Annual Report 2009-10 - asrango.orgasrango.org/AnnualReport 2009-10.pdfAnnual Report 2009-10 - 5 - 1. Overview 1.1 BACKGROUND ASRA is a registered society working for development ofbackward

Annual Report 2009-10

- 1 -


- 2 -

From the chairman

Dear Readers,

It’s my pleasure to share our annual report for the year 2009-2010. As the

past years, the year 2008-2009 was also full of our devotion and

encouragement. As the result our Integrated & remedial approaches are

trying to keep us at the culminating point. ASRA welcomes the change .

If we cast our glance towards our multidimensional approaches to

address major issues, we shall see that the issues of migration, livelihood

improvement of vulnerable women and children, Health and HIV/AIDS,

Women Empowerment, While presenting the annual report we are grateful to

all who had provided their generous support, enormously. We are grateful to

our donors for their valuable support and believe that it is their right to know

how well we put their money to a good cause.

In our campaign Govt. of India, State Govt., Our Grant donors had

ensured extra ordinary endeavors with solemn belief. Apart from it,

community & District and Panchayat is the real ambassador of our campaign

who had knocked at grassroots level to overcome the problems.

We expect that readers will send their suggestions and feedback to

infuse new life in our vision & mission.

Shailesh Shrivastava

Director.


- 3 -

Board of Members

Sr.

No.

Name Address Telephone Mobile

01 02 03 04 05

1 Mr. Balmukund

Shrivastava 21 /3 Moti Bungalow

Colony Dewas

07272-251734 9827737676

2 Mr.Narendra Jain 6,Laxmibai park Dewas 07272 -404242 9755511102

3 Mr. Shailesh

shrivastava 21 /4 Moti Bungalow

Colony Dewas

07272 -253187 9425306366

4 Mrs. Pratibha

Lokendra

39,Morwal colony Bad

Nagar Dist. Ujjain

07367-223639 9827809237

5 Mr. Deependra

Chouhan

7, chamunda dham

Dewas

07272-228758

6 Mr. Ajay Jain Jawahar nagar Dewas 07272-229592 9926833993

7 Mr. Pankaj

Sharma

9,Kavi Kalidas Marg 07272-227011 9926028845

8 Mrs. Sangeeta

Kektia

4,Vijay Nagar indore 0731-2385995 9926093680


- 4 -

CONTENTS

Heading Sub-Heading Page No.

.1. Overview 1.1 Background

1.2 Legal Status

1.3 Working Area

1.5 Strategy

1.6 Organization Structure

2. Development

Interventions

2.1 Education and Awareness

2.2 Water and Food Security

2.3 Health

2.4 Women’s Empowerment

2.5 Livelihood

3. Innovations and

Sustainability

3.1 Linkage of SHGs with Banks


- 5 -

1. Overview

1.1 BACKGROUND ASRA is a registered society working for development ofbackward

community. In the year 1999, ASRA started its journey of

development with trainings and Nukkad Natak at Amona, and with

time, new issues arose, which led to continued diversification into

different sectors affecting the quality of life in remote backward

communities. During this period we also underwent the process of

organization development and set guidelines for our future action plan.

We have defined our vision, mission, objectives and strategies,

complemented by regular review undertaken to improve quality and

focus.

- VISION -

“To empower the communities towards sustaining the development process leading to their total well being”

- Mission -

“To foster integrated community development program through multi disciplinary programs and peoples

participation”

- Goal -

To support the developmental activities through innovative means that’s help the nation to be the great economy power

of the world.

.


- 6 -

1.2 Legal Status

Govt. Registration US 3439 under the society act 1973

FCRA Registration No. Under FCR act 1976 no. – 063230009

IT Registration PAN (No.- AABTA6659C)

Bank details Punjab National Bank, Dewas (MP) 455001

Br. Code- 1505

Type of Organization Voluntary Organization

1.3 Working Area

Since 1999, ASRA has been operating in rural dominated regions in

the Dewas district of western Madhya Pradesh , India. It is currently working

in 50 Gram Panchayats covering 100 villages in Kannod block and 30

villages of Khategaon block. Lately, intervention has been expanded to

nearly 10 District i.e. DEWAS Indore, Guna, Ratlam, Ujjain, Neemuch,

Mandsor, Ashoknagar, Vidhisha, Shinpuri and Dhar district. Through our

interventions we have improved the lives of approximately 6000 people in

1000 families of interior villages, where availability of development

facilities has been minimal.

The main occupation of these families is agriculture-based and dependent on

rain-fed farming. Average land holding is small (less than 2.5 acres) and

fragmented with very limited irrigation facilities. The area has been

suffering from iregular rainfall and the farmers face tough times when the

monsoon fails. They often resort to taking loans in cash or kind from the

local moneylenders, who trap them with heavy rates of interest. In addition

women especially suffer from the dangers of ignorance concerning health

matters. Children are often not properly immunised; the growth rates of

many children are very low. There is a large number of children who are

underweight and malnourished. Migration has become an inevitable

phenomenon in the last decade and many farmer has to go out of the village

in search of work for 3-6 months. They generally go to the other districts for

employment. The worst hit of this migration are the children who are left

devoid of education. Dropping out becomes inevitable as they have to

search for their own bread and butter. The tribal families also visualise their

children as economic assets and do not encourage them to study. Often

children are involved in Child Labour in hotels in the cities.


- 7 -

OUR STRATEGY

Based on long experience, ASRA believes that backward areas of the Dewas

district need defined short-term as well as long-term approaches for holistic

development, as piecemeal work will provide no sustainable results. These

efforts need to be started with family as the basic unit of development; the

process of resource creation and awareness must be undertaken

simultaneously. ASRA has taken up a participatory and people-centred

approach in this direction by motivating communities to perform the roles

and responsibilities for their own development.

We embrace the following approaches :

• Organising villagers into Village Development Committees and

capacitating them for Development.

• Apply principles of Participation in identification and prioritiation

problems and also in identification of Development Programs.

• Use regional and cluster approach in identification solution to Issues

in the area.

• Collaborate with institutions, community organisations and individuals

with similar understandings and approaches.

• Building development programs and projects on local knowledge,

practices and beliefs.

• Practicing comprehensive approach for every development initiative,

this must be followed by appropriate analysis and thorough study of

the needs or conditions.

• Fostering partnership with village institutions as well as Panchayati

Raj Institutions.

• Mobilizing community contribution for participatory development

process.

• Strengthening network of village institutions for grassroots democracy

• Advocating people’s right of equal benefits

• Giving priority to gender based livelihood interventions

• Strengthening collaboration with Government and technical as well

research institutions.


- 8 -

PROFILE OF THE AREA Since 1999

The main occupation of these families is agriculture-based and dependent on

rain-fed farming. women especially suffer from the dangers of ignorance

concerning health matters. Children are often not properly immunised; the

growth rates of many children are very low. There is a large number of

children who are underweight and malnourished. Dropping out becomes

inevitable as they have to search for their own bread and butter


- 9 -

2. Development Interventions

2.1. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS

Right from its inception ASRA has been actively involved and

devoted to the issues of Sabko hai Shiksha ka adhikar (education to all in a

uniform pattern). ASRA is working on the issue of Child Education in 15

villages of 3 Panchayats - working on child retention; main- streaming 100%

children of school-going age (6-14 years); focussing on a higher teacher-

student ratio; increasing availability of basic education material and teaching

aids.To achieve these objectives, the main activities that we undertake

include: village meetings, organising and capacity building of education

committees at village level, forming education committees at Panchayat

level, regular surveying of children, coordination with the Education

Department, raising enrolment and retention rates in schools, stimulus

meetings with parents, arrangements for basic infrastructure facilities, etc

100% retention of school-going children

ASRA targeted 100% school retention for this year and practised

different strategies to achieve this target. Community instructors regularly

organised village level meetings to track school-going children’s, and tried to

persuade parents to continue their children’s education. They are informed

on the subject of child rights regarding education and especially for girls, in

order to inculcate gender equality within the community. This form of

intervention has increased regular attendance in the schools.

2.2 Water and food security

ASRA believes that holistic development of interior tribal villages of

Kannod,Khategaon depends primarily on water, which is the basic

constituent for human survival. Ground water as well as surface water needs

sustainable management to ensure availability for everyone. Over-exploiting

ground water resources can easily threaten future food security and result in

a local economic crisis. Hence, in the present year we focussed on the

successful implementation of Watershed projects. ASRA worked to achieve

effective livelihood generation in 134 villages. Total physical works related

to local watersheds have been done in different villages and have benefited

a total of 50 families. The main SWC activities we engage in are field

bunding, construction of Gully plugs, Check Dams, Gabions, Anicut,

Vegetative Gully plugs, Postural Land developments, Construction of Ponds,


- 10 -


- 11 -

Watershed works :

• Soil & Water Conservation, Improved agriculture & animal husbandry

practices, Community lift irrigation scheme and training

• Well Deepening, Parapet wall lining, fodder bank and water, SWC &

Water harvesting activities rain-fed agriculture development,

strengthening self help concept among tribal community, Capacitating

community on agriculture production

• SWC & Water harvesting activities.

• Well deepening Seed distribution SHGs

Impact of the Watershed Programme:

The Watershed approach has already been widely recognized as the

panacea for development of the village. Watershed provides water security,

which in turn leads to food security and other consequent developments of

the human and natural resources of the area.

With development of the land through the construction of resources

such as field bunds and soil bunds, the run off are checked and water and

fertilizer remain in the land. This leads to retention of soil fertility and of the

moisture content in the soil. This moisture content is especially helpful for

farmers wanting to grow rabbi crops like mustard, wheat, gram, etc.


- 12 -

2.3 Health

ASRA has been trying to concentrate on problems related to health by

emphasising “Preventive Health” in Dewas district. Our aim is to help

communities in remote regions that have no access to the health service in

the villages. ASRA’s work on health matters is guided Govt. health

department regarding quality of living, health, nutrition, availability of health

facilities and opportunities for livelihood. In these respects ASRA organized

village meetings, foot marches, rallies, health checkups and awareness

camps, cultural shows, vaccination and immunization campaigns, training of

birth attendants, an adolescent girl child programme, and a reproductive and

child health programme. ASRA has joined hands with the relevant

Government departments for improving their reach to health facilities and

also in guiding communities in the use various preventive measures.


- 13 -

Guided by NACO,MPSACS on HIV/AIDS a programm runned by ASRA

Targeted Intervention Project in Dewas and Indore Dist. which is

focused on the core group containing Female sex workers, it is interesting to

have a look at the findings of the CNA (Community Need Assessment)

survey conducted in both the working area , which reveals the following –

• 90.3% of the respondents are not using any family planning methods

• 87.1% of deliveries are still being conducted at home

• 8.6% of deliveries are conducted at some other place, which needs to

be identified.

• 71.0% of deliveries are conducted by untrained dais.

• 79.6% of the respondents consider institutional deliveries

unnecessary.

• 40.9% of the respondents consider institutional deliveries as not useful

• 35% of the respondents prefer going to some other place to avail of

health services which needs to be identified

• 65.6% of the respondents have reported late breast feeding initiation

of the child

• 89.9 % of the respondents have not heard of STI/RTI

• 82.0 % of the respondents are not aware of HIV /AIDS.

Project Objective –

1. To ensure effective project management.

2. To promote safe sexual practices through behavioral change

communication amongst the targeted HRG members.

3. To provide quality STI treatment and counseling services to all FSWs

at first time and 30% of repeat FSWs.

4. To promote condoms amongst targeted HRG population for reduction

of vulnerability of HIV infection in Dewas District.

5. To create an enabling environment for all the stakeholders in the

targeted area.

6. To mobilize the community for ownership of the programme for

effective implementation.


- 14 -

7. To establish/develop linkages with different government and non-

government agencies for care and support of the HRG Dewas District.

Pulse polio campaign :

The pulse polio campaign was started by the Government to eradicate cases

of polio in children. In the ASRA intervention villages, this campaign was

successfully done and resulted in 100% vaccination using polio drops to

many children in the age group of between 0-5 years. Community workers

facilitated ANMs and other volunteers who were involved in the campaign.

Health checkups :

In the slums and backward area health checkups have been conducted by

ASRA. We concentrated on neatness and cleanliness of nails, teeth, eyes,

etc. Children’s weight and height measurement were also taken to analyze

the growth of children.

2.4 Women’s Empowerment and Livelihood

Livelihood may be defined as continued income generation in a sustainable

and dignified manner. In the village scenario, the major means of occupation


- 15 -

is agriculture. However, in ASRA’s working area, it is an increasingly

obvious fact that over the last decade there has been a rapid decline in the

proportion of population engaged in cultivation .The occupation profile of

tribal villages in the Kannodand Khategaon region has shown tremendous

shifts mainly from cultivation to labour. A dominant reason for this change

has been agriculture’s tendency to be adversely affected by sustained

drought situations, in which event the people are unable to survive on a

single soya crop. Another source of income, based on livestock, is also

characterized by unproductive livestock and the scarcity of fodder and other

amenities during drought years. Minor forest produce, which once used to be

an important source of income for the tribal communities, has become very

limited and available to very few villagers. In this situation of diminishing

occupational opportunities, ASRA helps communities in strengthening

livelihood sustainability through the development of land and water

resources for agro-based income generation sources. In addition, In order to

promote organic concepts, various practices are promoted in the working

area such as vermin compost demonstrations, green manures, leaf compost,

liquid manure, neem pesticides, etc. To further develop these initiatives,

ASRA is seeking collaboration with potential clients for marketing the

organic and herbal produces of the area. ASRA has also been trying to form

SHGs in the area so that villagers can adopt positive saving habits and in the

long run undertake income generating programmes like dairy, goatry and

brick making activities. Presently four hundred and fifty groups are formed

and nearly 50% have been facilitated to consult with banks about loans for

income generation activities like ginger cultivation, rural shops, agriculture

implementations, etc. These groups are regular in their monthly meetings

and also discuss issues such as the rules and regulations of different

government schemes. ASRA has been encouraging them to strengthen their

commitment to upgrading their land through organic practices like vermin

composting, decomposing and other organic and herbal cultivation. Presently

ASRA supervises 450 SHGs that are involved in saving and credit activities

A SHG Success Story Vidhya Bai a group leader of Maa Santoshi group has started her business

with a small tea shop and now is a honour of a hotel,panshop(son)and

aphotocopy shop.In her words Vidhya Bai replied, "Earlier, we were not

really bothered about our natural resources, health, education, gender

sensitivity and equality. But we have seen the strength of working together

and working for each other. It helps everyone. There is strength in unity."

This integration of economic and social empowerment is a key aspect of

ASRA’s efforts to promote effective development.

SHG CBO meetings :


- 16 -

CBOs are historically acknowledged as the primary vehicles for mobilizing

the development process and utilizing resources throughout the villages.

These village level committees are the main pillar of any village at the time

of project initiation. Hence the efficacy of any project relies heavily on

strengthening the existing village groups. The development of the village has

everything to do with the unity of the community and strategic planning of

the installation of developmental works. Different issues related to village

development were discussed in regular meetings supervised by ASRA,

including crucial ones like the advantages of government schemes and

related drought relief programmes.

Gender group meetings: Gender groups have been formed to focus on the

issues related to social gender conceptions. Our plan entails exposing the

imbalance of gender rights to rural women and motivating them to address

these by themselves. Regular meetings were conducted by ASRA with the

group where the situation of women and the ratio of female participation in

was family, community as well as village development were critically

analyzed. The end result has been a rejection of the original gender structures

and revamped societal expectations in the hamlet. Most importantly, women

are now actively involved in the household decision-making process.


- 17 -

3. Innovations

PPP Model in HIV/AIDS sector

Asra is the organization selected by National Aids control Organization, for

piloting PPP model. This is the Programme which was launched by Targeted

Intervention runned by Naco on different core group.Asra is working with

female sex workers and successfully piloted the PPP model ,was launched all

over the MP afterward.

Masti Ki Pathshala Asra is the organization devoted for the welfare of the community. With the

support of Tata’s CSR fund help we are running an evening class open for all

the students. As we know that children are registered in the govt. school due

to different schemes but their attendance is very low in the class. Asra

organized the children, motivated them and has started the class. Not only

this Asra selected the children according to their knowledge status they are

given the education and connected to according class or open exams.

Team Structure


- 18 -

Chairman /

Board Committee

Director Projects

Manager Programs

Project officer

SHG Promotion

&REDP

Block

Coordinator

(Kannod)

Block Coordinator

(Khategoan)

Cluster Coordinator

(1)

Cluster Coordinator

(2)

Cluster Coordinator

(3)

Cluster Coordinator (4)

Cluster Coordinator

(1)

Cluster Coordinator

(2)

Project Manager

TI Project/ Health

programme

Advisor

New Projects

Sr. Accountant

Officer

Training

Coordinator

Counselor

Out Reach Worker

1

Out Reach Worker

2

Out Reach Worker

3

Trainers (35)

Cluster Coordinator

(3)

Supervisor

Documents

Annual Report 2009-10 - asrango.orgasrango.org/AnnualReport 2009-10.pdfAnnual Report 2009-10 - 5 - 1. Overview 1.1 BACKGROUND ASRA is a registered society working for development ofbackward