Impression 5th issue

Leadership Foundation A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

From the Editor’s Desk…

We are pleased to release

fifth issue of Impression. We appreciate fellows those who have contributed and made this publication possi-ble. Jayanto has put his hard-pressed time and ef-forts in not only collecting, mobilizing news and infor-mation but also in organiz-ing the articles and news in order.

RH fellows Resource Centre would be completing more then three years in March 2011. IIE extended its full support financially and oth-erwise to make IRAC a sus-tainable initiative and cre-ated a platform for RH fel-lows of Bihar and Jhark-hand. Publication of news-

letter is one of its activities.

Now the challenge in front of us is to continue with the Resource Centre initiative and also let impression continue as a fellow‘s news carrier. The core team of Resource Centre proposes to collabo-

rate with other networks to continue and expand its networking efforts by en-gaging institutions like PHRN, XISS, XLRI, VSO, ARC, ICOMP and few more similar institutions. We trust we would have many workable ideas and sustain the Resource Cen-tre initiative with more and

active engagement of RH leaders. We have examples of successful initiative of sustaining community lead-ership program through a

Content

National Leaders‘ Meet 1

Learning for Success: 2

Family Accountability.. 2

Fellow‘s News 2

Leadership Training... 3

Release of Directory 3

Sky is the only limit... 4

A Leader of the soil 5

National Leaders‘ Meet 6

Mini Grant 7

News Paper Clipping 8

Editorial Group: Debashish Sinha Murari M. Choudhury

Contributors:

John Amit Bodra M. M Raja Paromita Chowdhury Tushar Kant Upadhyay Shubhra Dwivedy Smita Gupta V. P. Sharma Layout Design: Jayanto Choudhury

January. 2011, Issue # 5

Acknowledgement

Supported by

For Internal Circulation Only

networking framework called UDDAN initiative. We quote ―Someone has to be successful, someone has to write the next bestseller, someone has to be number one, someone has to be on the best, why not you! As

the famous poem goes, ―You have all that the greatest of men have had, two hands, and two feet.‖Let us be the best of collective and show the road map to the state of its RH solutions with mean-ingful collaborations and engagements. We promise to publish next IMPRESSION by June 2011

which would carry the sto-ries of how we have made the Resource Centre sustain-able. Thank you.

Participants of National Leaders‟ Meet 2010

The most awaited National Meet of RCH leaders held on 15 to 17 December 2010 at the Vedic Village Resort, Kolkata. With the objectives of reflecting on

past, analyzing the present and planning for the future, the desired outcomes of the meeting was that:

* Fellows have met with each other and reconnected with the network of leader-ship fellows. * Fellows have gone

through a reflective process of their 10 year association with the leadership pro-gram; shared the i r

strengths as leaders through showcasing their work and has created a pathway for future actions. * Fellows are inspired and

aspire to lead the process of improving health status in Bihar and Jharkhand without external support.

Cont. in pg - 6

National Leaders‟ Meet 2010

Page 2 Issue # 5, Jan. 2011

ernment runs several mi-cronutrient supplementa-tion programmes in IFA and Vitamin A; nutrition pro-grammes are also con-ducted through Anganwadi and Sub-Centres for preg-nant and lactating women, adolescent girls and chil-

dren below the age of 6 years. Despite that, the Rapid Household Survey (1998) found that coverage of IFA tablets was very low, ranging from 1.9% to 32.5%; regular consump-tion of these tablets was even lower at 14.6%. The reason for such low compli-ance was lack of awareness of the importance of IFA in

foetal growth. Nutritional Anthropology: Many cultural anthropolo-gists and sociologists who are interested in food and food systems examine the interrelationships of social, cultural, and economic fac-tors as they relate to food use. In contrast, nutritional

Jharkhand is a tribal domi-nated state with poor irriga-tion; almost 75% of the dis-tricts have been classified as being deprived of water. This, combined with other socio-economic factors, has led to extreme food insecu-rity in the state especially among people living Below Poverty Line (BPL). The gov-

anthropology refers to a field of study at the inter-face of anthropology and nutritional sciences focused particularly on understand-ing how the interactions of social and biological factors affect the nutritional status of individuals and popula-

tions. This does not mean that all research in nutri-tional anthropology in-volves measurement of nutritional status, and many studies in this field do not include biological outcomes in their research design. However, they dif-fer from studies in the "anthropology of food" be-cause their basic aim is to

understand how the physi-cal well-being of humans is affected by their food sys-tems, while cultural anthro-pologists and sociologists analyze food use in order to understand how social and cultural systems work. the types of research under-taken by nutritional anthro-pologists can be classified

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

into the following main categories: (1) socio-cultural processes and nu-trition; (2) social epidemiol-ogy of nutrition; (3) cul-tural and ideational sys-tems and nutrition; (4) physiological adaptation, population genetics, and

nutrition; and (5) applied research for nutrition pro-grams. This paper can safely be placed under the fifth cate-gory i.e. applied research for nutrition programs. The paper is based on secon-dary data and primary field work in Koderma district of Jharkhand. The purpose of

the paper is to report and evaluate the nutrition pro-grammes run by the gov-ernment of Jharkhand and suggest mitigation strategy for its success.

- Tushar Kant Upadhyay

- V. P. Sharma

Learning for Success: Converting the Unique into the Universal

The local community youth and the Socio Economic and Education Devel-opment Society (SEEDS) is striving hard to convince the rural tribal com-munities, particularly the parents and relatives of young girls and boys to

adhere to the minimum age at mar-riage. We are emerging successful in our efforts. In the last about two years no underage marriages have taken place in the 42 selected vil-lages where we are focusing our ef-forts. Thus in villages where under age marriages were a rule, now no parents are marrying their daughters before they attain 18 years of age nor are they getting daughters – in – law who are below this age.

Such households have been identified by the village adolescent groups and the Gram Shakti Yuva Manch members. Fur-ther, these households have been recog-

nized and the adolescent groups have fixed up a colourful paper board on the front door of the houses of these Champions of The Cause. Any passerby can know which are the households adhering

to the good practice of getting their wards married at the right age. The other paper boards that are fixed are for two important issues in our area, viz. educating all the children; abstinence from hadia/daroo (rice beer and alco-hol).

- Shubhra Dwivedy/ SEEDS

Ranchi University in asso-ciation with Indian An-thropological Society celebrated it’s golden ju-bilee in December ’10 and organized a conference in

Ranchi. Mr. Tushar Kant Upadhyay submitted this abstract and was selected for presentation.

Family Accountability Towards Daughters in Rural Areas

Fellow‟s News

Mr. Varun Kumar a RH fellow from Bihar, currently pursuing higher studies in University of Leeds, United Kingdom has written a book — ―Strengthening Governance of District Health Administra-tion in Bihar‖, which has been published by a German publisher ''Lambert Academic Publishing''. This book is available online and in a paperback form. Mr. Varun Kumar is in constant communication with network members and is connected with the work, regional network or LDM is undertaking.

For further details of the please follow the link — http://www.amazon.com/dp/384337158X/ref=nosim/?tag=yasni-20.

Page 3 Impression

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Supported by

Leadership Training for Change Agents

Training of Trainers pro-gram was organized by LDM program in collabora-tion with Women Develop-ment Corporation, Bihar State in which along with

WDC participants, five fel-lows had participated. These five fellows formed two groups - Bihar and Jharkhand group to take forward the leadership training. In this regard, Bihar group facilitated training on ―Leadership Development of Women

Leaders‖ organized by GPSVS at Muzaffarpur on Sep 5th - 7th 2010. The objective of the Train-ing was to develop leader-ship attitude among 20 women and reflects greater knowledge, capabilities and confidence.

Desired outcome of the training was: 1. Women leaders become self aware and have vision for themselves and their community 2. Explore the leadership

quality within them to im-bibe confidence in their delivery of services. 3 . Unders tand the strength, opportunity and aspiration of the commu-nity for better planning and implementation of projects.

Similarly, Jharkhand group facilitated a training on ―Leadership development of Frontline Health Work-ers‖ organised by TSFIF (Tata Steel Family Initia-

tive Foundation) at Jam-shedpur from 16th to 18th August 2010. Twenty Sahi-yas linked with project MANSI of TSFIF and four TSFIF staffs participated in the training. After receiving positive feedback and demand for

similar kind of trainings, Bihar group has launched training program named ―Leadership Training for Change Agents‖ from March 11th to 13th 2011 at Patna in association with Agragami India (An NGO based at Patna, Bihar). The training is planned in such

a way that junior and mid-dle level functionaries of NGOs based at Bihar, Jharkhand and nearby states get an opportunity to explore their leadership qualities. To spread the information about the pro-gram, printed brochure having detailed information

about the program was released during the Na-tional Meet and distributed to participants. The pro-gram is based on a busi-ness model and therefore participation is chargeable to cover the training cost. The program received

technical support from the IIE in designing the module of the program. For further details contact: [email protected]

In order to bring close con-tacts between RCH leaders and help them work collec-tively on the strategic RH issues, Fellows directory was released during the

recently held National Meet at Kolkata. The directory contains brief introduction about the program, its his-tory and information about RCH leaders like age group, gender, locations and core competencies.

Directory has the database of all leaders having infor-mation about their name, designation, organization affiliation, contact address, contact number and e-mail

id. The directory can be used to spread the infor-mation of RCH leaders and LDM program in different platforms with other stake-holders.

- John Amit Bodra/IIE

Leadership Training for Change Agents

Release of Directory

The front page of the bro-chure — “Leadership Train-ing for Change Agents”

Page 4

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Supported by

Impression

Mahila Samakhya is a pro-

gramme of MHRD, GOI for

women‘s equality. It was

launched in India in 1988 in

pursuance of the goals of the

New Education Policy-1986

and focused as a concrete

programme for the educa-

tion, empowerment and so-

cial inclusion of socially and

economically marginalized

women. The programme

started in undivided Bihar in

1992 under BEP. When

Jharkhand came into exis-

tence, the Mahila Samakhya

programme came under

JEPC. In September 2006 the

Jharkhand Mahila Samakhya

got registered under Society

Registration Act 1860 and

started functioning independ-

ently from June 2007. At

present MS programme is

being implemented in 11

educationally backward (EB)

districts covering 4098 vil-

lages of 71 EB blocks of

Jharkhand. For the empower-

ment of women Mahila

Samakhya work in 6 the-

matic issues viz. education,

health, legal, economy, par-

ticipation in local administra-

tion/PRI and federation.

All these brought great

changes in the lives of rural

women and the women

emerged as leaders and

represented their Sangha in

all level committees.

When they heard the an-

nouncement of Panchayat

election after a long period

of 32 years, their joy knew

no bound and they engaged

themselves in the prepara-

tion of Panchayat election

whole heartedly.

There are 407 contestants

from the groups of 11 dis-

tricts which in itself is very

encouraging numbers. If we

split into different categories

these are 184 for Mukhiya,

184 for Ward members 9 for

Zila parishad and 30 for

Panchayat committee.

These women coming from

11 different districts are

linked with the committees

called MS Sangha, which are

known by different names.

These groups work in six

broad agendas and women

empowerment is cross cut-

ting.

Their valuable and remark-

able decision to participate

in the election is a step for-

ward in decision making

process. Even traditional

decision maker called

Mukhiya, Manki Munda, Sar-

punch applauded the work

of sanghas and sometimes

stick on the decision given

by them on particular social

issues. MS Sangha woman

is an important stakeholder

and playing a key role in

implementation of village

development programme at

grass root level.

As PRI is one of the impor-

tant thematic areas of MS

activities and thus, right

from the beginning, even

before the announcement of

PRI election, the society had

tried to prepare the mind

set of Sanghas women for

upcoming and long awaited

election. The main objec-

tive of MS is participation in

political arena, local govern-

ance and decision making

for development.

Therefore, MS has created

awareness on Panchayat Raj

System amongst contestant

so that they could under-

stand its importance to be-

ing a part of the system. As

the result a formidable

women‘s brigade are filing

nomination in large scale

from MS covered blocks for

different position under

three tier Panchayati Raj

system.

Now women emboldened

step out from four walls

from their homes for the

first ever panchayat polls in

the state and making their

strong presence for 50 per

cent reserved seats for

them. They felt that time

has come to take the lead.

―I will not only contest but

will also win the poll and

work for holistic develop-

ment of our own pancha-

yat,‖ said by saghas

woman.

Having seen the their zeal,

confidence and interest in

PRI election, MSK coordi-

nated with line department

and agency to provide nec-

essary input to the contest-

ants.

After declaration of PRI

election in the state follow-

ing strategies have been

outlined:

1. Identification of MS

women as a Contestant

through public meeting

2. Orientation of Contestant

upon three tier panchayat

system.

3. Orientation of Contestant

for filing nomination at state

& district level.

4. Identification of women &

youth (male & female) as a

volunteer at block level for

state PRI election.

5. After compliance of MS

Contestant campaign starts

6. Training of Sangha &

Gram Sabha

7. Training of women

elected representative of MS

on PRI

8. Sensitization of male folk

Meanwhile MS convergence

with State MoPRI & RD de-

partment which ensures for

all necessary assistance

required by the MS will im-

mediately provide by the

department. In this connec-

tion, one workshop was or-

ganized at State Resource

Centre before nomination.

Field functionaries were

taught how to fill the nomi-

nation paper by a particular

contestant so that error free

nomination can be done.

Area wise problems were

shared by the participants

with UNDP experts (PRI &

RD Deprt.) and also asked

solution for the same. These

nomination awareness

workshops were again held

in 11 districts at district re-

flection meeting and aware

Sahyongini for better re-

sults.

Thus, 407 Sangha women

are presently appeared to

contest for various posts

under PRI election but at

the same time they find lot

of challenges in the field for

instance threatening from

political parties & nexales,

bribes and other social evil.

The first achievement is in

form of acceptance of all

nomination paper by com-

mission filed by members

associated with Mahila

Samakhya. A cadre of vol-

unteers developed were in

all 11 MS operated districts

to provide assistance to

these candidates. This assis-

tance includes preparation

before nomination, guiding

them for campaigning and

also thought for post elec-

tion involvements. Total 69

such information centres

have been formed in MS

covered areas.

Results are awaited, and

new history of women em-

powerment is going to be

written and then only the

dream of local government

and women in power will

come true, let us wait for

the best ....

- Smita Gupta/JMSS

“Sky is the only limit ...., Participation of members in Panchayat

Page 5

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Mr. Binod Kumar Ojha lives

in a small village - Raghu-nathpur of Buxar District, Bihar. He was elected as a Head of village panchayat and therefore famous by name ―Mukhiya Ji‖. As a social activist and head of village he has done numer-ous activities which brings a lot of respect and makes

him a real ―Mukhiya‖ of the village. He is running stitch-ing and coaching centre in Pokharaha village where 25 married and unmarried girls from nearby villages come to learn. They are mainly dropouts from the school or never attended the school. Mr. Ojha made the effort to

run this centre without any help from external sources. He mobilized the local re-sources for arranging the premise and sewing ma-chines. The premise is pro-vided by Guria Devi, a local resident of the village and also the member of Pancha-yat Samiti. The teacher and

helper are voluntarily giving their services. Even though the caste system is very strong in this part of the country, Mr. Ojha made an effort to bring the adoles-cent girls belonging to dif-ferent caste of the locality into a common place and give them a platform where

they can prepare for 8th Board Exams and also learn stitching which opens an option for their livelihood. In this initiative he faced lots of difficulties and also criti-cism but his inspiration and

strong commitment to-wards his society made his critic change their way of thinking and praises him now.

Mr. Binod Kumar Ojha is 37 years of age and an inter-mediate pass. His area of strength is Community Mo-bilization, RH and Pancha-yati Raj Institution. He was elected as Mukhiya in the year 2001 and he took it as an opportunity to work for the society who elected

him as a head of the Panchayat. During his tenure as a head of panchayat, villag-ers were visiting his house but due to casteism they were not allowed to sit in front. He gave same re-spect to all of them and

without any discrimination he heard their problems and tried to solve it by con-firming that the govern-ment services reach these poorest without any delay. He used newspaper as a tool to take forward his concern regarding the dis-crepancies in the imple-

mentation of government schemes and programme. In the year 2002 he be-came LDM fellow and dur-ing the fellowship training, he came in contact with rural development and re-productive health leaders from whom he got the in-

formation about the kind of their involvement in rural sector. This fellowship and interaction with other RH leaders helped him in di-recting his future action. During LDM selection and attending the national meeting his interaction

with many members of NGOs, doctors and service providers realized him that people are working in his area then why can not he. He saw NGOs as platform to do the social work and

fulfill his vision. And there-fore formed and got regis-tered and NGO under Soci-ety Registration Act 1860 in the name of ―Subham Rashtriya‖ in the year

2004. Through NGO he works on RH, health re-lated services and educa-tion. He is also running a computer centre where fee is waived off for poor stu-dents. Even though his NGO is not able to arrange any funds from donors, he has managed to mobilze

local resources for free medicines and treatment to poor and needy villagers, computer training to poor students and arrangement of drinking water in the market. As he belongs to village and not so educated he

found himself at very low status, not knowing much about development sector and technically and finan-cially behind other RH lead-ers. Therefore he tries to find mentor who can guide him and support him in respect of documentation, proposal writing, auditing,

etc. He found many men-tors in his life because he thinks that in every RH leaders there is something for him to take and learn. Other than running a cen-tre for education and stitching, activities he is carrying out through his organisation are:

Where he has formed Kishori mandal – 12 to 20 years, getting the educa-tion of computers and in between he tries to intro-duce the RH related issues and discuss with them. He

is using this centre strate-gically to induce the RH related information to the adolescent children.

Formed an SHG and linked

it with bank.

Gives information related to Health, AIDS and Sex

Education. From time to time he also organises medical health camps and distributes free medicines to the poor vil-lagers. His plan for next five year is to get funds for the sustainability of his NGO and to increase the

outreach to many other poor and marginalized sec-tion of the society. Includ-ing the issues like health, education he wants to give more attention to the proper implementation of Government schemes and programme and its aware-ness generation among

village folks so that the poor people can reap the benefits. In a humble at-tempt towards reducing maternal death in Brah-mapur block, he provides his personal vehicle on a very nominal charge to any needy family if there is an emergency during delivery

of child.

Issue # 5, Jan. 2011

Mr. Binod Kumar Ojha — A Leader of the soil

Centre for Computer Education

Mahila mandal

Yuva Mandal of Married and unmarried men

RH Fellow, Mr. Avijeet Kumar of Shantidoot, Bi-harsharif, received the Rashtriya Vikas Ratan Award on 17 February 2011. This award is given

by ‗The Economic for Health and Education Growth, New Delhi‘, a national institute promoting social growth. The award was given for the services he and his or-ganization has been provid-ing in health and education for last 19 years in Bihar. He was one among the two persons selected from Bihar for the prestigious award.

Page 6

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Supported by

Impression

National Leaders‟ Meet 2010 National Leaders‟

Meet 2010 Continued from pg - 1

The total number of partici-

pants was 74 which included

fellows from all over the

country, IIE staff, donors,

resource persons and other

stakeholders. The highlights

of the meeting were:

* The meeting was designed

and managed by the fellows.

Four teams were constituted

where fellows volunteered to

be the part of the team. The

teams were:

1. Design Team for designing

the sessions of the meeting.

2. Travel and Hospitality

Team for managing the logis-

tics.

3. Operations Management

Team for smooth implemen-

tation of meeting as per de-

sign, ensure active participa-

tion and manage the logistics

for each sessions.

4. Cultural Team for the time

management of the meeting

and for coordinating the in-

formal sessions.

* Printed form of the Fellow‘s

Directory which is the data-

base of fellows was released

during the meeting and dis-

tributed to the participants.

* A film on LDM was shown

which highlighted the 10

years of journey of the pro-

gram, reflecting on the asso-

ciations of fellows in different

activities, strengthening RH

networks and establishing

lasting relationships between

fellows; and improving en-

gagement of fellows‘ home

organizations in leadership

development.

* Sho r t l e c tu re on

―Leadership Legacy‖ by Prof.

Prasad Kaipa, Executive Di-

rector of Centre for Leader-

ship, Innovation and Change,

Indian School of Business,

Hyderabad was done through

Video-Conference. For the

first time video conferencing

tool was used to interact with

resource person.

* Eight fellows presented

their leadership journey us-

ing different mediums - power

-point presentation, film show,

story telling, poetry, docu-

mentary, graffiti, song, and

photo collage. It was a signa-

ture session of the meet

where fellows showcased the

fruits of their long association

with LDM meeting reflecting

the manner in which it had

shaped their perception and

skills and enabled them to

emerge as important agents

of change for the focus states.

* Moderated panel discussion

on present situation in Bihar

and Jharkhand vis a vis RH

and opportunities for leaders-

the panelist were Mr V. S.

Chandrashekar and Rafay

Khan who spoke on the topic

from their intensive experi-

ence of working on these

states. Mapping of LDM Fel-

lows/ NGOs and preparing a

data base with pertinent infor-

mation was identified as a

critical area of intervention to

enhance convergence at the

district level.

* To ascertain the way for-

ward for the network by in-

volving the RH fellows and co-

opt many more along in due

course of time, session based

on Open Space Technology

was undertaken. Participants

reflected on the question ―how

can the gains of LDM program

be sustained to improved

health status in Bihar & Jhark-

hand?‖ Based on the ques-

tions, participants were asked

to write their own agenda and

share it with everyone. The

agendas were clustered into 5

broad themes:

1. Effective Delivery of Ser-

vices.

2. Capacity Building of institu-

tional and non-institutional

service providers and commu-

nity members.

3. Urban Health.

4. Community Participation

and Monitoring of Essential

Health services.

5. Corruption in service deliv-

ery. Participants were divided

into groups for each theme as

per their choices and asked to

prepare the report for which

one hour was given to them to

discuss and prepare the re-

port.

* Professor R R Singh en-

gaged as the Project Direc-

tor, Mahatma Gandhi Insti-

tute of Education & Devel-

opment at IGNOU, gave a

short lecture on Leadership

for Social Development.

Prof. Singh addressed the

group by reiterating that

leadership journey has its

share of troughs and ridges

and hence fellows needs

to keep themselves self -

motivated for renewed

thought and action. Social

work, he reinforced, is a

li fetime responsibil ity

which demands for a con-

stant spirit of volunteerism

and altruism. As leaders, it

is essential to prepare for

uncertainties and always

respond to the changing

context to make meaning-

ful contribution to the hu-

manity.

* Printed form of Post

cards was distributed to

participants and was asked

to write their reflection

about the event on it and

drop it in the letter box

kept in the conference hall.

This was a unique and

creative method of getting

the feedback from the par-

ticipants.

* One RH leader facilitated

the closing ceremony by

r equ es t i ng a l l t h e

participants to form a circle

and hold a lighted candle.

H e h e l d t h r e e

things onto three fellows -

Salt, light and sand and

explained their supreme

significance in sustaining

life, hope and wisdom

while being close to one's

roots. Participants evoked

that all of them would at-

tempt to play similar

roles in the larger society

and bring about changes in

the l ives of those

who matter the most.

— Excerpt from National

Meet Report written by

Paromita Chowdhury. Full

report can be accessed at

http://www.rhnetwork.org

Page 7

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Supported by

Mini Grant — Making a difference....

Issue # 5, Jan. 2010

Providing self sustainable services to meet the unmet need in terminal contracep-tion

1. To generate awareness, among villagers, of the fa-cilities provided for free tubectomy / vasectomy op-erations 2. To conduct 100 opera-tions within 60–90 days to qualify for the statutory in-centive provided under NRHM

3. To run the programme on a sustainable basis

The DORD RCH programme emphasizes the target-free promotion of contraceptive use among eligible couples, the provision to couples of a choice of various contracep-tive methods (including con-

doms, oral pills, IUDs and male and female steriliza-tion), and the assurance of high quality care. It also encourages the spacing of births with at least three years between births. The objectives and activities were planned to adhere the goal of the program and prov ide susta inab i l i ty

through convergence with government resources.

1. Acceptance of vasectomy (NSV): Earlier the male lots were reluctant to undergo such operation and its share was only 1% of total contra-ception. Special efforts were made towards popularizing

NSV and it was incorporated in the awareness generation activities – Street play, group meetings, IEC activi-ties. In results, now the fre-quency of the visits of male in OPD and for vasectomy has increased. 2. Decision-making power of the female regarding repro-ductive choice and their role

in family planning: Now the female are gradually be-coming vocal for their rights and decision-making powers. The members of the self help groups formed

by us played a vital role by interacting and sharing their experiences of trans-formation with the other female folks. 3. Participation of adult members of the family in the meetings: The secon-dary target group was al-ways involved in the awareness generation ac-tivities. Initially their par-

ticipation was poor but as we introduced the Nukkad Natak plays it became catchy for them. Then after their involvement in the program increased and now they are also an important integral part of the pro-gram. 4. Government accredita-tion: DORD reproductive health hospital at Daudna-

gar has been accredited by the District Health Society, Aurangabad, to conduct family planning programs under the NRHM & JSK schemes. Added to it DORD has been also selected as a committee member of the district Quality Assurance Committee for the Family Planning Programs imple-

mented in the Aurangabad district. 5. Sustainability approach: As per the accreditation DORD hospital is now enti-tled to receive Rs. 1500 for performing a tubectomy / vasectomy under NRHM with additional Rs. 500 per operation under Jansank-hya Sthirata Kosh (JSK) if in a single day 30 opera-

tions are conducted. This has supplemented our ac-tivities to carry on further after the completion of the project tenure.

DORD Reproductive Hospi-tal is now commissioning OPD & OT from a sprawling building of our own at

Daudnagar, Aurangabad. DORD hospital at Daudnagar has been able to conduct 100 operations within 90 days to qualify for the statu-tory incentive provided un-

der NRHM & JSK. District Health Society, Aurangabad has accredited DORD Hospi-tal, Daudnagar under PPP to conduct Institutional Deliver-ies and provide Family Plan-ning Services both tubec-tomy/vasectomy and spac-ing methods under ―Janani Bal Suraksha‖. DORD has now been entitled to get incentive of Rs. 1500/- on

every institutional delivery and on for any terminal/spacing method of family planning services. The IEC activities had its great im-pact in terms of awareness generation, motivating and attracting the primary target group as well as secondary target group for terminal c o n t r a c e p t i on / s pa c i ng method services. Particularly

the male aspirants were more encouraged to undergo vasectomy (NSV) to lessen the reproductive health bur-den on women. The benefici-aries which received the benefit of our empathetic hospital services have now started publicizing the ser-vices provided by us. This has created a very condu-

cive atmosphere of trust for the services and the trans-action of the 6 interested couple for OPD in our hospi-tal has comparatively in-creased from the initial phase. In wider context, our existing credibility and the new service provisions of Family Planning has been recognized by the social, religious, PRIs, Govt. de-

partments, AWW, ANMs, ASHA workers and the com-munity as a whole. Their favourable response about the program has been handy in conducting awareness activities and appropriate intervention.

- M. M Raja/ DORD

Goal:

Objective:

Implementation of the Programme

Qualitative indicators:

Major Accomplishments

Leadership Foundation—A Reproductive Health Resource Center of RH Fellows

Disclaimer:

„Impression‟ is an expression based on the local issues and problems. The issues raised herein are not the views of NEEDS and IIE.

Jharkhand-based Net-work for Enhancement and Development Sup-port has been running a Rural Technology Park. NEEDS head Murari M.

Choudhary elaborates on how this livelihood gen-erating model works. The India NGO Awards 2009, recently given away at a function in New Delhi, saw a clutch of non-governmental organisations from across the country assembling with portfolios of notable development

work. One of the finalists for the awards — jointly instituted by The Resource Alliance and The Rockfeller Foundation — is Jharkhand-based Network for En-hancement and Develop-ment Support (NEEDS). NEEDS works on multiple fronts in that State, like

working with tribal women for their health and liveli-hood security, educating deprived children, training village youth on leadership development, etc. It has

also been putting into prac-tice the livelihood generat-ing concept of Rural Tech-nology Park in that State. NEEDS executive director, Murari M. Choudhary, takes a few questions here to elaborate on the idea.

Rural Technology Park (RTP) is a technology modulation centre and a training centre to showcase livelihood technologies. TMP (Technology Manage-ment Packages) are devel-oped here to transfer to the poor for their food security and livelihood generation

based on ideas like poultry and goat rearing, multi-tier system of cropping, nursery for quality seedling devel-opment, micro irrigation systems, horticulture, food p r o c e s s i n g , v e r m i -composting, development of agriculture implements such as paddy weeder, etc.

RTP has been developed with the help of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Mumbai. A large number of farmers receive hands-on training here. The technical team of NEEDS

constantly does research and development in farm-ers' field and modulates the TMPs.

We have developed low cost vermi-composting models, an agro-forestry model, a goat rearing for

livelihood, a sprinkler-based wheat irrigation sys-tem, a system of rice inten-sification (with productivity up to 15 metric tonne per hectare. The State's aver-age is 2.2 metric tonne), maize and beans yield aug-mentation models, a model to conserve moisture, a weeder deve lopment model, etc.

NEEDS works through women self-help groups. We have parameters to secure group performance and their engagements in decision making. Visioning

is done at the group level, their male counterparts also participate in the exer-cise. To help the commu-nity execute the plans, NEEDS develops local

skilled workers and com-munity resource persons (CRPs). Each CRP transfers knowledge and skills to 100 families. We also monitor it on a weekly basis. Addi-tionally, training workshops are conducted for pro-gramme participants. This is done before they do the micro plans i.e. crop plans, credit plans, etc. Through

workshops, they under-stand the change required for more yield and income enhancement. Out technical team also do local market study to help farmers de-velop a crop calendar in terms of when should the product come to the market for better price fetching. Farm level records are ana-lysed to note changes in

yield and income. The proc-ess that NEEDS engages takes time to establish the robust models, but they become sustainable. We facilitate ensuring food se-curity of the poor and shift them to sustainable liveli-hood process in two to five years time.

Page 8 Impression

IRAC, C/O SDI, 1 AN PATH, BORING ROAD , PATNA, BIHAR, INDIA PIN: 800013. Phone: +91 612 2275595, E-mail: [email protected]

IRAF, HOUSE No. A- 9, SADPURA, AGHORIYA BAZAR, MUZAFFARPUR, BIHAR, INDIA PIN: 842002. Phone: +91 9204091725, E-mail: [email protected]

LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION (RESOURCE CENTER), FLAT NO: 101, WEST MIDLAND

APARTMENT, ANANTPUR, RANCHI, JHARKHAND, INDIA, PIN: 834002

Phone: +91 9234319765, E-mail: [email protected]

What is a Rural Technology Park? How does it generate sustainable livelihood for the poor?

Name some livelihood mod-els NEEDS has drawn up

How do you implement them?

News Paper Clipping from “THE HINDU”

This is a News Paper clipping of the news published in “THE HINDU” on 13th October 2010. For more details follow the link — http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article828429.ece