States / Jharkhand

Background

Jharkhand, located in the eastern zone of India is famous for its rich mineral resources, forests and woodlands. The major portion of the state lies in the Chota Nagpur Plateau region, and the population is largely tribal. The state was formed on 15 November 2000. According to the 2011 census, the state has a population of over 32.98 million out of which 26.20 per cent is tribal while 12.08 per cent belong to scheduled caste. Jharkhand has 24 districts, 260 blocks and 32,620 villages out of which only 45 per cent have access to electricity while only 8,484 are connected by roads. Jharkhand is the leading producer of minerals endowed as it is with a vast variety of minerals like iron ore, coal, copper ore, mica, bauxite, graphite, limestone, and uranium. Being a tribal dominated state, nature has been given utmost importance in every sphere of life and culture. In Jharkhand, the three tier panchayati raj system was established in 2010. The states rural livelihood mission- Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) was established in September 2011 by the state government to anchor the program.

Kudumbashree NRO has been working with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) in all the three domains - PRI-CBO Convergence, MEC Project and SVEP.

PRI-CBO Convergence 

The project began with 9 Gram Panchayats of 3 Blocks of 3 Districts in 2014-15. These three blocks are- Khuntpani (resource block), Bundu (intensive block) and Ghatsila (non-intensive blocks). In 2015-16, the coverage area of the project increased and touched more 3 blocks and 20 Gram Panchayats. In 2016, the number of Gram Panchayats and blocks increased and the total number of Gram Panchayats were 79 in 26 blocks of 10 districts. And in 2017-18, the coverage area of the project touched 1100 villages of 179 Gram Panchayats across 36 blocks and 10 districts. The expansion plan for the year 2018-19 is an addition of 177 Gram Panchyats of Antyodaya Mission blocks. Hence the project covers a total number of 357 Gram Panchayats and 36 blocks. The professionals and community cadre of KS-NRO are engaged for providing technical support to the project. A large pool of community cadre has been developed since the project started. The community cadres include LRGs, Internal mentors and Block Anchor Persons (BAPs).

The Major Activities under the Project are

• Cadre development
• LRG Orientation about project and their roles in project
• Participatory Assessment of Entitlements exercise with SHGs and Entitlement Access Plan with VOs
• Supporting Gram Panchayats for developing Gram Panchayat Profile
• Orientation and formation of GPCC
• Gram Sabha Jan Jagriti Abhiyan ( GSJJA)
• Capacitation of Cadre on Schemes, PRIs and Participatory Training Management
• CRP drive to facilitate the formation and strengthening of Standing committees 
• Training to PRs and SAC ( VOs) on Schemes, Govt Circulars.
• Formation and Federation of Balsamuh
• Exposure visits of community leaders Panchayat representatives and professionals of JSLPS

MEC project 

The MoU between JSLPS and KS-NRO for the MEC project was signed in March 2013. The pilot project was initiated in Pakur, Ranchi and West Singhbhum. JSLPS visited Kerala on an exposure visit in May 2013. From 2013-14, mentor selection, MEC selection and training in addition to formation of MEC groups was completed. Enterprise development commenced from September 2014. In 2015-16, MEC groups were registered and their zones were finalised. With promotion of micro enterprise development, maintenance of day books and paper- based PTS roll out was done in August 2015.

Piloting of PTS app commenced in November 2015 in Jharkhand. During this period, capacity building modules were developed by MEC and mentors for GAT and BMT to be imparted to CBO. Selection of a new batch of MECs was conducted in July – August 2016 by KS-NRO Mentors. To assist in the scaling of the project, 11 Master Trainers and 4 PTS Trainers were selected after multiple rounds of testing. The MEC project locations were then later absorbed under SVEP. 

11 Master Trainers and 4 PTS Trainers were identified and trained from the existing pool of MECs in Jharkhand after multiple rounds of selection during 2015-16. The training and selection process was overseen by the Mentor Core Group of KS-NRO. These MECs will act as foot soldiers for scaling up the project in new districts of the State. The Master Trainers added a feather to their cap by acting as faculty during the conduct of capacity building for Gujarat and Rajasthan MEC. This was a project milestone as for the first time MEC training for fresh recruits was being conducted by experienced and field tested MEC themselves.

Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP)

The MoU for partnership between Kudumbashree NRO and Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (henceforth NRO & JSLPS respectively) to implement the project in Five Phase I blocks (Angara, Manoharpur, Khuntpani, Pakuriya and Littipara) of Jharkhand materialised in the month of January 2016. Immediately after which DPR activities started in the field. And the field implementation began in July 2017. 

Similarly, the MoU for Phase II blocks (Dumri, Bengabad, Chatarpur and Satbarwa) were signed in October 2017 and DPR related field activities started in November and lasted till December. Post approval of DPR, project implementation started in February 2018. 

In the financial year 2018-19 JSLPS further expanded the project to three new blocks (Gola, Domchanch and Daru)  in Phase III. The MoU for this phase was signed in Dec 2018, and DPRs were prepared by March 2019. In total, NRO implements the SVEP project in 12 blocks of Jharkhand spanning over 8 districts.

In Phase I blocks, the project has been implemented for the last three years, whereas for Phase II blocks it has been two year since the project is being implemented. Field implementation in Phase III blocks is yet to begin and awaits the availability of funds from the NRLM and the State Government.

SVEP project status in Jharkhand as of June 2020