annual report 2008 for aga khan rural support (india)

A n n u A l r e P o r t 2 0 0 8

programme areas of aKrsp (IndIa)

gujaratBharuch, Surat, Narmada and Tapi districts are some of the poorest areas in the state of Gujarat. A very poor tribal community lives on undulating and degraded land that was once heavily forested.

Junagadh district on coastal Kathiawar peninsula faces a problem of salinity due to over-exploitation of groundwater.

Surendranagar district is one of the most drought-prone districts of Gujarat. Most of the villages in this district face an acute scarcity of water.

madhya pradeshKhandwa, Barwani, Burhanpur, Khargone and Sehore districts in Madhya Pradesh are home to marginalised tribal populations who live in poverty despite the rich natural resource base.

BIharMuzaffarpur and Samastipur districts in north-central Bihar are low in Human Development Indices (HDI), have very low literacy rates and migration to the neighbouring cities is very common.

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• PatnarAjAsthAn

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foreword

The year 2008 has been condemned enough by the media (‘worst year in Indian history’, external terror, collapsing economy and so on). So let me dwell less on the ‘reasons for despair’. There were many reasons to hope, the Forest Bill (The Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers – Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 finally acquired teeth and was operationalised, new common guidelines for watershed programme were finalized, and better governance (rather than caste/religion) became the key issue for voters in all state elections. While new policies and programmes will take time in reaching far-flung villages; the fact that all citizens, rural and urban, are demanding more accountability from the Government will definitely improve governance in the coming days.

For AKRSP (India), it was a year of reflection and consolidation. New initiatives of 2007 were consolidated. Work in Bihar has taken off – with a small 13 member team at Pusa and a smaller team at Muzzafarpur. Bihar also saw AKRSP (India)’s first foray into primary education as work on Learning Centres commenced.

Internal and external reviews of our work provided much to reflect on, processes were initiated to plan ahead for the next 3-5 years as AKRSP (India) spreads geographically and adds new programmes in order to provide more options for rural communities.

At AKRSP (India), we have always put the communities at the centre and designed projects to suit their needs. Hence this year, we have reported our annual progress with its focus on the communities we work with. Let me also take this opportunity to acknowledge our debt to our donors, the government agencies in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar and the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).

This year we lost another stalwart, my predecessor, Barry Underwood, who was a mentor and friend to all of us at AKRSP (India). Barry, who had gone to stay in Australia after spending 35 years in India, expired on 24th August, 2008, after a brief illness. Barry, during his 7 years at AKRSP (India), made it a more gender sensitive and decentralized organization. In addition, Barry was a noted theatre person and a tribal activist who influenced many activists and development workers in Gujarat. We will all miss Barry.

Apoorva Ozachief executive officer

04 in memoriam

06 statistical abstract

08 the year gone by

12 state reports

FiELd iMPLEMEnTaTiOn

18 Helping Communities Cope with Drought

24 Empowering Tribal Communities

32 Working with Communities facing Groundwater Depletion

36 Promoting harmony between communities and conservation

40 Motivating Rural Women for Collective Action

nEw iniTiaTivEs

44 Enabling farmers to leverage commodity exchanges

46 Partnering with panchayats in NREGA

48 Generating employment for rural youth

50 Reaching Out

54 Financial summary

55 About AKRSP (India)

annEXUREs

board of directors

staff list

our partners

addresses

COnTEnTs

A n n u A l r e P o r t 2 0 0 8

4: AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

Sorry to learn about the sad demise of our dear Barrybhai. The memory of the farewell function that AKRSP (India) arranged in his honour is still fresh in my mind. We shall always remember him for his love for Gujarat’s poor, particularly the adivasis whom he served with total devotion. I had the good fortune of knowing him for many years and later serve on the AKRSP (India) board during his time. He was unique in some ways, a rare personality to find amongst foreigners who have served India.

Ela R Bhatt, Director, AKRSP (India)

Following the recent news of the death of Anilbhai and Kamlaji, these are sad times for everyone associated with AKRSP (India). It is also a moment to salute their great achievements and take their examples as an inspiration. Barry Underwood was one of the main architects and innovators of AKRSP (India). He brought a sense of ‘fair play’, caring and a tremendous commitment to the people of Gujarat living in rural areas. He will be truly missed.

Nick McKinlay

We at CHETNA wish to share our deep feeling of loss with his family in Australia as well as his adopted family in Gujarat, which he made his field of interest for the last so many years. His passing away will be a great loss to the underprivileged and marginalized people of Gujarat.

Indu Capoor and CHETNA Team

His sad demise has surely created a big loss to all of us who knew him as a dedicated development activist, whose priorities were always the concerns of the most vulnerable communities. He will always live in the minds of Utthan team members and fondly remembered through his contributions to our organisational development.

Nafisa Barot, UTTHAN

I met Barry at Action Aid in 1992 soon after I joined Hivos. We worked together on the growing problems of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. He had a serious and unflinching commitment to development issues, especially for those who could get no succour in a world which is increasingly getting more hostile and distant from the problems of those vulnerable and condemned to poverty and discrimination. Barry supported me in my efforts and encouraged me to come to grips with development concerns in their widest and truest sense.

Dr Shobha Raghuram, Independent Researcher

In Memory of Barry Underwood – Former CEO, actor and activist

:�AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

Having worked closely with him and taking over Oxfam’s West India operations got me to know him even better. He was such a kind soul to everybody. He will be missed thoroughly by the development community.

Mathew Cherian, HelpAge India

Barry has left an incredible example of passion, commitment and desire to bring about change which will inspire all of us as the new generation of development workers. We are proud to be part of the Oxfam legacy that he was once in the forefront of.

Anand and team members in India and West India at Oxfam GB

I knew Barry as a colleague in ActionAid, where his contributions to development thinking and especially on gender issues were deeply appreciated. Later, when I joined Plan and Barry was the CEO of AKRSP (India), I had approached him for conducting a gender sensitisation programme for Plan India staff - which he did, and did extremely well, which was the first time a gender sensitisation programme was being conducted in Plan. That left a deep impact on a number of colleagues and Plan’s programme work. I was in touch with Barry intermittently till the end of his term as the CEO of AKRSP (India) and was also impressed by his sincerity, enthusiasm and deep insights on development issues, and the immense changes he brought about in AKRSP (India)’s work culture and programme perspectives.

Girish Menon

I had an opportunity to work under his leadership which influenced me a lot in my personal as well social life. I am left with great impression about his commitment for gender equality and his belief in the decentralization of decision making. I can say that he was the person who made each of us sensitive to the concept of gender equality and got it embedded so deeply that it started to reflect in all our activities, from organizational to personal family matters. Now he is not with us but his ideology is still with us to for guidance and direction.

Dinesh Moghariya

I consider myself fortunate for having got an opportunity to be associated with Barry closely as he was a person of a combination of many rare qualities - intelligence, integrity, dignity, commitment, affection and over all, love and concern for others. As time passed, he became my mentor, guide - from whom I learnt a lot about the values of life. He was a very affectionate person who cared for everyone and stood by people in times of need. He was one of the few best human beings I have come across in life whom I will miss always. He was a man who loved life, loved socializing, loved nature, loved India, and above all loved and lived for the people of Gujarat.

Leela Nair, AKRSP (India)


Details Achievement in 2008 Cumulative till 2008

1. coverage Villages Covered 146 villages 1,002 villages

Households Covered 11,286 hhs 95,515 hhs

Village Institutions functioning 486 VIs 2,726 VIs

Women’s Village Institutions functioning 261 VIs 1,509 VIs

Total Membership in Village Institutions 5,5o7 56,712

Membership of women in village institutions 2,747 28,675

2. enhancing agricultural productivity and income a) Private Land Development

Soil and water conservation 1,064 hac. 38,792 hac.

Farm Forestry 1,298 hhs 8,602 hhs

Agro Forestry (Horticulture) 1,227 hhs 9,964 hhs

Group Wells (Homestead Land Development) 18 wells 204 wells

b) Water Management (Surface Irrigation & Groundwater Recharge)

Canal Irrigation 12 43

Lift Irrigation (pumps & motors) 67 215

Check Dams and Irrigation Tanks 50 1,005

Water use efficiency devices 888 8,926

c) Micro finance and Agriculture Marketing

Savings Rs 88,62,000 Rs 926,65,000

Credit disbursed Rs 219,67,000 Rs 483,05,000

Agricultural inputs supply 1,739 hhs 8,136 hhs

Agricultural equipment supply 439 hhs 2,280 hhs

3. common land development and management Wasteland Development / Fodder Development 43 hac. 6,226 hac.

Joint Forest Management - 75 Villages

4. enhancing income from off farm activities a) Micro Enterprise Development (including organic compost) 487 hhs 2,865 hhs

b) Animal Husbandry

Milch Cattle 596 hhs 2,014 hhs

Goatery / Goat Milk Producers - 130 hhs

�. non farm livelihood

Skill based 111 311

Trade/Product based 92 181 Nos

6. drudgery reduction Alternative Energy (Biogas Plants/Solar Cooker/Wind mill) 738 13,025

Roof Rain Water Harvesting Structures 1,576 7,968

Drinking Water Schemes 7 98

Hand Pumps Installed / Repaired 144 1,478

Percolation cum Drinking Well 36 204

stAtisticAl overview: 2008


AKRSP (India)’s development approach has two main goals. They are, organising people for collective action, and addressing rural inequities. Keeping these goals in mind, it undertakes the following interventions and activities:

alternate energy • Biogas • windmills

savings and Credit groups• self help groups

alternate livelihoods for the poorest• Animal husbandry• Petty trade• Bamboo crafts• vocational training• organic compost

agriculture• organic farming• horticulture• wadi programme• input supply• system of rice

intensification (sri)• experiments with salinity

resistant crops• vermicompost• linkages with multi

commodity exchange (mcx)

• crop Protection tower• group wire fencing

forestry • joint forest management• farm forestry

Water resource management• canal irrigation• lift irrigation• checkdams and

irrigation tanks• group wells• drip systems• sprinkler systems• Participatory irrigation

management • river Basin management• farm Ponds• Boribandhs• gabions

soil and Water Conservation • land levelling• contour Bunding• deep Ploughing

Computer training• community-Based

technology learning centres

non-formal education• learning centres

training Centres• dr kamla chowdhry

community training and learning centre

• Anil c shah tribal livelihoods resource centre

research and Communication • studies on field

implementation• outreach Activities

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Savings and Credit Groups

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Forestry

Water Resource ManagementSoil and Water

Conservation

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Non-formal Education

Training Centres

Research and Communication

Agriculture

AkrsP (indiA)’s develoPment APProAch

AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

the yeAr gone By

The 23rd year of AKRSP (India) was also the seventh year of the 10-year-long SCALE (Sustainable Community-based Approaches to Livelihood Enhancement) project. This year, the focus was on reviewing our work and planning for the future. This was the year when working in Bihar became a reality as a small team of 13 staff set up office in Pusa at Samastipur district and started working in four panchayats.

The year marked the beginning of the end of the SCALE project. Hence, AKRSP (India) had intensive workshops on planning for the remaining years and formulating the exit strategy. A strategic reflection workshop was conducted based on which separate workshops were carried out with the field staff and the communities.

AKRSP (India) paid tribute to two of its visionary leaders by dedicating the two training centres to their memory. Hence, the training centre at Sayla was dedicated to the memory of the late Dr Kamla Chowdhry and renamed as Dr Kamla Chowdhry Community Training and Learning Centre. The training centre at Netrang was dedicated to the memory of the late Anil C Shah and was renamed as Anil C Shah Tribal Livelihoods and Resource Centre.

This year also saw the demise of Barry Underwood, the former Chief Executive Officer of AKRSP (India), who passed away in Australia.

AKRSP (India) underwent two major programmatic reviews this year. In August, an external consultant, Dale Posgate, reviewed the field implementation component of the SCALE project. This was an internal review that was aimed at bringing about better understanding about the project activities carried out in the field.

The Mid Term Evaluation of the SCALE project funded by the European Commission was also scheduled in this year. Hence, a three-member evaluation team visited AKRSP (India) in November. The team visited all the four programme areas and also met the outreach partners of the project to get a holistic idea about the project and its activities.

community training and learning centresThis programme expanded substantially, with the sub-centre approach allowing AKRSP (India) to reach the interior villages and communities. More than 4000 villagers were trained and the placement component was strengthened. Around 250 people got placed with well-known companies and MoUs were signed with nearby industrial estates (Ankleshwar, Rajkot and so on) and companies. The project also got nominated for the Manthan Awards, 2008.

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moBIlIsIng CommunItIes

n 2008, 473 new village organisations were formed. Out of these, 303 were in Gujarat and 170 were in Madhya Pradesh. The apex institutions continued their work of capacity building of the member village institutions and micro plan preparation. Sustainability of these institutions was addressed though trainings on accounts management and training them on making business plans.

progress In madhya pradesh

AKRSP (India) initiated work in 25 new villages this year, largely in collaboration with the Government for implementing the National Rural Employment Guar-antee Scheme for watershed development. The work in Barwani was scaled down and the revival of the traditional ‘pat’ irrigation system was a success here. In natural resource management, boribandhs were a major success.

Collective input supply was another intervention with a major impact as farmers pooled their savings and bought high quality agricultural inputs from reputed companies at Indore, bypassing the local traders cartel.

Women continued to be active members of the village institutions.


progress In BIhar

AKRSP (India) strengthened its activities in Pusa in Bihar. It expanded its work to Muzaffarpur district and set up its second office there. New staff was recruited for the Pusa and Muzaffarpur offices and training them and exposing them to the work in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh was the major activity in 2008.

In Bihar, a typical village is fairly large (4000-8000 people) and divided into tolas. AKRSP (India) is active is about 20 tolas and formed 12 women’s savings groups. Extensive meetings were conducted with the villagers and work on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Learning Resource Centres for primary school children was initiated. Around 15 local youth were sent for training to Bodh Siksha Samiti to become teachers at the resource centres where school children and drop-outs will get additional learning.

The AKRSP (India) team in front of their office at Pusa, Bihar.

:11AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

outreaCh

The services unit of AKRSP (India) continued to conduct trainings for the communities and the staff of various NGOs, government agencies and banks. In 2008, AKRSP (India) Services conducted a total of 220 trainings which reached out to 7519 people.

The community radio programme was relaunched in June, 2008. The programme format was changed based on an audience survey conducted in the target villages. Also, 20 listeners’ clubs were formed who listen to the programme every week and give back their feedback and suggestions.

major polICy Changes

Tribal regions received a major boost with the operationalisation of the Forest Act wherein tribal communities’ traditional rights over forest land were recognised after years of struggle. In addition, the Right to Information (RTI) Act became better known and used by rural communities. The new Common Watershed Guidelines was developed this year and the role of AKRSP (India) in developing this guideline was acknowledged.

On behalf of AKRSP (India) team, staff member Shailja Kishore received the certificate of appreciation for promoting community awareness and establishing world class laboratory community-based water quality management from Magsasay Award winner Rajendra Singh (left).


stAte rePort: gujarat

About GujaratThe state of Gujarat in the western region of India has two deserts and a 1600 km-long coastline, which is the longest in the country. There are 26 districts and 226 talukas with a total population of 5.06 crore. One of the most industrialised states of India, Gujarat has pockets of poverty and faces environmental degradation with decreasing groundwater, depleting forest cover and poor water quality.

AKRSP (India) in GujaratAKRSP (India) started its field operations in the state of Gujarat in 1985. Currently, it implements its field activities in six districts, namely, Surendranagar, Bharuch, Tapi, Narmada, Surat and Junagadh. AKRSP (India) has offices in 24 locations which includes field offices and liasioning offices.

In 2008, 303 village institutions were formed in Gujarat, out of which 152 were women’s groups. These groups largely focussed their efforts on enhancing savings and credit, reducing drudgery and providing access to drinking water through roof rainwater harvesting structures and water supply schemes. Some of them are also involved in revenue generating activities like agricultural tools library in Netrang programme area.

AKRSP (India) also started working with the Saathni farmers in Surendranagar district. The Government of Gujarat had distributed land to the landless farmers of Gujarat. AKRSP (India) is now working to enhance the quality of land through soil and water conservation. This year, 43 farmers have benefited from these activities. The other initiatives of AKRSP (India) which included helping people manage water for agricultural purposes, provision of drinking water and providing alternative livelihood options were taken ahead.

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In Netrang programme area, AKRSP (India)’s work with the Kotwaliya tribe, a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) continued. New livelihood projects aimed at enhancing incomes of the Kotwaliyas living in Surat and Narmada districts were implemented.

In Gadu programme area, communities affected by salinity ingress, depleting ground water sources and the Gir national park and sanctuary were the main beneficiaries. The setting up of five Village Resource Centres have helped the communities living in the periphery of the Gir forest access information about cattle feed price, maintain an agricultural tools library and access information regarding animal husbandry, agriculture and government schemes.

Through the network of Computerji centres and sub-centres, AKRSP (India) has encouraged rural women to learn computers.

In order to address the problem of depleting ground water sources, AKRSP (India) planned to take up Netravati Stream Treatment based on the recommendations of the study undertaken by Arid Community Technology (ACT), Bhuj. After the success of the Meghal River Basin Management, AKRSP (India) decided to work on the Noli river basin.

The Computerji centres expanded into remote rural areas by setting up 34 sub-centres. By the end of 2008, a total of 24,428 people had visited the centres for accessing information and 5,591 people were trained on computer skills in all three programme areas of Gujarat.


stAte rePort: madhya pradesh

About Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh is often called “the Heart of India” and is located at the geographic centre of the country. The expansion of AKRSP (India) from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh has been a strategic choice. Madhya Pradesh is a state with a large number of poor people and lags behind in many development indicators. A predominantly agricultural state, it offers opportunities for AKRSP (India) to apply its learnings from Gujarat in a new socio-economic environment and collaborate with the government and NGOs there.

AKRSP (India) in KhandwaIn Khandwa too, AKRSP (India) works with village organizations with special focus on women’s groups and the interventions are planned as a package to ensure the overall increase in the livelihood of the beneficiaries. AKRSP (India) is also collaborating with the government for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project (MPRLP) in three blocks.

In the Khandwa programme area, AKRSP (India) has been working with the tribal communities of Bhil, Korku, Bhilala and Barela. The key focus areas in terms of activities have been watershed development, participatory irrigation management, promoting savings and credit groups and setting up Computerji Centres.

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AKRSP (India) has been working to link communities with the government in Madhya Pradesh. It has been appointed as the lead partner of DRDA in three districts. It has also extended its services by evaluating the watershed programme undertaken in the region.

Promoting community institutions is the core strategy behind all of AKRSP (India)’s work which was done by facilitating the formation of 96 Self Help Groups. AKRSP (India) continuously strives to link the communities with the government, banks and other donors.

Biogas plants have gained immense popularity in Khandwa programme area as both men and women have started enjoying cooking in smokeless kitchens.

The people in Khandwa programme area have shown great interest in the Computerji project. In 2008, around 533 people got trained in computer skills and 994 accessed information on market and employment opportunities. The Computerji project is currently being implemented through one centre and three sub-centres in Khandwa programme area.

Through all its interventions, AKRSP (India) strives to touch the lives of the rural people and bring about a change, a change towards progress and improvement. Having reached 103 villages and 8,008 households in Madhya Pradesh, AKRSP (India) is gradually learning about the unique strengths of the rural community of this state and interventions which can improve the quality of their lives.


stAte rePort: BIhar

About BiharThe eastern state of Bihar which is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size and the third larg-est by population has close to 85 per cent rural popu-lation. Although Bihar has a glorious past, at present it lags behind all the Indian states in human develop-ment indices.

AKRSP (India) initiated its activities in Bihar in 2007 in the district of Samastipur. It set up an office in Pusa in 2008 and recruited people for starting its ac-tivities. By the end of the year, AKRSP (India) set up its second office in Muzaffarpur.

Within Samastipur district, AKRSP (India) decided to start its interventions in the blocks of Pusa and Tajpur based on the results of a detailed survey. As Bihar was new to AKRSP (India), an entirely new approach and strategy was needed. New themes like education, water testing and flood mitigation were taken up for piloting. The key areas identified are:

agriculture Paddy is one of the chief crops in the region. But it was found that inspite of having a very fertile soil, the production of the yield per hectare is not very convincing. Paddy is mostly grown in low-lands with conventional method. Irrigation is also an issue; farmers mostly depend on diesel hand pumps which are very costly. Poor quality of seeds and chem-ical fertilisers are other challenges of the area. Since there is a scope for increasing the yield of the paddy crop, AKRSP (India) decided to pilot System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the area.

A total of 26 farmers from six villages were trained in SRI. The SRI farms recorded a yield of 55.86 quintal per hectare which was 28 per cent higher than con-ventional method. Also, the technique was found to be cost effective.

With an aim of organising the whole agriculture ini-tiative, it was decided to form farmers’ clubs. The first club was formed in the Rajwa village where SRI was a great success.

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education In Bihar, while the Government has succeeded in increasing enrolment, the quality of teaching does not meet the aspirations of the par-ents who see education as the only path to prosper-ity. To address this, AKRSP (India) has decided to pilot Learning Resource Centres for children between 6-11 years of age. To mobilise the community, a bal mela was organised on Gandhi Jayanti at the Pusa University. Around 250 students from three tolas participated in it. A group of young men and women went to Bodh Siksha Samiti in Rajasthan for training to be teacher-volunteers.

A Computerji centre was also set up in Pusa which has 69 students out of whom six students have com-pleted their training successfully.

microfinance Microfinance proved to be one of the most difficult interventions. In rural Bihar, the society is very orthodox and the bonding between women is not very strong. There was also a general mistrust amongst people regarding NGOs. But after persistent visits, nine Self Help Groups (SHGs), out which one is a male group, have been formed. Three SHGs have started giving credit for economic and social expenses.

water quality testing As water quality is a major issue in Samastipur district, a 14-parameter water testing kit named Jaltara was used in Gangapur Panchayat. It takes almost two and a half hours to test for all the parameters.

alternate energy Biogas was not a new technol-ogy for the people as there had been experiments in the past which were not successful. After a survey of the existing biogas plants, a group of masons were trained and two biogas plants were installed in the Pusa programme area.

migration As migration rate of people from Bihar to the neighbouring states is very high, it has serious social and economic implications. The women mem-bers who stay behind face serious problems of money, health and social security. In 2008, the migration pro-file of one village panchayat was prepared, based on which the work on migration can be piloted.

AKRSP (India) organised a ‘bal mela’ to motivate children and win the confidence of their parents for the learning support centres.


helPing communities coPe with drought

The Surendranagar district of Gujarat is one of the most drought-prone regions of Gujarat. The economy of the region is dominated by agriculturists and animal herders. But scarcity of water has turned these former friends into competitors for the same resource. The competition for land and more water has worsened the relationship.

This has had an impact on the social structure also. The caste system is very rigid here and the society is highly feudal in nature. With communities having to fall upon themselves in the face of this environmental challenge, the bonding within the community members is very strong. To add to the complexities, women across all castes face a lot of restrictions.

Looking at these dynamics, AKRSP (India) initiated livelihood interventions to solve the economic issues and addressed the social issues through community institutions.

helpIng CommunItIes In agrICulture

AKRSP (India) has been working in this district for the last two decades. As this district suffers from scarcity of water, AKRSP (India) has been focussing primarily on water management. Groundwater recharge and water harvesting structures as well as water management methods are promoted to provide water for irrigation. In

With agriculture being the primary source of income for the people of Surendranagar, helping them irrigate their fields and increasing the yield has been a major intervention of AKRSP (India).


agriculture, the focus is on promoting new farming methods like organic farming and helping the first-generation farmers practice agriculture.

This year 124 hectares of land was certified as organic and this allowed these farmers to sell their produce at a premium price. AKRSP (India) motivated a pan-village farmers’ group named Panchal Organic Produce and Marketing Association to get registered for fair trading practices in marketing of organic products.

Soil and water conservation activities were taken up in 719 hectares of land benefiting 712 farmers this year. AKRSP (India) supported deep ploughing interventions in 235 poor villages with no capacity to invest in their highly undulating plots (174 hectares) in 17 villages of Surendranagar district. Around 34 farm ponds were constructed in the area in 2008 and all the beneficiaries are women.

AKRSP (India) has also started working with the landless or Saathni farmers who were given land by the government. But since these people did not know how to do cultivation and even their land was not of good quality, AKRSP (India) took up the responsibility of improving their land and building their capacities. For this, the organisation is working closely with Gujarat Lok Samiti which has done extensive work with Saathni farmers all over Gujarat.

In 2008, the Saathni land owners were taken for a workshop and exposure visit to Mailya in Junagadh where another group of Saathni land owners is earning substantial income from agriculture. The Saathni land holders have formed three groups, namely, Gram Vikas Samiti, Mahila Vikas Mandal and a Self Help Group. Also, activities like land levelling and deep ploughing were done by the farmers.

provIdIng safe drInKIng Water

Women in the Sayla programme area have to walk long distances to fetch water for their household consumption. With an intention to reduce their drudgery

With drinking water within their reach, the women of Sayla programme area are today a happy lot.


and create common water resources, AKRSP (India) signed an agreement under the Swajaldhara programme to form a distribution network for water supply in 14 villages. Community institutions responsible for operations and maintenance of the drinking water schemes were motivated and trained.

AKRSP (India) has been able to create some common platforms where people have come together to manage common assets. Hence, many village institutions have been trained for operating and maintaining drinking water schemes. One such community institution at a village named Khintla collected a sum of Rs 0.15 million as water tariff deposit and deposited it in their account.

The Mahila Manch of Dhandalpur and Chotila supplied water to 27 villages in tankers bought with financial support from the Government of Gujarat. Through this service, the women could benefit 578 people. Since lack of safe drinking water is a problem in Sayla programme area, AKRSP (India) set up the Nirmala Water Testing Laboratory to educate and create awareness amongst people about the importance of safe and good quality water. In 2008, a total of 1,222 water samples were tested out of which 1090 samples were tested for chemical analysis and 132 samples were tested for bacteriological analysis. Through the exhibits at the Rain Centre in the Sayla office campus, rural communities were made aware about water quality issues.

Also, to create awareness about the importance of good quality drinking water, pani samiti members were trained on regular monitoring of the drinking water sources. For this, water testing kits were provided to them. Using one such kit, 229 drinking water sources of 80 villages were tested. Out of this, only 70 sources were found to be fit for drinking.

Milk cooperatives like the one at Vavdi in Sayla programme area, inspire rural communities people to enhance their

incomes through animal husbandry.


provIdIng alternate sourCes of lIvelIhood

The Rabari and the Bharwad communities, who constitute 40 per cent of the population, are engaged in animal rearing and dairy production. As they are migratory in nature, it is very difficult to work with them. The people belonging to lower castes work as labourers in quarries and ceramic factories.

With an aim of improving the livelihoods of these communities, AKRSP (India) helps them set up and run micro enterprises. Promotion of animal husbandry has emerged as one of the major activities under this intervention. To address the issues of cattle management, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with Bharatiya Agro-Industries Foundation (BAIF). The local unit of BAIF provided veterinary help to cattle owned by the people and also trained them on various aspects of animal husbandry.

The cheese plant set up by the Panchal Mahila Cheese Utpadak Seva Sangh continued with its production. This year, agreements were signed with two private firms for the market linkage of the cheese.

promotIng savIngs and CredIt aCtIvItIes

The majority of the backward castes are poor and landless, and are not used to saving money. But they are the ones who are more affected by drought as lack of water means lack of employment opportunities as labourers. Hence, AKRSP (India) concentrates on forming Self Help Groups of Harijan and Devi Pujak communities. Having experienced the joy of having money of their own, the SHG members have an increased self esteem. This year, 25 SHGs were linked with banks.

Community institutions continued with their savings and credit activities in Sayla programme area


ConneCtIng to the World

The Microsoft-funded Computerji project continued to provide information to rural communities about market and the world at large. Also, to provide better employment opportunities to the younger generation, computer courses were conducted. This year, 890 students were trained on computer usage. Under the hub and spokes model, a total of 11 sub-centres were operationalised. The sub-centre model has helped the project reach out to numerous women and youth in remote villages.

The Computerji centres double up as information centres on market prices, seeds and fertilisers for farmers. In 2008, a farmers’ club was formed with 20 members to understand their information need. For one month, the market rates were smsed to members. This helped the farmers negotiate better deals with traders. After this success, more and more farmers have joined the club. Today, around 70 farmers, who pay a membership fee of Rs 50 per month, are members of this club.

AKRSP (India) brings smiles to farmers’ faces by bringing

water to their fields.


access to water changed his life

najhabhai devjibhai gambu was a small farmer in kherana village of sayla programme area. najhabhai owns

six acres of land and has a family of 11 members. lack of irrigation facilities restricted the annual yield of cotton

and bajra in his farm. the per acre yield of cotton in his field was only 4 quintal and that of bajra was 20 quintal.

to add to his woes, farming expenses forced him to borrow money from the local money lender at an interest

rate of 5 per cent.

lack of money also prevented him from sending his two sons to high school and hence both of them couldn’t

pursue their studies after vii standard. with a large family and inadequate income, najhabhai was forced to

migrate to the nearby villages in search of work.

then AkrsP (india) initiated a watershed project near his farm and he became a beneficiary of the check dam.

the checkdam increased the water level in his well because of which he was able to irrigate his entire farm. in

the following year, the per acre yield of cotton increased to 12 quintal and that of bajra increased to 15 quintal.

he now owns nine milch animals compared to the three that he owned earlier and earns an additional rs 200

per day by selling milk.

najhabhai’s life can be divided into two phases; before and after the watershed project of AkrsP (india). now,

he has stopped migrating and has started sending his grand children to school. today, he is a proud owner of a

motorbike, an engine and two houses worth rs1,00,000. life is definitely not the same for najhabhai anymore!


emPowering triBAl communities

The adivasis or the tribal population of India are believed to be the original inhabitants of the country. Today, they comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India. AKRSP (India) works with the tribal population in three of its programme areas of Gadu, Netrang and Khandwa. Though tribal communities in these areas are different from each other in terms of their culture and identity, they are all outside the mainstream rural development and are economically backward.

Among the tribal communities, there are groups of communities that are known as the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTG). According to the definition of the Government of India, these are the tribal groups in pre-agricultural stage of development, have a diminishing and dwindling population and have very low literacy rates. Within its programme areas, the Siddis, Kotwaliyas and Kathuriya tribes fall under the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) category.

WorKIng WIth trIBal CommunItIes In netrang

Tribal communities form a significant proportion of the population in Netrang programme area. They are mostly Bhils and Vasavas in Narmada and Bharuch districts and Choudharys, Dhodias and Gamits in Surat and Tapi districts. The

Women in Khandwa programme area harvest ginger in their fields.


tribal communities are mostly homogeneous communities belonging to the same economic strata. As individuals they do not play a very major role in the larger economic and political scene. Hence, AKRSP (India) has been motivating them to form groups where collectively they can get better economic and political deals. In most cases, the existing traditional community groups were reconstituted and made into new groups. The formation of these groups brought an end to their isolation and gave them a new identity.

Self Help Groups are formed to bring about social and economic empowerment of these communities. Around 117 Self Help Groups were functional in 45 villages in Netrang programme area. The groups saved around Rs 3 million and disbursed around Rs 10 million as credit. Linkages with the financial institutions proved to be beneficial for these groups as 21 per cent of the credit disbursed was provided by them.

Also, 30 villages of Sagbara and Dediapada blocks prepared and submitted their Village Action Plan under the Swajaldhara project. Of these, 29 projects have been approved and work is in progress in all sanctioned villages. In order to ensure that villagers can take care of water supply schemes, training on operation and maintenance was organised for villages in Sagbara, Dediapada, Umarpada, Mandvi, Valiya and Jagadiya talukas. As defunct hand pumps are an issue in the villages, 11 people were given toolkits and trained on servicing of hand pumps. In 2008, 141 handpumps were repaired benefiting around 1,419 households.

developing and managing natural resourcesAll these tribal communities have now settled down as agriculturists. But because of low agricultural productivity, many of the small and marginal farmers were able

With focussed interventions for Kotwaliyas, they are now busy irrigating their fields and increasing productivity.


to cultivate crops only once a year. To help them augment their income, various watershed and agricultural interventions are implemented. In 2008, 261 hectare of land was treated under Soil and Water Conservation interventions and 612 farmers benefited from it. This year, 135 gabions were constructed in 24 villages.

In order to increase the total area under irrigation, 27 check dams, 28 mobile engines and 5 group wells were constructed. Around 33 mobile pumps and well irrigation projects have been undertaken benefiting 216 households and covering an area of 43 hectares.

Vermicompost has become very popular in Netrang programme area. In 2008, more than 265 vermicompost beds were developed in 25 villages. This year, the concept of compost pit was introduced in Dediapada with an aim of reducing the time taken for the manure to get formed. While an ordinary compost pit takes about a year to rot completely, this process produces good manure in only a month’s time. A total of 100 compost pits were prepared this year benefiting 100 households.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an innovative method of growing paddy and has become highly popular among the tribal communities of Netrang. This year, 2000 farmers from more than 100 villages opted for SRI. Inspired by the work done by AKRSP (India) on SRI, beneficiaries and staff of many other NGOs visited the programme area for training and exposure.

This year, the Integrated Wadi and Agriculture Diversification Project (IWADP) was launched with financial support from the Tribal Sub Plan of Bharuch and Narmada districts. The families falling under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) of Valiya, Dedipada and Sagbara blocks were selected for this project. The project aims

Setting up of biogas plants in Madhya Pradesh is another example of AKRSP (India) taking its learnings

from Gujarat to the new areas.

Village meetings with men and women together help mobilising

communities for collective action.


at generating sustainable income of tribal families of 25 villages of these blocks by promoting improved horticulture practices. By the end of the year, 183 households benefited from this project. Vegetables like ladies finger, cow pea, beans, bottle gourd and bitter gourd were promoted for cultivation.

The landless tribal communities work as agricultural labourers or migrate to nearby towns in search of better employment opportunities. Hence, with an aim to increase their skills so that they find better jobs when they migrate, AKRSP (India) conducts skill-based trainings. In 2008, 90 people were trained on diamond cutting as Surat is the preferred job destination. People were also given loans for initiating their own income generating activities. The most popular income generating activities in 2008 were dairy initiatives, goat rearing, tailoring and setting up grocery shops.

working with primitive tribal groups (ptg)AKRSP (India) also works with the Primitive Tribal Groups of Kotwaliyas and Kathurias. These poor and marginalised sections of the community needed a special focus and strategy. The major source of livelihood for the Kotwaliya community has traditionally been making bamboo handicrafts. But with the dwindling supply of bamboo and no proper market linkages, this income was not enough for them.

As majority of the Kotwaliyas are landless, promotion of alternative livelihood options along with savings and credit activities have been the major focus of AKRSP (India). Around 420 households have benefited from the animal husbandry programme. Skill upgradation trainings on bamboo article production were provided. A total of six trainings benefiting 53 households were conducted. Also, for the land owning Kotwaliya farmers, irrigation facilities and improved agricultural practices were promoted.

The Kotwaliya community, whose traditional source of income was bamboo handicrafts, was given skill upgradation trainings.


In 2008, AKRSP (India) started implementing the ‘PTG Dairy Project’ of the Government of Gujarat under which each Kotwaliya family was given two milch animals along with assistance for cattle feed, fodder, construction of cattle shed, animal insurance and capacity building. The Kotwaliya family was given 50 per cent subsidy on the cost of the animals. Though the Kotwaliyas are traditionally not associated with animal husbandry or animal rearing, they were motivated to join this project as most of them are landless and have no steady source of income. The much-needed training and capacity building of the community was done by AKRSP (India).

getting connected to the worldThe tribal communities have been cut off from mainstream development for a long time. Hence, the Computerji centres, which helps them connect with the outside world, have become very popular. This is evident from the fact that till 2008, a total of 11, 305 people accessed information through computers in Netrang programme area. Also, 2, 439 people got trained in computer skills at the five Computerji centres and 13 sub-centres in the Netrang programme area. The tribal communities accessed information mainly regarding the Right to Information Act, Tribal Act, health and government schemes.

WorKIng WIth the trIBal CommunItIes In madhya pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has a pre-dominantly tribal population. AKRSP (India) works closely with the Bhil, Bhilala, Korku and Gond communities. Each of these tribal communities has their distinct characteristics and features. Due to these differences and the different geographical environment, the tribal communities of Madhya Pradesh has been cut-off from the mainstream of development.

The tribal communities in Khandwa programme area are quite different from the communities in Netrang. Here, the communities are poorer and the level of under development is much higher. Hence, a multi-pronged approach of livelihood enhancement is being implemented in Khandwa programme area.

promoting savings and creditWorking on the same principle of bringing these isolated communities together for collective action, AKRSP (India) has motivated the formation of 481 community institutions in Khandwa programme area. This year, 117 new SHGs have been formed. The tribal communities have been found to be active members of these SHGs. The total savings by the groups in this year was Rs 11094 and out of it, Rs. 10047 was disbursed as credit. All the exclusive women’s SHGs have opened savings accounts in banks. Around five women’s SHGs have been linked with the Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) so that they can get loans to start any income generating activity of their choice.

As the bulk of the rural population of Khandwa programme area is cut-off from the mainstream financial institutions, revolving funds have emerged as appropriate means of fulfilling the credit needs of the people. Revolving funds are normally given to economically active but poor households to increase their capital assets. It has been found that most people, build wells for their individual use with this money. This year, 127 people have been given loans for goat rearing, buying sewing machines, setting up shops and flour mills.


managing natural resourcesSince a major proportion of the communities depend on agriculture for their income, AKRSP (India) promotes agriculture and its allied activities in the area. Hence, 261 hectare land was treated in 46 villages. Around 612 households have benefited from farm bunding, nala plugging and contour trenches. Also, through the construction of check dams, group wells and individual wells, 440 hectares were brought under irrigation.

The farmers in this region have historically being an exploited lot. The average input requirement for each household is Rs 3000 but they have to take a loan of Rs 4500. Hence, the farmer has to pay an additional Rs 1, 500 as interest. But this is not all. The local traders also cheat the farmers and give them bad quality seeds. To prevent the farmers from exploitation, AKRSP (India) itself supplies seeds. In 2008, seeds of cotton, jowar and soybean were supplied in 56 villages. Around 30 per cent of the cost was paid in cash by the farmers and the rest of the amount was given on loan.

getting connected to the worldThe tribal communities have accepted the Computerji project with great enthusiasm. In 2008, a total of 533 people got trained on computer skills and 994 accessed information on market and employment opportunities. The Computerji project is currently being implemented through one centre and three sub-centres in Khandwa programme area.

Farm bunds, which are increasingly becoming popular in Dedtalai cluster, help in prevention of soil erosion and outflow of water from fields.


WorKIng WIth the sIddI CommunIty

The Siddi community originally hails from the African continent. They migrated to India around 500 years ago and have settled down in the Junagadh district of Gujarat. After years of living here, they have adopted the Gujarati way of life. But this Muslim community has still not become a part of the mainstream rural development in Gujarat.

The Siddis have come a long way since AKRSP (India) started working with them in 2002. Having started their journey by forming collectives, they have now started setting up their own business enterprises and planning for the future of their children. Their leader Hirbaiben has received several national awards for her leadership. This year, she received the Senior Citizen Award from the Dhirubhai Ambani Charitable Trust. She also participated in the International Workshop on Women in Agriculture in South Asia organised by the Aga Khan Foundation in association with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Hirbaiben welcomes Renuka Chowdhary, the Minister of State of Women and Child Development, to

the international workshop on Women in Agriculture in South Asia, which was

organised by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the International Food Policy

Research Institute (IFPRI).


determined to Move ahead

savitaben ranchodbhai kotwaliya is a landless tribal woman in valargadh village at netrang programme area.

savitaben has five members in her family. she and her husband used to depend on fishing, agricultural labour

and bamboo craft for livelihood. the income was pretty low and hence she and her husband used to migrate

to the neighbouring villages to work as labourers in sugarcane fields during the harvesting season.

AkrsP (india) initiated its activities in the village in 2005. savitaben became a member of the self help group

and started saving money regularly. As she was a member of the shg, she received grafts of fruit crops,

vegetable seeds and agricultural tools. in 2008, she received a buffalo and became a member of the village

dairy cooperative society.

But procuring fodder for the buffalo took away a major chunk of her income. she approached AkrsP (india)

and the organization decided to develop her homestead as fodder plots. Being a member of the shg helped

her in this also. she received assistance for land leveling, fodder plants and mobile engine for irrigation. After

this, she started getting fodder enough for a fortnight from her own plot and hence her net income from milk

production increased by rs 300 per month. But savitaben’s indomitable spirit was not satisfied by this. she

then took a loan of rs 7500 and set up a retail vegetable shop at her home. now, she earns a net monthly

income of rs 1000 from the shop.

today, savitaben is a leader of her shg and is playing a key role in motivating and guiding other women of

her community to break the circle of poverty.


working with communities fAcing groundwAter dePletion

Junagadh has traditionally been a prosperous region of Gujarat. With fertile land and plenty of water for irrigation, it had benefited greatly from the Green Revolution. But over extraction of ground water has now changed the scenario. The once rich community is now facing serious problems of livelihood and income. This has caused a social and economic imbalance. Depleting sources of ground water either due to salinity or receding water table has caused tensions and rivalries between communities.

WorKIng WIth CommunItIes affeCted By salInIty Ingress

The major cause of this depletion and degradation is over drafting of ground water for agriculture, resulting in sea water intrusion into ground water. This problem has another facet to it. The increasing salinity has affected the land, vegetation and the livelihood of the community. Agricultural yield has come down and people have started migrating to other places in search of both land and water. Even finding sweet water for drinking purposes is becoming difficult here.

The various activities promoted by AKRSP (India) under this intervention are financially supported by the European Commission, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and the Government of Gujarat. In 2008, promotion of well sealing and water

With water tables depleting fast, the farmers in Maliya cluster are opting for water efficient drip irrigation systems.


efficient devices, testing of drinking water, experiments and adoption of saline resistant crops and setting up of micro enterprises were the key activities.

The community institutions that have been formed to stop salinity ingress are mainly Kharash Atkao Sankalan Samiti (Salinity Prevention Committee), Kharash Atkao Juth (Salinity Prevention Group) and Gram Vikas Sanghs (Village Development Committee).

restoring natural resourcesLack of sweet water has had an adverse impact on agriculture and hence usage of drip systems and sprinklers are promoted by AKRSP (India). This year, 48 drip irrigation systems were distributed among farmers. Also, 265 sets of sprinklers were distributed among poor and marginal farmers of Mangrol, covering a total area of 279 hectares.

The experimental farm at Arena continued to find out more about the effect of salinity on crops. Hence, samples of soil from the field were sent for tests on soil fertility and composition and to find out the effects of salinity on these factors. Good results have been achieved on Gajraj grass which is a popular fodder. Also, the results of groundnut-castor intercropping are very encouraging. Farmers are regularly brought to the farm on exposure visits and successful experiments are shared with them.

A comprehensive scientific study of the geo–hydrological nature of the catchment area of the Netrang stream has been done with the expertise of Arid Communities and Technologies, Bhuj. The final report was submitted in 2008. This study has helped in knowing the geology of the area, the potential ground water recharge sites, activities to be adopted under the program for better impact, ground water table enhancement and amount of water restored due to the project.

Saline water gets mixed with sweet water in the wells in Mangrol cluster. Hence, AKRSP (India) promotes sealing of such wells.


Farm bunding done with the help of bela stones helps capture the run-off from the fields. This restored water then percolates in the same field and augments the groundwater level. In 2008, around 156 farm bunds were made benefiting 139 households.

Well sealing is the process of putting a concrete layer in the well which prevents the mixing of the saline water with the fresh water. This year, around 50 wells were sealed in Mangrol.

accessing water for drinking Access to potable drinking water is becoming an increasingly important issue in this region. AKRSP (India) plans to implement a drinking water programme in 30 villages under the Coastal Area Development Programme supported by the Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) and Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO). Also, 15 village water supply and distribution systems have been approved under the Swajaldhara programme.

This year, AKRSP (India) entered into a collaboration with Tata-GE for setting up a Reverse Osmosis Plant in four villages.

water changed his life for good

“ever since the water from sea has started entering our land, getting water to drink has become a problem in

our village. earlier, we had to walk to the nearby fields to fetch drinking water. i have four grown up daughters

and so i could not send them to the nearby fields. hence, i used to go to bring water. But then i could not go

to work and hence missed my daily wage. so i started selling water in cans. i used to charge rs 2-3 per can

and at the end of the day earned around rs 20.

then one day, we came to know about decentralised drinking water supply scheme (ddwss) being

promoted by AkrsP (india). impressed by what we heard, my wife and daughters volunteered for the

excavation and construction work. now, drinking water is available at our doorstep.

After this, i started selling vegetables on a handcart. then, i purchased a second-hand flour mill. my wife and

daughters helped me run the mill. today, two of my daughters are married and i am financially much better

off. All thanks to the easy availability of water.”

jayantibhai shantilal ganatra, Arena village

rIver BasIn management

The Meghal River passes though Maliya block of Junagadh district and is the lifeline of more than 60 villages. Thirty years back, Meghal was a perennial river and the groundwater table was much higher. But with rainfall becoming increasingly erratic and over exploitation of available groundwater, the river basin started drying during the winters and summers. This change in the water table caused the communities to become rivals.

AKRSP (India) started its river basin management initiative in 2002. This has been one of its most successful interventions. This was primarily because under this, the entire area was approached as a whole instead of taking each village as a unit.


By 2007, all the targeted villages were covered. Hence in 2008, the focus was on creating feelings of ownership and unity for preserving the revived Meghal River. The strengthening of community institutions and core group was the prime focus. Thus, programme activities were based on plans prepared by the communities themselves.

In 2008, various activities to increase water recharging capacity were undertaken in all 57 villages. AKRSP (India) has now decided to undertake Noli river basin management. This year, seven villages in this river basin have been taken up.

To increase ground water recharging, two checkdams and five bori bandhs were constructed. Also, 11 wells and 3 bore wells were constructed. In the year 2008, after a very long time, water was available in the river throughout the year.

After ensuring that enough water was being recharged, water efficient devices were promoted for agriculture. Hence, 48 farmers were provided with drip irrigation systems.

ComputerjI Classes

There are four Computerji centres and 10 sub-centres in the Gadu programme area. By end of 2008, a total of 2262 people were imparted computer skills and around 3237 people used computers to access information. With education levels and economic prosperity being higher in Junagadh, people accessed information on employment opportunities and sought help regarding filling job applications.

Providing access to sweet water is one of the key interventions of AKRSP (India) in Mangrol cluster.


Promoting hArmony Between communities And conservAtion

The declaration of an area as a protected area goes a long way in conserving ecological balance. But it also debars local communities from accessing their primary source of livelihood. The declaration of the Gir Forest as a protected area had the same impact on two communities, the Siddis and the Maldharis, who were dependent on it.

AKRSP (India) started its programme of Gir Periphery Management in 1988 with an aim of developing alternative livelihood opportunities for all the forest-dependent communities living in the 69 villages which are located within 2-3 km from the forest boundary and two villages inside the protected area.

WorKIng WIth the maldharIs

The Maldharis are a pastoral community living in the protected area of the Gir forest. But the declaration of the protected area caused them to leave their nesses. They were no longer allowed to enter the protected area for grazing animals. This caused them to look for alternate livelihood options. While the men did not mind adopting agriculture as a source of livelihood, most women preferred animal rearing as an occupation. The community as a whole was facing problems related to economic sustenance and social mobility.

A low cost windmill, innovated by Grassroot Innovation and Augmentation Network - West (GIAN) was tested on a pilot basis in Talala cluster.


AKRSP (India) addressed the issues in a holistic manner. Hence, it set up five Gir Resource and Information Centres that focus on dissemination of information on crops as well as on animal husbandry and government schemes. They also house agriculture tools library where equipment are given on rent to farmers. In Gir periphery area management project area, 50 per cent of the Maldhari families are engaged in animal husbandry and their cattle graze in the forest. Thus, the cattle feed centre provides quality feed at affordable rates.

As this community lives in the neighbouring areas of a forest, human-wildlife conflict is a big issue here. Hence, wire fencing is promoted amongst groups of farmers. This year, two groups have benefited from this. Crop protection towers are also constructed so that farmers can keep a watch on their fields. Around 57 farmers have constructed towers in 2008. These towers use minimum quantity of wood for construction and hence reduce dependence on forest.

Soil and water conservation was done in 79 hectares of land in 16 villages. Like that of Surendranagar, this region also has the Saathni landowners. Here, the Saathni landowners have formed their own group known as the Maldhari Vikas Mandal with 11 members. AKRSP (India) provided them with seeds on loan. The mandal repaid the loan after harvesting their crops. The 11 farmers earned a profit of Rs 84760. Now, 10 farmers have taken loans for buying seeds for growing wheat.

WorKIng WIth the sIddI CommunIty

The Siddi community also has been traditionally dependent on the Gir forest both for livelihood and fuel wood. Hence, AKRSP (India) focused its attention on providing them with alternate sources of livelihood so that they would cease to depend on the forest. Today, around 70 per cent of the Siddi population has succeeded in becoming so.

A private entrepreneur sells solar cookers to villagers in Talala cluster.


This was done through the creation of community institutions. The Adivasi Mahila Sangh is a federation of women which has played a pivotal role in empowering the Siddi community. In 2008, the focus was on increasing its membership. Almost all the households in that area have become its members. This year, the sustainability of the Sangh was of prime concern and hence a sustainability plan was chalked out with federation members.

This year, the focus has been on increasing involvement of Siddi men in development activities. In 2008, five groups with 79 members were formed. Meanwhile, efforts were on to increase involvement of Siddi women in many new villages. Hence, a big event was organized in Dedikayal village to spread awareness about community institutions and inspire more and more women to come forward and take leadership roles. Around 742 women participated in that event.

The Siddi Sahiyar Utthan Kendra-run grocery shop did a business of Rs 1,38,000. Also, two Siddi Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) with 23 members produces organic compost. This year, the groups produced 225 tonnes of organic compost and earned a profit of Rs 2,10,500.

Also, 30 Self Help Groups are engaged in 26 different types of income generating activities. These SHGs have 149 members out of which 131 are women. Their activities include dairy activities, organic compost, dry and fresh fish selling and group farming

The Siddi Sahiyar Utthan Kendra-run grocery shop has

become very popular in the area and now has loyal customers.


The First-time Farmer

kodiyatar khimabhai manda lives at lushala village in gadu programme area. he

has a large family of 15 members including eight children. since he belongs to

the maldhari community, his primary occupation is cattle rearing. But as income

from that is not enough, he also works as a labourer.

kodiyatarbhai received five bigha land from the government’s Saathni

programme in 1972 but did not grow anything on it as he did not know

farming. in december, 2007, he came to know about AkrsP (india)’s work with

Saathni landowners and decided to do land levelling on his farm. After this, the

first time farmer grew groundnut and earned rs 22,500. encouraged by this, he

got a bore well dug in his field, so that he could grow crops in the winter also.

he then sowed wheat and earned rs 6000.

By the end of the summer season this year, kodiyatarbhai had earned a net

profit of rs 24,000 after spending rs 10,000 on seeds and fertilisers.

gone are the days when he had to labour in other people’s farms. today,

kodiyatarbhai is waiting for electricity connection for his own borewell


motivAting rurAl women for collective Action

Indian women, irrespective of their social strata, have historically never been a part of the mainstream decision making process. Even decisions that essentially have an impact on their lives are taken without their consultation. Hence, bringing women together for taking their own decisions has been a core function of AKRSP (India).

At the same time, while addressing the issues that are essentially women’s issues, AKRSP (India) recognises the fact that women are not a homogeneous community. They are actually a heterogeneous community comprising of different castes, classes and groups. Hence, understanding their differences before bringing them together is very important.

empoWerIng Women for ColleCtIve aCtIon

Women have been encouraged to form groups of all kinds and sizes to form a united force. After being marginalised for years, these women experience great joy in finding an identity that is exclusively their own. In the groups that also have male members, AKRSP (India) ensures that the voices of women members are heard. Though the village-level Self Help Groups help in providing economic empowerment to the women, it is the supra-level Mahila Manchs that have emerged

Listening to women and making them heard is one of the key strategies of AKRSP (India).


as the key organisations that can bring about social empowerment of the women in their areas.

These mahila manchs have been highly successful in motivating and inspiring their community women to take up economic activities that have made them self reliant. Enthused by this new-found independence, most of these manchs have now started dreaming of their own office spaces which will give a further boost to their empowered identity.

In 2008, the Jagruti Mahila Mandal of Netrang programme area purchased plot worth Rs 2,00,000 in Mandvi. Every woman of the 171 member SHGs has contributed Rs 300 for this purpose. The funds were being mobilised for the last two years. With this deal, they have also joined the league of the mahila manchs of Netrang and Sagbara for whom their own building is a symbol of their identity, aspirations and unity. The Jagruti Mahila Mandal now dreams of constructing their own office building which will also have a resource centre and a business centre.

The women’s federations which were once formed under the guidance of AKRSP (India) have now attained their own distinct identity and vision. Three such institutions in Netrang programme area work for issues of widows. While the Jagruti Mahila Manch in Dediapada and Mahila Jagruti Mandal in Mandvi have been working with widows for long, the Adivasi Vikas Mahila Manch in Netrang has started focussing on this issue in 2008. These manchs have been instrumental is forming groups of widows in nine villages and helping them get access to the pension scheme of the Government. Two women won legal rights over their land because of the support of the manchs.

Economic empowerment through formation of Self Help Groups brings smiles on the faces of women in all programme areas of AKRSP (India).


Some of the manchs have started liasioning with district-level government officials. In 2008, the mahila manch of Sagbara in Netrang programme area organised a meeting with the president of the district panchayat and the District Development Officer (DDO) where the member SHGs of the manch were linked to the Sakhi Mangal Yojna of the Government. This manch is another example of the power of collective action and has now started demanding access to government schemes and programmes.

In 2008, the focus was more on organising women’s groups for involvement in the strategic development of their areas. Hence, the mahila manchs in Surendranagar and Netrang programme areas organised five health camps in partnership with the local doctors. Also, under the Swajaldhara Village Drinking Water Scheme, women are playing an active role in planning of the water supply schemes, collecting community contribution and monitoring quality. An increasing number of women members are enrolling for the computer courses at the Computerji centres.

provIdIng aCCess to drInKIng Water and healthy KItChens

Understanding that rural women are forced to walk long distances to bring home potable water, AKSRP (India) has also done extensive work for providing drinking water in all its four programme areas.

Smoke in kitchens adversely affects the health of women. Hence, AKRSP (India) has been promoting biogas plants and solar cookers. The latter has been more popular in the Gadu programme area with 300 solar cookers being bought by women. It is gaining more popularity among the younger generation.

Setting up biogas plants at homes and creating smoke-

free kitchens go a long way in improving health of women.


With dairies emerging as a major source of income, there has been a substantial rise in the number of milch animals. As a result of this, biogas plants have seen a high demand this year and defunct biogas plans have been repaired and put to use. Around 91 such defunct biogas plants have been repaired. In Dedikyal village, 88 percent of the households were identified as potential bio gas plant beneficiaries. In 2008, AKRSP (India) achieved 100 per cent coverage in the village and helped all potential households build biogas plants. Around 57 biogas plants were constructed in Khandwa programme area.

In Netrang programme area, 231 biogas plants were constructed in 34 villages. With increased demands from women to construct biogas plants with toilets, 12 plants were constructed with toilets. Also, 292 biogas plants were repaired.

Leading the way for others

sagabai kaliya, a resident of chowkhandiya village in khandwa programme area, was the first woman to agree

to go on an exposure visit to netrang to see how self help groups function there. inspired by what she saw,

she formed saraswati swayam sahayata samuh in her village after coming back. the samuh members started

by saving rs 30 every month.

sagabai was a labourer and she saved from whatever she earned. slowly, the samuh started disbursing credit

also. today, the samuh has savings of rs 27,360 and has given loans amounting to rs 54,604. Because of their

internal discipline, the samuh got rs 3,00,000 under the swarna jayanti swarojgar yojna. each member got

rs 25,000 as loan to set up an income generating activity of their choice. sagabhai bought a pair of bullocks

with rs 15,000 and took 3 acres of land on rent for cultivation with the remaining money.

she has now started cultivating that land and earns enough for her family of six. she has already paid back

rs 10,000 of her loan amount. happy with her own self, sagabai has decided to be associated with the shg

throughout her life.

Risk is an indispensable but manageable element in agriculture. Revenues from farming being a function of both the quantity of produce and the price realized, it is imperative that adequate measures are undertaken to manage both price and production risks in agriculture. While financial instruments for managing production risks (‘area yield’ / ‘satellite imagery’ based crop insurance, weather insurance) are being constantly tested and improved upon through active participation of farmers and other key stakeholders, AKRSP (India) thought that it would be worthwhile to examine the relevance of price risk management instruments like commodity derivatives through the involvement of farmer collectives. AKRSP (India) itself

new initiAtives

decided to act as a facilitating agent and a risk-aggregating layer between the farmers and the commodity exchanges.

The Partners

Taking into account the high cotton prices realized by farmers of Saurashtra last year and the escalating investments in farm inputs, there was a strong latent need to ensure that the farmers are able to realize fair prices for their cotton produce in 2008. Towards this end, AKRSP (India) indicated its keenness for exploring price risk management for the farmers of Sayla programme area to its consultant Cardinal Edge Management Services (Private) Ltd. Cardinal Edge shared the intent with Multi Commodity Exchange after which Multi Commodity Exchange hired Cardinal Edge to

Enabling Farmers to Leverage Commodity Exchanges

With cotton being the chief crop of Sayla programme area, linking farmers to markets and helping them get a good price for their produce has been a core focus area of AKRSP (India).


Implementation of Project

During the period from from 1st May, 2007, till 22nd March, 2008, 67 farmers from Chotila block got involved. A series of four trainings were conducted which were facilitated by Multi Commodity Exchange representatives and AKRSP (India) staff. As a pilot, 26 lots of cotton were traded on exchange through Kotak Securities.

The results have been very encouraging in terms of price discovery and price dissemination which are instrumental for farmers to negotiate better with the local traders. In addition to better price realization, the produce was collected by traders from the doorstep of farmers. The benefit was availed both by member farmers as well as non-member farmers. Also, farmers became well-oriented towards hedging as tool for price risk management and were exposed to electronic seamless market. However, the hedging information did not work out well.

develop an interface for facilitating linkages between AKRSP (India), aggregator Chotila Federation, farmers & Multi Commodity Exchange.

A workshop was organized in Ahmedabad in which around 10 member NGOs of Sajjata Sangh interacted with the team from Multi Commodity Exchange on various issues related to commodity derivatives trading. A pilot initiative was then conceptualized revolving around the cotton farmers in Surendranagar district. The focus of this pilot initiative was on promoting and testing a working model for farmers’ participation in commodity derivatives trading enabled by integrated efforts from AKRSP (India), Multi Commodity Exchange, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Cardinal Edge and other relevant stakeholders. This pilot initiative was expected to pave the way for other initiatives aimed at economic empowerment of farmers by helping them adopt and use financial instruments for managing their agricultural risks.

The main activities under this initiative were access to market information; awareness creation & training; institutional development; formation of linkages with professional service providers and institutions; adoption and trial of price hedging through commodity derivatives and validation and reconfiguration of existing commodity derivative contracts.


With rural unemployment being a major cause and effect of underdevelopment in rural India, the government of India enacted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) on August 25, 2005. The NREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage. Roughly, one-third of the work force must be women. To implement the act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched in 2006.

Innovations in the Scheme

In Madhya Pradesh, the NREG Scheme was implemented for development of watershed programme in rural areas as a result of a long-term strategy and because the geographical terrain demanded it. This approach had quite a few unique and people-friendly features. It made the financial transactions transparent by operating through bank accounts only. It also

has an exhaustive Management Information System which helps in tracking down each individual in the villages.

Role of AKRSP (India)

AKRSP (India) has been nominated as the Technical Support Team in the Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project (MPRLP) for detailed participatory planning and implementation of watershed project with support of the Panchayati Raj institutes under NREG Scheme. Under this, AKRSP (India) is responsible for creating awareness about importance of watershed in 19 villages of the tribal blocks of Rajpur and Niwali.

AKRSP (India) is also the lead partner NGO of the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Mission for technical, social and institutional support in Khandwa, Khargone and Burhanpur. AKRSP (India) is also responsible for implementing watershed projects in Pandhana in Khandwa, Jhirniya in Khargone and Khakhnar in Burhanpur. The project is being implemented

new initiAtivesPartnering with Panchayats on NREGA

Under the NREGS watershed programme, boribandhs were built in Pandhana cluster.


for a period of five years and 33 villages in all the three districts will be covered under this.

The Progress so Far

In 2008, AKRSP (India) was involved in the process of implementing the NREG Scheme supported watershed projects.

The first step followed by AKRSP (India) in implementing the project was to conduct meetings with all the Panchayat members and not the sarpanch alone thus making the system more transparent and increase the participation of villagers.

The next step was to conduct a gram sabha. It has been AKRSP (India)’s experience that involving all the Panchayat members help in increasing the participation of villagers in the gram sabhas. In the gram sabha, the rest of the villagers are made aware about the scheme and its implications for them.

After this, a Watershed Development Committee was formed and a bank account was opened. The sarpanch, committee chair person and the secretary are the signatories of the same. Then a detailed Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was done with the entire village. The PRA focused on identifying the social issues, natural resources and the availability of job cards in the village.

AKRSP (India) then helped everybody get a job card and open bank accounts as the wages were deposited in the accounts. This helped in bringing transparency in wage payments and also linked the rural community with mainstream financial institutions.

Road Blocks and Bridges

The guidelines of the NREG Scheme makes it mandatory to work with the Panchayati Raj institutions and the guidelines of the Rajiv Gandhi Water Mission advocates the formation of a village watershed development committee. The sarpanch who is a key player in rural development schemes, in many cases, tries to have his own favoured people in the committee. To ensure that the sarpanch is involved and yet does not become the sole custodian of the scheme, AKRSP (India) facilitated a process with the gram sabha and entire Panchayat so that it formed committees which were truly representative of the diversity of the village and of which the sarpanch was one of the signatories.

Many villages ensured that the opponents of the sarpanch were also in the committee so that there was an in-built checks and balance system. As the sarpanch was one of the signatories of the bank account, there were some instances where they refused to sign the cheques. In such cases, block level government officials were approached to solve the issue.

But there are many instances where the sarpanch has extended all his support and cooperation to the initiative. Some of them asked AKRSP (India) to support the committee for watershed development while they would take care of the other roles of the Panchayat; roads, services and other infrastructure development.

Villagers, who are self-respecting farmers, are hesitant to take up employment work which does not lead to a benefit other than mere employment. Linking NREGA to a watershed has ensured that villagers see a purpose to their labour, make choices about land and water development in their village, and link job cards to work which provides short-term employment and long term gain.


The Computerji project of AKRSP (India) entered its second year of implementation in 2008 and set up its first centre in Pusa, Bihar. In these two years, the project has reached out to more than 27,000 people in the programme areas of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. And with the increasing number of people enrolling themselves for the training courses, it became important to form a dedicated placement cell which would network with potential recruiters for the employment of the trainees.

With setting up of the placement cell and increased interaction with recruiters, it became obvious that only computer training is not enough to get people jobs. What it needed is training on soft skills like presentation skills, English speaking, knowledge of how to make a resume and so on. Hence, the placement cell also became a point of convergence of the Computerji centres and other training institutes which offer trainings on these soft skills.

Services Offered by Placement Cells

By the end of 2008, all the 13 Computerji centres had set up a placement cell and appointed a point person from each programme areas as placement coordinators. The placement cells maintain a database of the trainees and other qualified youth who are interested in getting a job.

The cell looks for suitable openings for registered candidates and organise trainings and workshops for them to develop their soft skills. These events induce confidence in candidates to perform well in the interviews.

new initiAtivesGenerating Employment for Rural Youth

The rural youth form the biggest proportion of trainees at the Computerji centres and hence providing them employment opportunities is of vital importance.


Currently, all placement services offered are free of cost with a minimal token fee for registration. From 2009, these services will be charged. To get oneself enrolled in the cell, one needs to pay a registration fee and also pay a placement fee after getting a job through the placement cell.

Meeting Demands of the Market

The cell tries to understand the demands of the market by conducting a market scan and then offers new courses to match it. This process provides a detailed understanding of the skills as well as human resources needed in the market. On the basis of interaction with recruiters, it also develops a database of potential recruiters, interacts regularly with HR managers of recruiting firms and also sends online applications for jobs. A placement brochure has been developed and distributed to all potential recruiters for greater understanding of the Computerji project.

In 2008, placement coordinators conducted meeting with officials of the Gujarat Industrial Development Associations (GIDC), Big Bazaar, Tata AIG Life, Max New York Life, Reliance Mega Mart and Vishal Mega Mart in the neighbourhood of all the centres and discussed the placement issues and the services offered by the project.

The placement cell disseminates information through workshops, seminars, job alerts through sms, helps accessing online application forms, linking with district employment exchange and announcing job vacancies on notice boards.

Progress So Far

The initial strategy was to find and provide jobs at the local level. As a result, many trainees got jobs with local primary health centres, private hospitals, local banks, panchayats, anganwadis and so on. A total of 350 individuals were placed, out of which 256 people were placed in 2008 with various government and business establishments as gram mitra, computer operators, office assistants, marketing executives and others.

These efforts have generated employment worth Rs 7.84 million for various tribal and unemployment youth who have undergone training from Computerji centres.

Status of Placement

E-Gram Yojana 14%

Reliance 2%

Gram Mitra 9%

Health Department 5%

Panchayat Sahayak 10%

Big Bazaar 5%

Banks 2%

Hotels 10%

GIDC 16%

ICICI 1%

Local NGOs 5%

Other Private Agencies 21%


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reAching out

Over the last two decades, there has been much learning for AKRSP (India) and the rural communities it works with. To ensure that these lessons are shared with others (villagers, NGOs, government, bankers and donors); AKRSP (India) has developed strategies for ‘reaching out’.

There is a limitation to the reach of an NGO through the direct implementation strategy; hence, AKRSP (India) has adopted the following approaches to scale up its learnings:• Capacity building of other stakeholders• Documentation and dissemination of improved practices by communities• Undertaking research and sharing the findings• Policy influence through dialogue, NGO networking and collaborative projects

with the government • Promoting interface organisations

CapaCIty BuIldIng of other staKeholders

AKRSP (India) ServicesAs an endeavour to share its learning with a wider audience, AKRSP (India) set up a unit for training and capacity building called AKRSP (India) Services in 1998. To provide better services, two training centres were set up at Netrang and Sayla with financial assistance from the European Commission. This year, both these centres were dedicated to the memory of two of the most respected leaders of AKRSP (India). The training centre at Sayla has been renamed as Dr Kamla Chowdhry Community Training and Learning Centre and the training centre at Netrang has been renamed as Anil C Shah Tribal Livelihoods Resource Centre.

In 2008, there were 220 trainings, exposure visits, workshops and presentations at the training centres. Participants from 50 NGOs, 57 CBOs, 18 government departments and three academic institutions have benefited from these.

Ellen Pedersen (third from right), Deputy Head of Section (Development Cooperation) and Project Manager for

SCALE, dedicated the training centre at Sayla to the memory of the

late Dr Kamla Chowdhry.

:�1AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

This year, AKRSP (India) Services organised a Gender Sensitisation Training and exposure visit for a team from the Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan. Also, trainings were conducted for the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP) and exposure visits were organised for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) partner NGOs at Netrang.

This year, a study was conducted by Dr Varsha Mehta and David Gandhi on the existing training scenario in rural development sector in India. The objective was to identify the potential areas of growth for the two training centres. Also, the results will help the training centres in developing strategies that can meet training needs and priorities of the sector.

In 2008, the Chief Executive Officer supported the work done by Ajeevika Bureau in Rajasthan on behalf of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

documenting and disseminating best practicesA workshop on NGOs in the Changing Era: Human Resources and Organisational Development Issues was organized in Ahmedabad by AKRSP (India) in partnership with Sir Ratan Tata Trust. The two-day workshop was attended by many reputed NGOs from across the country. The basic objective behind organizing this workshop was to find answers to the questions that AKRSP (India) is currently facing such as that of expanding to other states of India and its impact on human resource.

The workshop was attended by the head of organisations and senior executives of various NGOs like Pradan, BAIF, Sadguru Foundation, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Seva Mandir, Mobile Creches, Aravalli and Development Support Centre. It was co-facilitated by Dr Uma Jain and Tejinder Singh Bhogal. The perspective of the donor community about HR issues was shared by representatives from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT).

The training centre at Netrang was dedicated to the memory of AKRSP (India)’s first Chief Executive Officer, Anil C Shah. Community representatives share their memories on the occasion.


Dr Anuradha Prasad from Human and Institutional Development Forum (HIDF), Bengaluru, and Dr Jayapadma put forward the views of practicing HR professionals.

The workshop was very useful in making everyone realise that the problems and issues faced by all the participants were similar and hence some of them could be solved through collaboration. Some of these were identifying volunteers, creating awareness about the work done by NGOs among the younger generation and recruitment of new staff. AKRSP (India) relaunched its radio programme ‘Kay Tuman Khabar Hay’ in Vasava and Gujarati Language in June, 2008. The programme is currently being broadcasted from the Surat and Vadodara FM radio stations every Thursday at 6.45 pm. The radio programme broadly covers the three following three topics:• Agriculture • Tribal culture and traditions • Government schemes for tribal peopleThe programme is widely heard in the region and has received 516 responses till date through letters and phone calls till date. To increase the participation of the local communities, listeners clubs have been formed. Also, around 20 listeners clubs have been formed by dedicated listeners of the programme.

undertaKIng researCh and sharIng fIndIngs

AKRSP (India) organised a workshop to present and discuss the findings of two partners of the study on ‘Sustainability of village institutions in Natural Resource Management supported by NGOs in India.’ Academic experts, development workers, NGO representatives and AKRSP (India) research team participated in the workshop.

The AKRSP (India) board members share their knowledge

with the field team during a field visit at Netrang programme area.

:�3AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

This year, the following research projects were published by AKRSP (India):1. Women’s Right to Land: Voices from Grassroots Movement and Working

Women’s Alliance from Gujarat by Dr Meera Velayudhan2. Promotion of Alternative Energy Devices to Minimise Forest Degradation:

AKRSP (India)’s experiences in Junagadh and Netrang by Chandrakant Bhorania, Dheeraj Kapoor, Ajay Mishra and Shailja Kishore

AKRSP (India) collaborated with various national and international academic institutions and invited students to conduct research on development issues faced by the organisation. This year, 13 studies were conducted by 20 students from 13 institutes.

Under this arrangement, the students get a first-hand feel of the rural development issues while AKRSP (India) gets an insight into the outcomes of its own efforts and formulate new strategies based on the findings.

polICy InfluenCe through dIalogue and CollaBoratIon

common watershed guidelinesThis year, the new Common Watershed Guidelines acknowledged the role of NGOs and the need for more time and funds to implement a watershed programme. AKRSP (India) was recognised as one of the NGOs which had contributed to the development of these guidelines. In states like Madhya Pradesh, innovative approaches of using NREGA funds for village watershed development showed a direction to other states where the potential of this Act has not been recognised and used.

promoting interface organisationsThe Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) promoted by AKRSP (India) in collaboration with Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Water and Sanitation Management Organization (WASMO) in 2008 for establishing com-munity-managed systems to secure access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities in the salinity-affected coastal villages of Gujarat. The programme will be implemented in 300 villages in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts.

Samudayik Vikas Sansthan (SAVI) is another organisation promoted by AKRSP (India). Like CSPC, Savi is also a registered independent body and has charted out its own growth. SAVI is headquartered at Umarpada in Surat district. SAVI is engaged in a number of activities. Other than its savings and credit programme, SAVI is also the designated field NGO of the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme. It is involved in creating awareness about maternal and newborn health in 12 villages of Umarpada. SAVI is also responsible for capacity building of the representatives of the watershed committees, watershed development team and Gram Panchayats under the Hariyali project of the Gujarat Government.


Utilisation of Funds of Rs 202.64 million Administration 8%

Capital 6%

Programme 84%

Outreach 2%

AKRSP (India) continued to implement the 10-year (2002-2011) Sustainable Community-based Approaches to Livelihood Enhancement (SCALE) project co-financed by the European Commission, operational in Gujarat and southwest Madhya Pradesh. It also received support from the State and Central Governments, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Ford Foundation, CARE, Microsoft, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) for various projects. It also started implementing field activities in Bihar funded by His Highness the Aga Khan.

AKRSP (India) expenditure in 2008 was Rs 241.48 million, out of which programme expenditure was Rs 202.64 million, operational expenditure was Rs 20.46 million, capital expenditure was Rs 13.61 million and outreach expendi-ture was Rs 4.76 million

The European Commission contributed Rs 118.40 million. Communities contributed a substantial Rs 51.31 million (43.33 per cent of the total expenditure), reflecting strong partnership and involvement. Government funding was Rs 41.42 million. Government support for AKRSP (India)’s programmes has increased significantly over the past few years. Other donors including Microsoft, CARE, Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Ford Foundation amounted to Rs 15.89 million. AKRSP (India)’s corpus contribution was Rs 5.10 million. His Highness’s contribution for Bihar was Rs 5.83 million

finAnciAl summAry

AKRSP (India) cost share 2%

Others 8%

Communities 16%

European Commission 57%

Government 12%

Breakup of Expenditure of Rs 202.64 million

HH grant 5%

:��AkrsP (india) a n n U a L R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

His Highness the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili community, founded the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) in 1�83. It is a part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), whose agencies work on all aspects of development – social, economic and cultural. While each agency pursues its own mandate, all of them work together within the overarching framework of the AKDN so that their different pursuits can interact and reinforce one another. The common goal is to help the poor achieve a level of self-reliance whereby they are able to plan their own livelihoods and help those even more needy than themselves. A central feature of the AKDN’s approach to development is to design and implement strategies in which its different agencies participate in particular settings. To pursue their mandates, AKDN institutions rely on the energy, dedication and skill of volunteers as well as remunerated professionals.

ABout AkrsP (indiA)

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) is a non-denominational, non-government development organisation. AKRSP (India) works as a catalyst for the betterment of rural communities by providing direct support to local communities to promote activities and develop models for sustainable natural resource use and development of human resources.

AKRSP (India) began its field operations in 1985 and has since become one of the larger grassroots NGOs in India. It has innovated and pioneered several efforts in areas such as participatory irrigation management, joint forest management, rain water harvesting, watershed development, preventing salinity ingress and alternative energy to empower rural women and marginalised communities.

AKRSP (India) is active in over 900 villages in four environmentally challenged and economically vulnerable regions of Gujarat: the tribal block of Bharuch – Narmada – Surat-Tapi, coastal salinity-affected Junagadh and the drought-prone Surendranagar. It has been four years since the organisation ventured into the remote and poor districts of Khandwa, Khargone, Barwani, Sehore and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh. In 2008, AKRSP (India) set up two offices in Bihar, namely at Pusa and Muzaffarpur.

HUMan REsOURCE dEvELOPMEnTBuilding the organisation for the future was the key focus in 2008. In its efforts to cope with the changes within and in the external world, AKRSP (India) defined its organisational values. Hence, two workshops on Values and Culture Building was organised for the senior staff. The entire process was facilitated by Dr Uma Jain, a consultant from Ahmedabad and Ganesh Anantharaman, a consultant from Bengaluru.


The workshops were aimed at creating awareness about personal values and practices and the gap between the two. At the end of the two workshops, AKRSP (India) identified its core values and decided to work on the alignment between individual and organisational values.

About 48 staff left AKRSP (India) while 67 new staff was recruited. This year, 18 people were recruited for the Bihar programme area.

AKRSP (India) decided to take some of its enthusiastic and well performing staff to Bihar so that the values of the organisation promoted in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh can be inculcated in its Bihar team also. Hence, few task-based placements for a period of one year for the Bihar unit were filled up by transfering existing staff.

CapaCIty BuIldIng

In 2008, 195 staff went through structured trainings. The capacity building activities can be classified into three broad categories:1. In-house trainings2. Visits to other NGOs3. Sending staff for external training programmes

in-house trainingThis year, 139 staff members were trained in a range of issues. A major training on the usage of McFinancer software for recording, analysing and monitoring of the finances of the Self Help Groups was conducted for the community organisers and programme specialists.

visits to other NGOs/Organisations• The agriculture specialists and the Microsoft staff members visited the Microsoft

Research project named Digital Green in Bengaluru.• The Gir periphery management team visited the Jim Corbett National Park to see

their work with communities living in the protected area.

external training programmesA total of 49 staff was deputed for trainings. The Chief Executive Officer went to the Springfield Centre for Business in Development Limited, United Kingdom, to attend a course on Making Markets Work.


ManaGEMEnT sYsTEMsTo streamline institutional systems, the focus was more on setting up of systems for regular and smooth flow of programmatic information between different locations and offices of AKRSP (India). A Wi-fi system was installed in the central office at Ahmedabad to enhance internet connectivity.

ORGanisaTiOnaL sTRUCTUREAKRSP (India) employs 254 people. They are stationed at the central office at Ahmedabad and 24 field offices in Netrang, Gadu, Sayla and Madhya Pradesh. Out of them 18 people are stationed in Pusa and Muzaffarpur in Bihar. They are mainly development professionals with a small complement of support staff.

AKRSP (India) has three regional offices in Gujarat, one in Madhya Pradesh and two in Bihar. Netrang (Bharuch), Gadu (Junagadh) and Sayla (Surendranagar) have established campuses and the offices in Pusa, Muzaffarpur and Khandwa are in rented spaces. These are known as Spear Head Teams (SHTs). Each SHT is responsible for a few clusters.

The SHTs play an integral role in evolving the regional strategies. Most of the professionals here are designated as Programme Specialists (PSs), who provide technical inputs on specialised issues. Spear Head Teams are led by Area Managers (AMs). There are four Regional Support Officers (RSOs) responsible for each SHT to provide support from the Central Office.

The organisation implements its programmes through field professionals designated as Community Organisers (COs), Programme Assistants (PAs) and Development Organisers (DOs). They work in field teams known as clusters. AKRSP (India) has 18 such field teams (14 in Gujarat and four in MP). COs are meant to organise communities in various village institutions and PAs provide technical inputs. These teams are lead by Cluster Managers.

For the Microsoft project, which in many ways is different from the Natural Resource Management interventions, a separate structure has been set up which is integrated at the field level. The IT coordinator and Project Manager supervise the project and interface with the Aga Khan Foundation (India) and Microsoft. Each SHT has a Field Coordinator who interfaces between project staff and cluster managers and also supervises the project at the field level.


At each Community Based Technology Learning Centre (CTLC), there is an IT trainer and a community coordinator. The IT trainer acts as the technical resource person while the community coordinator shares the project with the community and also focuses on making CTLC an Information Resource Centre.

The set up in Bihar will have a different structure. It will be guided by the central office in Ahmedabad. However, the team will be headed by a programme leader who will be stationed at Bihar itself. The recruitment process for the core team is in process.

Outreach activities have a separate staffing structure. AKRSP (India) Services, the training and capacity unit, has six full-time staff at the two training centres and at Ahmedabad. In addition, there is a full-time communication officer at Ahmedabad and a radio programme specialist in Netrang.

Development work from the central office at Ahmedabad is carried out by Development Associates (DAs), who work as ‘thematic leaders’ responsible for different sectoral and sub-sectoral activities. The central office also hosts a Research and Monitoring Unit led by a manager. A Chief Executive Officer (CEO), appointed for a fixed tenure, heads the organisation.


orgAnisAtionAl structure

spearhead teams area managers

programme specialistsctlc coordinators

finance & administration

developmentsupport team programmatic support r & m, communication liaisonresource mobilisationrso

organisation support team

finance administration

h r d functional & logistics

central office chief executive officer

cluster offices cluster managers

community organisorsprogramme assistants

it trainers

communities

board of directors chairperson

outreachnirmala water

testing laboratory - sayla,Parivartan radio,

communication and documentation unit.aKRsP(i) services:

Anil c shahtribal livelihood resource centre - netrang,

dr kamla chowdhry community training and learning centre - sayla,

donors

media and communication

institutions

othernetworks

other ngos

government agencies

academic institutes

private sector


Board of dIreCtorsnasser m munjee chairpersonIsher j ahluwalia director ela Bhatt directorWajahat habibullah directorpradip Khandwalla directorKasim ali f merchant directors B ravi pandit director anwer ali B rayani directormadhu sarin directorvenu srinivasan director Bakul virani directorapoorva oza secretary

audit Committeeanwer ali B rayani chairpersonBhupinder gupta members B ravi pandit memberapoorva oza memberalok Krishna member secretary

personnel Committeepradip Khandwalla chairpersonela Bhatt memberKasim ali f merchant memberapoorva oza memberC g Koshy secretary

auditorsstatutory auditors m/s haribhakti & co.Internal auditors m/s B munjal & co.

Central Office

Ceo Apoorva oza

programme staffAlka mehta* Ashok guptadhriti Bhattacharjeej P tripathikumar ujjwal m s vahoranandini Arorashiji Abrahamumesh desaiAshok vyassuchi dave

research & monitoring unitshailja kishore jyotirmayee Acharya*

admin & accounts Alok krishnaAmit shahshilpa vyasc g koshydhaval shah sunil Balolkar

support staffc h nair dhulsinh chauhanjija thomas*leela nairmadhubhai Patelmita ranjuwala Parbatsinh Pawarrashmikant limbachiasafiya yusufsajjan sinhsilvy john swapna Pramodvijaysinh rathod

* These staff members left the organisation in 2008.

** These staff members were transferred in 2008.

Gadu

sht programme staffmahendra k Patel manojitsinh gohilramesh sapariasubodh kumar

admin & accounts Praful damodararafiq ghumarashailesh Barot vijay Bhalani

support staffBakul joshi shantilal Bamania vazirkhan Pathan

maliya cluster staffBhayabhai Patatdeepak jargela** (trans-ferred to Muzaffarpur)gatur solankimanisha multanimansukh olakia** (trans-ferred to Khandwa)rahulkumar m rami sarang daki

veraval cluster staffkirit fuletranakkum vajesinhPrakash P Amal*

talala cluster staffAjit jadav Ashwin joshichandrakant Bhoraniaimran Balim ** (transferred to Pusa)Pradip Parmar

mangrol cluster staffPankaj joshigovind l chavdakalusinh k moriketankumar joshilakhman dodiya*Prabhatsinh mori*ramesh vasiasudha rathodvejanand jogal yunus m Bhata*

staff lIst

CtlC staffjitendra Bhattmahipat kumarPunita ozaravji chavdasangita sagarshakil mansurisuraj Bamaniyavijay kamani

sayla

sht programme staffPankaj dave Ashish Patel.* chhaya sinh* mansukh gadhiaPravra deshpandet t mehta ** (transferred to Netrang)

Cheese plant staffAmbrish dubey** (transferred to Central Office)Binay kumar sandeep dubey*soma dhoriya

Water-testing labhardik takoliyaraju rathod

training centre staffgoha l faga

admin & accounts dhruvesh vaidyaPritesh vaidyasreeniwas madhavanusha srivastava

support staffdevji koshiyaPola ghanghalshivram gondaliya

sayla cluster staffvitthal kakaniyahira valajigna makwana*lavji Parmarrasik metaliyaveena jadav


Chotila 1 cluster staffkeshu kothariyaAmrut Babariasuresh Patel

drinking water unitnaresh mataliyanatwar khawadiyashailesh mehta

Chotila 2 cluster staffdashrath walandBhagwan Pateldheeru valadurlabh kamariyaharsukh kaneriamahesh Patelmansukh virugamameram dangarPravin rohitsurekha Patel

Kamlapur cluster staffnatwar viraniArti joshihemu dodiya*mahesh Boricha naren metaliyaPrabhulal koringa

CtlC stafframesh nadodaAjaykumar d PrajapatiAnita kotadiya* devang trevedijayashri s Parmar* nitin upadhyayshailesh kamariyavimal dave*virendra Basiya

netrang

sht programme stafframan PatelBharat Patelfarooq g Panj hasmukh Pateljivraj sutariakesharilal malav ** (transferred to Khandwa)natwarsinh gohilPradhumn jagtap*sujit k mon*thakarsi davra

training centre staffdinesh chabadia*mahendra B Patel narendrasinh yadav

radio programmenidita joshi

admin & accounts charul Panchalchetan nandhaPrabhakarsinh zalavinay trivedi*

support staffAfzalkhan Pathannaran PatelPragji makwana

mandvi cluster staffdhaneshwar PandyaAruna Patelishwar chaudhrijaimati desaikishor kamanilalit koradia** (transferred to Gadu)mayur k Abhangimayur l chauhanramesh shaparia

dediapada cluster staffrajesh k PatelAnila vasavakanji taviyadkanu Patelmanoj v Patelmeena solankinitin sutariya*ratilal n Pateltulsi kharadi

sagbara cluster staffsajan Prajapatichandan Pateliya*dalsukh vasava jitendra A Prajapati*navinchandra vankarnitesh P rathodrasik chaudhari*suresh Patelvishu j vasava

netrang cluster staffmulji h Pateldinesh c Patelharji solankineeta Patel

naswadi cluster staffBhupendra janiramesh taviyad

rajpipla Cluster staff Pravin jadavParsottam vankarsuresh m chaudhrari

savIsanjay vasava

ptg mandvikantilal h makwanaAnil P Patelgovind gadhehemraj Bairwa

CtlC staffjairam rabari daxa chaudharykanan h BhavsarPallavi soniParesh vasavaParul chaudhary*Praful tadvirajesh Patelrana makwanasalim kadiwalasmita Patel

Madhya Pradesh

sht programme staffkrishna mohan sinhaAshok minzejanmejaya mishrajayesh mundhava*kalpana ragarimahendra sonimanov maity*ramesh makwanaramkrishna mahajan

admin & accounts govind singh goutamsandeep joshisurendra sharma

pandhana cluster stafflata chouhanAnil khare*Aparna Payal*Pramood kumarsashi kumar sharma*suman sinha*vikas shukla*yogesh malviya

dedtalai cluster staffkiran PatelAlok subhash chowkseygourav gavshindekamlesh Pancholemanish Bhavsar*Pradeep tiwariranjana gangrade*sunayana inglevijay khernarvikram Pandey*

rajpur cluster staffgiriraj shah*nilesh sharmarao saheb Parmar vijay chouhan

Khalwa cluster staffnishant Agrawalchandrarekha malviyagurprit kaur Bhatiasanjeev tiwari

niwali cluster staffsantosh Patidarsagarmal Parasher sajeed mansoori

Zhirniya Clustershailendra kumarAkhand Parariya* santosh Patidarsantosh Awase

Ichavarshadma khan

CtlC staffkamal kishor Bhalrayroshni gangradevivek maheshvery

Bihar

pusan ganesanArvind toppogunjan kumarjoyshree mondalmanoj kumar khuntianiraj kumar singhrajani Bhushanrajeev kumar singhram kumar Paswanshanta kr choudharysuresh hembromsweta mohanyashwant kumar

muzaffarpur rajesh jhaAnand kumar sharmaBharat BhushanPriyadarshi Priyamrahul kumarrajiv ranjan rai

62:

partners - fInanCIal support

Aga Khan Foundation (under the EC co-financed SCALE project)

Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project

Ford Foundation

Sir Ratan Tata Trust

Sir Dorabji Tata Trust

Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO)

Asian Development Bank-Japanese Fund for Poverty Reduction (ADB-JFPR)

Irrigation Department, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

Gujarat Water Supply and Sanitation Board (GWSSB)

Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation (GAIC)

Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), Gujarat

Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL)

Microsoft Corporation

CARE INDIA

NABARD

WaterAid

PArtners in our endeAvour

researCh partners

Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)

Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR)

Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal (IIFM)

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Development Support Centre (DSC)

Towards Action And Learning, Bhopal (TAAL)

Centre for Environmental and Social Concerns (CESC)

Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN)

CommunICatIon partner

Charkha

netWorKs

Aga Khan Development Network

Sajjata Sangh

Pravah

Charkha

Working Group for Women and Land Ownership

Annexure

:63Annexure

Central offICeAga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)9-10 th Floors, Corporate House,Opp. Dinesh Hall, Off Ashram Road,Ahmedabad 380 009.Phone: 079-5531 2451/61, 2754 1678Fax: +91-79-5531 2471Email: [email protected]

Addresses

BharuCh-narmada-surat-tapI offICe Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)Movi Road, Netrang 393 130Dist. BharuchPhone: 02643-282 127, Fax: +91-2643-283 331Email: [email protected]

junagadh offICe Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)Sherbaug Khera Road, Gadu 362 225Dist. JunagadhPhone: 02870-285 118/19, fax: +91-2870-285 118Email: [email protected]

surendranagar offICeAga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)Near Shree Raj Shobhag Ashram,Sayla 363 430Dist. SurendranagarTelefax: 02755-280 668Email: [email protected]

madhya pradesh offICe Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)HIG-7, Scholar Den School Road,Dindayalpuram Colony,Khandwa 450 001, Madhya Pradesh.Phone: 0733-224 9292Email: [email protected]

BIhar offICes Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)Hanuman Nagar Lane 1, Circuit House Road, Near NCC Camp,Muzaffarpur- 842 001.Phone no: 06212-220151Email: [email protected]

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)Opp.Police Station, WainiNr Khudiram Bose Pusa Railway Station Post Waini, Dist. Samastipur 848131Phone: 06274-283 32Email: [email protected]

© AkrsP (india). january 2009Images: media matrix and AkrsP (india) staff | design & layout: solution one designworks | printing: Print vision Pvt. ltd., Ahmedabad.Printed in India, using 130 gsm and 250 gsm Sinar Mas Matt stock.

There are those who enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to

improve their circumstances. Unless they can be touched with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only sink into apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us, who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.

His Highness the Aga KhanIndia, 1983

in an effort to transform this thought into action, Aga khan rural support Programme (india) has started focusing its activities on improving the quality of life of the poorest communities. A majority of them are landless and migrate to neighbouring areas in search of employment. As the natural resource management interventions necessarily deal with communities who have partial or complete ownership of these resources, the poor landless communities are encouraged to set up alternate sources of livelihood.

in the khandwa programme area, goat rearing is a key income generating activity. similarly, a household in gadu programme area was assisted in setting up a flour mill. setting up grocery stores in villages has proved to be another very feasible source of income generation. rearing animals for milk and setting up milk cooperatives have helped many families in all the three programme areas of gujarat earn additional income.

though the process started few years back, it is slowly gaining momentum and increasing efforts are being made to empower the poor for collective action so that they can rise above their poverty and make their presence felt in mainstream development processes.

A n n u A l r e P o r t 2 0 0 8

annual report 2008 for aga khan rural support (india)

Documents

akrsp india spreads

akrsp indias

new programmes

year of reflection

r e p o r t

scalei n d i

samastipur districts

sehore districts