Needs Final Report (Group)

8/9/2019 Needs Final Report (Group)

1/26

BY-

AARTI SHAH

ANKITA SINGH

NIKHIL AKHOURI

PRATIK SHUKLA

SALONI AGARWAL

A REPORT ON THE SELECTION

PROCESS OF ULTRA POOR

HOUSEHOLDS UNDER THE

PROGRAM UPNA SAPNA

Organization- NEEDS, Deoghar


2/26

XAVIER INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, BHUBANESWAR

2

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr Murari Choudhry for assigning us such a

project in which we provided the opportunity to put our theoretical knowledge into practice.

This project has given us direct exposure to field work which has taught us the many of the

ground realities. We would also like to thank Mrs. Anamika Bose for her able guidancethroughout the project. She had placed her full trust in us and our work. We also extend our

regards to Mrs. Renu, Mrs. Arvinda, Mahendra ji and Madhurendra ji who through their

invaluable inputs and help made it possible for us to complete our part in the project. We also

thank Bhaskar ji for assisting us on the wheel through all the kilo meters that we travelled.

It was the first time when we had such an extended exposure to village life. Through this project

we have learnt a few things about the way the tribes manage their households. The meetings with

the NEEDS staff gave us an insight into our confusions and guided us towards a better approach

to the work assigned.

We would like to thank the NEEDS staff for making our stay comfortable and enjoyable. Last

but not the least we thank XIMB for providing us with an opportunity to work with NEEDS.


3/26


3

Index

S. No. Content Page no.

1 Introduction 4

2 The Process Adopted 5

2 (a) Community meeting 1 5

2 (b) Community meeting 2 7

2 (c) Community meeting 3 9

2(d)Survey of the individual

households10

3 Detailed village report 11

4 Challenges 20

5 Recommendations 21


4/26


4

Organizational Profile

Name: Network for Enterprise Enhancement and Development Support

Mission Office: Deoghar, Jharkhand

State Coordination Office: Ranchi, Jharkhand

Legal Status: Registered under Indian Trust Act vide # 175, Dated 7th Nov, 1998,

FCRA vide # 031220051 Dated June 1999,IT (12A) vide # CIT/DHN/TECH/12A-17/99-2000 dated 14th Oct 1999.

NEEDS is a professionally managed NGO active in community capacity building and issuebased networking. The primary focus of NEEDS is on the problems of the poor in their struggleto obtain a life of justice and dignity.Environment stabilization, food security and empowermentof the community for self-governance are the most important components of its mission. Genderjustice, natural resource management, and livelihood security are our primary areas of concern.

NEEDS Trust runs the following institutions:

y Rural Technology Park- An institution to develop and remodel livelihood technology formarginalized.

y Ajiwika - NEEDS microfinance initiativey NEEDSSociety An institution to work on natural resource management activitiesy Rural Industry Promotion A technical support service group to handhold rural

entrepreneur to support enterprise

y Corporate Organic Solutions A house of ICT based training center collaborated withTARAhaat

Vision:

Mission

Sustained Food and Nutrition security of the marginalized through environmentally sound

interventions, while focusing on equity, justice and human rights


5/26


5

All initiatives of NEEDS focus on ensuring equal opportunities for resource poor householdsthrough improved access to human development opportunities. As a strategy, NEEDSconcentrates on building local capacity, ensuring information and technology availability andenhancing linkages to development infrastructure like credit institutions, health and educationservice providers etc.

Sectoral Goals:

y Livelihood Security: Sustainable livelihood security of marginalized throughenvironment friendly farm and non-farm based technology enhancement by ensuring

empowerment process of marginalized community.

y Health: Reduction in mortality and morbidity amongst women and children under 2 yearsby enhancing the womens capacity in safe motherhood and child survival issues and

improved access and control on health infrastructure and information by women.

y Child Protection: All children will learn, grow and develop to realize their full potential.y ICT: Every household of the poorest regions sufficiently empowered to live a joyful life

with all their entitlements realized in an Informed Society.

Geographical Coverage:

NEEDS is currently working in selected pockets of Santhalpargana region of Jharkhand andChandan block of Bihar. Total coverage of all programs is spread over 62 blocks.

Now, through its RCH resource center from Ranchi, NEEDS has initiated health advocacy

initiatives at state level.

Target Population:Tribal, Dalits, women and children are the primary program participants.

Partner Organizations:

y S&T / GoI Govt. of Jharkhand / Ministry of agriculture Govt. of Jharkhand / Ministry of health & Family Planning Govt. of Jharkhand / Ministry of Tribal Welfare ISRO [Indian space research organization] Bangalore KFO / Austria


6/26


6

MISEREOR / Germany SIMAVI / Netherlands SKN / Netherlands NFI / India [Packard Foundation]

ICOMP / Malaysia Sir Ratan Tata Trust Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust AFPRO / Ranchi unit SIDBI NABARD ICICI


7/26


7

UPna Sapna Program

U pna Sapna Program is being implemented by NEEDS in the Devipur and Palajori block of

Devghar District. This Program aims at holistic development of the poverty stricken people. The

building blocks of this program are women self help groups. This Program involves selection of

Ultra Poor families on the basis of Grameen PPI and NEEDS own Poverty measuring Index. Onthe basis of this index the poor will selected and a SHG will be formed through the participation

of a woman from every selected family. A micro plan will be made for every household. This

plan will include six major components of development that is:

y Food Securityy Livelihood Promotiony Healthcarey Child Educationy Social Empowermenty Financial Services

Needs will work on these components for two years with the SHGs . They have divided the

whole program into four phases:

y Community Foundationy Food Securityy Livelihood Promotiony Enhancement and Stabilization

They have also included the provision of graduation for the community. They have set certain

Graduation criteria for the above mentioned components. The community will be tested on the

basis of these criteria at the end of two years. NEEDS is trying to graduate 1200 members by

2012.

Our Assignment:

Our Assignment as given by NEEDS included selection of the Ultra Poor households through a

proper organized process. We were supposed to carry out this selection in six villages which

included Resource Mapping, Community Ranking, and a detailed household survey. We were

also instructed to document the entire process and present it before the Director of the

Organization and the concerned authorities.


8/26


8

The Process Adopted

Prior to our field work we were divided into two groups so that we could cover six villages in all.

The teams were as follows:

Team 1: Aarti Shah and Nikhil Akhouri

Team 2: Ankita Singh, Pratik Kumar, Saloni Agarwal

The process was conducted in the following four steps:

1. Community Meeting I: Introduction of the programme2. Community Meeting II: Social and resource mapping3. Community Meeting III: Community Ranking4. Survey of individual households

1. Community Meeting 1:Objectives:

y Introducing the UPna Sapna Programme to the village.y Building a rapport with the villagers.

Process:

We asked the villagers to gather at a common place where we could talk to them. This was done

through the help of a master trainer who was the NEEDS representative of the village. It took the

villagers around forty five minutes to an hour to get together. In the mean time our team took a

walk around the village to get an idea about the village and its resources.

The people seemed to be hesitant to turn up in the beginning as we were strangers to them. Also,

it was the harvesting season due to which most of the people were working in the fields.

Once they had gathered we addressed them with the customary Johar which means welcome in

the tribal language. We introduced NEEDS as an organisation and the area of their work. We

then tried to take the advantage of reference and questioned them whether they had heard about

NEEDS and its programmes in the other villages. Some of the people knew about the work in theneighbouring villages and mentioned about it.


9/26


9

We introduced UPna Sapna as a programme that would continue for two years. We told them

that each household had to dream about a bright and prosperous future for them. They will have

to devise their own plan to meet their projected dream. NEEDS will guide them through their

journey to achieve their dream and be able to graduate as according to the Apna Sapna

parameters. We made sure that we did not mention anything about providing them with

monetary or physical inputs.

Since women empowerment forms the base of the UPna Sapna programme therefore we told

them that in order to achieve this, Women Self Help Groups would be formed. We also informed

them that the women would have to be present for all the weekly meetings of the SHG. Thus, we

gave them time to discuss and decide amongst themselves about what they thought of the

program and whether they were willing to participate in the programme.

After their discussions a few questions came up reflecting their interest. In almost all the villages

that we visited we received a positive response towards the programme.

We then decided with them the day and time for the next meeting and the Master Trainer was

told to come before us and gather the villagers. We mentioned that one man and one woman

from each household should be present at the meeting and that we will be discussing about their

village resources in the next meeting.


10/26


10

2. Community meeting 2:Objectives: To know about the various

resources of the village and make the

villagers aware of them too.

y Make a resource map of thevillage

y Encouraging communityparticipation

Process:

When we reached the village, the

villagers hadnt gathered as asked. So we asked the MT to call all the people from the village. In

the mean time we took a transect walk of the village wherein we observed mainly:

y The type of soil and landy The various crops grown and the vegetationy The water resourcesy The forest resources if anyy The livestocky The types of housesy The roads

The transect walk was taken in order to

y Get an idea of the resources of the village to see whether the programme was feasible inthe particular village.

y Remind the villagers of anything in case they had missed out on anything while drawingthe map of their village.

We also made sure that we did not write anything on paper as the villagers might not like it or

get suspicious.

After the transect we sat down with the villagers and recapitulated what we had discussed in our

first meeting. We then told them that they had to draw a map of their village indicating all theresources. We told them that we were doing this in order to know about the existing resources in

the village and the problems associated with the village in terms of resources.


11/26


11

We then filled up the village profile which included the types of crops, the soil type, number of

households, and the various institutions and the important people associated with the village.

We invited the villagers to draw the map. Initially they were hesitant but we encouraged them by

saying that it was their village and they knew better about their village and after all it was their

programme so they only had to work for it. Then, 2-3 people volunteered to draw the map. Wealso asked the women to cut the papers to be used as name plates and later asked them to stick it.

We started by asking them to draw the directions and then the roads that led into the village and

which other villages were they connected to. Then we asked one of them who was literate to

write the names on the paper tags and then place them according to their right places. The paper

tags were colour coded for various types of houses as was previously decided to maintain

uniformity.

We then asked them to draw their fields Dhaani and Baadi. We also came across terms such

as Jarhan and Lohna which indicated the various levels of land existing in the village. They alsoindicated the various water resources existing in the village. The man made resources such as

place of worship, schools and any other institutions were also indicated.

In the end, we gave them their house numbers and asked them to memorise it and locate their

house on the map. After that, we took the attendance according to their house numbers. We

showed them the map and asked them if they had any questions. The villagers seemed to be

involved in the whole process and they also felt that something was happening as part of the

programme.

We then decided upon the next meeting day and time and informed the MT to gather the people

on time.


12/26


12

3. Community meeting 3:Objectives:

y To identify the indicators according to thecommunity of perceiving poverty.

Process:

We started with recap of the last meeting and then went on to tell them about community

ranking. We told them that in a village not all households are in the same boat; some are worse

while some are better off. So, we asked them to tell us the various indicators of a household

being Dukhi (poor). After considering all the parameters, we asked them to identify the poorest

household keeping in mind the parameters. We then asked them to state the reasons as to why the

particular household was poor. We then asked the person whose name was taken to place the

name tag on the chart himself/herself.

We moved forward in this manner. In some cases the reasons for a particular household were

different than the indicators given earlier.

It wasnt easy for the villagers to move ahead after sometime so we mentioned some names of

the households which gave them some direction. We did not stick the name cards initially so that

if they wanted to move some names they could do so. It was only when the villagers were sure

that we stuck the names to the chart.

In the end, we asked them to state the differences between the poorest and the happiest

household.

This task happened to be the most difficult one in the whole process and we faced quite a few

challenges which are discussed later in the report.

We then told the people that the next step would be a survey of all the households. We again

asked one male member and one female member of each household to be present during the

survey.


13/26


13

4. Survey of the individual households:Objectives:

y To get a first hand information of each householdy

Conduct a detailed study of each householdy Ensure womens participation

Process:

All five of us decided to go to one village at a time so that the whole village could be surveyed in

such a way that no household felt left out. We divided the households equally amongst us.

We felt that the pictorials used in the

survey form were a very good personal

learning tool for the villagers. It aroused

their interest and they felt a sense ofempowerment circling the pictures. In most

of the households we asked the women to

encircle the pictures. Most of the people

had held a pencil in their hand for the first

time.

We laid an emphasis on the questions

relating to the amount of land owned,

primary source of livelihood and food

security.

In some cases we had the MT or some villager with us who helped us translate the questions to

santhali to explain them to the women.

A lot of questions had come up during the survey relating to the programme which reflected

peoples interest in the programme.

Overall, the survey was an easier process as we had a good rapport with the people even on a

personal level in some cases.

After the survey was over we told them that a second round of survey would be conducted at alater stage.


14/26


14

Detailed Village Report

Village- Pandanbona

Tola- Basti Tola

Community Meeting 1: Since we were

accompanied by NEEDS

representatives, it was easier to attract

the villagers for the meeting. In the

mean time we also walked around the

village and the fields. We then carried

out the meeting according to the

described process, during which we

found that the villagers were very

inquisitive and were looking forward tothe proposal of the program. Here we got the advantage of reference as the same program had

been running in the neighboring tola (Dahar Tola). After this meeting we as a team felt that this

tola was very large in terms of the Household number to carry out a program like Upna Sapna

which involved an overall development of a household.

Community Meeting 2: During this meeting, we carried out Social and Resource Mapping. The

villagers were very responsive in this process and felt involved. Here Community participation

was ensured as the entire process of social mapping was carried out by the villagers themselves.

The social map depicted that most of the houses were made up of soil and Khapda and there

were a total of 8 IAY houses. The village was equipped with a few wells however it had onlyone Handpump. There was substantial amount of cultivable land in the village but irrigation

appeared to be an issue.We then gave a number to each household and there were a total of 50

households at the end of the process.

Community Meeting 3: In this meeting we observed that the turnout of the number of people

was low at the start of the meeting, however after a wait of an hour or so people started to turn

up. Some men were in a drunken state and were disturbing the process. However, we continued

the process of Community Ranking. In this village particularly, we found that it was difficult to

conduct this process due to a large number of families and involvement of a few antisocial

elements.


15/26


15

Survey: It took three days to complete the survey due to a large number of families and

unavailability of members because of Paddy harvesting season. Here, we also came across a few

people who claimed that they were living as a different household which was not acknowledged

by the community during the social mapping process.

Village- Dhodsa

Tola- Dhavatad

Community Meeting 1: Since this tola was very small it was easier to assemble the villagers

for the meeting. We then carried out the meeting and put forward the proposal of the program. In

this village particularly, people did not accept the proposal immediately, they in turn took time to

discuss among themselves where the men folk were explaining the program to the women, they

also asked a few questions and then finally agreed.

Community Meeting 2: At first we took a criss cross

transect walk and carried out the process with 100%

attendance from the members of the tola. At the end of

the meeting which included active participation of the

Didis and the Dadas, all the households had their

household numbers at the tip of their tongue.

Community Meeting 3: Unlike Pandanbona where

the community was not coming up with a single poor

household, in fact everyone was trying to portray

themselves as poor, this village was very cooperative and understood the implication of the

process. Thus, here Community as a whole was taking a decision about a particular household

and the process was carried out without any hassles.

Survey: Due to the small size of the tola which ensured a strong Rapport building process the

survey in this tola was carried out easily. During the initial process of the survey we were

accompanied by our Professor who ensured that the detailed talks of the individual survey were

carried out properly.


16/26


16

Village- Bhalpahari

Tola- Bhalpahari

Community Meeting 1: This was the first village where we visited the village twice for

community Meeting1

. During the first visit only one household turned up for the meetinghowever in the second visit there was an increase in the attendance level but 100% attendance

was never achieved. At the end of the meeting we realised that in this Tola there was almost an

equal distribution Santhals and the Yadavas. Since we were intending to work only with the

Santhals we decided on the next meeting according to their convenience.

Community Meeting 2: Here, even after waiting for one and a half hour the many household

members did not turn up for the meeting. We carried out Resource mapping with the help of less

than 15 families. Resource mapping depicted that there was only one household which was well

of in terms of the distribution of land. The houses were randomly situated and spread across the

village area. There was a lack of interest on the part of the villagers in the social mappingprocess and they had to be motivated consistently. We as a team were fairly disappointed with

the response in this meeting.

Community Meeting 3: Even after a long wait of two hours we faced the same problem of

community attendance at the meeting. We ignored this and continued our community ranking

process in the presence of a few drunken people. This process was not easy in this village as the

community was not cooperating and they wanted to finish the meeting as soon as possible. Here

we also found that the community was using abusive language in our reference and were making

fun and laughing at us. After this meeting we discussed this problem with the NEEDS team and

with their consent rejected this village.

Village- Ratanbad and Munda Mundi

Tola- Ratanbad and Neecha Tola

Community Meeting 1: Here, as the Master Trainer was assembling the villagers for the

meeting, we took a small walk around the villages and found that the houses were spread over a

large area and were situated far away from each other particularly in Ratanbad. These villages

had 40 and 60 households respectively and during the meeting only a handful members turned

up. After we discussed about the program to these people they were very apprehensive and asked

us to conduct more meetings and they would decide in the subsequent meetings whether they


17/26


17

wanted to be a part of the program. We as a team were fairly disappointed with the response and

attitude of the villagers to the program and after a discussion with the NEEDS representatives the

villages were rejected.

Village- Munda Mundi

Tola- Upari Tola

Community meeting 1: People in the village

were very friendly and co-operative. The first

meeting was meant for our introduction and

rapport building. Renu maam conducted the

first meeting and introduced the village and the

programme. People were very interested and

looked forward for the programme to start.

There were 28 households in the village and

almost everyone was present in the meetings thereof. We also took a small walk around the

village to know a little more about it. The rapport building was a great success and at the end the

villagers treated us with some great guavas.

Community meeting 2: In the second meeting we gathered information about the village

resources with the help of a resource map. After introducing ourselves, we asked them their

names. This helped us in rapport building as well as taking the attendance. When we started

making the social map, we realized that some households were not present and we asked the

villagers to ensure that they are present the next time. The villagers were also told the importance

of making the social map. During this process we realized that there was 60-70% participation

and majority of women preferred to sit back and listen. But with our continuous efforts and

requests, they also participated and contributed in the process. To ensure that everybody

participates, we asked villagers to take turns to draw the map. At the end we made them

remember their household number. At the end we took the date for the next meeting in which

community ranking had to be done.

Community meeting 3: when we went for the third meeting we were a little amazed when the

villagers greeted us by our names. It was a nice feeling to see that they made an effort to

remember us. They also remembered their household numbers and even their neighbors. This

was the first village where we had to conduct the community ranking. Hence we took a little


18/26


18

more time to complete the process. Initially they said that they said that they all were equally

poor. We then explained them that no two fingers are equal. Hence there will be some difference

between them too. The villagers then started opening up and completed the ranking discussing

among them.

Inadequate capital and limited access to seeds were some of the major concerns of the villagers.In the end we took a convenient date and time for the survey and told everyone to be present so

that they could help us.

Survey: When we went for the survey, we realized that the people had decided not to go to the

fields so that they could be present for the survey. They remembered our names and were

enthusiastic about the entire process. They ensured that we visit their houses and then conduct

the survey. The people in Munda Mundi were one of the most enthusiastic people we met during

our visit to various villagers. The women folk also took an active part in the survey process.

When we were leaving the village, the people gathered around us and wanted to know when we

would be coming next. They seemed a little impatient and were quite looking forward to theprogramme. They told us that we should visit the village soon otherwise the villagers might lose

interest and would believe that the organisation would not be doing anything for them. It took us

one day to complete the survey as we all were working together.

Village- Narayanpur

Tola- Narayanpur

Community meeting 1: We started as usual with the first community meeting in which we triedto build rapport and tried to know whether the people are interested in joining the programme.

We also took a small walk in their fields to know the crops which are mainly grown there. We

also asked the difficulties that they are facing. In this meeting we were asked certain questions

on what the organisation is planning to do. There were also questions on whether they are going

to get any monetary benefits if they joined the programme. Some of them thought that we are

from some government organisation, but we cleared their doubts and made them understand that

we are not from any government organisation. After this we took the date and time for the next

meeting in which we planned to do resource mapping of the village.

Community meeting 2: The objective for the meeting was clear and we gathered in the schoolvillage to do the resource mapping. We found that the male members of the village were too shy


19/26


19

and only some of them came forward to answer the questions or make the resource map. But we

insisted and used our communication skills to break the ice and once it was done almost all of

them participated including the women. This made the process a little easier. One of the unique

features of this village was that it had water supply all around the year as the village was blessed

with two rivers flowing around the village. Hence we realized that agriculture can be done and

sustained in future. At the end of the meeting we fixed the date for next meeting in which we

would do the community ranking. During the process we found that there 5 households across

the river. We were not sure if we could take these households as there was no one from the

village present in the meeting. It was also a little doubtful if they would be able to cross the river

to attend the meeting. Later we found out that these households would find it easier to visit

Dhawatad to attend the meetings.

Community meeting 3: This meeting was a little lengthy as the village had 35 households and

all the households thought that the poor family will get something so all of them tried to project

themselves as poor. But we made it clear that they will not get anything and this process is

conducted to know the poor household among them. After the process was completed we

showed them the ranking and asked them if they would like to see some changes. The villagers

made some minor changes. At the end we took time for the survey and asked them to be present

in their houses.

Survey: In the survey we did everything as discussed but one difficulty we faced was that the

male members were not present in some of the households and this created problem as the

female members of the house did not know about their land. So it was a challenge for us and we

asked some indirect questions so that we can get an approximate measure of their land holdings.

In this village we found some para- teachers and also found a pucca house which was very rare.

Narayanpur was blessed with enough water resources and thus agriculture intervention taken up

would be sustainable in this village.


20/26


20

Village- Ektaara

Tola- Ektaara

Community Meeting 1:

Ektara was situated in the middle of the forests. When we reached there for the first community

meeting there were some women and a handicapped man who seemed to be one of the most

respected men in the village. We told about the organisation and told our purpose for coming to

the village. As this hamlet had only 16 households, it didnt take much time to call everybody

from their houses. We had a briefing about UPna Sapna with the villagers who seemed to be

quite interested in the programme. The women in the village also took an active participation.

Seeing the way people were dressed up and their health condition, we realised that the villagers

were ultra poor and were in dire need for help.


When we went for the second meeting, we realised that the villagers did not grow many crops,

not even on their homestead land. During the transect walk and discussion with the villagers

while profiling the village, we found that the village had sandy soil which is not suitable for

agriculture which was a reason for the limited production of the village and hence their poverty.

Also the closest river to the village was around a kilometre away. We anyways went ahead and

got the social map made by the villagers. As the village was surrounded by forests, there was an

office of the Forest Department situated in the village.

Later Madhurendraji visited the village to check the soil and confirmed that the soil was

unsuitable for agriculture as it was both sandy and saline. So it was decided to drop the village as

intervention was not feasible. And the hunt began for the sixth village.

We however felt that had the village been gifted with fertile soil, it would have been one of the

most deserving villages eligible for intervention as the people there were very poor and needed

some assistance to dream of a better life and live it. And with this our interactions with the

people there came to an end.

The village has a lot of Mahua trees and we feel that in future, NEEDS might help them to earntheir livelihood through these.


21/26


21

Village- Dohosoho

Tola- Santhal Tola

Dohoso was taken up when it was decided that we would not be working with the villagers of

Ektara. Dohoso was set in a picturesque location surrounded by hills.


During the first community meeting, Mehandraji was accompanying us to decide if the village

could be taken up for the intervention. After a small walk through the village to understand the

agricultural activities of the villagers, we realised that the intervention in the village would not be

very difficult as the villagers had plenty of cultivable land and there was an all season river

running next to the village providing the villagers with an excellent source for irrigation.

We interacted with the villagers who seemed quite enthusiastic about the programme. The master

trainer accompanying us (Bablu) also told the villagers about the benefits that the people in hisvillage are enjoying after implementation ofUPna Sapna. This further generated more interest.

The villagers questioned us on the entire programme and its implementation which showed that

they were interested. The village had a lot of young boys who seemed to understand the benefits

and showed a lot of interest.

Community Meetings 2 and 3:

When we went for the second time, we decided to go for a transect walk while the villagers were

assembling. When we came back, we saw that the school teacher of the village had come in a

drunken state and was ordering people to cooperate with us. We did not like his attitude and

requested somebody to send him back. We then progressed with the social mapping where the

men folk along with the young boys took active participation. While profiling the village, we

realised that the villagers were growing a variety of crops in their homestead land and with

proper guidance, they can do wonders. But what disappointed us a little was that the women

were not taking a lot of interest in spite of our constant request to participate.

When we took the attendance, we realised that there was 100% attendance from the households

in spite of the paddy harvesting season. As this village was selected late, we had already lost a lot

of time. Once the harvesting would finish people would start doing wage labour and would not

be able for the next few meetings. So seeing the interest of the people, we decided to conduct the

community ranking on the same day. The villagers took a little time to decide over the

community ranking.


22/26


22

Each of them tried to put themselves as the poorest, thinking that this would make them eligible

for some added benefits. We had to constantly remind them that this is by no way going to give

them any extra advantage. With a little difficulty we finished the community ranking of this

village. An interesting finding was that the Majhidam of the village was considered poor as he

had recently parted ways with his brothers and hence was the only working hand for his house.

And to add to his problems, he could not even take out enough time for his living as there added

responsibilities of Majhiram.

Survey:

For the survey, three of us went to the village and took the survey of the 32 households of the

village. During the survey, men were present in their houses as they had promised. We filled the

survey forms in the presence of the entire family to ensure the participation of all. It is during

this time that the women also showed them some interest and even questioned us about the

programme.


23/26


23

CHALLENGES

y In some households male members were absent so we found it difficult to know the exactmeasure of the land holdings of the household as the women did not have an idea about the

same.

We then tried to approximate the size of the landholding by asking the women folk on how

much crop are they able to harvest per season.

y The harvesting season was over so male members had gone out to work as daily wagelabourers and hence were not available. The women in the village usually did not understand

Hindi and hence it was becoming a little difficult for us to communicate with them.

We took assistance from the neighbors and asked them questions for the households where

the men were not available.

yIn some villages we found some drunken people who were acting as a hindrance to the entireprocess.

We had to deal with them tactfully to avoid problems and in some situations had to even

request the villagers to take them away.

y Some households also tried to hide some of the facts in the hope that they would be able toget some additional help if they portray themselves as very poor.

So we had to ask them indirect questions to get the right answers and even remind them that

getting the correct information was crucial for the programme and their poor economic

status would not help them get any extra help.

y Some of the villagers became too dominant during the discussions which refrained othermembers of the village to speak.

We had to monitor the participation of these people in order to get everyone involved. Time

and again we made an effort to involve those who were not participating.

y Women members were very quite in the meetings so it was very difficult to get theminvolved in the process.

In order to make them a part of the process, we invited them to stick chits on the chart as

they were too hesitant to voice their opinion in front of the entire village.


24/26


24

y In some cases language was also a challenge as women were not able to follow Hindiproperly and we needed male counterparts to translate it for us.

In these cases the pictorial questionnaires were of great help. The children of the villages

also helped us in filling the communication gaps.

y People in some of the villages had taken money for building Indira Awaas but had used thismoney else were so we found a difficulty in identifying the kind of houses.

To overcome this challenge, we took the list of households possessing Indira Awaas which

was given to us by the villagers during the resource mapping process. This helped us to cross

check in cases when the villagers did not inform about them.


25/26


25

RECOMMENDATIONS

y People were trying to find pictures of some of the animals which were not there in thequestionnaire say for instance pictures like duck, sheep etc so measures can be taken to

include them in the next questionnaire.

y To keep the interest of the villagers high, NEEDS should ensure that a volunteer visits thevillage at regular intervals and keep the villagers updated.

y The methodology we followed in Community Ranking is not suited for a village with largenumber of households so in order to solve this problem we as a team feel that before ranking

the households the community should categorise the villagers according to their preference.

y NEEDS should also include objectslike Mobile and Radio in the pictorialforms.

y In the NEEDS Poverty Measurementindex there are no points allotted for a

Motorcycle which also can be changed

in the next questionnaire.

y In order to sustain the program NEEDSshould train and capacitate Master

Trainers in a way that these SHGs can be handed over to them after the withdrawal of the

Project.

y NEEDS can also install a notice board in every village depicting the calendar of work andschedule which will help in maintaining the interest of the villagers and also conveyance of

information.


26/26


Documents

Needs Final Report (Group)