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News
from RGVN
AN OVERVIEW
With its existing programs firmly in place, RGVN
at this juncture is ready to venture into new programs
to supplement and add value to its NGO Support Program.
Along with project funding under NGOSP and NGOMF, RGVN
is also taking up special programs for which fund support
is generated from various sources. These “other”
programs are not only enabling RGVN to broaden its horizon
but also explore potential opportunities for the future.
NGO Support Program (NGOSP)
and NGO Micro Finance Program (NGOMF)
NER
1. NGOMF program: NER
has recently initiated the NGOMF program by approving
15 projects for an amount of Rs 62.93 lakh till now.
NGO MF is now the main focus of the region. Need assessment
and building capacities of these NGOs is in its agenda.
During the initial stages NER plans to concentrate in
Assam and Tripura for NGOMF, later on spreading to other
states. Under MF, NER is onlending to those NGOs which
have been supported under NGOSP for 3 – 4 times
and thus a relationship is being built.
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Visit to a Sanitary Mart at
Hajo
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2. NGO Liability Committee:
In NER new ways of project monitoring is adopted for
ease of operation, proper use of resources and timely
recovery. NER has come up with the concept of NGO Liability
Committee, 3-5 NGOs in an area come together to form
a committee. Thus it becomes easier to monitor and handle
the project right from the prefunding stage. Two such
committees have been formed in Morigaon, Assam and Tripura.
Under LPUP, NER has developed 100 urban SHGs under Guwahati
Municipal Area.
3. Onlend through educational institutions:
In NER, RGVN is trying to onlend through educational
institutions, especially in areas where there are no
credible NGOs. In such cases the committee in the education
institution ensures the proper utilization of the money.
RGVN has given Rs 1.98 lakh to Laluk College in North
Lakhimpur, Assam. Three more such proposal from Sonitpur
and North Lakhimpur is in the pipeline.
4. Low Cost Latrine: Financial assistance for
low cost latrine is another new kind of proposal which
is in the pipeline, it is for those beneficiaries of
RGVN who have been able to have an enhanced income and
now can think of improving their living conditions.
RGVN is planning to tie up with Grameen Sahara, Assam
for such a project.
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Visit to a Sanitary Mart at
Hajo
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5. Kuroiler project: Under
NGOSP, NER is planning to take up a Kuroiler project
involving 7 NGOs from Darrang and Kamrup. Besides training,
each NGO would be given a loan of Rs 5000/- to be repaid
as bullet repayment after 3 months.
6. Standardize the accounting systems: NER is
also trying to standardize the accounting systems of
its partner NGOs to bring in uniformity. There is substantial
progress in this regard. NER is also preparing a profile
of its NGOs since inception.
Bihar
In Patna Region grassroot level
NGOs that received initial support from RGVN and continued
to focus on micro credit program achieved high degree
of success and some of them are now handling large scale
credit and doing MF and functioning as quasi banks.
Some such NGOs are – NIDAN, Matadeen Mahila Manch,
Kanchan Sewa Ashram etc.
Credit support for area specific and sector specific
activities did well in Bihar and contributed towards
providing a fair degree of financial freedom to the
poor and helping them towards achieving sustainable
livelihood opportunities. For instance, small business
activity did very well in the vegetable belt area of
Nalanda and support for dairy activities was successful
in Muzaffarpur area. Hence RGVN plans to identify sectors
and focus on sectoral intervention.
Flood Relief in Bihar
RGVN has undertaken flood relief activities in Muzaffarpur,
Madhubani, Darbhanga, Khagaria and Saharsa districts
with support from SDTT. RGVN has received Rs 10 lakh
from SDTT in this regard. 20 RGVN NGO partners are involved
in this process of flood relief in Bihar. Each NGO catered
to 50-60 households depending on the need of the area.
Orissa
During July-September two trainings on “Disaster
Preparedness” have been conducted as emergency
response from RGVN in the district of Balasore and Koraput,
the worst hit areas by recent flood. Both the programs
were attended by 175 women leaders from respective Village
Development Councils organized by 6 NGOs in the state
of Orissa. The Orissa Regional Office provides constant
support to UMASS in the form of advice and regular monitoring.
UMASS has made profit last FY and shared dividend with
its members.
Chattisgarh
A Sectoral Training at Durg District on Small and Micro
Enterprise was also organized on 17 and 18 December,
2007, where NGOs from Raipur, Durg, Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon
participated. All total 36 NGOs participants attended
the Program. A state level NGO meet was organized at
Raipur on 5th October, 2007. The purpose of the Meet
was “Role of NGOs in livelihood generation for
poor”. 51 NGOs participants from all over Chattisgarh
participated in the NGO Meet. The RGVN Chattisgarh is
currently initiating the process of developing a “Sector
wise Network of NGOs for Livelihood security linkage
to micro-finance”, with the aim to strengthen its
links with the NGO community and advance its efforts
to reduce threats to livelihood at the community level.
Supplementary Programs
of NGOSP
Program with Tata Trust
Building Grassroot Resource Centers (GRCs)
The Tata Program to build GRCs is
progressing well. Infrastructure of GRCs have been strengthened
with the provision of computers to all GRCs. Motorcycles
are also given to GRCs for mobility and thus increase
efficiency. GRCs have started the process of grooming
CBOs and SHGs. The present status of the Program is
highlighted below:
All the GRCs have recruited
1 or 2 persons to coordinate the GRC Program.
All the GRCs have received computers.
Motorcycles have been purchased for nine of
the ten GRCs.
RGVN personnel have visited the GRCs in all
the states.
The GRCs have begun the process of developing
CBOs. All of them have promoted 3 – 8 CBOs each.
Four Organizations (AGUS, SATRA, ROSS and TGTMS)
have conducted training for CBOs with funds from RGVN.
The training were on certain basic concepts of NGOs/CBOs
and on finance and accounts.
Collection of baseline information on the area
has already begun. RGVN has provided the GRCs with a
format to give them a broad guideline on the type of
information to be collected. The information mainly
pertains to – socio economic profile if the area,
Resource mapping, NGOs/CBOs operational in the area,
credit availability etc.
Tata RGVN Fellowship Program
At present there are 16 Tata RGVN fellows. The fellowship
program has so far resulted in:
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Chairperson at GBAC workshop
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In areas where CBOs/SHGs
are formed and groomed community participation has been
boosted and leadership abilities built. Those CBOs are
to be linked to RGVN and ultimately become viable institutions.
Facilitating RGVN to organize various skill
development programs and awareness programs on sanitation,
SHG promotion etc.
Assist RGVN in developing socio cultural clubs
into vibrant NGOs in Kamrup and Nalbari districts of
Assam.
Develop NECR, a NGO in Dergaon, Assam. The
fellowship is helping NECR to establish itself. NECR
is also developing CBOs. Three SHG clusters have been
identified – Jute cluster in Golaghat district,
bamboo cluster in Majuli and Piggery cluster in Golaghat
district. NECR is also initiating work on SRI. NECR
is also trying to promote improved chullahs – to
be used during high water period when the people have
to live on temporary shelters on embankments.
Dissemination of information on various RGVN
Programs, awareness survey and networking.
Highlighting issues pertaining to NE particularly
Tripura.
Volunteer Program
The Volunteer Program is in its initial stages. Twelve
volunteers have been selected on the basis of recommendations
from RGVN DSTs, GRCs and associated NGOs under the Volunteer
Program. The volunteers thus selected will be attached
to RGVN offices, GRCs or associated NGOs so that they
can learn on the job and the impact of the program will
be maximized.
Gender Budget and Analysis Center (GBAC)
RGVN’s Gender Budget Analysis centre (GBAC) was
set up in December 2006 with funds from the North east
Network. GBAC was set up to analyze budgets of different
developmental programs of the government to see how
the welfare of women, is targeted and how much finance
has been allotted to the different sectors of the economy,
with a view to constructively examining programs, make
suggestions, information garnering and dissemination.
A workshop was held on December 6th and 7th and the
findings is to be presented. The first day of the workshop
focused on awareness generation on Gender Budgeting
at grass root level. There were resource persons from
CBGA, New Delhi for the workshop. The second day focused
on advocacy. A draft report on the findings of the study
was presented to the house where Assam Govt. officials
were also present.
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Meet on revival of traditional
clubs
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Findings
The Budget allocation against women specific
schemes/programmes was Rs. 40919.73 Lakh which was 2.01%
of the total Budget outlay in 2007-08.
In 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 only some of
the state govt. departments operated women specific
schemes/programmes while other Departments had not operated
such schemes/ programmes .
Most of the Departments allocated lesser fund
against women specific schemes in 2007-08 than that
in the previous year.
Women specific schemes/programmes get very
low priority in Education Department in regard to allocation
of fund.
Of State Govt. Budget only around 2 p.c. of
total Budget allocation was earmarked against women
specific schemes/programmes for all the three years
under reference.
Out of the total allocation to women specific
schemes, central schemes constitutes 25.67 p.c., 38.64
p.c. and 35.02 p.c. for the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and
2007-08 respectively.
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Book on Rights of Women released
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Research Studies
HOMESTEAD GARDEN: A study on existing homestead
gardens was conducted to understand the role women in
homestead management. The study was carried out through
a 500 random samplings in districts of Nalbari , Kamrup,
Morigaon and Darrang.
SURVEY ON SMALL VENDORS AT GUWAHATI CITY: Another
study was conducted on small venders and hawkers in
order to understand situations faced by women in struggling
for their livelihood in urban areas.
Networking
RGVN organized the following meetings as part of “networking”:
RGVN hosted a meeting for SDTT on setting up
of a capacity building center in NE for SHPIs on 22
December’07 at RGVN premises. 10 NGO representatives;
Mr S.K. Singhdeo, Madhyam Foundation, Bhubaneswar; and
Mr B. Sinha, SDTT, Mumbai, took part in the meeting.
RGVN also organized a meeting of representatives
of youth clubs from Kamrup and Nalbari districts to
get them involved in livelihood enhancement activities.
The meeting was held on 7 December’ 07 at RGVN
premises, there were 10-15 youth participating in the
meeting.
SDTT is initiating a Study Group on SRI for
Assam. In this regard a meeting was held on 26th October’
07 at RGVN premises, attended by persons and groups
working on or eager to work on SRI.
In order to provide a marketing link for the
handloom and handicraft products of the NER, RGVN organized
a meeting on 5th Nov ’ 07, in association with
CFM (Community Friendly Movement) at RGVN Head Office,
Guwahati. CFM is a Delhi based marketing group a which
markets ethnic products in the domestic as well as international
market. There were more than 20 participants representing
various NGOs. During the meeting it was highlighted
that most of the organizations providing market linkage
needs to see the various products to form an idea on
the kind of value addition it would require and its
prospect of sale. Moreover there is an urgent need to
cataloguing the various products to show it to the various
marketing organizations. RGVN is planning to take up
cataloguing of handicraft and handloom items of its
NGO partners.
Campaign to stop violence against women-2007 fortnight
RGVN was part of the Campaign to stop violence against
women-2007, along with Action Aid, North East Network,
VHAI, SSTEPs, AMSS, NEDFi, and others . The fortnight-long
campaign was observed with a series of events, beginning
November 27th to 10th December’07. The network
of the above organizations was formalized and named
“NE Action to Stop Violence Against Women”.
During this period, RGVN published a booklet on laws
for protection of women in Assamese. This is compiled
by Tapati Baruah Kashyap and is a handbook for grassroots
women. NE Action to Stop Violence Against Women also
organized – street plays, seminar, art workshop
and radio broadcast of Domestic Violence Act during
this period.
Skill Development Initiatives
A Program with NABARD
RGVN has embarked upon NABARD Assisted Programs for
capacity building of NGOs. In Assam– Five skill
development initiatives have been completed till date.
These are:
Sericulture – Grameen Sahara- Chhaygaon
Jute Fabrication- Shankardev Mission- Borkha
Bee Keeping – Development Volunteer Forum- Chandrapur
Mushroom Cultivation- Lok Seva Samity –Kumarikata
Pottery – Four H Centre, Nalbari
Rural Innovation Fund (RIF)
activities supported centre around...
Medical Kiosk - a medical assistance kit providing
basic medical help to the poor in remote areas where
other medical services do not exist. Such medical kiosk
has been supported in Sibsagar and Kamrup district of
Assam.
Rickshaw Innovation
Innovative and improved hatching machine.
Rural Turbine (proposed)
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