Economic Growth India Project #1900

Empowering Villages in Rural India

by Seva Mandir

Project Report | Jul 10, 2017
HOW FEDERATIONS HAVE STARTED CHANGING LIVES

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Online Donor Communication

Village Institutions Program (VIP) of Seva Mandir aims to create and nurture platforms where communities can take responsibility for their own development. This is achieved through creating Village level committees and training them. These are re-elected every 3 years and are responsible for demanding new projects from government as well as non government organisations. They also monitor efficient and transparent running of various development activities in their villages and help in providing equal benefit opportunities to all. Seva Mandir is currently associated with 589 such committees. Recently the organisation has started organising these village level committees into federations. Around 15-20 such committees come together as one Zonal federation and 5-6 such zonal federations merge into one Block level Federation. One such Block federation has been recently formed in Kherwara block in March 2017. This is the topmost hierarchy currently and is gradually taking over the development process from Seva Mandir. The federation has representatives from the region and their main objective is to identify, align with and work for common issues in their region. For this purpose they liason with various government as well as non government agencies to arrange support for their concern. We are into a process of decentralisation to the federations.

In the last three months Block Federation Kherwara conducted several meetings where the representatives discussed and felt a strong need to work on the issue of severe scarcity of drinking water in some of the villages. To identify crucial needs, the representatives themselves took the responsibility to visit and conduct surveys in different villages. They enlisted around 60-70 proposals where work on drinking water facilities like repair and digging of hand pumps, common wells, providing tankers etc. was required. They got these proposals enlisted in Gram Panchayat (Local Government Body) and demanded their support and cooperation. For coping with extremely severe conditions, they also forwarded the proposals to Sub District levels to the BDO and ensured their implementation. As a result of their efforts, half of the proposals were followed upon instantly by the respective Gram Panchayats within the same month and the rest are being followed upon. This has by far benefitted residents of around 10 villages which were facing extreme shortage of water.

We would like to thank you for letting us meet our commitments at the field. All this has been possible due to your consistent support and trust in us.

We are happy to share with you that we had recently participated in the Global Giving Photo Contest 2017 and our photo secured 1^st position in the Hope category. All thanks to friends like you who had voted for our photo and helped us win the contest.

We are also excited to share with you that, on Wednesday July 12^th, GlobalGiving will be matching donations in the GG Rewards Bonus Day. On this day donations will be matched by 50% and new recurring donations will be matched by 100%.

Every small bit, no matter how small helps us reach closer to our goal. We do hope that you will continue to support our project. This matching fund campaign will help your contribution go deeper.

Remember, together we can make a difference for these villages.

Best Wishes,

Atul Lekhra and Seva Mandir Team
Follow us on www.facebook.com/sevamandir

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Apr 10, 2017
Moving Towards Self Reliance: Bhamti Village

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Online Donor Communication

Village committee doing quality check and weighing

Strong village institutions are the nucleus for all of Seva Mandir’s work. For around 50 years, Seva Mandir has slowly built its alternative village governments into spaces where people are able to participate actively and ethically in the decisions which affect their lives. Our 582 Village Development Forums and 650 Village Development Funds manage local development projects, co-fund projects and act as pressure groups on the state. At a deeper level, they build community ownership of the development process, unite communities and ensure the long-term sustainability of Seva Mandir’s work. One such example is that of Bhamti village which is located in Udaipur district in Rajasthan, India. Seva Mandir’s association with Bhamti began in late 1980s after which a lot of interventions were gradually taken up as village development activities by Seva Mandir. These include pastureland development, water harvesting structure, soil and water conservation, agriculture activities, preschool centre and non formal education centres. They have a village development fund of Rs. 12 Lakhs (approx. $ 18,400) out of which around 10 lakhs (approx. $15,300) are in fixed deposit account.

There are 258 resident households. Most of the population comprises of farmers with small landholdings mainly dependent on rainfed agriculture. Major crops include maize, wheat and pulses like pigeon pea (locally called as tuar). Usually most of the agriculture produce is for self consumption. However, in the recent years, Seva Mandir’s interventions in Bhamti have resulted in better ground water situations and now some farmers have started taking up tuar on bigger scale and selling off some production of their tuar to the local markets. But there have been difficulties in individual selling of the produce due to the heavy transportation charges as well as the discrepancies in rate by the shrewd traders. So the village development committee in Bhamti decided to do collective marketing of tuar this year using their village development fund.

They took full responsibility for the marketing and started procurement in January 2017. After searching all beneficial options in nearest Markets and traders they found that the rates of tuar lentil mill (another Seva Mandir’s initiative) situated in Kotra block was higher than other nearby options. Hence they decided that they will purchase tuar from individual farmers at local market rate and sell it to the lentil mill. Hence, the price difference will also meet out the related costs including labour and transportation while the remaining amount i.e. the net profit will be deposited into the village development fund thus leading to income in common fund along with benefitting the farmers at village level.

A total of 5,118 kgs. of tuar was procured by the village development committee alone at the local rate of Rs. 38 per kg and sold at the rate of Rs. 40.5 per kg. Farmers also now feel contented and confident that they have received a good price within their own village and payments with full transparency and accountability. This story is a good example of Seva Mandir’s continuous efforts on ensuring social as well as financial stability at village levels.

We would like to thank you so much for letting us meet our commitments at the field. All this has been possible due to your consistent support and trust in us.

We would love to hear from you. For any feedback / suggestions, please write to me at atul.lekhra@sevamandir.org

Remember, together we can make a difference for these villages.

Thank you

Atul Lekhra and Seva Mandir Team

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Jan 8, 2017
Thank You for Bringing Hopes in this New Year

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Online Donor Communication

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