A panoramic view of vegetable cultivation undertaken in middle reaches of the watershed. 

School dropouts, particularly girl children, are seen in a camp organized to understand and address them with a view to exploring solutions to the problem.

PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD  April 2002 to March 2003

The project presently covers around 103 villages in Kollegal Taluk of the newly formed Chamarajanagar District. With a staff strength of 23 and operational headquarters in Hannur, major activities are focussed in the villages of Ramapura and Hannur areas. More recently, a cluster of villages in MM Hills has been included and the project has withdrawn from a cluster of around 33 villages in Odeyarpalya, where it was earlier working and which is now being supported by a Resource Centre. The Project is an active promoter/member of a District NGO Federation. It also runs a fully equipped Training Centre in Odeyarpalya.

Major Funding Partners

• The Huthur Hill Area Development Programme funded by Novib is in its second five year phase which ends in June 2003.

• Misereor funded the Huthur Participatory Development of Micro-Watersheds Programme Phase IV, which ended on 31.03.2003.

• The Uddanur Watershed Programme is being funded by NABARD, covering a micro-watershed of around 500 hectares.

• The Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Training Programme and establishment of RCH Resource Centres is supported by the Population Foundation of India.

• Besides the above, funds are locally mobilised from the District Zilla Panchayat, VHAK and other resource agencies for various small programmes.]

Major Focus Areas

• Promoting and strengthening local level institutions, including self-help affinity groups, watershed management associations, and federations for women’s development, watershed management and micro- credit. 

• Capacity building of community institutions and other development practioners through training and exposure programmes and developing community resource persons.

• Interventions in health : school and village sanitation, reproductive and child health

• District Approach strategy through networking of development institutions and practitioners.

• Interventions in biomass and alternate energy sources.

Local Level Institutions

The Project is working with 319 self help affinity groups, 32 watershed associations, 12 self help group federations, 2 watershed federations, 10 school development and management committees, and 16 village forest committees. Besides, it is facilitating the development of empowered Grama Sabhas in 5 villages on a pilot basis, and has recently promoted one Community Resource Centre in the Odeyarpalya area. 227 self help groups have been linked to banks and 28 have been linked for credit to Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services. Together, they have availed credit in excess of Rs.1.7 crores, with 100% on time repayment against demand.

As a measure of relief from two consecutive years of drought, the SAGs identified around 700 poorest families and each was supported to buy ragi and fodder upto a value of Rs.1,000 per family.

Watershed Development

•  32 watershed development institutions are functioning in the project area. In all the watershed areas, individual land treatment activities are being taken up on loan basis, though common land treatment is still financed by grants, with some contributions from the community. As at 31.3.2003, the Associations have recovered over Rs.2,600,000, which they are revolving among their members for farm related activities.

•  The NABARD-supported watershed programme is in the Capacity Building Phase, and work is in progress on 70 hectares. The interesting feature of this programme is the role being played by the Project in influencing policy at NABARD level.

•  In all its watershed programmes, the Project emphasises sustainable agriculture practices, natural regeneration and resource management, organic farming, integrated pest management, biomass production and vermi-composting. Water harvesting and management are also emphasised through applying the 5 water strategy approach, under which, roof water harvesting, farm ponds, water saving devices like sprinklers, rain guns and drip systems are installed. Besides this, food security through post harvest technologies (scientific grain storage) is also being promoted.

Health and Sanitation

The Project is a key training resource in the State for RCH training. As a credit plus activity, RCH messages are being disseminated to SAG members and villagers with the involvement of ANMs, ICDS workers, PHC health educators and the project staff. A key component is the training of RCH Community Resource Persons, who in turn train all the SAGs in every village, who monitor the RCH target groups (pregnant women, children below 5 years, adolescent girls and boys, eligible couples) in their respective localities. During the year all the SAGs completed training and are monitoring the RCH programme with the help of the ANM and anganwadi teachers. Wall paintings, poster displays, quiz in schools, RCH camps, etc. were also conducted. The Project also facilitates the SAGs to lend for toilet construction and cooking gas purchase. Out of 1,675 household toilets constructed so far, 286 were constructed in the year and 50 LPG connections out of 200 connections were obtained in the year.

Education

Tuitions centres were established to coach students sitting for the public exams (7th and 10th standard); as a result some schools got 100% results. Children’s learning centres are run for dropouts to help them to read and write and also to help at least some children rejoin school. Besides this the project is motivating the school staff and parents to build up a fund in the schools to earn enough interest to cover the cost of special classes for children attending public exams. 8 schools have started building up a fund for this purpose.

Livelihood opportunities and non-farm activities

In the current year, 79 families were assisted for weaving, 5 families for silk reeling, and 7 families for bakery and sweets production and sales. Besides, more than 500 families have been assisted through SAGs to improve existing enterprises like petty shops, tailoring, bangle selling, cycle shop, tea shops, masala, pappad and pickle production and sales, vegetable vending, house hold utensils business and others. Educated youth were assisted to undergo various professional skills’ training like driving and computer operating.

Training Activities

The Myrada Davinson Training Centre located at Odeyarapalya is developing well into a CIDOR. Efforts are on to make the Centre self-sufficient. From the beginning of the year, a Training Director was made responsible for the Centre, supported by a Training Officer. The centre provides trainings and experience sharing exposure in the following areas :

•  Self Help Affinity Group Concept and Management

•  Watershed development and Institution Building

•  Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

•  Reproductive and Child Health (RCH)

•  Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

•  Moderation Techniques

•  Participatory Impact Monitoring (PIM)

During the year, over 400 trainings were held for CBOs of the project area. 97 trainings were conducted for 2,357 persons from other agencies over 343 days.

District Approach Strategy and Networking

The Project played a promoting role in forming a district level NGOs forum. 16 NGOs are currently members and the forum meets every month. It provides the opportunity to NGOs to share experiences and best practices that can be replicated at district level. The two major issues being addressed by the forum are :

1. Effective SAG development

2. Effective focus on health.

*********