AUGUST PROGRESS REPORT

D A TE : S E P TE M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 9

UTTARAKHAND
The survey was completed in Tarikhet Block and expanded to cover the adjacent blocks of Hawalbagh and Dwarahat. The team has also been revamped as some of the first timers found it difficult to cover areas which involved travel and spending nights out. In all around 14,000 households were covered in Tarikhet and awareness of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been imparted to a total of over 17,000 households. Some of the salient findings of the survey are summarised below: 1) Around 25% of those surveyed were aware of the scheme, but after being given a brief capsule, 71% expressed an interest to work under the scheme. 2) Around 81% have job cards, while the number holding bank accounts drops to 67% With these inputs, in September the process of community mobilisation to obtain job cards, and planning of panchayat wise works to be undertaken will start, while survey activities will continue in the adjoining blocks.

ORISSA
The 54 Jansathis were able to extend the awareness cum survey campaign to over 75,000 families in August, bringing the total number covered to around 85,000. Due to impediments caused by the rainy season as well as the fact that people were involved in agricultural activities our targeted deadline of August end for completion of the survey could not be met and this process is now expected to continue till mid-Sept. A sample analysis of the survey data reveals that the ground reality is grim to say the very least 1) Awareness of the scheme is under 20% 2) Once the scheme was explained to them, over 80% of the families expressed desire to work. 3) However only 60% have job cards and only 20% have bank /postal accounts. (In order to be eligible to demand or receive work under NREGS it is essential that the person obtain a job card and open an account in a bank or post office)

FIELD VISITS
I (Koko) covered Uttarakhand field area in mid August and Ruchi and I spent the last week of the month traversing close to 2000km to cover the five field areas of Orissa, visiting Nayagarh,

Boudh, Kandhamal, Jharsuguda, Sundergarh and Sambalpur districts. During the course of this travel we attended several village meetings, a few area level meetings (where representatives of a panchayat gather together) and finally had extensive meetings with the 5 teams of Jan Sathis. We also made a conscious effort to meet with various levels of the Panchayati Raj and Government machinery since they play a key role in taking our initiative forward. To sum up our visit: 1) There was a very good turnout at the village and area level meetings and there was unanimous support for the struggle to implement NREGA 2) The Jan Sathis are well motivated as also the senior activists and team leaders. 3) The scene at the government level turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag with Block Development Officers (BDOs) offering support while some panchayat officials were not so supportive. The government-backed scheme of appointing a male and female Gram Sathi for every revenue village is a failure with most having little knowledge and no interest in assisting the villagers in getting job cards and bank accounts opened (they get an incentive of Rs.5/- for each account opened but receive no fixed salary. They also get 4/- per day for each villager who reports for work.) 4) The task ahead is formidable since the process of getting job cards and opening bank accounts has to be achieved at a rapid pace so that demand for work can be made by November end.

For those of you interested in the nitty gritty, the minutes of our meeting in Bhubaneshwar are provided below. ONCE AGAIN THANKING YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT With best wishes,

M.M. (Koko) Singh P.S. We managed to get our website www.atmashaktitrust.com going on Aug. 15th! It is still under development and your comments/feedback are not just welcome but needed.

PROCEEDINGS OF MEETING HELD IN BHUBANESHWAR ON 29/8/2009

Present: Arun, Ananta, Abhiram, Pravat, Kalucharan, Mritunjay, Ruchi, Koko and Panchanand The main objective was to do a combined review of the current status and evolve a common strategy for the next two months

SURVEY
What is clear is that we have at best achieved only 50% of the households targeted by 31/8. There are numerous reasons for this, the busy agricultural period where villagers are only available in the evening, newness of the Jan Sathis to both the task and area and disturbances caused by rains. However there has been a collective failure at the central and local level to use the data to improve the team performance---we have figures as low as an average of 31 households per day to a high of 85. In future we need to take immediate corrective action to ensure that those who are struggling are helped to raise their performance so that the team as a whole is not pulled down. To recover lost ground the following strategy is to be adopted 1) No leave or holidays till Sept 10th when the survey work will be completed in all areas barring Kandhamal where the completion date is 15/9. 2) The average number of households to be covered in a day to be upped to 100+ from the current figure of around 60. 3) New areas to be covered using the current one to one method but in old areas existing volunteers to be used to conduct the survey in their own village with the Jan Sathi guiding them by demonstrating the process and then proceeding to other villages and checking progress in the evening. 4) Senior activists to also chip in by covering some areas independently In Koraput the survey work is to start from 1/9 and the Jan Sathis have been brought to Boudh area for on the spot training and exposure.

TABULATION
It was emphasized that this needs to go hand in hand with the survey and the day a GP is completed the data needs to be tabulated. This work should be entrusted to temporary paid or volunteer workers.

JOB CARDS
Data from the survey suggests that only 60% of those wanting work have job cards which means that our 54 JSs will have to ensure issue of over 60,000 job cards. Based on inputs from PR representatives, and BDO/ABDOs the strategy to be followed is

1) Form village level committees using those families who want work as the base. 2) Identify 3/4 volunteers in each village. 3) Provide the village with a photocopy of the survey data and have a list drawn up of those without job cards and bank/post office accounts. Wherever possible hold village level meetings to explain NREGA procedures and draw up tentative list of works to be undertaken based on the theoretical number of days available as per the survey data. 4) Explain the form to be filled in for registration at the panchayat level and ask the village volunteers to submit the applications. 5) JSs to follow up by phone to the village volunteers and when applications are submitted with panchayat executive officer, In case of non cooperation the ABDO/BDO to be informed. If problem not resolved JS to meet the panchayat officials after which villagers to be guided to take appropriate protest measures. All applications for job cards should be submitted by 30/9, so that cards are obtained by 15/10.

BANK/POST OFFICE ACCOUNTS

Zero balance accounts can only be opened for those who have job cards. The strategy to be used here is 1) Wherever convenient the preferred option should be the banks as there have been instances of misappropriation while making post office cash withdrawalsthe sub post office is preferable over the branch post office. 2) Every revenue village has a male and female gram sevak who is entitled to an incentive of Rs.5/- for each account opened. We should mobilize them to start pushing applications for those with job cards and in the second stage tackle those whose job cards are received later. Of course if people are willing to deposit 50/- the post office. account can be opened without a job card. 3) The actual responsibility for this lies with the panchayat which is supposed to submit a list of people with their job card nos to the post office and get the relatively simple a/c opening form signed by the households head. 4) Our village volunteers can also be used for this process as it is apparent that the official machinery is by and large not interested in taking this process forward 5) Jan Sathis to follow up whichever methodology is adopted in different villages.

VILLAGE WISE WORK PLANNING

This is to be done wherever possible using the survey data as a base and reconfirming a) the willingness of people to work and b) the no. of days each family wants to put in. The objective is to get these works included in those already planned and sanctioned. These plans are available at the block office and should be given to the JSs before 10/9 i.e. before the start of the village wise/GP wise organizational process,

Once the planning process is complete the block/district and state level officials have to be informed of the estimated demand for work. Ideally the work should be as per the village demands but in year 1 our objective is to demand and receive 100 days work,

TRAINING INPUTS
Along with the above process there is an urgent need for trainings/shivirs at three levels 1) Village level half day shivirs concentrating on NREGA. 2) Full day village cadre training 3) Training of PR reps and the Gram Rozgar sevaks and gram sevaks. In addition to this a combined training or two separate training to be organized for our JSs Based on the above detailed work plans for each area to be drawn up taking into account the Dussehra and Diwali holidays.

OTHER ISSUES
1) For cycles Ruchi to revert back by 12/9. 2) For mobile phones Gopi to purchase 3nos and Ananta one from the market (budget 1200/- or less) A common network to be identified for each area and the best plan to be found. 3) Expenses to be received by the 10th of each month and requirements sent by the 3rd of every month so that funds can be transferred by the 7th. 4) Identity cards to be provided to the JSs ASAP. 5) OJSM---there is a definite need for a common platform/forum to represent the work at the state/national level. Since OJSM is now defunct it was decided to make a fresh start and invite like minded organizations to join at the outset 6) The decision by Sruti to discontinue fellowship support without dialogue on flimsy grounds came up and it was agreed that individuals were free to escalate their level of complaint but this topic would no longer be discussed at our joint meetings 7) The OJAM critique of NREGA was discussed and Ananta is to give the groups comments 8) Pravat is to send all the district/block wise maps for the web site and all detailed action plans are to be sent by 4/9