Organisational Understanding By Arpit Shah (30006) Burra Naga Trinadh (30021) Submitted to Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) Organisational Traineeship Segment PRM 2009-2011 Faculty Guide: Prof. Anand Venkatesh 1
Organisational Understanding
By
Arpit Shah (30006)
Burra Naga Trinadh (30021)
Submitted to
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP)
Organisational Traineeship Segment
PRM 2009-2011
Faculty Guide: Prof. Anand Venkatesh
July, 2010
INSTITUTE OR RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to thank SERP (Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty) for giving us this
opportunity to work with them and for providing us all the needed support. We would like to
thank Mr. B. Rajsekhar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for this.
We would like to mention the efforts of my reporting officer, Mrs. B. Seshu Kumari
who was always there to lend a helping hand, was open to all suggestions, and provided
valuable guidance and useful insights which helped us in the preparation of the report.
We take this opportunity to convey our sincere thanks to all SERP staff. Our special
thanks to Mr. T. Aravind and Mr. Sandeepan Paul for guiding us throughout the study and
provided their invaluable support and inputs in the project. Their support made our stay a
memorable and educative one. Also extend our gratitude to the SERP staff during the field
visits and villagers for their warm reception and help they provided us in making
understanding of present dynamics and identify shortcomings in the study. We also thank the
various respondents who spared their valuable time and contributed to survey.
The Organization Traineeship Segment of IRMA was a great learning experience for
us. Last but not the least; We are grateful to faculty guide Prof. Anand Venkatesh and OTS
Co-ordinator Prof. Ashokan for giving this opportunity. We also thank all the faculty
members who provided encouragement and support in this venture.
ARPIT SHAH(30006)
BURRA NAGA TRINADH(30021)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I. Title: Organisation UnderstandingII. Organization: Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
III. Reporting Officer: Mrs. B. Seshukumari, RPD EducationIV. Faculty Guide: Prof. Anand VenkatesanV. Student’s Name: Arpit H. Shah, Naga Trinadh B., Sindhura A.
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) is an autonomous society of the Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh. SERP is registered under the Societies (Telangana) Act, chaired by the Chief Minister as the ex-officio Chairman of the General Body (GB). SERP is implementing Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) in all the 22 rural districts of A.P. There are 1,06,75,321 members in 9,49,066 SHGs exclusively for women. A total of 36,391 Village Organizations (VOs), 1099 Mandal Samakhyas (MSs) and 22 Zilla Samakhyas have come into existence in 22 districts. The objective of this report was to understand the dynamics of SERP as a multi faceted organization active in various functional areas like education, health & nutrition, land, marketing, finance, dairy, disability, gender, insurance, disability etc.; its structure, functioning of activities, its strategies, its relevance and relationship with stakeholders, clients, external influences, strengths, weaknesses and achievements.
Methodology: A multi step approach had been taken by us as the methodology to understand the organization. At first we had tried to understand the various work processes in the organization to gather facts about the operations. We also had interacted with the employees, VO, MS & ZS members and various other beneficiaries of SERP schemes to gather information about the functioning of the organization. We also visited the Self help groups (SHG’s) of SERP to get a ground reality of the organization. Then we had compiled the data using various frameworks and structures to bring about a clear understanding of the organization. Both primary and secondary sources were used to obtain information.
Limitations: The large organisation with activities in as many as 18 diverse fields, different management, different functioning and different dynamics of all the fields made the study a highly insurmountable task. Short tenure of project as well as the complexities in the working of organisation which was spread right from the office at Hyderabad up to majority of villages of Andhra Pradesh, posed many difficulties in study of the organisation.
Major Findings: SERP had a very low level of documentation and no clear-cut policies on Human Resources and related matters and had a relatively flat organizational structure with diverse functional departments and multiple roles played by single individual resulted in clash of roles and responsibilities between various departments as well as within department. Many employees were unclear of their roles in the organization.
Recommendations: SERP would have to go for an in depth study of their organization and improve the formalization. The roles of all the employees’ right from the Head office to the district offices, ZS, MS, VO and other field staff should be clarified and standardized.
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Contents1. Introduction...................................................................................................................................1
2. Objective of the study...................................................................................................................1
3. Methodology.................................................................................................................................2
4. Organisation..................................................................................................................................2
5. SERP Structure...............................................................................................................................4
6. SERP activities:...............................................................................................................................7
6.1. Institution Building:...............................................................................................................7
6.1.1. Self Help Groups (SHGs).....................................................................................................7
6.1.2. Village Organizations (VOs)................................................................................................9
6.1.3. Mandal Samakhyas (MSs)................................................................................................10
6.1.4. Zilla samikya.....................................................................................................................11
6.2. Sustainable Agriculture:.......................................................................................................14
6.3. Dairy:...................................................................................................................................14
6.4. Marketing:...........................................................................................................................14
6.5. Creating jobs for youth:.......................................................................................................15
6.6. Land:....................................................................................................................................16
6.7. Health and Nutrition:...........................................................................................................16
6.8. Gender:................................................................................................................................16
7. Education.....................................................................................................................................17
7.1. Impacts- Qualitative and Quantitative:.....................................................................................18
7.2. Leveraging Resources:..............................................................................................................20
7.1. Scaling up:............................................................................................................................20
7.2. Performance Indicators:......................................................................................................21
7.3. ECE Centres:.........................................................................................................................22
7.4. Mainstream school dropout:...............................................................................................23
7.5. Higher education:................................................................................................................24
7.6. Corporate education:...........................................................................................................25
8. HR Unit in SPMU..........................................................................................................................26
9. Convergence with Key Line Departments....................................................................................27
10. Reflections...............................................................................................................................28
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1. Introduction
Every organization, like a living organism is a living entity. It gets born, struggles to walk,
experiments, moves through several ups and down, matures and finally dies. However they
are dominant components of the contemporary society and pervade all aspects of
contemporary life-society as whole, the economy, and even our personal lives. A clear
understanding about the importance of the organizations would help us to experience the
pragmatic reality of an organization. We headed to our OTS organization, Society for
Elimination of Rural Poverty (hereafter referred to as SERP) keeping this in mind.
SERP is more like a time bound autonomous programme launched by the Ministy of Rural
Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh. Due to its vast stature, activity in more than
18 functional fields, spread over the remotest districts and mandals and villages of Andhra
Pradesh; organisation study of SERP was a herculean task. This study helped us to
understand the applications of various functions like Finance, Human Resources, Marketing,
and Economics in a real organization especially when diverse stakeholders including
government, public and private are intricately involved. It also enabled us to prepare
ourselves to face the real life challenges when we join an organization.
2. Objective of the study
The study on the organization was mainly focused on getting an insight about the
organization and analyzes its different dimensions on various aspects. Following are the
major points we emphasized while conducting the study –
To have a rational understanding of what an organization is all about.
To understand the dynamics that comes into play at various levels in the organization.
To know its activities, its strengths and weaknesses.
To understand how an organization comes into existence, how it grows, adapts and
absorbs changes and sustains itself.
To understand the interface between the organization and its external environment.
To understand the perspectives and ethos of individuals as it exists in the
organization.
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3. Methodology
We started collecting data for Organization Understanding (OU) after we had developed
operational linkages with all major departments and sections of the organization. For this, we
first developed a good relation with our reporting officer (RPD, Education of SERP) who
introduced us to the various aspects of the organization and its functioning. She also
introduced us to various departments of the organization. We also visited block offices and
the Self Help Groups of the organization to gain a better knowledge about its operations. Our
main source of understanding was the 5 day immersion programme that they sent us at the
beginning of OTS. This helped us to get acquainted with the entire structure and functioning
of SERP.
From our talks with the CEO and other strategic level employees like RPD’s of various
departments, we got an idea about the challenges the organization normally has to deal with
regarding its operations. After we had developed sufficiently good rapport with the
employees, we started to gain more insights of the organization through unstructured
interviews and informal discussions.
We resorted to silent observations to assess the working conditions, attitude towards work,
group behavior and on-the job behavior of employees and to assess various parameters for
understanding organization culture. We also had focused group discussions with the
employees to triangulate information given by employees from different locations and also to
understand aspects like culture in depth. We also collected information from the
organizational documents like annual reports, Audit reports, Project reports and also internet.
As our OAC mainly dealt with Education, we have made an in depth analysis of Education
department at SERP.
4. Organisation
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) is implementing Indira Kranthi Patham
(IKP) in all the 22 rural districts of A.P.
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Vision: The disadvantaged communities shall be empowered to overcome all social,
economic, cultural and psychological barriers through self-managed organizations. They will
attain higher productivity with improved skills and asset base and utilize resources to full
potential and gainful access to services.
Mission: Our missions is to enable the disadvantaged communities perceive possibilities for
change and bring about desired change by exercising informed choices through collective
action.
The main objective of Indira Kranthi Patham(IKP) is to enable all the rural poor families in
22 rural districts of Andhra Pradesh to improve their livelihoods and quality of life. All
households below the poverty line, starting from the poorest of the poor are the target group
of IKP. At present the focus of the project on the poorest and more vulnerable members of
rural communities (e.g., disabled people, landless poor). Convergence of Land, CMSA,
Dairy, Health, Education, Nutrition are designed to overcome poverty. Project emphasis is on
livelihood issues of the poor, poorest of the poor, with a focus on sustainable rainfed farming
systems, value addition to agriculture produce, job creation and non-farm employment
opportunities, and to reduce the risks faced by the poor through social safety nets and
entitlements.
The Govt. of Andhra Pradesh is implementing two large community demand driven poverty
reduction projects – the A. P. District Poverty Initiatives Project (A.P.D.P.I.P) and the A. P.
Rural Poverty Reduction Project (A.P.R.P.R.P). The main objective of the twin projects is to
enable the rural poor in the state, particularly the poorest of the poor, to improve their
livelihoods and quality of life. The two projects cover all the districts and focus on rural poor
families in the State. The A.P.D.P.I.P covering 316 mandals in 6 districts was launched on
June 14, 2000. The project duration was up to December 2006. The A.P.R.P.R.P project that
commenced on June 1, 2002 was to cover 548 backward mandals in 16 districts of the State
and was estimated to cover 20,00,000 families. In the year 2005 the state government decided
to extend the same approach to all the rural areas of the state and leverage the programme
with funds from ongoing programmes. Thus for the entire state, there is now a single
programme, called “Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP)”, based on social mobilization and
empowerment of rural poor. This programme subsumes all activities under the twin projects
and the state government funding for women’s groups.
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Every effort is being made to make the institutions of the poor, promoted by the project,
financially and managerially self sustainable. The institutions at the grassroots are Self Help
Groups (SHGs) of poor women varying between 10 and 15. These groups are federated at
village level called Village Organization (VO).The VOs are federated at mandal level called
Mandal Samakhya (MS) and similarly the MSs are federated at the district level called Zilla
Samakhya (ZS).
5. SERP Structure
Executive Council: 5 members, M-RD as President, other members: Secy, RD,
Commissioner, RD, Commissioner – TW, CEO-S.E.R.P (Member-Secretary)
State Project Management Unit: C.E.O, Addl.C.E.O, subject specialists – institution building,
tribal development, microfinance, insurance, pensions, sustainable agriculture, dairying, jobs,
non-farm livelihoods, construction, gender, health and nutrition, disability, and education.
District Project Management : Headed by P.D, DRDA, Addl.P.Ds and Subject specialists ( 12
– 15).
Area Coordinators – 10 – 12 per district – each responsible for 5 - 6 mandals. Supported by 3
master trainers in accounting
Mandal Coordinators – 1 per mandal ( 50 in a district), supported by 2 master trainers for
accounting
In addition subject specialists in agriculture, dairying, health, disability, agriculture
marketing, etc in programme mandals
P.D, DRDA is on deputation to S.E.R.P. He has no other responsibility other than women
empowerment. Separate officers for NREGA, Watersheds, Rural Housing, and, Drinking
water
In A.P, no other department organises S.H.Gs. It is the exclusive responsibility of RD
Department.
All departments collaborate with RD department in linking their programmes to the S.H.G
members.
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5
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6. SERP activities:
6.1. Institution Building:The principal objective of SERP is to promote Self Managed Institutions of the Poor through
Self Help Group across the state of Andhra Pradesh. The key functions of the CBOs
promoted by SERP are financial intermediation, social intermediation and community
development through sustainable livelihoods promotion. SERP strongly believes in the
assumption that the poor have the potential to come out of poverty, provided that timely
facilitation is ensured by the Government. In order to harness the potential, the poor are
organized to form Community Based Organizations from village level to district level. The
process of institution building has it that at village level all the poor women are formed into
SHGs, all the SHGs are incorporated under Andhra Pradesh Mutually Aided Cooperative
Societies Act 1995 as ―Village Organizations (VO), all the Village Organizations are
federated under the same Act as Mandal Samakhyas (MS) at Mandal (Block) level and all the
Mandal Samakhya are further confederated at District level as Zilla Samakhyas (ZS). Village
Organizations are the front line self-managed CBOs for the economic and social betterment
of the community. All the development activities of SERP are carried out in and around the
CBOs.
Institution Building component is the building block of the project. To strengthen the four
tier structure viz., SHGs, VOs, MSs and ZSs, SERP has adopted various strategies viz.,
capacity building of CBOs through CRPs, transferring funds and delegation of powers to
CBOs for designing and implementation of various activities, Registration of CBOs,
development of Community Auditors and Total Financial Inclusion etc. As a part of the POP
(Poorest of the Poor) strategy the goal that was set in the department of IB is that: By the end
2012 all Mandal Samakhyas and Village Organizations that are promoted by the project will
become self-reliant and self-managed institutions and provide a wide range of micro-finance
products and social developmental services effectively to their members on a timely basis for
securing sustainable livelihoods and improving their quality of life.
6.1.1. Self Help Groups (SHGs)
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It is here, at the SHG level, much of the action that happens has direct impact on the member.
SHGs are the grassroots institutions of the poor performing similar roles to that of a rural
bank branch in providing opportunities for their members in saving regularly, utilizing these
savings for internal lending, borrowing from local banks and Village organizations for on-
lending to their members, recovering their loans and repayment to lenders and recording
these transactions on an ongoing basis. For all practical purposes it is a mini bank for its
members. Quite often, these financial services are available to members only once in a month
when SHG convenes a meeting. However, in order to make these services available to
members more frequently and also for strengthening these institutions, it is being
recommended weekly meetings. Quite a few SHGs have voluntarily switched over to weekly
meetings.
Pancha Sutras (5 cardinal principles):SHGs across the state are adapting to the following
five principles apart from many other best practices: Regular weekly meetings,
Regular weekly savings, Regular Internal lending, Regular repayments, Proper bookkeeping
through trained bookkeeper. Pancha sutras are strictly followed in the villages where CRPs
are positioned. This also has a tremendous demonstration effect on neighbouring villages.
Microcredit Planning (MCP): All SHGs are encouraged to prepare MCPs for accessing
credit from banks and their VOs. MCP at SHG level is the list of activities that members
would like to take up and the cost of implementing these activities. It is an integral part of the
financial management process of SHG. Members do self assessment of their SHG based on
regularity in savings and internal lending of funds, book keeping, and regular meetings before
further planning. As such it is an active microfinance process that seeks to seamlessly
integrate social mobilization / institution building processes with that of livelihood
enhancement at individual or community levels. Quite a few CRPs are exclusively trained in
the preparation of MCPs in all the districts. Also, all CRPs are imparted with these skills.
MCP is a seven step process involving: Household Investment Plan, Understanding the socio-
economic status and needs by members, Appraisal of socio-economic status and wealth
ranking by members, Appraisal of Needs by members, Consolidation of needs and setting
priorities, Financing the investments and Evolving terms of Partnership.
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Community Resource Persons (CRPs): CRPs are being effectively utilised for
implementation of Pancha Sutras and internalize the process of MCP among CBOs. The CRP
strategy is a community to community driven learning approach. A major skill that is
required for the mobilization of the poor and revival of defunct groups is conflict resolution
and tact, and it is realized by the project that this is best done by peers rather than an outsider.
To facilitate such process it is proposed that active members from the SHGs, Village
Organizations (VOs) and Mandal Samakhyas (MSs) should be selected, trained and deployed
so that the impact would be high when women of the same background shared their
experiences. (Refer CRP Manual)
6.1.2. Village Organizations (VOs)
VOs have switched over to fortnightly meetings from monthly meetings. Guidelines on
meeting process have been issued and ensured that they are followed across the state. Various
functional committees are constituted for ensuring bank linkages, recovery, social audit,
marketing and food security. Majority of the VOs are registered as societies under MACS act.
SERP has developed bylaws to ensure proper representation of the poor and marginalized
sections of the society. VOs are getting masanivedikas (monthly reports) from their member
SHGs. VOs are getting loans from their MSs for on-lending to SHGs and for implementing
food security and marketing initiatives. This has facilitated VOs in making part payments
towards their staff costs. VOs are getting audited every year by external auditors. Auditors in
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all the districts are positioned.
6.1.3. Mandal Samakhyas (MSs)
MSs have switched over to fortnightly meetings from monthly meetings. Guidelines on
meeting process have been issued and ensured that they are followed across the state. Various
functional committees are constituted for ensuring bank linkages, recovery, social audit,
marketing and food security. Majority of the MSs are registered as societies under MACS act.
SERP has developed bylaws to ensure proper representation of the poor and marginalized
sections of the society. MSs are getting masanivedikas (monthly reports) from their member
VOs. MS accountants are positioned in all the MSs and are trained. AWFP is prepared with
active involvement of MSs. Prior to the AWFP, MSs have collected the information about all
the SHGs and VOs in the mandal and as well as MS itself in the specially designed
comprehensive format. This information has been used to diagnose the gaps and to take steps
to address these gaps. Community Based Recovery Mechanism (CBRM) is being very
effective in all the Mandals. Most of the CIF and the SGSY funds are getting capitalized at
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Structure Of Village Organization
VO Executive Committee
POP & SHG
Monitoring
Committee
Abhayahastha
m & Bank
Linkage Commit
tee
Cif & Audit
committee
Land,CMSA,Marketing, EGS
& Dairy
Committee
President SecretaryTreasure
r
Non-farm
Activities
committee
VO General Body
Social Developme
nt Com
mittee
Functional Committees
Legal Frame work:
Village Organisations - registered as Primary Cooperatives under APMACs Act-1995
VO Bookkeepe
r
MS level, which are being used for lending to VOs for their on-lending to SHGs, marketing
and food security initiatives. Majority of the MSs are lending to VOs @ 6% Per Annum and
the interest so earned has helped in achieving Financial Self Sustainability of MSs ranging
between 25% and 125%. All the MSs are getting audited by external auditors annually. In
addition to this a few MSs have started monthly concurrent audits. All the MSs have been
instructed to transact their business through cheques only. They have been advised to stop
cash transaction as far as possible. Senior CRP strategy is being worked out to enhance the
managerial capacity of the MSs. The piloting done to find the effectiveness of this strategy is
found to be extremely good.
6.1.4. Zilla samikyaZS will be registered as a confederation of Mandal samikya’s under APMAC’s Act 1995. All
the mandals in the particular district come together in the ZS.The structure of ZS is similar to
that of MS. It has a general body and ZS executive committee. For the Executive committee,
two people from each mandal would be represented. Functional committees act in the same
manner as in MS.The various functional committees in ZS are for MS monitoring, Bank
linkage, asset verification, dealing with social issues and NREGS monitoring. As the ZS
forms the head organization at the district level, all the monitoring and verification tasks are
performed here.
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Structure of Mandal Samakhya
MS Executive Committee
VO Monitori
ng Committe
e
Bank Linkage
Committee
Monitoring the
issues of POP
committee
Asset Verificat
ion Committ
ee
President Vice President
SecretaryJoint
SecretaryTreasurerSocial
Issues Committ
ee
MS General Body
NREGS Monito
ring Commi
ttee
Functional Committees
Community Facilitators
Mandal Accountants
Legal frame work
MSs are registered as federation of VOs under APMACs Act - 1995
Key Achievements in Institution Building as on March 2009
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Structure of Zilla Samakhya
ZS Executive Committee
Ms Monitori
ng Committ
ee
Bank Linkage Committ
ee
Monitoring the
issues of POP
committee
Asset Verificat
ion Committ
ee
President Vice President
SecretaryJoint
SecretaryTreasurerSocial
Issues Committ
ee
ZS General Body
NREGS Monito
ring Commi
ttee
Functional Committees
ZS Manager
ZS Accountants
Computer Operators
Legal frame work
ZSs will be registered as confederation of MSs under APMACs Act - 1995
S.No. Particulars Number1 No. of members in women SHGs 101821812 No. of SHGs formed 8,50,6713 No. of VOs formed 35,5255 No. of MSs formed 10997 No. of Registration CRPs trained 4508 No. of VOs trained on APMACSs Act 7039 No. of MSs trained on APMACSs Act 878
10 No. of ZSs trained on APMACSs Act 2211 No. of Community Auditing CRPs trained 10412 No. of mandals covered under Community Auditing CRPs strategy 13513 No. of Villages covered under TFI CRP strategy 475814 No. of TOT CRPs trained 7615 No. of Bank Mithras trained 3323
6.2. Sustainable Agriculture:
The ecological alternatives in agriculture which make best use of local resources have proven
to shift the tide in favor of farmers. One such experience is the Non- Pesticidal Management
(NPM) of insect pests. Considering the serious problems associated with use of chemical
pesticides and also the huge investment costs for small and marginal farmers, Society for
Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Indira Kranti Padam, (IKP) decided to upscale the
NPM into wider regions through the Federation of Women Self Help groups (Mandal
Samakhyas).The experiences of involving women SHGs, Mandal Samakhyas has been
proven successful. During 2008-09, the project covered about 13.81 lakh acres with 3.18 lakh
farmers across 3171 villages in 18 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Currently the project is
expanded to 21 districts , covering about 20 lakh acres.
6.3. Dairy:Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) has initiated Dairy Development activity in 2006-07 by
Piloting in 2 mandals. Experiences learnt through Pilot are being mainstreamed from 2007-08 in
convergence with APDDCF Ltd. Activity started with Milk Procurement initiative at village level from
where milk is transported to Bulk Milk Cooling Unit (BMCU) located at mandal level. Once
Samakhyas gained experience in milk procurement and they started taking initiatives for
establishment and improvement of backward linkages such as fodder, feed, animal health services,
etc. SERP, in convergence with APDDCF has taken forward the activity to 158 mandals in the State
covering 2806 villages.
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6.4. Marketing:
The Marketing Strategy of the Project is to enable the rural poor to identify all available possible
livelihoods and tap the available resources i.e Forest produce, Agricultural Commodities and all
traditional livelihoods practiced in the villages with an objective to increase incomes of the Pop
families & improve the quality of life. Pass on remunerative prices to the small and marginal farmers
and NTFP collectors at their door step. The goal of the marketing division is as: “Every VO should
work as a Mini Market Yard and every farmer and NTFP collector should receive remunerative prices
to their produce at their door steps & not to carry their produce beyond 5 Kms.” With this
objective the project commenced its marketing activity by identifying one commodity viz.,
Neem, one mandal viz., Kosigi, Mahabubnagar district during the year 2001-2002. By seeing
the encouraging response from the community and need to expand marketing activities in all
the districts, special efforts have been made to identify the commodities, opening the more
and more procurement centres, imparted training to the VO members, Field / Project staff,
Book keepers provided required infrastructure to all the procurement centres. During the past
9 years the important commodities like Paddy, Maize, Redgram, Soybean, Lac, Neem fruit,
Castor, Groundnut, Mohwa flower, Tamarind, Nelavemu and other commodities have been
handled by VOs in bulk.During 2009-10 a detailed tentative action plan has been prepared for
procurement of over 95, 37,892 quintals of different commodities valued around Rs.924
Crores.
6.5. Creating jobs for youth:
The Jobs Mission was set up to address the needs of the next generation of the large network of
SHGs created and nurtured by IKP. Employment Generation and Marketing Mission (EGMM),
Department of Rural Development, Govt. of AP works in a focused manner to provide employment/
employability for the rural youth. These are the economically and socially underprivileged rural poor
from remote areas. The executive committee of the mission consists of Hon’ble Minister, Rural
Development , senior government officers and the private sector . EGMM is driven by a
private sector cell, which evolves strategy with an eye on the market. Implementation of the
program is done with the large government machinery headed by Collectors, Project
Directors, District Rural Development Agency (DRDAs) and PO, Integrated Tribal
Development Agency (ITDAs) in all 22 districts. The EGMM works in scale in public-
private partnership mode with the main stakeholders being the government, private sector,
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and the women self help groups. The entire approach is a bottom-up approach, tailored to
move the rural poor from the unorganized to the organized labour market.
6.6. Land:
Land represents a fundamental asset to the rural families in our country which comprise a
substantial majority of the population. It is a primary source of income, security, and status. Land is
one asset which almost every rural man or woman relates to. In the rural areas all the socio-
economic privileges and deprivations revolve round land.Recognizing land as a critical resource
for the poor during the formulation of Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project, the
Land Component in Indira Kranthi Patham was sanctioned with an outlay of Rs.52.6 crore
rupees.The Land Component of IKP has been working in two directions. One is Land
Purchase i.e. securing the poor access to productive lands through facilitating purchase of
good quality irrigated lands and the other is Land Access- facilitating the poor, in
convergence with the Revenue Department, to have control over their lands in terms of
having secure title, handling their lands locked in courts/disputes, awareness as to the
measures taken by the Government to protect the interests of the poor manifested in the form
of pro-poor enactments etc. The activities in land are Land inventory,Land access, Land
purchase and Land development.
6.7.Health and Nutrition:
In order to target the poor health status among the rural community, community driven health
care interventions were established in AP as part of Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) project.
Health and Nutrition interventions (HN) is being implemented in 63 pilot Mandals across all
of 22 districts in AP. The HN package of interventions targets health and nutritional status at
each phase of the life cycle approach. Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) is the largest community-
based rural poverty reduction project in Southeast Asia, involving 9,646,000 self-help group
(SHG) women throughout the state of Andhra Pradesh, India federated at village as Village
Organizations (VO), Mandal as Mandal Mahila Samakhya (MMS) and district as Zilla
Samakhya (ZS). IKP targets multi-dimensional causes of Poverty through programs in
Microfinance, Education, Gender, Land Purchase and Sustainable Agriculture, Insurance and
Marketing among others.
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6.8. Gender:
Gender is one of the components included in the programme, Indira Kranthi Patham. Gender
strategy helps SHG women to monitor their social empowerment agenda along with financial
agenda, increase their capacities in decision making at different levels, free mobility, having a
say in local governance and building a safe environment. Women in groups ensure that basic
rights of all SHG women are not violated and that they create support systems like Social
Action Committees in every village and Community Managed Family Counseling Centres at
every mandal to help themselves. The objective of this component is to address gender issues
in an integrated manner as a means to reduce poverty. There is a need to integrate the
economic empowerment with other aspects of empowerment such as social, political &
cultural aspects. Violence emerged as a major issue and is understood as violating women
rights to life and livelihood and hence this component offers support to women and
strengthens their rights within family and society by providing livelihood, health and legal
literacy. Gender Section is helping for building our overall perspective on the issue of
domestic violence, problems faced in getting legal aid, motivated government to follow
women to women approach in solving the problems. Gender group is working closely with
Government officials at district level and working to resolve issues of cases of the Domestic
violence at the village, mandal and district level.
7. Education
Education wing of SERP supports community interventions in improving quality of
education at various levels. They are as follows:
i. Pre Primary Education: Various studies have shown that the kind of nurturing a child
receives during the ages of 2 – 5 plays a very significant role in determining a child‘s
ability in the long run. The ECE centres play an instrumental role in laying a proper
foundation for Primary Education. Keeping this in view, SERP has extended support
in establishment of 229 ECE centres in four tribal mandals of Aliabad district and 128
centres in tribal mandals of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Warangal, Srikakulam
and Khammam districts under the Community‘s supervision and governance. The
project is now extended to 16 tribal mandals across the state. More than 8000 children
between the age group of 3 – 5 years are enrolled in these centres. The children in age
group of 3-5 years are provided with Early Childhood Education in these centres.
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ii. Primary and Secondary Education: Children's rights are protected with a total
abolition of child labour and all children enjoy their right to education. Improvement
in quality of education at schools through community participation through women
groups, gram panchayats, teachers and youth. This is being implemented in 3 tribal
mandals in the ITDA Bhadrachalam area of Khammam district. It is being envisaged
to scale up this model in all the mandals where ECE centres have been established.
iii. Higher Education: Good quality education at +2 level, coupled with expert coaching
to face admission tests for professional courses is felt imperative by all the parents in
general. Financial deprivation has impeded the meritorious children from accessing
good teaching and expert coaching being offered in institutes of repute.
To address this gap, SERP has facilitated the admission of 16,000 meritorious poor
candidates in private / corporate junior colleges of repute for two year intermediate course
integrated with focused coaching for IIT – JEE / AIEEE / EAMCET. This is being seen as an
inter-generational poverty alleviation strategy. To address the issues of affordability of the
target group on the one hand and the financial constraints of the government to subsidise the
programme for long on the other, a viable model needs to be evolved. Microfinance seems to
be a possible alternative.
7.1. Impacts- Qualitative and Quantitative:
Education has been identified as a long term poverty alleviation strategy by the women
groups. The activities are still in nascent stage and it would take few years before the impact
of the activities of education wing is realized. Early results are already seen in case of
community managed ECE centres. Outcomes from the activities of education wing are listed
below:
i. ECE: Significant improvement in physical, mental and cognitive development of
children between the age group of 3 -5 years has been observed in the villages where
ECE centres have been established. The impact has been observed at the primary
schools to which these children graduate. The teachers in the primary schools in the
project area are focusing on activity based learning. Community is also supporting the
schools by engaging instructors who ensure that the activity based learning continues
in the primary schools also. The teacher presents a Public Report to the parents and
the village community once every month. Children of the school demonstrate and
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exhibit their learning attained during the preceding month during this presentation.
The salary is paid to the instructor by the community only after they are satisfied with
the month‘s learning outcome achieved by the teacher. Monthly public reporting is a
significant step towards strengthening the accountability process and also foster closer
association with the community. This is one of the significant achievements of this
intervention.
ii. Vidya Jyothi (VJ): It was observed that English was a major impediment in
successfully completing their schooling for the students from the tribal areas, and that
they required an intensive teaching support to help them overcome this barrier. 18
candidates have been trained to serve as English Language Teachers in 50 Govt.
Schools in the two tribal mandals of Warangal district. These candidates act as
supplement to the already existing English faculty in these schools.
iii. Child rights protection and Community monitoring of quality: 1143 children have
been identified as out of school children. They have been enrolled in Residential
Bridge Schools and would be mainstreamed. Community has been given training to
monitor the quality of education in schools. Currently they are monitoring basic
things like attendance of teachers and children, quality of mid day meal provided and
basic infrastructural facilities in schools etc. Child Rights Protection Forums have
been established in every village for protecting the rights of children.
iv. Corporate Education for weaker sections: 16,000 children from the weaker sections
have been admitted in private / corporate junior colleges of repute for two year
intermediate course integrated with focused coaching for IIT – JEE / AIEEE /
EAMCET. There is an increased demand for continuation of the scheme and it has
also been observed that the students belonging to weaker sections have put in extra
effort to secure more marks in SSC exams with the hope of being in the race for
corporate education. Performance of 7,592 children in the first year examinations is
as follows:
Grades Secured No. of Candidates Percentage (%)
A + Grade 254 3 %
A Grade 3098 41 %
B Grade 2632 35 %
C Grade 530 7%
D Grade 1078 14 %
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v. Vidya Nidhi: Women Groups in certain districts have created corpus for education
and are facilitating education loans. Direct marketing of the agricultural produce by
the SHGs in Karimnagar district has yielded 1.5% commission per quintal. 25% of
this amount is allocated by the ZS as Vidya & Kalyana Nidhi (for Education and
marriage loans). Women groups are also saving for education and this amount is also
added to the corpus. Within one year the women groups mobilized Rs. 4.00 crores as
Education / marriage Fund. is earmarked are facilitated by the ZS. Women groups in
Chandragiri Mandal are operating a revolving fund of Rs. 28 lakhs for Higher
education. Women groups in Prakasham district have also initiated education savings.
The women groups are open to the idea of availing interest free bank loans for +2 and
higher education in case there is no funding from the government.
7.2. Leveraging Resources:
Proposals are in place for convergence with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for
leveraging certain financial and human resources from the mission for setting up of ECE
centres and Child Rights and Community monitoring of quality in schools. SSA has already
sanctioned financial support for establishment and running of RBCs by the Mandal
Samakhyas. SSA has also given orders for enabling the SHG women to inspect the
functioning of RBCs. SSA has also issued orders for formation of Academic Monitoring
Committees consisting of community members which would be responsible for monitoring
the performance of students in the schools. Education wing of SERP has facilitated
convergence between the departments of Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, BC Welfare and
Minorities Welfare for implementation of the scheme ―Corporate Education for Weaker
Sections‖. SERP acts only as a facilitator in this scheme whereas the required financial
resources are acquired from the welfare departments. Women groups in certain district are
saving for education and education loans are being availed. Steps will be taken to
institutionalize these pilots and extension of micro finance facility for +2 and higher
education.
7.1. Scaling up:
2100 ECE centres will be established in next five years in 40 mandals where the Health and
Nutrition intervention of SERP is taken up in a big way. In these 40 mandals focus shall be
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on community managed ECE centres, community monitoring of quality in state run primary
and upper primary schools. Secondary schools in these mandals shall also get a support
through SERP in the form of community engaging subject teachers as per requirement,
provision of after school support to the children and interest free loans for higher education.
Quality improvement in schools through community participation will be taken up in all the
mandals over a period of five years in partnership with M.V.Foundation. Capacities of VO
members and Gram Panchayats would be built to monitor the quality of education in schools.
The following activities would be taken up under this project:
Facilitate proper functioning of school and to improve the quality of education in the
local government schools and make the schools proper learning centres.
Facilitate institutional planning in schools by making an assessment of the need gap in
the schools.
Ensure increased participation of the community, Gram Panchayats, women groups
and teachers in improving the overall functioning in the schools.
Observing and documenting best practices to be followed in the schools to make them
better learning centres.
Government of India is recasting the National Literacy Mission as National Mission for
Literacy of Women. Government of Andhra Proposes to leverage the CBO structure of IKP.
Their overarching plan includes identifying each SHG as a learning centre and reaching out
to all the rural women. The mission also proposes to provide continuing education to SHG
women through Open Schools.
7.2. Performance Indicators:
I. Early Childhood Education
No. of Children enrolled in the ECE centres
Average number of children enrolled per centre
Percentage of children enrolled in center with respect to the children present in
the village.
II. Higher Education:
Number and percentage of children securing admission in professional
courses
Performance in final examination of the +2 course.
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Number of students enabled to pursue an alternate but a rewarding career
through career counseling.
III. Quality improvement in schools through community participation
Attendance of teachers and children in the schools
Improved performance of the students in government schools.
Reduction of dropout rate in the schools
Number of children securing first class marks in the 10th examination
Percentage pass out in the schools
IV. Literacy Mission and Open Schooling
No. of SHG members enrolled in the literacy centres.
No. of SHG members enrolled in the continuing education centres.
No. of SHG members enrolled in open schools.
No. of SHG members passing the X class examination conducted by AP
open school society.
V. Vidya Nidhi:
Amount of corpus in the Nidhi
No. of SHG women availing loan for the education of their children.
The major activities into which SERP in education sector are ECE centres, Quality
improvement,Mainstream school drop outs, Higer education and corporate education.
7.3. ECE Centres:
Early Childhood Education involves the total development of children physical, motor, cognitive,
language, emotional, social and moral. ECE is considered a significant input to compensate for early
environmental deprivations at home by providing a stimulating environment to children. Early
Childhood Care and Education remains a privilege for many young children in India. Only 32% of the
pre-primary age children are enrolled in education structures at this level. With increase in women
participation in the work force across the country among all socio-economic groups, there has been
a sea change in social structures and practices in the last few decades. A significant indicator of this
change has been the emergence of the nuclear family, a change which has converted child
upbringing from what was traditionally a shared responsibility into the sole responsibility of the
young parents. This responsibility is often further delegated. While in the higher income brackets
children are often left with paid surrogate care takers, in the lower socio-economic communities the
22
responsibility of care giving get loaded on to the older sisters, thus keeping them often out of school
and robbing them of their childhood. As a result, given the constant pressures and challenges of day
to day existence in todays complex society, the possibilities of informal early care and education for
the young child at home is becoming less of a reality. It was this changing social context, over the
years, which laid the seeds for the introduction of the concept of ECE.In the year 2008-09, 185 ECE
centres (128in Adilabad district, 20 in Visakhapatnam district and 37 in Warangal district) have been
set up under the Community's supervision and governance.
The children in age group of 3 to 5 years are provided with Early Childhood Education in these
centres. Community governed, community managed ECE centres have shown significant
improvement in physical, mental and cognitive development of children between the age group of 3-
5 years in the project area. Quality training is provided to all the instructors at Sodhana Resource
Centre, Cheepurupally.The hallmark of the centres in this district is a public reporting system that
has been put in place, according to which a school festival (Badi Panduga) is celebrated on the last
Saturday of every month. The instructors submit their monthly report and the children will
demonstrate their learning during that month. The remuneration for the instructors is paid by the
VO on the school festival day. The remuneration for the cluster and mandal coordinators is paid by
the MMS in their monthly RGB meeting after reviewing the progress of the schools.
7.4.Mainstream school dropout:
SERP is supporting the Mandala Mahila Samakhyas of Chintoor, mandal of Khammam district,
Kothaguda Mandal of Warangal District and Sirpur (U) mandal of Adilabad district to enable drop-out
Tribal youth to appear as Private Candidates for SSC Public Examinations and thereby improve their
life skills. SERP has been supporting the Project in partnership with an NGO Koyathore Bata for the
last four years i.e. 2005 -06 to 2008 -09.
A survey was taken up by Koyathore Bata to identify ST school dropout youth between the age
group of 18-28 years. RBCs under Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM) facilitate entry of school dropouts up to
the age of 14 years only. Hence support is extended as a special dispensation to encourage the tribal
youth to acquire minimum Educational qualification of SSC and to motivate them to pursue higher
Education. The school drop-out Tribal youth are given intensive coaching for SSC Public
Examinations. This intervention has reached more than 2500 tribal youth in the last 4 years
belonging to primitive tribes like Koya, Kondareddy and Naikpod communities.
During 2008 -09, 525 youth were given intensive coaching in these camps. Nearly 40% of the tribal
youth enrolled in RBCs have passed SSC examinations since 2005 -06 to 2008 -09. The organization
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also proposes to add value to the project by incorporating some services like perspective building,
Life Skill Training and Livelihood training.
7.5. Higher education:
The Orvakal Mandal Mahila Samakhya is one of the oldest Samakhyas and received support under
UNDP project. It is one of the identified SAPAP mandals under UNDP project. Besides addressing the
issues of livelihood, the MMS has long before planned for education and started motivating the SHG
women to save for their childrens education. For the last 10 years the Samakhya has been
championing the cause of Child labour by running Bhavitha Child Labour Bridge School through
which many child labour boys and girls have been mainstreamed into regular Educational
Institutions. The Samakhya has continued their support to the cause of education for the poor
children in general and rescued child labourers in particular around the mandal. The women
members of the Samakhya are now a reserve of trained Community Resource Persons (CRPs) who
are travelling across the nation to sensitize women in different states on their success in moving out
of poverty through various poverty alleviation strategies.
All the women members have collectively worked towards strengthening their MMS in more senses
than one. Each member as a part of their contribution provided physical labour in construction of
buildings for schools. The senior CRPs have contributed a part of their resource fee to the Samakhya
with the help of which buildings have been constructed to run a high school and a Junior college in
the premises of the Samakhya. The resource fee contribution of the members is to the tune of over
Rs. 1.0 Crore over a period of five years.
With the passage of time, the institutions have grown and the recurring expenditure on the school
has increased enormously. Undeterred by the odds, the women members continue their efforts to
build institutions for their childrens education. The long term investment of MMS members on
school and college testifies to the great vision of the women who could perceive that anything spent
on education is not expenditure but a sound investment. Their perception of Education as the surest
way out of poverty is now yielding good results.
As many as 1000 Child labour withdrawn from work have had an opportunity to access good
education and a sound footing in jobs like Staff Nurses, Computer Operators, Security guards etc:
The brighter students, especially girls have now come to the stage of +2 and are willing to continue
their education. To meet the aspirations of such students, a Junior College was started by the
Samakhya in 2007-08. Since provision of quality education at High school and Junior college level is
fraught with heavy expenditure on faculty, infrastructure, the women members are apprehensive of
the viability of the school and college. They are in need of financial assistance to bridge the viability
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gap and to make the community owned educational institutions sustainable. In consideration of the
relentless efforts of the members of MMS, Orvakal in furtherance of the cause of Education from
primary level to +2 levels, SERP is providing Education Resource Support.
7.6.Corporate education:
Good quality education at +2 level, coupled with expert coaching to face admission tests for
professional courses is felt imperative by all the parents in general. Financial deprivation has
impeded the meritorious children from accessing good teaching and expert coaching being offered
in institutes of repute. To address this gap, SERP has facilitated the admission of 8,000 meritorious
poor candidates in private / corporate junior colleges of repute, during 2008-09, for two year
intermediate course integrated with focused coaching for IIT JEE / AIEEE / EAMCET. This is being
seen as an inter-generational poverty alleviation strategy.
There is an increased demand for continuation of the scheme and it has also been observed that the
students belonging to weaker sections have put in extra effort to secure more marks in SSC, 2009
exams with the hope of being in the race for corporate education. The scheme is continued in 2009-
10, in convergence with the Welfare departments and 8009 students are being admitted in institutes
of repute.
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8. HR Unit in SPMU
1. Success of implementation of schemes adopted by SERP mainly depends on the
employees working in the organization who are instrumental in implementing the
same. The HR unit of SPMU SERP Hyderabad mainly deals with the matters of
around 6700 Fixed Tenure Employees working in IKP throughout the state of Andhra
Pradesh. H.R unit is mainly guided by the HR policy adopted by the Executive
Council of the SERP in terms of Bye-law no 10(X1) of the Society.
2. Prior to adoption of HR policy the appointment of staff, their service conditions were
unorganized. The HR unit of SPMU, SERP has prepared the HR Policy applicable to
all the employees working in IKP, which was approved by the Executive Council. As
per the HR policy the employees of IKP were classified in to various levels i.e. L1 to
L6 levels duly assigning various designations to them.
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3. In furtherance of HR Policy, the HR unit has prepared and issued the Terms and
Conditions of Employment of SERP Employees, 2009 which deals with creation and
classification of posts, appointment and tenure of employment, pay structure, leave
rules, code of conduct and discipline etc., of all IKP employees, as approved by the
Executive Council of the Society.
4. As per the said Terms and Conditions all eligible employees have been given letter of
appointments as Fixed Tenure Employees on contract basis for an initial period of 5
years at a stretch, renewable for further period till they attain the age of 58 years,
subject to need to the organization and their satisfactory performance.
5. Since the employees of IKP play a pivotal role in effective implementation of
schemes of SERP as already mentioned above, career advancement opportunities
were given to encourage them.
6. The Human Resource Monitoring system has been developed and placed in Web site,
which covers all the particulars of employees, level wise and district wise.
7. A comprehensive system has been developed for on line payment of monthly
remuneration to the staff of IKP to ensure prompt and timely payment as per their
eligibility.
8. Expansion of activities to new areas like Abahyahastam, Education, Dairy, etc, and
intensification of existing activities like IB,CIF, Marketing, NPM etc, necessitated
rationalization and reorganization of staff. Accordingly staffs have been reorganized
and positions are indicated at different levels i.e. District/Cluster/Mandal levels.
Counselling has been conducted to position the employees of various levels as per
reorganization of staff.
9. HR Unit of SERP is working to facilitate optimum utilization of available Human
Resources for effective implementation of the programmes taken up by the SERP and
also to provide better working conditions and career growth of its employees by
adopting various polices from time to time.
9. Convergence with Key Line DepartmentsSERP beautifully does convergence between different line departments. Some of the
departments are:
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Rural development
SERP carries out convergence between SGSY, Old age pensions and MGREGS for carrying
out integrated rural development.
Tribal welfare
Health and family Welfare – SERP carried out AIDS awareness campaign at different
parts of rural Andhra Pradesh
Civil supplies
Streamlining PDS
M.S.P through V.Os- SERP provides minimum support prices for various Agricultural
produce through Village Organizations.
Revenue – SERP helps in maintaining land purchase and land access of government.
Police and Judiciary – SERP runs Family counseling centres and Family Planning centres
at various places in the state with the help of its Institution structure.
Women & Child welfare: SERP runs Nutrition centres for pregnant women, lactating
mothers and infants till 6 months after birth wherein healthy and nutritious food is
provided to them.
PRIs- better participation and voice of poor in Gram sabhas and Gram panchayats
Animal Husbandry – SERP has entered in to a partnership with A.P.D.D.C.F to improve
the possibility of Dairy as an alternate source of income.
Agriculture – Non Pesticide Management programme run by SERP is the largest
intervention fo this sort in the country
Forestry – NTFP collection and marketing for improving lives of tribals
Urban development – SERP helps enhance rural – urban linkages
10. ReflectionsSERP is an organization carrying out time bound programme. With annual budget of over
800 crores, it is the largest poverty alleviation programme in the world. SERP has included
over 1 crore women in the fold of its SHG’s, thus making it the largest women empowerment
programme in the world. The strategy of SERP is target based. This gives a clear picture for
the implementers regarding the focus of the interventions. SERP focuses on PoP (Poorest of
Poor), vulnerable women and disabled persons. This helps to have an inclusion of all the
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stakeholders of society, and in turn a balanced growth in society. SERP beautifully
exemplifies how its leverages its core USP, the power of scale to bring all the poor in
the state in to a single social network and then have an all round growth. SERP achieves
scaling up of its projects with the help of the Community Resource Persons. They ensure that
the programme is uniformly implemented. SERP uses social issues to carry out large scale
collective action in the state.
SERP has a huge structure ranging right from the Office at Hyderabad to all districts of
Andhra Pradesh reaching out to almost all the villages of the state. The institutional network
of SERP has over a crore members in SHG’s, along with government departments, state
administrative machinery, district administrative machinery, various NGO’s, corporate,
citizens etc. Besides that, the administrative structure of SERP has as diverse as 18 functional
departments, with each department being an organization on its own having different
cultures, hierarchy, structure etc. This made it highly difficult to apply any theoretical
frameworks to our study.
In fact, there are many instances of duplication of roles, one person carrying out many
functions or many people carrying out same function. The role clarity in almost all
departments is very low at all levels of SERP structure. Hence, we proposed that SERP needs
to undergo an in depth study of its organization which needs to be carried out by experts in
the field. This study will help in drastically improving the efficiency of SERP.
The documentation efforts at SERP is very minimal. The SHG Federation structure needs to
be more widely documented along with all the activities. The management of SERP is very
complex expecially due to involvement of state machinery. The accountability levels at all
levels in SERP are low. But, CEO is making keen efforts to improve the accountability. The
attendance system which was virtually absent has started to be enforced, all employees at
Head Office is made payments of the salaries only after evaluation of their monthly job done
report. The teachers at ECE centres are paid salary by the community at the monthly
meetings wherein students display what they learned during the month, and parents, if
satisfied with the efforts of teacher, approves the payment of salaries. An interesting mode of
ensuring accountability is the regular communication between field and office. CEO carries
out regular video conferencing from the Secretariat with all the ZS heads of all the states of
Andhra Pradesh. Online monitoring of all the departments is done. All the departments at all
the places have to periodically upload the status reports at the organization website available
29
in public domain. Hence, it becomes easy to monitor. The entire web site is maintained by
Tata Consultancy Services.
CEO is the Head with all the executive powers vested with him. This helps in streamlining all
the programs. On the other hand, all the programs run by SERP depend largely on CEO.
Hence, a change in CEO results in changing the orientation of SERP interventions. SERP has
a good mix of both young and aged population. It has led to the right mix of experience of
situations handling and bringing innovations and fresh ideas into the organization. There are
people from institutes such as IIMs, IRMA, TISS etc who bring in the professionalism into
the organization to a greater extent. Also, SERP welcomes various domestic and international
trainees to have out of the box solutions to their existing problems.
SERP provides encouragement for good programmes eg. CMSA, NPM in Land, ECE in
education etc. Good programs in any part of state or country are taken up as pilot in some
districts. If the results are good, it is implemented in the entire state.
An appreciative aspect of SERP Institution is that, all the members at SHG level, VO, MS
and ZS levels have regular monthly meetings to discuss their agendas. Times for all meetings
are kept. Agendas are fixed beforehand. The salaries of all the office bearers are sanctioned
after careful evaluation of monthly job done reports in the presence of all the members. Apart
from this, SERP also carries out regular training programs for all its members to ensure
optimum efficiency and professionalism.
Overall, SERP has impacted many lives, and managed to bring the Poorest of poor to the
level of poor, and poor out of poverty and sustain those levels.
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