KCCI / 2007-03

Village Planning Empowering people through self-help

Nchum Ovung Katherine Randall Pragya Taneja Asha Susan Titus

In collaboration with Social Consultancy Services Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

For every child Health, Education, Equality, Protection ADVANCE HUMANITY

Disclaimer
The views expressed in this case study are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the policies or the views of UNICEF and / or the Social Consultancy Services.

Design & Printing : Rajdhani Art Press | 98102 45301

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Foreword Acronyms Executive Summary Statement of Problem Methodology Background Intervention Objectives Strategies Activities Actors Outputs Findings Sunaura Sironkhurd Jamalpur Dashrara Impact Analysis and recommendations Service delivery Social inclusion Sustainability Conclusion References Annexure 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 12 12 13 15 16 17 17 19 21 22 23 25 25 28 31 35 36 37

Acknowledgements
The research team wishes to thank Mr. Syed Mohammed Baqar of the Social Consultancy Services for his wisdom, his supervisory support and his good humour in times of adversity; Mr. Shafqat Hussain, Mr. Sanjay Sharma and Mr. Amit Bajpai of the Sarathi Development Foundation District Team for their hospitality, their guidance around the villages and government offices of Lalitpur and for bearing with our incessant demands; Mr. Akhilesh Tiwari, Chief Executive of the Sarathi Development Foundation, Lucknow for his thorough and energetic introduction to village planning and for feeding and housing us in his sparkling new offices; Mr. Rajib Ghosal, Mr. Prosun Sen and others at UNICEF, Uttar Pradesh for setting our research and film adventures on the right track; and finally the community members of Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara and Bhadauna for their warmth, openness, enthusiasm and generosity, and for opening our eyes.

Foreword
The Knowledge Community on Children in India is a partnership between UNICEF and the Government of India which aims to fill knowledge gaps and promote informationsharing on policies and programmes related to children in India. In 2007, under the aegis of this initiative, 57 graduate students from India and across the world visited and documented projects focused on child rights and development. Their fresh perspectives, commitment and hard work are reflected in this series of case studies, which are published by UNICEF. The case studies cover key sectors linked to children and development and address important policy issues for children in India. These include: primary education, reproductive and child health, water and sanitation, child development and nutrition, social exclusion and village planning. Based on desk research and field work, these case studies tell the story of innovations in service delivery, what works, why and under what conditions and put a human face to the successes and challenges of development in India. UNICEF recognises the potential and power of young people as drivers of change and future leadership across the globe. As such, the KCCI Summer Internship Programme also aims to develop a cadre of young research and development professionals with interest, commitment and skills relating to child rights. UNICEF hopes to continue this collaboration with young researchers, the Government of India, and various research partners, so as to bring fresh perspectives and energy to development research and our ongoing efforts towards the fulfilment of rights of women and children in India.

Representative UNICEF India

Acronyms

ABSA ADO ANM ASHA AWC AWW BCC BCG BDO BTF BSA CBO CBT CDO CMO DM DTF FGD HIV/AIDS ICDS IFA NGO NREG OBC PRI PRA SC SHG ST UP UNICEF USAID VP

Assistant Basic Shiksha Adhikari (Education Officer) Assistant Development Officer Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (block and village level) Accredited Social Health Activist Anganwadi Centre Anganwadi Worker Behaviour Change Communication Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Block Development Officer Block Task Force Basic Shiksha Adhikari (Education Officer) Community Based Organisation Community Based Trainer Chief Development Officer (Zila Panchayat level) Chief Medical Officer (Zila Panchayat level) District Magistrate District Task Force Focus Group Discussion Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome Integrated Child Development Services Iron Folic Acid Non-Governmental Organisation National Rural Employment Guarantee Other Backward Castes Panchyati Raj Institution Participatory Rural Appraisal Scheduled Castes Self-Help Group Scheduled Tribes Uttar Pradesh United Nations Childrens Fund United States Agency for International Development Village Planning

Executive Summary

The village planning (VP) intervention is a government of Uttar Pradesh and UNICEF initiative, implemented by the Sarathi Development Foundation in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. It is a five-day participatory exercise which aims to empower the community with the skills to identify the problems it faces and to build bridges to service providers in order to solve those problems. With great justification, the VP intervention is widely seen as a success. Since the successes of village planning are extensively documented, the research team set out to explore three questions that remain unanswered. These are: 1) Firstly, whether the success of village planning in generating demand for services is matched by a similar improvement in service delivery? 2) Secondly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention extend to socially excluded groups? 3) Thirdly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention will be sustainable once UNICEF and the Sarathi Development Foundation withdraw? In summary, we found that VP has succeeded in generating an increase in demand for services. As yet this has not been met by an equal improvement in service delivery. Any future attempts to replicate this model should address service delivery vigorously from the outset, seeking to integrate the government at all levels in the VP process. The benefits of VP are not yet shared equally between all social groups in the villages. Whilst women and girls have been empowered by the village planning process, members of Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities have gained significantly less from the intervention. There is a need for more focused attention and rigorous follow-up with ST communities. There remain challenges to ensuring the sustainability of village planning benefits. Integration with the government system at the Panchayat, block and district levels is crucial to achieving sustainability. Similarly, intense follow-up with the Village volunteers, Community-based organisations and frontline government workers in the immediate aftermath of the five-day village planning exercise help to maximise benefits. In sum, consolidation must be prioritised over coverage.

Statement of Problem
The village planning intervention in Lalitpur is widely perceived to have been a success. There is significant justification for this perception. VP seeks to effect change on 18 key indicators, and its success in doing so, is impressive. For example, across the three blocks (Birdha, Talbehat and Jakhaura) it has increased the number of mothers initiating colostrum and breastfeeding from 39 per cent to 86.2 per cent; it has increased the number of families consuming iodized salt from 15.4 per cent to 53.7 per cent; it has increased the number of children (in the age group 14-18) with knowledge of HIV/ AIDS from nil to 41.3 per cent; it has increased the school enrollment of children in the age group 6-14 years from 91.2 per cent to 98 per cent; and it has ensured that 36.7 per cent (or 140 of 381) of non-functioning hand-pumps were repaired. From a baseline of no schools providing hand-washing facilities with soap, it has ensured that 25 schools have started providing such facilities. In the Birdha block alone, from a baseline of no children having their births registered, it has ensured that 752 children were registered1. In terms of qualitative data, the successes of village planning are easily identified through Most Significant Change Stories. Here are two examples2: Earlier everyone in the Harijan Basti in Menwar (Birdha block) used to consume raw salt. Every household used to bring back one sack which used to last for almost a year. Now more than 60 households have started consuming iodized salt in the village. Meera was the first one who decided that her family would use iodized salt only and as such she herself went up to Birdha block and bought two packets of salt. . . Then she started the task of motivating other women to start consuming iodized salt as it is healthier. . . Today Meera says that she doesnt find too much cost difference in the salt . . . given that this salt also protects from many health hazards. Shanaz never initiated colostrum feeding to her children as she considered her first milk to be impure. However, when Taj was born and Afsana [Village volunteer] reached her house at the time of delivery, she urged Shahnaz to immediately breastfeed Taj. . . When Afsana insisted, citing reasons and quoting examples, Shahnaz gave up her resistance.
Source: Reassessment survey and Integrated village planning, Lalitpur district, a presentation by the Sarathi Development Foundation
1

Sarathi Development Foundation, Annual Progress Report: August 2005 to July 2006 and August 2006 to October 2006 (Extension Phase), p. 25
2

These quantitative and qualitative measures of success are recorded in the Sarathi Development Foundations reassessment analysis and its annual and quarterly reports. What is not recorded there is the fact that the village planning intervention in Lalitpur has gained significant attention from outside organisations. For example, the World Bank is interested in replicating the model as part of its UP Health System Development Programme. Bank officials have met with UNICEF and Sarathi and visited Lalitpur district, and are now involving UNICEF and Sarathi in the second phase of the project. USAID has also shown interest in the model. Its partner organisation, Intra International, has selected the Lalitpur village planning intervention to be evaluated for effectiveness, replicability and sustainability under its evidence review process. Similarly, the National Planning Commission is currently exploring whether this model can be replicated; given the thrust on decentralised planning in the Government of Indias 11th Five Year Plan. By almost any measure quantitative or qualitative, internal or external - the Lalitpur village planning intervention can be seen as a success story. However, these successes are well-documented, both by the Sarathi Development Foundation and UNICEF, and by other outside organisations. The Research Teams task in this report is not to provide another account of the successes of village planning. Instead, it addresses three key questions about the village planning intervention, which appear crucial to its ongoing success, and which remain unanswered. 1) Firstly, whether the success of village planning in generating demand for services is matched by a similar improvement in service delivery? 2) Secondly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention extend to socially excluded groups? 3) Thirdly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention will be sustainable beyond the period of UNICEFs funding and the Sarathi Development Foundations involvement in the villages? This report seeks to explore the answers to these three key questions through a case study of four villages (Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur and Dashrara) in Lalitpur district. The team has developed recommendations, which it is hoped may be taken into account both in the future implementation of the project in Lalitpur and in the replication of the model by other organisations, further afield.

Methodology
In order to answer the three research questions, the team undertook ten days of field work in Lalitpur, visiting the four villages mentioned above, which were selected on the basis of the following criteria: 1) One village, where village planning had not taken place (Dashrara, Bar block); 2) One village, where village planning was carried out in the first phase of implementation, July October 2005, and Response Planning had not taken place (Sironkhurd, Jakhaura block); 3) One village, where village planning was carried out in the first phase and Response Planning had taken place (Sunaura, Talbehat block); and 4) One village, where village planning was carried out in the second phase, November 2005 January 2006, and where social exclusion was a concern (Jamalpur, Talbehat block). The team used quantitative as well as qualitative data to evaluate the three research questions. For quantitative data, the source was reports provided by Sarathi and UNICEF, in particular the annual and quarterly reports and the re-assessment rnalysis report3. For qualitative data, a range of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools, including semistructured individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and dream-mapping were used. The table below records all qualitative data collection. Table 1: Details of qualitative data collection PRA Tool Used With whom Semi-structured ! Sarathi staff members (Lalitpur) individual interview ! Pradhans (Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara) ! ASHA workers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd) ! Lady health visitor (Jamalpur) ! Anganwadi workers (Sunaura, Jamalpur, Dashrara) ! Anganwadi helpers (Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara) ! Village volunteers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur) ! Child reporters (Jamalpur, Sunaura) ! Other community members, including parents, adolescent girls, women, children and representatives of STs (Sahariyas), SCs (Ahirwar, Banskar, Rajak), OBCs (Yadav, Kushwaha) and general categories (Thakur, Bundela)
3

See References section for full details, p. 36

FGDs

! ! ! ! !

Dream-mapping

District Officials (CMO and BSA CDO and DM not available) Block Officials (BDO, ABSA, ADO of Talbehat block) Womens Self-help groups (Sunaura, Sironkhurd) Pregnant and lactating mothers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur) Adolescent Girls Groups (Sunaura, Sironkhurd) Men (Sironkhurd) Children (Sahariya hamlet, Jamalpur)

In addition, the team observed the PRA techniques which Sarathi uses during the fiveday village planning process to understand the village and to encourage behaviour change: in Sironkhurd, the team witnessed the use of participatory social mapping, chapatti diagramming and a childrens rally. The second day of a three-day mini-planning exercise facilitated by Sarathi in Badhauna village, Jakhaura block was observed, and a Talbehat block task force meeting, chaired by the BDO, attended.

Research constraints
The team faced certain limitations. For example, though it benefited enormously from having three Hindi speakers, in situations where respondents could only speak the local dialect, some information and nuance was lost. Since the team members were outsiders, it was not uncommon for community members and frontline government workers to exaggerate in order to impress the team and ensure that the community was perceived in a positive light. This made it challenging for the team to uncover the facts in certain situations. Given the fixed duration of the ten-day field trip, the team had limited time in each village. This restricted opportunities for rapport-building with community members, which was particularly problematic with adolescent girls groups, where the girls took time to open up and discuss sensitive issues concerning menstrual hygiene, use of contraceptives and HIV/AIDS awareness. Being a film group, and needing to capture certain discussions and interviews on camera, was a constraint on the research. The presence of the camera often intimidated respondents, and determined the framing of their answers to questions. Finally, the presence of Sarathi staff during some interviews and discussions may have influenced the respondents to answer in a way that they believed would be acceptable to the staff.

Background
The Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh was chosen for the village planning intervention in part because UNICEF had an existing presence in the district, but also because of the particular challenges that Lalitpur faces. The district is over 300 kilometres from the state capital, Lucknow. It is an isolated border district (see map on page 38), often described as a teardrop of Uttar Pradesh in Madhya Pradesh. Agriculture forms the backbone of Lalitpurs economy, but the district suffers from acute water shortages and regular droughts, this in spite of its seven irrigation dams. In terms of transport, the district has a poor road network and poor public transport. Government officials perceive Lalitpur to be a punishment posting; there is rapid turnover of government officials at block and district level and the district suffers from large numbers of vacancies for frontline workers. On key social development indicators, Uttar Pradesh performs worse than India as a whole on almost every measure: Table 2: Key Development indicators: Uttar Pradesh and India INDICATORS4 Poverty
Percentage living below the poverty line

India Uttar Pradesh 26.1 63 44.0 47 73.2 21.9 82.3 65 65.3 31.2 80 28.7 52 85.5 19.2 80.1 56 93.5

Infant Mortality Rate

Number of babies per 1,000 born alive who die before aged one

Immunization
Percentage of children fully immunized

Malnutrition
Percentage of children aged under 3 who are underweight

Water
Percentage of rural households using protected water

Sanitation
Percentage of rural households using toilets

School attendance
Percentage of children aged 6-10 attending school

Literacy
Percentage of population over 7 years who are literate

Birth registration
Percentage of children aged under 5 who are not registered at birth

Data source: UNICEF, Mapping Indias Children: UNICEF in Action, pp.62-63

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Similarly, Lalitpur district performs worse than Uttar Pradesh as a whole on almost every indicator (see Table 3). Most notably, Lalitpur has the dubious distinction of being the district with the second highest rate of child marriage in the whole of India, behind Tonk district in Rajasthan.

Table 3: Key development indicators: Uttar Pradesh and Lalitput district INDICATORS5 Infant Mortality Rate
Number of babies per 1,000 born alive who die before aged one

Uttar Pradesh 83 707 19 56 28 33 56 43 26

Lalitpur 85 800 15 <30 20 25 50 33 14

Maternal Mortality Rate

Number of mothers per 100,000 who die during childbirth

Age at marriage
Average age in years

Exclusive Breast-feeding (EBF)

Percentage of mothers practicing EBF for first 6 months

Immunization
Percentage of children fully immunized

Safe deliveries
Percentage of pregnant women opting for institutional deliveries

Total Literacy
Percentage

Female Literacy
Percentage

Sanitation
Percentage of rural households with toilets

Data source: Sarathi Development Foundation, Integrated village planning presentation, slide 5

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Intervention
Objectives
UNICEF believes that some previous interventions have not had the desired impact principally because of a failure to achieve necessary levels of community ownership. As a result, the village planning intervention was developed with the aim of bringing the various sections of the community together, developing a common understanding of the problems facing the village, and planning the necessary action to be taken by the community for its own socio-economic development. The key objectives of the VP process are twofold: to empower the community with the skills to identify problems facing it on an ongoing basis, and to build the capacity in the village to bridge the gap between the community and the service providers to solve those problems. Fundamentally, the VP intervention represents a demand-creation approach to development. It rests on the sound assumption that members of the community are best able to identify the problems facing them and to make demands of those whose responsibility it is to deliver services to the community. This approach follows from a recognition that the era of the supply approach has passed. Now is the time to empower community members to change their own behaviours and to demand and realise their rights to access the services to which they are entitled. In addition, village planning seeks to address issues across sectors in a convergent manner. In this, it is unique when compared to the vast majority of other interventions, which are perceived to deal with issues within one sector (for example UNICEFs Quality Education Package, the government of Indias Total Sanitation Campaign, etc.).

Strategies
The development of the village planning intervention should not be seen in a vacuum. The 73rd Amendment (1993) provided constitutional status to Panchayati Raj institutions. This ensured decentralisation of power to local self government institutions and facilitated a bottom-up decision-making process in India.

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Furthermore, recent development theory, championed by Robert Chambers at Sussex Universitys Institute of Development Studies, advocates for a shift from a top-down to a bottom-up approach to development. In his book Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Chambers argues that development practice needs to start from the point of view of poor peoples experiences. This movement finds resonances in the work of Amartya Sen who, in his book, Development as Freedom said that the people have to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively involved given the opportunity in shaping their own destiny, and not just as passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs. The village planning intervention fits squarely within this thinking by aiming to empower community members to identify and solve the challenges facing their communities.

Activities
The village planning process is divided into three phases: the pre-planning phase, the planning phase itself and the post-planning phase. Pre-planning phase In the pre-planning phase, a zero day visit is carried out by a team from Sarathi. During this day-long visit, a socio-economic overview of the village is conducted, rapport is built with local service providers and the Panchayat (local self government), a friendly environment is created in the village and local catalysts are identified. Various tools are used during this visit including a transect walk, focus group discussions, childrens rally, hamlet and community meetings and individual contact. A tentative schedule for revisit is agreed upon. Planning phase The Planning phase is an intensive process carried out in a village for a minimum period of five days and nights. The Sarathi facilitators use a wide variety of participatory tools to engage with and understand the community and its needs. Each of the five days has many specific objectives and expected outcomes. At a high level, these have been summarised by Mr. Akhilesh Tiwari (Executive Director of Sarathi) as follows:

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Day 1: Familiarisation with the community (including a village transect, village rally, school and Anganwadi visits, village meeting, hamlet meetings etc) Day 2: Collection of qualitative and quantitative data (involving the village youth in conducting a house-to-house survey) Day 3: Analysis of data (compiling household survey information and sensitising the villagers on the key findings) Day 4: Initiating System Development (establishing a womens self-help group and an adolescent girls group to carry forward behavioural change work) Day 5: Developing a Village Action Plan (community members develop a plan on the basis of the village planning process- identifying the problems facing them, possible solutions and allocation of responsibility for follow up action) At the end of Day 5, the Village Action Plan is painted on a wall in a central location in the village and the responsibility for it is formally handed over from Sarathi facilitators to the Gram Panchayat in a village meeting. During this meeting, four to five Village volunteers are identified by the community to drive forward change in the village. Post-planning After the five-day village planning intervention, the crucial work of follow up begins. This takes some specific forms (set out below) and a number of more ad hoc forms: ! ! ! ! Village volunteers undergo a five-day training programme intended to build their capacity to perform their new roles in the village; Sarathi holds Reflection Meetings for groups of volunteers at the cluster level on a monthly or bimonthly basis; A village information centre is established holding a pool of information at the community level; One of Sarathis field coordinators visits the village every 2-3 months to meet with the volunteers and community based organisations, to help follow up the Action Plan, and to liaise with the frontline government workers in the village; Approximately one year after the village planning intervention, a re-assessment analysis is performed to measure progress against the 14 indicators (See Table 4); In some villages, an intensive two-day Mini-Planning exercise is carried out some time after the village planning intervention to identify new issues that have arisen in the village; At cluster level, Response Planning takes place identifying common needs (p.34).

! !

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Actors
UNICEF The UNICEF Office for Uttar Pradesh has funded the village planning intervention, from January 2005 to December 2007, when the intervention will enter phase-out. The Lalitpur intervention is part of a broader UNICEF India initiative to implement village planning in 17 key districts across the country. Government of Uttar Pradesh The village planning intervention is a joint initiative of UNICEF and the government of UP. The UP government is not funding the initiative, but supports its implementation. Sarathi development foundation Sarathi is implementing the village planning intervention in Lalitpur. This NGO has a team of 17 personnel based in the district, who train the volunteers, facilitate the village planning process, provide follow up in the villages and work with all levels of government officials. Village volunteers (or Bal Bandhus friends of children) The Village volunteers, selected for their enthusiasm and ability to communicate, form the backbone of this intervention in the villages. Gender balance and representation of the various communities within the village is ensured amongst the volunteers. Volunteers are responsible for driving forward progress in behavioural change and service delivery after the five-day VP exercise. Womens self help groups and adolescent girls groups These two Community based organisations are formed on the 2nd or 3rd day of the village planning process. They are created to help further behavioural change work at the family level. Community based trainers Certain Village volunteers are selected to become Community based trainers, undertaking a 12 day training course including 5 days in the field. They are then ready to be volunteers in their own villages and to facilitate the VP process in other villages. Field coordinators Field coordinators are Sarathi employees responsible for facilitating the post-planning phase. In each block there are 4-5 field coordinators, who visit each village around once every two to three months. At village level, they are responsible for meetings with village volunteers and CBOs, following up the action plan and liaising with frontline government workers in each village. At cluster level, they facilitate reflection meetings for village volunteers.

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Outputs
From the re-assessment survey conducted in 151 revenue villages, the following are the overall outputs against 14 key indicators in all three blocks of Lalitpur district, where village planning has so far taken place. 6 Table 4: Findings from the reassessment survey7 # 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Indicators Colostrum and Breastfeeding Full Immunization Education (6-14 years) Use of ORS Knowledge of HIV/AIDS (14-18 years) Child Marriages Institutional deliveries Use of Iodized Salt Hand washing behaviour (ash/soap) Hand washing behaviour (only soap) Access to sanitation facilities Use of toilets Access to safe drinking water source Birth Registration Baseline 39.0% 39.9% 91.2% 24.0% N.A. 56.0% 19.1% 15.4% N.A. N.A. 9.9% 39.2% NA 0 End line 86.2% 49.4% 98.0% 40.7% 41.3% 55.4% 28.8% 53.7% 66.4% 33.3% 15.1% 62.4% 50.9% 66.4%

Source: Integrated village planning, Lalitpur district, a presentation by the Sarathi Development Foundation. The above table is based on the results from the Reassessment Exercise conducted in 151 villages covering 12 Nyay Panchayats across three blocks. The data was presented to Government officials during the Cluster Response Plan meeting.
6

For the Sample, refer to Annexure B. The sample was chosen in order to understand the status of the most disadvantaged sections of society so may underestimate the outputs of VP for all sections of society.
7

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Findings
The tangible outputs of the VP intervention observed in each of the four sample villages are stated below.

Sunaura
Sunaura appears to be a model village in terms of the progress of the VP intervention. It has an active Information Centre at the heart of the village, which was used regularly by the Community based organisations for their meetings. The Information Centre houses a detailed village file (containing a compilation of household surveys, names of volunteers, names and backgrounds of school children and all other VP information), an elaborate social map, a copy of the Action Plan and, crucially, a change map. The change map was used to monitor progress against ten indicators for every household in the village. It visually illustrated that the households making the most progress were those of the girls in the Adolescent Girls Group, but it also clearly showed the lack of progress in the Sahariya hamlet. There was an active and knowledgeable Adolescent Girls Group. The group had divided village households amongst themselves for the purpose of sharing critical behaviour change information. The most significant obstacle to the girls education was the fact that the junior school was several kilometres away, and parents were hesitant to send girls to school alone. But in the group, there were girls who cycled their way to school and were quite determined to finish their education. Two girls in the group who had dropped out of school after the 8th grade were encouraged to start alternate education in sewing and embroidery for which they now travel to another village. Most significant change Anoop, a child reporter for the Balvani magazine generated as part of this project, narrated how prompt action was taken after his drawing was published showing the local school teacher asleep at his desk. The volunteers and community members marched to the block level offices to agitate and a new teacher was soon appointed. The Womens self-help group held bi-monthly meetings to which the ASHA and the Anganwadi workers were invited. The members vocally expressed how VP has infused in them the courage to work with and speak with men, even though initially, they had been silent spectators at VP meetings. They were keen to become a thrift and trade

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group and a couple of them had received training in Chennai on sanitary napkin production. Most members of the CBOs felt that the important changes brought about by VP include hand washing with soap; before VP, ash or mud was used (see Table 5 a leap from 0 per cent at the time of the baseline household survey to 32 per cent in the re-assessment of September 2006); the increased demand for iodized salt leading to greater availability in the village (8.7% to 57.1%); and the spread of awareness of HIV/AIDS (nil to 90%). Improvements in service delivery include the increase in birth registration (the efforts of the village volunteers have led to the two-year backlog being cleared, taking birth registration from nil to 100%) and the repairing of hand pumps enabling more families to access safe drinking water. Table 5: Sunaura-change indicators # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Indicators Total households Children in age group 0-6 months Colostrum and breastfeeding Children in the age group 0-1 year Birth registration Children in the age group 0-3 years Full immunization Children in the age group 6-14 years Enrolled in school Children in the age group 14-18 years Knowledge of HIV/AIDS Total marriages in the last 2 years Child marriage Families having access to safe drinking water source Deliveries occurring last year Institutional deliveries Use of iodized salt Toilets Use of toilets Hand-washing (only soap) Sunaura8 Baseline 150 46 27 NA 0 55 43 131 117 NA NA 21 11 NA 46 6 13 1 1 NA

% 100 58.7 0 78.2 89.3 52.4 13 8.7 0.7 100 -

Endline 70 5 4 14 14 24 15 70 69 30 27 0 0 70 9 6 40 1 1 23

% 46.7 80 100 62.5 98.6 90 0 100 66.7 57.1 1.4 100 32.9

Source, Sarathi Development Foundation, A Brief Report on re-assessment analysis

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While the success stories are enthralling, a visit to the villages Sahariya hamlet shows a stark contrast. Knowledge of critical information among pregnant women (like frequency of check-ups and vaccinations during pregnancy, necessity of exclusive breast feeding) was negligible and most did not use the services of the Anganwadi Centre. Of the seven Sahariya households, most could not remember the VP exercise which took place eight months earlier and none could identify the issues on the action plan. For several months each year, the Sahariya families migrate to construction sites outside the village for wage labour, which exacerbated their isolation from the rest of the village. Despite being entitled to them, they did not have ration cards and were just beginning to receive Employment Guarantee cards that ensured access to the governments NREG Scheme.9 Table 6: Sironkhurd-change indicators # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Indicators Sironkhurd Baseline Total households 235 Children in age group 0-6 months 19 Colostrum and breastfeeding 5 Children in the age group 0-1 year NA Birth registration 0 Children in the age group 0-3 years 90 Full immunization 34 Children in the age group 6-14 years 257 Enrolled in school 184 Children in the age group 14-18 years NA Knowledge of HIV/AIDS NA Total marriages in the last 2 years 23 Child marriage 9 Families having access to safe drinking water source NA Deliveries occurring last year 73 Institutional deliveries 8 Use of iodized salt 78 Toilets 95 Use of toilets 39 Hand-washing (only soap) NA

% 100 26.3 0 37.8 71.6 0 39.1 0 11 33.2 40.4 41.1 0

Endline 98 7 7 21 0 45 22 103 103 31 28 4 0 97 21 5 96 77 70 34

% 41.7 100 0 48.9 100 90.3 0 99 23.8 98 78.6 90.9 34.7

National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme ensures 100 days of work at Rs. 80 per day for each family.
9

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Sironkhurd exhibited several benefits of VP, but overall, the planning exercise did not appear as dynamic as in Sunaura and the ongoing success of VP seemed to rest largely on the shoulders of a single volunteer. Members of the womens group identified several benefits of VP, in particular, that they had become more outgoing and aware of behaviour change issues such as exclusive breast feeding, sanitation and hand washing. Despite this, there was an acute lack of critical information among pregnant and lactating mothers. The level of involvement of women in the VP process was unclear. This was evidenced by the fact that, in spite of the severity of the problem of lack of institutional delivery services for women (with the nearest hospital being 10 kms. away), this major issue did not appear on the village action plan. Most significant change In the wake of the awareness generated by village planning, the Adolescent Girls Group in Sironkhurd had succeeded in mobilising the village to prevent a 16-year old girl, Shivani, from getting married. The women and girls together sang songs and performed skits relating to behaviour change communication. However, compared to Sunaura, the group lacked role clarity: the girls did not visit households to disseminate information and were unable to answer critical questions. As in other villages, the discussion with men about the benefits of VP suggested a lower level of involvement. They spoke about changes in women and childrens behaviour without mentioning any change in themselves. Direct benefits of VP could be seen in the ST hamlet of the Sahariyas. They described how the issue of improper drainage around their hand pump was taken up and fixed during VP with the involvement of the Pradhan and the Village Water Committee. This contributed to the overall improvement in access to safe drinking water in the village from nil to 100 per cent. Use of iodized salt and hand washing were the other behaviour change practices adopted by the ST community. One of the reasons for optimism for the future of VP is the fact that the village boasts an extremely active and committed volunteer. Malkan enjoys immense popularity among the villagers and gets enormous support from them. Added to this, he has family connections to the Pradhan. Although the Pradhan, her husband (the Pradhanpati) and the Panchayat Secretary appeared to have participated very little in the VP process and

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to have very low levels of interest or knowledge about the issues on the action plan, the volunteers links to the Pradhan raise the hope for greater integration in the future between demand generation and service delivery at the village level.

Jamalpur
The five day VP exercise in Jamalpur was conducted in November 2005 in the first phase of the district wide intervention. Jamalpur suffers from acute water shortages and consequently, poor harvests. Poverty is rampant in the village and is not limited to the Sahariya (ST) population, who migrate in search of work, often taking their families with them. Jamalpur has a sizeable Sahariya population and was chosen in order to study the difference that VP makes to socially excluded groups. The village is split in two by the main Jhansi road leaving the Sahariya hamlet on one side isolated from the services of the main village on the other. The Sahariya women travel 1 kilometre for water as the authorities lack the will to extend the water pipes to the other side of the road. Sahariya parents are hesitant to send children across the road to the primary school: two children died last year in road accidents and several were beaten up on their way to school. Shivakuwar Sahariya, one of the more educated girls of the village (currently in the 10th grade), who is now a village volunteer, has been running an open school for the Sahariya community children. The VP initiative bolstered her efforts by providing slates, mats and charts for the children. Sarathis reassessment data suggest that changes in behaviour have been the most significant impact of VP. Exclusive breastfeeding has increased from 33.33 per cent to 84.62 per cent, use of iodized salt from 6.90 per cent to 77.93 per cent, use of toilets from nil to 42.86 per cent and hand-washing with soap from nil to 44.83 per cent. Improving service delivery remains a challenge, as evidenced by the dismal 14.48 per cent of households with toilets and only 29.63 per cent of deliveries take place in hospitals because of the difficulties of finding transport to travel the necessary 14 kilometres.

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Table 7: Jamalpur-change indicators Indicators 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Jamalpur Baseline Total households 145 Children in age group 0-6 months 3 Colostrum and breastfeeding 1 Children in the age group 0-1 year 8 Birth registration 0 Children in the age group 0-3 years 19 Full immunization 11 Children in the age group 6-14 years 91 Enrolled in school 88 Children in the age group 14-18 years 39 Knowledge of HIV/AIDS 10 Total marriages in the last 2 years 3 Child marriage 3 Families having access to safe drinking water source 64 Deliveries occurring last year 3 Institutional deliveries 1 Use of iodized salt 10 Toilets 5 Use of toilets 0 Hand-washing (only soap) NA

% 100 33.3 0 57.9 96.7 25.6 100 44.1 33.3 6.9 3.5 0 0

Endline 145 13 11 68 68 60 43 136 134 71 21 7 6 113 27 8 113 21 9 65

% 100 84.6 0 71.7 98.5 29.6 85.7 77.9 29.6 77.9 14.5 42.9 44.8

Most significant change The Anganwadi Worker described the enormous difference that village volunteers made to her work. They help to mobilise the community and persuade those in the SC and ST communities of the importance of using her services. Crucially, they continue to help weigh all the children, enabling her to give tailored advice for children of different malnourishment grades.

Dashrara
This village, where VP did not take place was chosen for comparison purposes to understand better the impact of VP. Women in this village had a weaker understanding of issues related to health and pregnancy, sanitation, exclusive breast-feeding and other behaviour change issues. They admitted that no daughter or daughter-in-law in the village had passed high school, except the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) and that the Kushwara

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community marries off their girls between the ages of 7-11 years. However, the women seemed unable to reflect on traditional practices or to see any need to change them. The adolescent girls of Dashrara are shy and those registered to assist the Anganwadi Worker do not visit the Centre. The mobilisation and tapping of human resources that has occurred in villages where VP has taken place, through the creation of Community based organisations, was clearly lacking in Dashrara. The major problems in the village were similar to those in the other villages: water shortages, long distance between the village and the nearest hospital; migration of SC communities to neighbouring states in search of work and a consequent neglect of childrens education and immunizations. Although the AWC was in the process of being constructed, the village AWW was an impressive and credible post graduate, possessing critical information. The ANM also had a very good reputation and the government infrastructure was well used by the village. This evidence of functional systems in Dashrara, make it an ideal site for VP intervention in the next phase.

Impact
Ideally, it would be expected that the impact of village planning is that community members are equipped with the skills to identify the challenges facing their community, and empowered with connections to the service delivery arm in order to solve them. Yet, in fact, the impact of VP is much broader and often much less tangible than this. Undoubtedly, VP has had a huge impact on generating demand for services. Various success stories such as the appointment of new teachers, installation and repairing of hand-pumps, scaling up registration of births and increasing the enrollment in primary schools- all highlight the success of VP in grassroots demand generation. But the more significant impact lying behind demand-generation is the ability of the community to identify, analyse and own challenges facing the village. It is this ability, fostered by the five-day stay of the VP facilitators in the village, which is one of the lasting impacts of the intervention. Changes in behaviour are another lasting impact of the VP intervention in these villages. Critical information was far more widely understood by community members where VP had taken place, and access to this information had clearly brought about impressive changes in behavioural patterns. In particular, the significance of the use of iodized salt was very well known among all community members. Similarly, awareness of the causes of HIV and its transmission was pervasive, save for members of the ST communities. Both the communities awareness of HIV and their willingness to discuss it without significant inhibitions are testament to the powerful impact of VP on this significant

23

area of behaviour change. Unfortunately, understanding of the importance of exclusive breast feeding and critical information pertaining to the health of pregnant and lactating mothers was more tenuous. It varied significantly between the villages and also between the different communities of each village: perhaps testament to the strength of traditional beliefs about mothers first milk. The impact of village planning in empowering women and adolescent girls within their communities was impossible to miss. The women of Sunaura talked explicitly of their new-found courage to speak to and work with men in the village; the women of Sironkhurd spoke of being more outgoing as a result of the intervention. Comparing the adolescent girls of Dashrara with those of the villages where VP had taken place, a clear contrast emerges. This is a significant impact of VP, and its effects should not be underestimated. VP has also bolstered the cohesiveness of the different groups within the community. By establishing accountable actors in the village volunteers, by involving the children in the process of knowledge dissemination, by using the youth to conduct the household survey, and most importantly, by establishing Community based organisations to shoulder the responsibility of carrying forward behaviour change, VP has been extremely successful in fostering a sense of togetherness within each of these groups. Ultimately, it is not just togetherness within these groups that is important, but also convergence between them in working towards common goals. However, sights like childrens rallies, monthly meetings of adolescent girls groups, discussions of womens self help groups, speak of the impact of VP in instilling unity and purpose in each of these groups. This is clearly an important step towards convergence between the groups. As well as convergence of actors, village planning achieves convergence of sectors: health, education, nutrition, development and child protection. By their very nature, behavioural change issues connect different sectors which are usually dealt with in a compartmentalised manner both by development agencies and by the government. For example, exclusive breastfeeding engages questions of child nutrition and child health (traditionally mothers first milk is considered unclean, so the child is fed with goats milk or water, risking infection). Similarly, prevention of child marriage engages concerns of child protection, girls education, household work, maternal and child health (increased risk of complications in early pregnancies). Within the five-day village planning intervention, the villagers are educated about issues from all sectors, given an opportunity to evaluate the services of all sectors and devise solutions to all problems faced. The platform of village planning enables issues from all sectors to be dealt with holistically making clear the links between them. Besides that, by devising forums such as Block Task Force (BTF) and District Task Force (DTF), where different departments such as ICDS, Health, Development and Education meet, village planning also attempts to fight the challenge of silo-working in the government.

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Analysis and Recommendations

We turn now to analyse the findings from the field in relation to the three key research questions.

Service delivery Village level

For the villages as a whole, it is evident that village planning has undeniably encouraged significant behavioural change among the villagers. This is true not just for the four behavioural change indicators (exclusive breast-feeding, use of iodized salt, HIV/AIDS awareness and hand-washing with soap), but also in relation to various services. For example, usage of toilets has increased in each village as a result of the intervention and demand for the construction of new toilets has increased. Similarly, demand for institutional delivery has increased, as has demand for birth registration. However, important though these changes are, generating demand for services is only half the battle. Ensuring an equal and opposite improvement in supply of services is also essential, if village planning is not to be just a recipe for raised and disappointed expectations. For example, despite the hype of the governments Total Sanitation Campaign, toilet construction came across as one of the most intractable government services. A combination of cost of construction and long-winded procedural formalities for construction meant that the coverage of toilets had barely increased from 0.7 per cent to 1.4 per cent in Sunaura and from 3.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent in Jamalpur. The success in Sironkhurd, unfortunately, seemed like something of an outlier with coverage increasing by nearly 38 per cent to 78 per cent10. Similarly, despite the demand for safe institutional deliveries, the distant location of hospitals and the difficulty of procuring transport at night made meeting this demand unlikely. Finally, while the demand for birth registration has increased, there were a few cases where the issuing of birth certificates was obstructed at the village level. For instance, despite being provided with a list of children to be registered four months ago, the Panchayat Secretary of Sironkhurd, who resided in the Lalitpur district, had still failed to take any action to register the children.

10

See output tables, p. 18, 19 and 21

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Given the challenges of official-turnover at block and district level, the village level is the most crucial in ensuring effective service delivery and achieving integration between village planning and the government system. It appears the most important factors determining service delivery at the village level are the active involvement of the Pradhan and his committee members in village planning and the functioning of the six committees: Water, Health, Education, Construction, Development and Planning. In all three villages, all but the Construction Committee (which deals with considerable amounts of money) were defunct and the Pradhans openly admitted that most committee members do not even know which committee they are members of. Also, the Pradhans knowledge of village planning was superficial and did not extend to any knowledge of the issues on the action plan. Recommendations ! The Pradhan and the members of all six committees should be explicitly and publicly involved in the village planning process. - Warm-up meetings should be held between Sarathi and the Pradhan and members of the six committees during the zero day exercise to explain their role in village planning. - During the five-day process, groups of villagers should meet the Pradhan and committee members as they meet other government service providers. ! The Pradhan and committee members need to be educated about the government welfare schemes to which the villagers are entitled. They must be clear about who is entitled to the schemes and how to achieve access, so that they can join with Sarathi and the volunteers in sharing this information with the community during village planning and while working to achieve access afterwards. If the Pradhan is to take a more prominent role during village planning and in its follow up, certain capacity-building steps need to be taken. The Pradhans met by the team had painfully low levels of knowledge about the villages they represented, yet this would be easy to rectify, as the volunteers and frontline government workers often had access to all crucial information. Recommendations ! The Pradhan must be provided with the village statistical data compiled by the village volunteers during the village planning exercise. On an ongoing basis, volunteers along with frontline government workers (AWW, ANM, headmaster, etc.) should update the Pradhan on the progress made in their areas, so he is equipped with an updated picture of the village. ! Sarathis initiative to begin training for Pradhans in the next phase of village planning is to be commended and, again, should be started at the beginning of any replication of the model. In addition, a forum for Pradhans to share experiences and best practice in relation to village planning would be an important innovation.

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Block level The Block Task Force (BTF)11 is the block-level body charged with overseeing the village planning intervention. There are various concerns associated with the overseeing body being a time-limited task force, rather than the permanent structure of the Block Development Council, but in the short term, this should succeed in ensuring focus on VP. However, the BTF which is supposed to meet each quarter has only met twice in the two years that village planning has been existing. The agenda of the third meeting of the BTF held on 5th July 2007 (and attended by the research team) was to review existing challenges and set targets for the next six months. Although many challenges were noted by officials from the relevant sectors, little was achieved in terms of target-setting. Unfortunately, government officials seemed to view village planning as an NGO initiative, without seeing the burden on themselves to partner with that NGO in ensuring effective delivery of services and integration of village planning into the government system. Recommendations ! BTF meetings must be held regularly and frequently in order that effective working relationships between Sarathi and block officials can be developed and built upon. ! Visits of block level officials both to see village planning in action and to watch the training of village volunteers should be actively encouraged. Sarathis initiative to hold volunteer training at block offices to facilitate this, is much to be commended. ! In addition to the volunteers, village Pradhans should be encouraged to participate in BTF meetings. This will help in building relationships between the village and the block; it will also make the Pradhan upwardly accountable for the progress of VP in his/her village. District level Recommendations ! Visits of district level officials both to see village planning in action and to watch the training of village volunteers should be actively encouraged. ! The active engagement of Sarathi staff with the constantly changing district officials is to be commended. Timely orientation of new district officials, combined with visits to see VP should help to engage the individuals as well as the system at district level with VP. ! The process of elevating service delivery concerns to the district level through the Response Plans must be made robust.

Membership includes the BDO, ADO, ABSA, MOIC, Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) ICDS, Junior Engineer Water Works Dept.
11

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The prime challenge at the district level is the frequent transfer of district officials. The District Magistrate has changed four times and the Chief Development Officer thrice since September 2006. Also, between the start of village planning in Lalitpur in August 2005 and July 2007, the district has had three BSAs and five CMOs. Such high transfer rates account for low levels of awareness of VP among district officials and necessitate a cumbersome and recurring task for Sarathi of orientating new officials. However, more important than engaging the individuals is the challenge of engaging the system at the district level. As yet, there have been only two meetings of the DTF in two years12. The process of elevating service delivery concerns from the village and block level to the district level should be institutionalised, so that it is not disrupted by changes in district level personnel.

Social inclusion
Villages in Lalitpur are ridden with old social hierarchies and caste equations that can tip any development process, if not carefully negotiated. The dominant castes are Bundelas and Brahmins; Lodhis, Yadavs and Kushwahas constitute the intermediate or Other Backward Castes (OBCs); Ahirwars, Banskars Dhanuks, Basrohs, Khatiks, Bednis, Balmiks and Koris belong to the Scheduled Castes (SC); while Kabutraras and Sahariyas are classified as Scheduled Tribes (ST). This section will address the impact of VP amongst the Sahariya13 community, in particular. Along with the Kabutraras (who were not represented in our sample villages), Sahariyas are usually landless, always live on the fringes of their villages and are considered to be indifferent to immunization, nutritional advice and standard education. Through this focus on Sahariyas, we seek to make recommendations about larger questions of inclusiveness and participation.

DTF membership includes the DM, BSA, CMO, District Project Officer - ICDS, and the Exec Engineer Water Dept.
12

The population of Sahariyas has been estimated to be around one hundred thousand in Lalitpur and they also form a sizeable social group in some districts of MP and Rajasthan. They do not possess sufficient agricultural land to earn a livelihood from, so they augment their income by collecting minor forest produce. Sahariya women with loads of fire wood on their heads on their way to sell them are a common sight on roads. The depletion of forest cover had driven this historically exploited community into wage employment, particularly in stone mining. When stone mining activity ceased, it resulted in the collapse of their economic opportunities in Lalitpur, causing them to migrate to nearby districts for several months in a year.
13

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Volunteers ! More concentrated capacity-building efforts need to be focused on ST volunteers. The separate training for ST volunteers proposed by Sarathi for the next phase of the intervention is crucial and should be included from the outset when replicating the model village planning makes it a top priority to address social exclusion by selecting volunteers from each of the different social groups in the village. Identification of an ST volunteer is a hugely important symbolic step and is crucial to ensuring that the community has a link to VP. However, the success of a volunteer is largely dependent on the amount of support they receive from their community, and ST volunteers often receive little encouragement from their community. Sarathi pointed out the huge disparity in Sironkhurd between the amount of support the community-based trainer enjoys (also because he is related to the Pradhan and some co-volunteers), and the volunteers from the Sahariya hamlet who struggle even to be recognised. Involvement and ownership Despite having a volunteer from their own community and despite village planning being by its very nature a participatory process, a sense of involvement in or ownership of the VP process by the ST community was acutely lacking. Certain ST community members were not sure that they had been present in the village at the time of the fiveday VP intervention. The ST community members memories of the five-day process were, if anything, of people coming from the main village to explain things to them (behaviour change communication). There was no sense that the Sahariyas had themselves gone to the main village to participate in village-wide activities and, with one exception, no ST community members could identify any issues they had raised for the village action plan. Recommendations ! Ensure that the five-day VP process takes place when the Sahariya community is present in the village and not migrating in search of work. This is the most basic barrier to their identification with the process. ! Strongly encourage ST community members to participate fully in village-wide activities. Whilst recognising that they are unlikely to feel able to speak up, at least ensure that they are present as a step to engaging the less powerful and the more powerful in the same socio-political space. ! In this way, balance prescriptive and participatory elements of VP with respect to the Sahariya population, so that VP is not solely associated in their minds with exhortations to change behaviour. ! During the five-day VP exercise, more time needs to be devoted to identifying issues with the Sahariya community. If real needs are identified, the chances of the community identifying with and taking ownership of the Action Plan will be significantly increased.

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Behaviour change In the Sahariya hamlets of Sunaura, Sironkhurd and Jamalpur, the levels of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, use of iodized salt, exclusive breast-feeding and other behaviour change issues were painfully low. This would not have been helped by the manner in which critical information was communicated, or by the lack of ST involvement in the Community Based Organisations (CBO)that drive forward behaviour change. Recommendation ! At the risk of heightening traditional social fissures, the merits of establishing separate CBOs in the Sahariya hamlet should be considered on a village-byvillage basis and particularly, where there is a sizeable Sahariya population. This may help to address the inadequate behaviour change trends and engender a sense of participation. Service delivery In all three villages, ST community members were less likely to access key services. In Jamalpur, the Anganwadi worker suggested that it was their ignorance and lack of education, which meant that they did not understand the significance of the AWC services and failed to send their children to the AWC. Similar arguments were made in Sironkhurd: it seems that service providers blame the STs for their lack of service access. Equally, ST community members were unlikely to have access to the numerous government schemes whose benefits they are entitled to. The government of India has an elaborate array of social welfare schemes, which prioritise socially excluded groups, yet these groups very rarely realise their rights to access these schemes. Recommendations ! More efforts need to be focused on breaking down the barriers to ST community members accessing key services; more efforts need to be focused on frontline service workers reminding them of their duty to provide services for all. ! village planning must place more emphasis on educating the Pradhan, volunteers and community members on the government schemes whose benefits they are entitled to. ! To prove what VP can accomplish for ST community members, Field Coordinators should press for speedy sanctioning of ration cards and employment guarantee (NREG) cards and encourage the community to advocate for access to other schemes as a step towards addressing livelihood issues. Follow up Since it appears to take longer to generate in the ST community a sense of involvement in the VP process by way of the ability to identify issues affecting them and an

30

understanding of how to solve them, the post-planning phase becomes more crucial for this community. Follow-up must not be limited to further advocating the need for behaviour change. Recommendations ! The post-planning stage needs to be vigorous in the ST hamlets. Field coordinators and volunteers should engage the community on a regular basis in identifying new issues and proposing solutions. In this way, this crucial skill will be instilled in the community members and the ST volunteer, so that ultimately they can run the process on their own.

Sustainability
Discussions of sustainability must take into account the different perspectives of the funders, the implementing NGO and the community. Given that village planning has to continue to be successful, once UNICEF concludes its funding and Sarathi withdraws from Lalitpur, it must be the communitys perspective on sustainability that takes precedence. The sustainability of the village planning intervention rests on the shoulders of the Community based organisations and the Pradhan and village committees, encouraged by the volunteers. Community based organisations Community based organisations should be at the heart of the VP process. These are grassroots institutions with potential for collective action and huge responsibility rests on their shoulders for pushing for follow up to the actions on the Village Action Plan and driving forward behaviour change in the village. The Womens self-help groups and the Adolescent Girls Groups can point to some considerable successes, but we came across several groups that lacked clarity of role and purpose. Recommendations ! More focus is needed on the CBOs, both in the five-day VP exercise, and in the work of the field coordinators in the post-planning stage. Specific tasks (be they household visits to communicate behaviour change information, monitoring progress and charting it on a change map, following up actions on the village action plan, etc.) need to be assigned to the CBOs early, on so they fully understand their purpose, and they need to be trained to carry out these tasks. Functionality of CBOs needs to be regularised across villages. ! Womens self-help groups should be encouraged to take on new roles, for example as thrift and trade groups supported by NABARD, or as Mothers Support Groups supported by ICDS. Such new roles will bolster their sense of identity and purpose and ensure that the group continues to function.

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Monitoring progress Monitoring progress should be an important component of the work of the CBOs. The change map used by adolescent girls in Sunaura was an impressive example of the role the CBOs could take in the monitoring progress. It had many benefits, among them engendering competition between the girls to ensure their own household was seen to be a success and creating incentives to communicate critical information to the households for which they were responsible. Change maps have been used on and off by Sarathi during the course of the VP intervention. Recommendations ! Change mapping is critical to monitoring progress and celebrating the successes of VP. It is a useful tool to generate enthusiasm for the benefits of VP. ! Sarathi should design a suitably complex change map (along the lines of that used in Sunaura) that measures progress in each household against a number of indicators. The CBOs in each village should be made responsible for regularly monitoring and recording change on the map. Dynamism With the exception of the village volunteers and some CBO members, most community members, including the Pradhan, could not recall the issues on the Action Plan. Usually, VP is equated with encouragement of behaviour change and only when prompted, did some of our respondents remember that the Action Plan was painted on the village walls. What seemed to us a very visible call to action may have been seen by the villagers as no more than another IEC (Information Education Communication) notice painted on the walls. The greatest risk of the Action Plan is that it becomes a static document when it needs to be part of a dynamic process. For example, the first issue on the Sironkhurd Action Plan concerned the AWW coming late to the village every day. The proposed solution was for someone to explain to her the importance of coming on time. When the AWH was asked whether this had worked, she hesitantly said that it has not changed a thing. The nature of some of the solutions is such that though they are accomplished, the root cause of the problem may not have been solved. In the same Action Plan, it was noted that the children in the village are weak in their studies. The solution was to hold a joint parent-teacher meeting in the presence of the Pradhan. Though the community members said that this had taken place, they found it difficult to say with any certainty whether it had improved the situation.

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Recommendations ! When the Action Plan is painted on the wall, blank rows and columns should be added. The community can use these rows to record the new issues they identify and the columns can be used to record progress against actions. In this way the Action Plan becomes not just a relic of a five-day intervention, but the focus of a dynamic and ongoing process of issue identification and solution. Consolidation It is critical to the success of the VP initiative to have time for thorough follow-up in each village. Simply drafting an Action Plan and setting up CBOs in a five-day intervention is not sufficient to ensure that the long-term aims of VP are met. The priority should be for consolidation over coverage, to ensure that full benefits are gained from the resources invested in VP. Those villages which had experienced thorough follow-up in the first phase clearly show the benefits of this approach. Recommendations ! It is crucial to slow down the implementation of village planning in Lalitpur. Rushing to complete 365 villages in the remaining 3 Blocks (which are more backward than the district hub) in the next four months seems counter-productive. ! More time and resources should be invested in timely follow-up with each village after the five-day VP intervention. More focus should be put on the important role of field coordinators in encouraging volunteers, working to embed CBOs, liaising with frontline government workers and driving progress against the Action Plan. Integration Critical to the sustainability of this project is the degree to which it is successful in integrating with existing government systems. Most issues raised by the VP process are capable of being tackled at the village level: integration at the village level should therefore, be the top priority. Recommendations ! The six Panchayat committees need to be strengthened and used as the appropriate forum to follow up sectoral issues from the Action Plan and any further issues that arise in the post-planning phase. ! Village volunteers and CBO members should be encouraged to be active in the local Panchayat meetings, which are the best forum for discussion of the issues raised in VP and beyond. This will engender a culture of participation in the local governance system and strengthen grassroots democracy, as well as effecting integration of VP into the government systems and thereby, preventing parallelism.

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As noted in the previous section, in all the villages visited, most of the local Panchayat committees were defunct as a result of which important local issues like health and education do not get discussed, although the resources for the solution of most problems are well within reach. However, it is far from impossible to revitalize these committees. In Sironkhurd, the village volunteer has succeeded in arranging a special meeting of the education committee on 9 July 2007. This is the season of school re-opening and admissions and the meeting agenda was to discuss the denial of school admission to children without birth certificates. The Panchayat secretary is also invited so that he can facilitate the issuing of the certificates from the block level on the spot. Response planning Response planning is an exercise undertaken to consolidate village action plans at the cluster level and identify common and specific issues across the cluster. The issues that need funds and responses from beyond the village are then tabulated and presented to the block level officials for further action. Response Plans are crucial in facilitating communication with the block and district levels, by translating the mass of villagelevel information into neat cluster-level tables that block and district officials can easily digest. It is a key tool in opening dialogue with the service delivery wing. So far, Response Planning has been completed for 12 clusters covering 151 revenue villages. Recommendations ! Response Planning needs to take place much sooner after the village planning intervention. In this way, it can form the regularised mechanism to feed back to the block and district level officials the service needs at the grassroots and facilitate more rapid response on behalf of the government.

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Conclusion

Having considered the three key questions, the conclusions arrived at by the research team are as below. Social inclusion remains one of the key challenges to the success of village planning. Traditional hierarchies in the villages are slow to change. Despite inclusion of all groups being an inherent feature of the design of village planning, lack of ownership of the village planning process by socially excluded groups (especially, STs) remains a significant impediment. Focused attention and more rigorous follow-up with these social groups are required to ensure that the benefits of village planning are shared equally by all. Village planning has been very successful in generating demand for services on the part of the community. But this increased demand still needs to be met by an equal and opposite improvement in supply. Sarathi is now making considerable strides to address the challenge of inadequate service delivery (for example, cluster level response planning, meetings of the block and district task force), sensitive to the dynamics of the relationship between an NGO and government, but there is still a long way to go. Any future attempts to replicate this model should address this vigorously from the start, making every attempt to integrate the government at all levels in the work of the intervention. Integration with the government system is ultimately what will determine the sustainability of the intervention. Success in this will ensure that village planning moves beyond being a project to being an empowering and sustainable approach. Intensity of follow-up with each village in the immediate aftermath of village planning is crucial to making this approach self-sustaining. Given this, attempting to cover over 300 villages in the most backward blocks of the Lalitpur district in four months (as required by the December 2007 deadline for all seventeen village planning districts) risks not realising the full benefits of the investment in the intervention. Consolidation must be prioritised over coverage.

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References
Integrated Child Development Services, Department of Women and Child Development, Uttar Pradesh, (2006): Changing Behaviour: Nutrition and Health (Best Practices and Success Stories). Sainath, P., (1996): Everybody Loves a Good Drought: stories from Indias poorest districts, Penguin Books India. Sarathi Development Foundation, Annual Report, 2006. Sarathi Development Foundation, Annual Report, 2005. Sarathi Development Foundation, Quarterly Report, 2006. Sarathi Development Foundation, (2006) A Brief Report on Reassessment Analysis. Sarathi Development Foundation, (February 2007) Integrated Village Planning: Birdha, Jakhaura and Talbehat Blocks, Lalitput District, Uttar Pradesh, Sarathi presentation. Sen, Amartya, (2000): Development as Freedom, Anchor Books. UNICEF, (2005): Concept Note: Village Planning Intervention and its follow up. UNICEF, (2007): The State of the Worlds Children 2007: Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality. UNICEF, (2004): Mapping Indias Children: UNICEF in Action. WIZMIN, (2006) Situational Analysis Report..

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Annexure I
A: Map of Lalitpur district,UP

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B: Nyaya Panchayats - At a glance

S No Name of Nyaya Number of Number of Total HHs HHs %age Panchayat Gram Revenue Covered Panchayats Villages Birdha Block 1 Birdha 8 14 3377 1226 36.3 2 Jeeron 4 10 1337 484 36.2 3 Dongrakala 7 19 2370 872 36.8 4 Simardha 6 17 2180 377 17.2 Jakhaura Block 5 Nanaura 7 13 2761 1236 44.8 6 Lagaun 7 12 2451 976 39.8 7 Sirsi 5 8 1948 755 38.7 8 Thanvara 5 9 1896 678 35.7 Talbehat Block 9 Sunaura 5 13 2033 885 43.5 10 Banguankala 7 12 3698 824 22.3 11 Pooravirdha 6 11 3154 1118 35.4 12 Servaskala 6 13 2784 1113 39.9 TOTAL 73 151 29989 10544 35.1 Sample of Reassessment Survey - A Brief Report on Reassessment Analysis, Sarathi Development Foundation, 2006

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C: Excerpt from an action plan Jamalpur

Reason
Pipeline to cover the entire village. Old tanks to be repaired or new ones to be built. 19.11.05 Prakash Pradhanpati Pappu (Prem Narayan)

S No: Issue

Problem

Solution

Progress

For whom Deadline Responsibility Monitoring Authorities Concerned

Government, Panchayat, UNICEF

Drinking water

No drinking water.

Secondary school teacher

Pipeline is not laid down completely. Water from the handpump dries out from January onwards. Only 3 of 24 handpumps work. Shortage of teachers 30.11.05 Education committee, Pradhan Raja Bhaiya

ABSA

39
There is a highway between the village and theschool Boring has been done thrice in the secondary schools, but there is still no drinking water. Drinking water to be made available to the children. Handpump to be repaired. Application to be submitted to the ABSA. Education committee to consider the matter. New school to be opened.

One headmaster and one para teacher for 443 students.

The Panchayat Community has passed the resolution. Problem brought to the notice of the waterworks department. Funds have been sanctioned. Teachers to Panchayat and Children be appointed. the Education committee would advocate.

The children from the Sahariya hamlet dont go to school.

Drinking water No drinking in Junior and water for secondary schools. children children have to go back home or to a well situated 50 m from the school.

29.11.05

Sonia, Uma Devi

Jitendra

ABSA

S No: Issue
Children are malnourished. five out of 28 children are under third grade of malnutrition. weigh them on time. No toilets. The Construct existing toilets are not usable. supply should give their names to the Pradhan There are no birth certificates to be issued certificates Birth Panchayat has asked the secretary to issue them Children Indefinite Pradhan, secretary and community constructed with water toilets proper toilets interested to get Those Community Panchayat Pradhan to propose (Uma Devi) after Block gives directions. AWW to time and the centre on Anganwadi the a meeting. should go to AWW to hold Panchayat Children Parents and Children 25.11.05 Jai pal Singh, Manoj

Problem

Reason

Solution

Progress

For whom Deadline Responsibility Monitoring Authorities Concerned

Panchayat

Anganwadi

Children are

not being

weighed

40

Toilets

Problems

Panchayat members

Block, UNICEF

experienced

during nights

Birth certificate

Children

Community members

Block

dont

have identity

C: Excerpt from a Cluster Response Plan Sunaura

Thematic Area Common issues Education In spite of well intentioned efforts only 93.1% children in the age group 6-14 years could be enrolled in school Specific issues In village Sunauri 336 children, in the absence of primary school building, are left with no option but to sit in Panchayat Bhawan building having a capacity of 3 small rooms where an Anganwadi centre is also functioning In primary schools 1837 children are enrolled in the academic year 200607. For all these children the opportunities for higher learning is restricted to only 04 upper primary schools at the cluster level Although at the cluster level teacher: student ratio is 1:45 yet there are number of schools where quality of education is suffering due to absence of teachers After a gap of two academic years the children in upper primary school Radhapur have finally got a teacher posted in their school but the classes are still being organized in primary school building BDO would write to the education department in this regard ! There is one headmaster and 2 para teachers for 336 children in Sunauri (112:1) ! In Hasguan there is only 1 para teacher for 92 children Children in village Piprai are required to travel a distance of 5-6 kms. to reach the upper primary school ! Construction of upper primary school has already been proposed and the work would only be initiated in the next academic year. ! The Gram Panchayat would pass another resolution towards the same. Necessary changes would be made at the NPRC level Proposed Solutions ! Primary school building has been constructed but has not yet cleared quality check inspection. BDO would write to the education department to quickly complete the proceedings.

41

Health and nutrition

Only 45.6% children in the age group 0-3 years are fully immunized

In village Hasguan as per the reassessment survey (32% HH coverage) the full immunization rate is 0%

The BDO would write to the health department to instruct the ANM posted in the Bhuchera sub centre in this regard ! The position is open only for a candidate belonging to scheduled caste and since such a candidate is not available therefore it is still vacant. The issue has been brought to the notice of the department and necessary action will be taken as per their directions ! Proposal for minicentres has been submitted and once sanctioned one mini centre would be setup in all remote hamlets

The

services

of

The post of the Anganwadi worker in Kadesarabansi is vacant

Anganwadi centre is not accessible for everyone

Weighing is not regular

Anganwadi workers with the support of village volunteers would weigh all children and supervisors would monitor the process

The Anganwadi centre in piprai village is functioning in the school premises which is located at a distance from the village Water, environment and sanitation 76.6% hand pumps are in working condition In Mota hamlet in Hasguan village only one out of four hand pumps are in working condition

The decision in this regard has been taken at the policy level and therefore no solution could be proposed at block level. The water level in these three hand pumps is not up to the expected levels therefore based on the resolution of Gram Panchayat process of re-bore would be carried out

42

Surroundings of the hand pumps is not clean

A list of all hand pumps without pitching should be submitted based on which all pitchings would be done

Water, environment and sanitation

Based on the HH survey (43.5% HH coverage) only 12.9% HH have a toilet constructed

HH interested in constructing toilets (minimum 10 HH) should get a resolution passed in this regard and get the toilets constructed on their own and receive support from the block office

Due attention is not being in primary schools

No toilets have been schools in Khera and Khadri

Funds received for toilet construction for all such schools where toilets have already been constructed would be transferred for toilet construction in Khera and Khadri

paid to hygiene behaviour constructed in the primary

43

Background Note on the Internship Programme

UNICEF Indias Knowledge Community on Children in India (KCCI) initiative aims to enhance knowledge management and sharing on policies and programmes related to children in India. Conceived as part of the Knowledge Community on Children in India, the objectives of the 2007 Summer Internship Programme were to give young graduate students from across the world the opportunity to gain field level experience and exposure to the challenges and issues facing development work in India today. UNICEF India hosted over 57 interns from India, Germany, Denmark, Bolivia, Japan, U.S., U.K., Australia, Ireland, Norway , Finland, Bangladesh, Canada, Italy to participate in the 2007 Summer Internship Programme. Interns were grouped into teams of 3-4 and placed in thirteen different research institutions across eleven states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) studying field level interventions for children from 4 June to 8 August 2007. Under the supervision of partner research institutes, the interns contributed a combination of desk research and fieldwork, the end result of which were 15 case studies of UNICEF assisted Government programmes and other interventions aimed at promoting the rights of the children and their development. Six of these are supplemented by short films capturing the reality of children and their families. The case studies cover key sectors linked to children and development in India, and address important policy issues for children in India. These include: primary education, child survival, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and village planning. Another unique feature of this programme was the composition of the research teams comprising interns with multi-disciplinary academic skills and multi-culutural backgrounds. Teams were encouraged to pool their skills and knowledge prior to the fieldwork period and to devise a work plan that allowed each team member an equal role in developing the case study. Group work and cooperation were key elements in the production of outputs, and all this evident in the interesting and multi-faceted narratives that these case studies are on development in India. The 2007 Summer Internship Programme culminated in a final workshop at which all teams of interns presented their case studies and films to discuss the broader issues relating to improvements in service delivery, elimination of child labour, promoting child rights and decentralization and village planning. The KCCI Internship case studies series aims to disseminate this research to a wider audience and provide valuable contributions to KCCIs overall knowledge base.