PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD
 April 2002 to March 2003

Gulbarga Project started with and continues to work on participatory and integrated development of watersheds; hence, it carries the acronym PIDOW. Its main donor remains the Swiss Development Co-operation. However, the current year has seen some important changes. SDC’s support for watershed activities concluded. A new proposal was approved from SDC – based on the Project’s extensive experience in watershed development programmes – to consolidate the Project’s training centre and activities in the direction of making it into a CIDOR (Centre for Institutional Development and Organisational Reforms). Thus, the role of the Training Centre as a self-managed facility engaged in the capacity building of other institutions to enhance their knowledge and skills to promote participatory and integrated development of watersheds is strengthened. This new project has been approved for two years, starting from April 2002 and ending in March 2004. 

Watershed Development

With a staff strength of 14, the Project’s continued field level activities in watershed development are currently supported by The Zilla Panchayath of Gulbarga and by NABARD. The Project’s operational areas extend in the talukas of Gulbarga, Aland, Sedam, and Chincholi. With the Zilla Panchayath it is implementing watershed works under the DPAP (Drought Prone Areas Programme). The earlier accepted target of 3,000 ha. Comprising 6 micro-watersheds is nearing completion. In the current year, a fresh programme has been approved for 2,000 ha.

Under NABARD, the coverage is of 1,000 ha. Thus, totally the Project is newly working on 3,000 ha. While withdrawing from the earlier 3,000 ha.

Local Level Institutions 

The Project is working with 338 self help affinity groups, 20 micro-watershed associations and 7 federations of self help affinity groups. It is collaborating with the Karnataka State Women’s Development Corporation on the Rural Women’s Empower- ment and Development Programme, also known as Swashakthi. Groups formed under Swashakthi number 100, and there is a strong training component provided for under the programme. 

DINFED, the District NGO Federation, has been an initiative of the Project. It currently includes 22 NGOs and meets on a monthly basis to strategies and act collectively on relevant issues.

Community Health 

With SOSVA (Society for Support to Voluntary Agencies) the Project continued to work on the Reproductive and Child Health Programme but this has now concluded. It is also partnered with them on a medicinal plants’ promotion programme under a project called Promotion of Indian Systems of Medicine. Under Swashakthi, the training of women includes a well-defined programme for the training of village level workers leading on to the further sharing of health-related knowledge by the health workers to the members of self help affinity groups.

Training Activities 

The training centre is continuing to respond to requests from other institutions, besides conducting training programmes for project-facilitated local level institutions. Bankers from Maharashtra used to dominate the list of participants until recently, since they were engaged in the Maharashtra Rural Credit Programme and could benefit from MYRADA’s experiences. However, the bulk of this training has now been completed. The centre is now working to complete the Swashakthi training targets.

Apart from conducting training programmes, the training centre facilities are also made available to other institutions on request.