable solutions.
Philanthropy need not be only monetary but can be in various forms such as volunteering, giving in kind, and creating access to opportunities and so on.
Accepting philanthropy only from non-political and secular sources.
Valuing and acknowledging each contribution however big or small.
Transparency and accountability for every paisa contributed for development.
The centre focuses on
Facilitating member philanthropy to reach out poor and to address various development issues by themselves including member, cluster and federations.
Fostering corporate partnerships for mobilizing resources both financial and non-financial for development work.
Establishing friends of DHAN forums to aid development work in India in selected countries.
Development education for awareness building and facilitation of contributions for development work by the general public.
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Product development The experience in dealing with donors of various back ground and preferences has made the centre to generate a shelf of projects to provide the donors with options to choose from. Some of the products taken up for development are detailed below. These are not the complete list, it is just a beginning. i) Oorani - This product mainly focuses on ensuring a localized source for safe drinking water in the regions where the ground water is scarce or saline and not suitable for drinking. In such areas, Ooranis are most preferred source of drinking for the villagers. The centre is mobilising funds and the DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation implements the project. Major works undertaken as part of the project are renovation of the existing Oorani or construction of new Ooranis with need based inlet, steps and fencing arrangements. The women and children are most benefited segment of the village population through the intervention. It has saved the women and children traveling miles to fetch water for household. The updates of the Oorani works can be seen in the website http:/ / w w w. d h a n . o rg / o o r a n i s / updates_Nov07.php . ii) Electricity Providing access to electricity opens many avenues of development in the standard of living for a poor family. This facility is most effective as it gives greater scope to address the drudgery of women in managing the household works. In the absence of electricity, a lot of time and energy spent in collection of fuel based energy sources, and the safety and health consequences of it. It not only helps improve the quality of life for the family but also an ambience
for the education of the children. Details of this works are seen at this website - http://www.dhan.org/ electricity/index.php . iii) Farm Pond This product is hosted very recently with the demands from the drought hit areas of south India to stabilize the livelihood of the dry land farmers. This product mainly focuses on providing a localized water source at farm itself to help the farmers to save their crop and reinvent agriculture as a source of livelihood. This helps in generating additional employment to the family, favours crop diversification, improves the values of land and ultimately arresting conversion of agriculture land for urbanization, and small and marginal farmers migrating to the towns and urban centers. iv) Tank Renovation and upkeep of tanks in good condition can restore the livelihood of the village communities and support the water needs of the villages. This product aims at regenerating the village ecosystem through bringing back the scope for agriculture and ultimately the life to the fields. Further the variety of benefits such as water for drinking, bathing, domestic uses, agriculture, etc. and the current demand to save the structures makes the product wiser to host. Updates can be seen in the website http:// w w w. d h a n . o r g / v a y a l a g a m / vayalagam.php v) Community Resource Centre The diversification of services provided by the advanced federations
of thematic people oraganisations emphasizes the need for a community infrastructure at federation level. This is expected to serve various needs of the federation such as hosting the training and capacity building events, establishing collective business units, skill based training cell, for setting up village information centers, etc. This would act as a block level resource hub for the members as well as general public to provide multiple services. vi) Village Information Centers (VICs) Support to strengthen the existing village information centers with necessary infrastructure to make it self sustainable.This product would benefit the village population through creating access to information at their door steps. The project aims to facilitate better education to the students through electronic media, providing computer education to the youth for better employment opportunities, proving awareness on health and HIV AIDS, access to technical expertise resource centers, etc.
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vii) Village Adoption - The need for facilitating a holistic development of a village and the request from donors triggered the interest to launch a product on village adoption. The preparatory works are in progress. Soon this product would be launched. viii) Fellowship for Development Apprentices and Tata Dhan Academy The need for more number of development professionals to work at gross roots and the necessity to upscale the successful models of Kalanjiam and Vayalagam in northern states provide greater space for attract ing and grooming development professionals and make them available for development.
ix) Scholarships and support to schools run by federations The centre is facilitating the external support to the schools and education programme initiates of federations such as SPMS, Tirupati and works on designing a product that provides a variety of options to support the schools and students through cash as well as kind. x) Support to health initiatives of people institutions Our experience shows there is immense need for resources to support secondary and tertiary health care, which is often beyond the capacity of the poor families. The centre is
evolving products for the specific and generic cases of health issues to mobilize resources for diagnosis and treatment. How you can contribute You can involve in this initiative by contributing your ideas, sparing your time for designing and implementing such products, taking these messages to different stakeholders and so on. To know more about the centre and activities write to Ms. B. Raghini & Mr. Kamalakannan by mail at cfpdhan@gmail.com.
Field Notes
Introducing Azolla as Cattle Feed Dr. Thirugnanam*
A
zolla is a floating fern and belongs to family of Azollaceae. The fern Azolla, hosts a symbiotic blue green algae Anabaena azollae. Azolla is very rich in protein, essential amino acids, vitamins (Vitamin A, Vitamin B 12, Beta Carotene), growth intermediaries and minerals like calcium, phosphorous, potassium, ferrous, copper, magnesium, etc. Azolla on a dry weight basis is constituted of 25-35% protein content, 10-15% mineral content and 7-10% a combination of amino acid, bio-active substance, vitamins and bio-polymers. Thus the bio composition of Azolla, makes it one of the most economic and efficient feed substitute for livestock. Moreover Azolla can be easily digested by livestock, owing to its high protein and low lignin content. Azolla is in general recommended for
milch animals and birds. Feeding Azolla to poultry birds improves the weight of the broiler chicken and increases the egg production of layers. Azolla can also be fed to sheep, goat, pig and rabbit as feed substitute. In China, cultivation of Azolla along with fish is said to have increased the rice production by 20 % and fish production by 30%. Azolla is a natural feed with high nutritional value and amenable for cultivation at a low cost hence it was introduced as a cattle feed in Rainfed theme, Nattarampalli, particularly for milch animals. Azolla is in general recommended as a feed substitute for green fodder. As Nattarampalli farmers are facing severe green fodder shortage particularly during summer, it was thought that Azolla would mitigate this problem to a significant extent.
It was introduced in December 2005, with the technical help of Guru Samraj Trust among few members in Topulagunda Watershed Association (WA). Later, on seeing the utility, it was taken as a regular activity under Livestock Development component in all ten WAs. NARDEP method, a low cost method of small scale Azolla cultivation developed by Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, was followed. NARDEP Method of Azolla cultivation Natural Resources Development Project (NARDEP) has been working on Azolla for the past 8- 9 years, finding its potential as a feed substitute and exploring cost effective methods for the mass multiplication of Azolla in farmers homesteads. In this method, an artificial water body is made, preferably under the shade
* The author is a veterinary doctor working with Rainfed Theme, DHAN Foundation, Vellore.
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of a tree, with the help of a silpauline sheet. A pit of the size of 2m x 1m x 0.2m is made by use of bricks. This pit is covered with plastic gunnies to prevent the roots of the nearby trees piercing the silpauline sheet, which is spread over the plastic gunnies. About 10-15 kg of sieved fertile soil, preferably red soil, is uniformly spread over the silpauline sheet. Slurry made of 2 kg cow dung & 30 gms of super phosphate in 10 liters of water, is poured onto the sheet. More water is poured to make the water level reach about 10 cm. About 500 gms to 1 kg of fresh and pure culture of Azolla is inoculated in the pit. Azolla will rapidly grow and fill the pit with in 10-15 days and about 500 to 600 gms of Azolla can be harvested daily there after. Maintenance The Azolla pit needs to be stirred once in a day with a stick. A water level of 10 cm should be maintained. Slurry made of half kg fresh cow dung and 10 gms super phosphate in water should be poured in the pit once in five days. Every 10 days one third of the water should be replaced with fresh water. Every month one third of the soil should be replaced with fertile soil. The whole bed need to be removed and made anew every six months. If disease incidence is noticed, then also whole bed to be removed and made anew. Azolla should be removed every day without fail to prevent overcrowding and to prevent the fern to enter into reproductive phase. Harvested Azolla should be cleaned well to remove the cow dung odour, to make it palatable to milch animals. About 1-2 kg of Azolla can be fed every day to milch animal after mixing it with concentrate feed. About 200
gms of Azolla can be fed to sheep, goat and pig. Process followed After it was decided to introduce this activity in all watersheds, specific skill building training was given to all associates. One training per watershed was given to farmers on NARDEP method of Azolla cultivation. Demand generation was taken up in group and EC meetings. Collective purchase of silpauline and other inputs was taken up. A product was rolled out with the support of Restructured NWDPRA scheme, in which the member shared 60 % of the cost while the WA shared 40 %. One Azolla unit per each milch animal was promoted and a member was supported upto two units. Farmers found this method of Azolla production easier to adopt due to its low cost and they have started improvising the shape based on their requirement. So far 215 Azolla cultivation units were initiated among 205 members using the support of Restructured NWDPRA. Cost of Azolla production (1 year) Costs: Cost of silpauline sheet (2.5m x 1.5m)
100
Super phosphate
6
Azolla seed
5
Bricks
35
Miscellaneous expenses 4 Total cost per bed
150*
Production Normal production of Azolla per day 500 gm/unit
For one year (500 gm x 365 days) 182.5kg; Approx. 175 kg Cost of 1kg Azolla production (Rs.150 / 175 kg) Rs. 0.86 Benefits Value of increased milk yield @ Rs.10/ litre for half litre Rs.5 Value of increased quality of milk @ Rs.0.5 per litre/10 litres/ day Rs.5 Total benefit per bed/ day Rs.10 Pay back period for one Azolla bed
15 days.
* The total cost do not include value of family labour, cow dung and plastic gunnies. General Impact of Azolla on Milch animal Members who were using around 1kg of Azolla, in addition to concentrate feed benefited by increase in milk yield by about ½ liter per day and also increase in quality of milk in the way of increase in SNF & fat
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content. This was reflected in improved lactometer reading. Though it is generally recommended as substitute for green fodder its impact is equal to that of concentrate feed. Also the health condition of cow improved as reflected in the increase in the shine of the skin. Some members also benefited in terms of reduction of infertility (Repeat breeder) problem in their cows by using Azolla. The above mentioned benefits realized by the members of Rainfed theme, Nattarampalli are in line with the benefits found in the trials made under NARDEP by Vivekananda Kendra. It was found that feeding not only results in short
not be seen as one time activity for the staffs, as is done now and should be seen as an activity requiring specific follow up. The field associates should take ensuring proper maintenance including routine practices like, application of cow dung, super phosphate and replacing of water and soil by farmers as one of their regular activity, at least for some time to come. Further going for other materials, instead of silpauline, with longer life need to be explored to avoid the current problem of frequent tearing of silpauline. It was also planned to introduce the practice of feeding Azolla to sheep & goat among farmers and to study its impact.
term gain of either increased milk yield or reduced cost of feed, it also improved the general health of the animal as reflected in reduction in infertility. So Azolla can be used either as feed substitute or as a supplementary feed. On seeing the benefits in Nattarampalli, the teams of Rainfed theme locations in Thirumangalam and Vedaranyam also have started propagating Azolla production in their place. The major issues faced in this activity are poor maintenance and discontinuity in usage of Azolla, the sheet gets damaged every time. So it was decided that this activity should
Practitioner s Diary
Financial and accounts literacy M. Manjamma Devi* I have made an attempt to understand the meaning and functions of financial literacy, which is spoken everywhere, particularly in the context of SHGs through an exercise with a members of our Kalanjiam groups. With the guidance from some of my senior colleagues I have designed modules of financial and accounts literacy. This exercise needs a lot of refinements and adaptations to make it a package for replicating it. I am sharing some of my preliminary experiences gained out of this exercise for your reflection.
especially rewards and risks in order to make informed choices. It can provide individuals with basic tools for budgeting; help them to acquire the discipline to save. The poor save for a variety of reasons. Risk management is one of them. The risks are temporary risks, permanent risks like life cycle risks, structural risks and crisis risks.
Importance of Financial Education Financial education aims at building capacity of a person to understand the financial products,
Crisis risks require products that are liquid and easily available. The savings at home, loans from moneylenders and emergency loans from Self Help Groups (SHGs) are most frequently used in overcoming crisis risks. Life cycle risks need large lump sum money within a short notice. Regular savings help in building
large sums, are often useful in dealing with such risks.
The structural risks are long-term in nature and are difficult to manage. Moneylenders provide loans during a job loss or other long-term losses. But, they look for assets to be pawned and ultimately the regular consumption needs have to be cut down, children have to be withdrawn from the schools or they have to migrate to other areas in search of employment.
Therefore, credit and savings are equally important and one cannot survive without the presence of the other. Poor families need finance for their consumption as well as
* M. Manjamma Devi is working as Programme Manager in the Vayalagam Tankfed Agriculture Development Programme at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu.
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production needs, which vary like short-term, medium-term and longterm needs. Needs of the poor families change according to the life cycle of the family for various purposes such as starting a business, educating children, repairing house, expanding business, repaying old debts and preparing for sickness, unexpected calamities and old age. Such capacitybuilding would support them to understand and take control of their options. Early financial literacy is the best way to prevent financially negative consequences. There are many risks to be managed for the poor communities. Their vulnerabilities place them in exploitative system of being victimized by moneylenders. Their irregular cash flow puts them in highrisk zone. Though they are illiterate, they deal with money day in and out to meet their needs. Many of them are spending most of the time in meeting ends and not having time to plan their life especially on financial matters, as they are not aware of the products, services and investment options in front of them. Hence the financial literacy to individual is essential to make better choices in decision making.
Subsistence (S2) and one was self Employed (S3). The families were again classified into five types according to the stage of the life cycle and presence of earners and dependents. They were made to discuss among themselves about their aspirations, status and needs for development.
H1 type families with husband and wife, who will have less expenditure owing to fewer members. Hence they can save more. There were no H1 in our selected group of people.
H2 type families with husband, wife and children, who will have more expenses owing to children especially educational expenses, medical expenses, and miscellaneous expenses like purchasing eatables to them. Hence saving will be less and require financial counseling to manage the situation in an effective way with the available resources. There were 14 members in this category.
Financial Literacy an experience Three groups in Villianur cluster of Puduvai Vattara Kalanjiam in Puducherry were taken for the study, and 25 members were followed continuously for four months. Monthly meetings were used as platform for providing the financial literacy. The selected 25 members were categorized into three groups according to their livelihoods status 8 were in survival (S1), 16 were in
H3 type family will be a women headed family with children where the burden of the entire family shouldered by the women. She has to manage both the family needs and take care of the children s special needs. The women are forced to earn more by doing more works. They need a different kind of financial counseling to help them to save even in the economically difficult situations. There were two such families. H4 type families with husband, wife and grown up son / daughter
due to the presence of matured sons and daughters, they are not increasing number of dependents instead they are more hands to earn. So the income to the family would ultimately increase. But this type of family should save more by spending only the needed amount of money. As the sons and daughters are grown up, they will be ready for marriage in a shorter period. Social obligations would be very high. Hence financial counseling to them should be given to save when there is more income and plan for the future accordingly. Six families belonged to this category.
H5 type families with husband, wife, children and parents the availability of parents in the family would increase the expenses like medical expenses and social obligations. These families should forecast the expense and save in advance. Only three families belonged to this type.
Design Accounts and financial literacy programme was designed according to the demand raised by the members. A questionnaire was prepared for financial and accounts literacy to understand the economic behaviour of the selected families before and after the exercise. A dhobi list was prepared and the income and expenditure were recorded in different income and expenditure line items on daily basis and the data was entered into the computer. This was done for 31 days in the month of July
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2007. Based on the income and expenditure observed in the month, financial counseling was given to each member. Suggestions were given to the individuals to plan the expenses to reduce unnecessary expenses, save for the future and unexpected events, increase the special savings, plan the family expenditure according to the income of the family, save for future life of the small children as most of the members have small children, reduce outside loans (Thandal) at exorbitant rate of interest to come out of the debt trap, social obligation was found to be very high for five members, they were advised to look at this. Outcome Due to the counseling given at the month of July, 15 out of 25 members have reduced their unnecessary expenses. Some have saved higher than before, some have repaid the loans. The overall financial performance of the members has improved. The members saved Rs. 3,843 in the month of July, and in the August there was an increased saving amount Rs.4,328 an increase of Rs.485. Follow up counseling Based on the July month experience, they were asked to prepare budget for the month of August. Again income and expenditure were recorded on daily basis. Then the budget and actual expenditure were compared to find out the variance, based on which they were counseled. On seeing the expenses of two months, it was found
that expenses for social obligations were too high for few families. As expenditure on non vegetarian foods was found to be high for few members, it was suggested to spend wisely and optimally on non vegetarian food to maintain good health. They were advised to repay the outside debts regularly and completely repay them as soon as possible.
management, insurance, making financial plan etc. Simultaneously accounts literacy modules were conducted to 193 Kalanjiam members from 12 groups in Villianur cluster. This was done simultaneously as part of financial education and financial counseling to the selected members.
They enlisted their goals and dreams and prioritised based on the available sources of income and expenditure. They were asked to record and monitor their financial planning and management in the worksheets prepared and given to them in a pictorial and easy to understand formats. These worksheets focused on
At the end of the exercise there was a feedback session organised with all the members. Everyone involved in the exercise felt happy about the improvement that they could see in their ability to handle resources well in their families. They said that they have gained knowledge to manage their money productively, learnt the importance of financial planning, and recognized the life cycle financial needs and how to manage them with the help of Kalanjiams. It was evident in the very next month of the first counseling in terms of increase in the rate savings in the groups. In addition the groups have gained better knowledge on accounts and book keeping.
Money Management: How to proactively manage money, planning for future events according to their goals/ dreams.
Savings and investments - How to save regularly and safely
Borrowing and loan management to avoid indebtedness
Insurance and risk management.
Financial plan for lifecycle event
Followed by this they were asked to prepare a quarterly budget for their family. This exercise helped them to understand the pattern of income and expenditure themselves. This has helped them to save for their future if they get extra money and manage the situation rationally if they run short of money. On the fourth month classes were taken on cash flow management, savings and investments, planning for future events, borrowing and loan
Feedback & way forward
The nature of participants may be highly heterogeneous ranging from illiterates to moderately educated people. Hence suitable Information and Education Communication (IEC) materials can be prepared and used which should be tailor made to suit the various contexts. Also similar exercise can be conducted in various contexts and modules can be developed accordingly. Those who are interested to know about this exercise and want to see the primary data, feel free to contact me or the Centre for Development Communication.