20 Years of Disha
1995: Panchayati Raj

Soon after the passage of Seventy Thrid Amendment to the Constitution of India, Disha started making efforts to strengthen panchayats, the institutions of local self-governance in rural areas. While on one hand it motivated its front members to contest panchayat elections with a view to get hold of positions in panchayats, on the other hand it provided training to elected panchayat representatives. It also held workshops, organised interface of panchayat representatives and government officials, and contributed to research and advocacy efforts in collaboration with the state level organisations. In addition, it spread awareness among the common villagers regarding latest developments in the panchayats.

Training in panchayati raj were focused on salient features of panchayati raj regime and rights and duties of panchayat representatives. Gender was an integral part of all the panchayati raj training and special emphasis was given on the role of women in panchayats. Training are still organised from time to time when some new development in panchayati raj regime takes place.

Disha organised workshops on various panchayati raj themes and participated in such events at the state and national level. One of the workshop topics in the past was role of voluntary organisations in panchayat elections. Interfaces included the divisional commissioner and other officials.

Interventions in panchayat elections included awareness drives among the villagers to vote in large numbers and elect ‘upright candidates’. The emphasis of the awareness drive was on gram panchayat members as they were people’s representatives at the grassroots and were nearest to their fellow villagers. Other interventions included solving problems of candidates in filing nomination forms and arranging caste certificates, authorisation certificates and other formalities. During the 2000 elections, about 400 candidates were provided assistance in filing their nomination forms and meeting other formalities.

One of the achievements of the intervention in panchayati raj was official nod to Disha to intervene in the preparation of below poverty line (BPL) lists. This nod came when serious discrepancies came into light in the BPL lists on the basis of which Disha had to facilitate formation of SHGs on the request of the District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) of Saharanpur. On inquiry it was revealed that while preparing the lists set norms were not followed and the gram pradhans and gram panchayat development officers (GPDOs) included the names on their will, thus paving the way for inclusion of many non-eligible people in the lists. The matter was raised in the DRDA meeting following which it was decided that Disha would intervene in the preparation of BPL lists.

Awareness efforts among the panchayat residents have started cleansing up governance at the village level:

• When pradhan of Khera Mewat Gram Panchayat asked bribe from four beneficiaries of Indira Awas Yojana they lodged complaints with the district panchayati raj officer (DPRO) with affidavits. An inquiry carried out by the DPRO found the Gram Pradhan guilty and appropriate action was taken against him
• In the same Gram Panchayat there was dispute over construction of the school building. When the villagers agitated, the dispute was resolved and construction of the building was finished expeditiously

Total Literacy Campaign

Total Literacy Campaign was an ambitious programme of the Central Government, aimed at making all adults in the age group 15-35 years literate by the year 2000. Disha implemented the campaign in 22 villages of Buddakhera and Bargaon nyaya panchayats of Saharanpur district.

House-to-house survey revealed that there were over 10,000 illiterate people and out of them nearly 6,500 were women. Training of resource persons for the campaign was held at Literacy House, a state level literacy resource organisation. The resource persons trained master trainers, who in turn imparted training to volunteers. The volunteers set up literacy centres in the villages. On an average 15 adults attended each centre.

Massive mobilisation efforts backed the campaign. The communication team staged 30 plays in the villages. This was followed by literacy rallies. People in large numbers over their bicycles participated in these rallies.

The programme only had provision of learning kits for the learners and no arrangement was made for lighting arrangements. For this the learners collected 50 paise each per month and with the money thus collected, the organisation approached the district administration for allocation of kerosene quota.

As a fall out non-school going children in the age group 6-14 years evinced keen interest in the campaign. That it was impossible to accommodate them in the education centres was another story.

On the operatioal part it was found very difficult that the learners completed all the three books provided in the kits in six months. Moreover, there was always shorgtage of suitably qualified volunteers.

Self Help Groups

In the beginning of mid-1990s highly motivated women of the operational area repeatedly mounted pressure on Disha to provide them some economic options so their lot can improve. The organisation experimented with certain conventional economic activities, but they fell flat, because they were based on the top-down approach. Around the same time concept of SHGs was taking roots in the country and Disha decided in 1995 to experiment with the formation of 60 SHGs in as many villages of the then operational area.

Initially the going was tough because women were suspicious of financial transaction with any one as at that time non-banking financial institutions had duped investors of millions of rupees. But once a few SHGs were formed and started giving financial scope to the women, the caravan started moving. Soon SHGs of men, farmers and nonfarmers also came up.

What began as a small step, later grew by leaps and bounds. By the end of the year 2003-04 there were 1,445 SHGs with a total membership of 17,110. These SHGs had savings of Rs 1.62 crore and had accrued loans from different bank branches to the tune of Rs 1.95 crore. The total sum available with the SHGs was thus Rs 3.57 crore. Per member availability of money was Rs 2,088.50 while per SHG availability was Rs 24,727.84.

Of late the government has recognised potential of SHGs in economic betterment of the deprived sections of the society. It has linked SHGs to its various welfare/ development schemes and taken policy decision that benefits of the government schemes would accrue only to the SHGs and not to individuals. Thus SHGs are being looked as the ultimate mean of empowerment.

Much attention was given to capacity building of SHGs. For this training of SHG office-bearers in minutes writing and accounts keeping were organised from time to time. Since many SHG members were not literate enough they were unable to derive benefit of these training. In these circumstances they adopted innovative approaches like using services of some of the educated girl for written work related to SHGs.

Besides training Disha provided support to SHGs according to their requirement for it understands that each SHG is different from other and tailor made training cannot address to the needs of each SHG. To name a few, these supports included giving inputs on holding meetings, opening of accounts in banks, getting advance limits sanctioned and providing skills in income generation activities.

Efforts were made to ensure that SHGs were not just a forum of transaction of money. SHGs are viewed as a vehicle leading to not only economic empowerment, but also to social and political empowerment, whose attainment is Disha’s vision.

Recently efforts have started to organise SHGs into associations. Each association is to have 20 SHGs as its members. At a later stage an overarching federation of associations of SHGs will also be formed. Once this structure is in place, it is expected that the associations and federation will be a force to bargain from the society and the market its due place.

Association with SHGs has changed many lives for better. The entire area is full of such success stories:

• Saroj, a member of Sagar SHG in Dashamajra village had some land which she used to lease out for agricultural purposes. After she became member of the SHG, she decided to cultivate her land on her own. She is doing so for the past two years and earning handsome profit.
• Six women of Himmat SHG in Badgaon village took 15 bighas of agricultural land on rent and are now collectively raising crops on that land.
• Rampyari is a member of Ankur SHG in Panjbangar village and is landless. She borrowed money from her SHG and got a groceries shop opened for her son. After she paid back the loan she again borrowed money from the group and got vegetable business financed for her husband.
• Sheela is a member of Sathi SHG in Raghunathpur village. With the loan from her SHG she entered into production of incense sticks – she produces incense sticks and her husband sells them at various shops. The family is now earning over Rs 150 per day, a big sum for a family which was till a few years ago dependent on meagre income form labour.
• A relatively younger SHG in Mahmoodpur is engaged in addressing health and social problems, apart from the routine activity of savings and credit. Members of this group have done commendable work in raising awareness about Pulse Polio campaign of the Government. They have ensured that all the children in the village get polio drops.

Uttarkashi Training Centre

Even as work in rural areas of Uttarkashi district progressed, it was realised that the organisation was going to be there in the area for a long time to come. With this revelation, a need was felt to have a training centre-cum-office complex in Uttarkashi. Land for construction of the centre was purchased at Devidhar, a place central to all the villages in which the organisation was working. Construction work began with initial funds from CAPART. But because of several reasons beyond the control of the organisation, the construction work was on hold for several years. Ultimately the original layout was scaled down and the building was finished with financial support from Oxfam. The single floor structure has one training-cum-meeting hall, one office room, one kitchen, one store, two toilets and one bathroom. Only non-residential training are held at this training centre.

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