E Sandesham Issue I

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E-SandeshamAugust, 2010

The Ofcial E-Newsletter of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty


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The Ofcial E-Newsletter of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty

EPICEradicating Poverty, Inspiring Community

In thisIssue...

From the CEOs desk 3

SERP -- An Introduction 5

Health and Nutrition 6

Education 8

Social Security 10

Food Security 12

Gender 13

Persons withDisabilities 15

PoP Strategy 16

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Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) is an autonomous society of

the Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

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From the CEOs desk...

Poverty Eradication is an important

milestone and Society for Elimina-

tion of Rural Poverty has taken that

arduous journey 10 years ago bring-

ing in a new paradigm of develop-

ment that emphasized on

Building Community Based Or-

ganizations (CBOs) of the pooras an essential prerequisite for

poverty alleviation.

Empowerment of the poor as

the means to poverty eradica-

tion and

Establishing SERP as the sensi-

tive support mechanism to cata-

lyse the process of social mobi-

lisation.

That small step of social mobiliza-

tion of a few rural poor women into

an SHG has now grown into a revo-

lution of sorts that is transform-

ing village after village in all parts

of this vast country. The myth thatsocial mobilization does not work

beyond north of Vindhyas has been

shattered with rural poor women

in Bihar and UP coming together

to take control of their lives. SERP

in its own humble way has played a

part in nurturing the CBOs in these

states. The CBOs of AP and SERP

arepoisedtoplayasignicantrole

in strengthening the CBOs of the

poor in the most backward states of

India including the North-East un-

analyze the development issues and

action plans. We intend to reach

out to the world sharing our work

to enhance knowledge on poverty

eradication literature and receive

valuable feedback from fellow devel-

opment professionals.

SERP categorizes its work areas

broadly into Human Development

Value Chain support, Livelihood

support, and Resources support.

In this issue we are focusing on our

work towards improving the hu-man development value chain talk-

ingbrieyaboutourmajoractivities

in operation to improve the human

development indicators. We also put

forth our current strategy of bring-

ing in the most marginalized poor-

est of the poor into our development

paradigm of empowering them tocome out of deep clutches of ex-

treme poverty. The forthcoming is-

sues will focus on familiarizing our

reader with the scope of our work in

the livelihoods sector.

Continuous learning is an integral

part of our work and I hope this

newsletter will be a handy source

foreld learningand practicalap-

proach towards addressing the so-

cial evil called poverty, which is an

affront to human dignity. On the eve

of Independence Day along with our

celebrations, let us pool in knowl-

edge and experiences to help the

poor to help themselves

Jai Hind

der the recently launched National

Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)

of the Ministry of Rural Develop-

ment, GOI. All the States under

NRLM will be establishing sensitive

support mechanisms and bring on

board like-minded NGOs to begin

this exciting journey.

It is in this context it was felt nec-

essary that better coordination and

knowledge sharing among all the

states would go a long way in en-

suring that each state need not go

through the arduous learning curve.

Hence, it gives me immense pleas-

ure to bring out the rst issue ofSERP newsletter as an honest at-

tempt to share our learning with the

development fraternity in the coun-

try.

At the time when India celebrates

its 63rd Independence Day, and

grapples with the question of rich-

poor divide, which is widening at

an alarming rate, it becomes cru-

cial to not just talk but demonstrate

the virtues of Inclusive develop-

ment. With just 5 years to go for the

achievement of the MDGs the suc-

cesses of community driven human

and livelihoods development progr

mmes in states like Kerala, TN, Bi-

har and AP seems to provide the

light at the end of the tunnel. This

monthlynewsletterwillreectand

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Contents Page -->

It always seems impossible until its done. -- Nelson Mandela

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Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty-- An Introduction

Poverty Alleviation has

been one of the primary

focus area for develop-

ment agencies. Both State

and non-State actors have given it

upmost priority in policy. The ef-

forts towards eradicating poverty

and uplifting living standards for

the populace have been an on-going

activity since the beginning of 20th

century. Successive Governments

realised that poverty eradication is

a must for development to happen.

However gradually a realisation set

in that the State has not been very

efcientinmanagingbothGovern-

ance and development programs

and non-state players came into

existence but they had their own

limitations vis--vis resources and

external dependence on donors.

Society for Elimination for Rural

Poverty (SERP) was conceived asa unique organisation. SERP came

into existence on the strong commi-

tment of both Andhra Pradesh State

government and World Bank to

carry out their development agenda.

Registered as a Society under the

Societies (Telangana) Act, SERP is a

perfect marriage of the strengths of

State and non-State

development efforts. With ample

support in terms of resources-both

nancial and quality manpower

along with sufcient autonomy,

SERP has emerged as an important

entity in the poverty eradication ef-

forts in AP.

Poverty is an affront to human dignity, and a cost to the economyand the polity. Poverty creates vulnerability, dependence andhelplessness. It deprives society of the productive energies of a

substantial segment of its population, contributing to instabilityand social unrest.

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nancial inclusion.TodayAPhas

one of the largest organised SHG

network in the world with more than

1 crore of women actively participat-

ing. AP model has been an inspiring

story for the SHG movement. Under

the aegis of SERP, the SHG-Bank

linkage has been a stupendous suc-

cess and has resulted in mobilisingmore than Twenty ve thousand

crores of credit towards these com-

munity based organisations, most of

them being Self Help Groups.

Over the last 10 years SERP has

evolved into a multipurpose agency

addressing almost all facets of

development. Starting from

The core philosophy of SERP is that each poor individual has a strong desireand innate capability to come out of poverty and there exist, among the poor,many individuals with a strong voluntary spirit of helping others.

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SERP has been able to both evolve

new ideas and effectively scale up.

We have had adequate balance be-

tween being a learning organisation

and an effective implementing agen-

cy for various programs. The most

important one being Indira Kranthi

Patham (IKP). IKP is a community

demand driven rural poverty alle-

viation project aiming to cover all

rural poor households in the state.

The biggest contribution has beenthe push it gave to SHG network and

The SERP model has demonstrated

that a proper mix of Government of-

cials,professionalconsultantsand

community resource persons can

bring in harmony in development

programs. The scale of activities

reached is a testimony of its effec-

tiveness in addressing various de-

velopmental issues.

Focusing on all inclusiveness for

beneciaries SERP has identied

the remaining gaps and with aggres-

sively adopting a POP strategy hopes

to bring in the marginalised poorest

of the poor into mainstream society

and uplifting their living standards

fulllingitsmandateoferadicatingpoverty along with its roots.

Institution building as its primary

focus, it has initiated several income

generating activities covering -both

agricultural and non-agricultural

sectors. There are several health

and education programs being run

along with many land reforms.

SERP has taken a holistic approach

around its SHG network and eventaken up several long term plans ad-

dressing inter-generational poverty.

The focus is empowerment of youth

by providing access to training and

creating jobs. The social develop-

ment programs cover all major de-

mographics, with programs ranging

from infant care to insurance for

the elderly.

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Malnutrition is one of the major bar-

riers in overcoming poverty. Mal-

nutrition in childhood is known to

have long-term effects on the work

capacity and intellectual perfor-

mance of adults. Women who were

malnourished as children are more

likely to give birth to low birth-

weight children and thus there is

an intergenerational effect of child

malnutrition.

Wage loss, loans and curative health

expenditure due to illnesses be-

comes heavy burden on poor house-

holds. The Health and Nutrition

Unit of SERP aims to empower poor

rural women within community-

based organizations to realize their

health services entitlement, im-

prove their nutrition status during

reproductive age and in turn over-

come poverty by reducing their ex-

penditure on health.

One of the highlights of health inter-

ventions is the community managedNutrition cum Day Care Centers, or

NDCCs. These NDCCs are owned

and managed by the communities

they serve making them accountable

and responsive towards the needs of

beneciaries.

Services provided to women and

children enrolled in these NDCCs

include health education, antenatal

care, immunizations, growth moni-

toring, distribution of commonly

used medicines like oral rehydration

powder, and distribution of supple-

mentary nutrition powder. NDCCs

are seen as an innovative way to

break the cycle of malnutrition. The

NDCCs take a holistic, life-cycle ap-

proach to improve the nutritional

status of the most vulnerable poor.

They focus on nutritional needs of

pregnant and lactating women so

that child malnutrition is prevented

as soon as pregnancy begins. They

also enroll children below 5 years

of age so that existing malnutrition

is reversed and the children would

grow up healthy. They are provided

two well-balanced meals each day,

served at the NDCC to ensure that

the meals are not shared with fam-

ily.

A few community members take

the lead to establish a Community

Kitchen Garden to produce vegeta-

bles to be used in the meals prepared

at the NDCC. They focus on nutri-

tional balance growing a variety of

vegetables rich in micronutrients.

There is particular focus on growing

green leafy vegetables, which are a

major source of iron helping to re-

duce anemia among the pregnant

and lactating women.

NDCC hosts a Nutrition and Health

Day in convergence with the public

health service providers two times a

month. The event is attended by the

Auxiliary Nurse Midwife from the

Health Department, the Anganwadi

Health and Nutrition-Lakshmi Durga, SPM

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consistingofveSHGwomen.

A common activity is identied at

VO level in order to allow the ben-

eciaries to generate income us-

ing the NDCC as the activity venue.

Currently, activities such as spice

packaging provide opportunities for

pregnant women to earn Rs. 25- 45

each day, which reduces the burden

of loan repayments during enrol-

ment at NDCCs. NDCCs have cre-

ated major impact like:

Mean weight gain of 9.0 kg for

pregnant women

85% of women received all 3

ANC check-ups at public health

facilities

Mean birth weight of 2.9 kg of

newborn

90% children received full im-munization per schedule

The successful implementation of

NDCCs has shown that the commu-

nity is responsible towards health

needs and is willing to participate

actively in well- designed initia-

tives addressing their needs. These

health and nutrition programmes

are playing a major role in human

development and reducing vulner-

ability of the poor.

The Goal of Health and Nutrition initiatives is to ensure that all

villages in the project mandals with special focus on POP families to

achieve Millennium Development Goals related to Child and Maternal

Health.

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**Hover over the images

to view magnifed pictures

worker from the Department of

Women Development and Child

Welfare, the Health Activist, and the

village Health Committee

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With a population of 170 million

children between ages 0-6 as per

the 2001 census, India accounts for

the largest child population in the

world. All-round child development

has been a vital part of Indias devel-

opmental agenda since Independ-

ence.

Early Childhood Education (ECE):

Education plays a very important

role in shaping up a childs pros-

pects. It involves physical, cogni-

tive, emotional, social, moral andvarious other aspects of develop-

ment. Ability in the longer run is

highly dependent on how the child

is nurtured. ECE is considered as a

signicantinputtocompensatefor

early environmental deprivations at

home by providing a stimulating en-

vironment to children. ECE centres

play an instrumental role in laying a

proper foundation for Primary Edu-

cation.

Children are the worldsmost valuable resource

of a country and its best

hope for the future

John F. Kennedy, Presi-

dent of United States ofAmerica

Education-Seshukumari Bhupatiraju, RPD

The ECE project of SERP is cur-

rently in 16 mandals across the state

and plans to expand to 23 new man-

dals during the year 2010-11. More

than 8000 children between the agegroup of 35 years are enrolled in

these centres. The instructors follow

An entire generation

of children; free from

the burden of poverty;born, educated (elemen-

tary through secondary,

higher secondary, higher

education) and employed

gainfully is the vision

of the education sectorwithin IKP.

the curriculum developed by various

agencies having rich experience in

ECE. The curriculum focuses on the

oral skills such as talking, singing,

reciting the rhymes. Alphabet and

numbers are introduced through

play way method.

Hallmark of these centres:

The teacher presents a Public Re-

port to the parents and the village

community once every month. Chil-

dren of the school demonstrate and

exhibit their learning attained dur-ing the preceding month during

this presentation. Monthly public

reporting is expected to strengthen

the accountability process and also

foster closer association with the

community. The salary is paid to the

instructor by the community only

afteritissatisedaboutthemonths

learning outcome achieved by the

teacher.

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Performance of Students admitted under the Corporate

Education scheme: 29 students have secured meritorious ranks in the IIT-

JEE exam conducted during April2010.

92% of the students from the 200810 batch achieved

rst class marks the public examinations held in

March2010. 76% of the students from the 200911 batch achieved

rst class marks in I Year intermediate examinations

held in March 2010.

Primary and Secondary Education:

SERP is supporting the Mandala

Mahila Samakhyas (MMS) of Chin-

toor, Kunavaram and V.R.Puram

mandals of Khammam district to

safeguard Child Rights and facili-

tate quality improvement in schools

in tandem with Gram Panchayats,

youth groups and teachers. Capaci-ties of the MMS, VO and the SHG

are built to systematically monitor

schools ensuring sensitivity to poor

students and improvement in qual-

ity of education.

31 Gram Panchayats in these man-

dals have been declared child labour

free. Education Sub-Committeemembers have been demanding

their rights and there are many case

studies where they have been able tomake the system answer their call.

1143 children working as Child La-

bour have been mainstreamed into

the schooling system.

Corporate Education for Weaker

Sections:

Higher education constitutes an in-

tegral part of the well being of any

population. Hence, good quality ed-

ucation at 10+2 (Intermediate) level

isnotsufcientandneedstobesup-

plemented with specialized coach-

ing for appearance at admission

tests of professional courses. The

case of good quality education be-

comes impossible for marginalizedand economically deprived popula-

tion due to lack of resources.

To address this gap, SERP has fa-cilitated the admission of 8,000

meritorious poor candidates during

the year 200809 and 200910 in

private / corporate junior colleges

of repute for two year intermedi-

ate course integrated with focused

coaching for IIT JEE / AIEEE /

EAMCET*. This is being seen as an

inter-generational poverty allevia-

tion strategy.

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*IIT JEE / AIEEE / EAMCET are entrance

tests for Engineering and Medical colleges.

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The Proper method of safeguarding old age isclearly through some planof insurancefor everywage earner attempt to

save enough by himself to provide for his old age isneedlessly costly. The intel-ligent course is for him tocombine with other wageearners to accumulate acommon fund out of whichold-age annuities may be

paid to those who live longenough to need it HenrySeager, 1910

Social SecurityInsurance / Abhaya Hastham

-- Chinnatataiah, RPD

With poverty eradication in the 22

rural districts of Andhra Pradesh as

the sole agenda, Society for Elimi-

nation of Rural Poverty (SERP) has

been working with the poor to en-

lighten their lives. Each functional

area ofSERP caters tospecic as-

pects that cause the beneciaries

to exist below the poverty line. Ef-

forts have been constantly made

to empower the poor in every way

possible; Education, Employment,

Health, Nutrition, Self Sustenance

etc. Experience of SERP in the vari-

ous anti-poverty programmes and

promotion of Self Help groups in

the last decade tends to highlight the

fact that the poorbenet fromthe

Income generating activities only as

long as they are capable of partici-

pating actively in the programmes.

Inability to take part is generally

caused by deteriorating health and

physical strength. The reasons areseveral including sickness, mater-

nity, employment injury, old age,

death and the need for long-term

medical care. Once the families are

deprived of their bread-winner due

to this, they have to face the struggle

for survival under severe stress.

Keeping in view, the vulnerabilities

of poor and the need for an initiative

that ensures nancial security,

SERP has come up with requisite

insurance interventions namely, Dr.

Y.S.R. Abhaya Hastham and Aam

Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY).

Dr. Y.S.R Abhaya Hastham is a co-

contributory pension scheme with

the primary objective of providing

income security and dignity to the

SHG women who are 60 years and

above. As per the scheme, every

SHG member would have to con-

tribute Re.1/- per day and Govern-

ment of Andhra Pradesh would

also contribute Re.1/- per day for

each contributing member. Being

purely voluntary, Abhaya Hastham

was able to attract 39.43 lakh SHGmembers during the year 2009-10

which is approximately 50% of all

White Ration Card holders. Out of

these 3.50 lakh SHG women who

are above 60 years of age are recei-

ving an amount of Rs.500/- per

month on the 1st of every month.

Moreover, all the registered mem-

bers receiveSchemeCerticatesas

well as Individual Financial state-

ments that help the members keep

track of their contribution, Govern-

ments co-contribution and the ac-

crued interest after deducting the

members and governments con-

tribution of premium under Micro-

insurance.

Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY)

is a Group Insurance scheme by

the Central and State governments

administered by the Life Insurance

Corporation of India. Targeted at

providing benets to the landless

agricultural labourer households,

the scheme caters to earning mem-

bers of rural landless families with

agricultural labour as the primary

livelihood. With equal contribution

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of Rs.100/- per annum each from

Central and State Government, the

members are provided life and dis-

ability cover. The coverage includes

a monetary sum of Rs.30000/- to

the family in case of natural death,

Rs.37500/- in case of partial disabil-

ity due to accident and Rs.75000/-

for death and permanent disability

due to accident. Along with this, the

members are entitled to apply for

an add-on scholarship for their chil-

dren who study in the classes IX

XII.

With a well-managed web-based

database system (www.aaby.ap.gov.

in), AABY has achieved account-

ability, transparency as well as ef-

fectiveness in its implementation.

A centralized network consisting of

a State Call centre and District level

Call Centres (Bima Service centres)

withqualiedprofessional and in-

frastructure such as Computers, In-

ternet, Scanners and printers is re-

sponsible for the continuous service

delivery throughout the year.

Another important node for the suc-

cessful functioning of AABY is theconcept of Bima Mitras. In order to

provide quick and quality insurance

services to the community and en-

sure people participation, Bima

TargetIndicatorsfor 2015-

16

With a well-managed

web-based database sys-

tem (www.aaby.ap.gov.in),

AABY has achieved ac-

countability, transparencyas well as effectiveness in

its implementation.

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that all the eligible poor in the state

are encouraged to access these in-

surance schemes. In addition digi-

tization of all data and issuance of

smart cards carrying member data

will bring in transparency and ease

of access for the uneducated.

These initiatives have created sub-

stantial social capital reducing the

vulnerability of the poorand mak-

ing the community own the pro-

grammes. The implementation of

these schemes has widened the

scope of insurance coverage and de-

picted that with some help from the

Government,insurancebenetscanbe extended to the poor in a viable

manner.

Mitras are identied and trained

to report cases of death to the Call

centers and assist the family in dis-

tress with the claims process by co-

ordinating the activities.

The future endeavor is to ensure

E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010

Bima Mitras is a unique initiative

where an appointed commmunity

person provides immediate assistanceat the time of distress and later helps

with all claim related procedures.


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Food insecurity is a big con-

cern for the poor. Uncertain

work availability and in-

come, poor monsoon season,

oodsanddroughtscantrig-

ger acute food shortages for a

poor household.

During the lean Agricultural

season, many of the rural

poor have barely one meal a

FoodSecurity

-- KP Rao, SPA

day. The Public Distribution sys-

tem (PDS) has its limitations and

even at best can cover approxi-

mately one-third of a family food

requirements, leaving the margin-

alized poor depending on the open

market for the rest of its needs.

Understanding the importance

of assuring quality food-items at

a reasonable price to the poor,

food supply on easy credit wasconceived as a method to ensure

food security. The initiative ad-

dresses both hunger and nutrition

deciencybybringinginbalanced

food in the supply chain.

The Food Security Credit is a di-

rect intervention to tackle the

hunger gap in rural areas. Village

Organizations (VOs) start off by

estimating the balance require-

ment of SHG members, in terms

of rice and other essential com-

modities. This is followed by nego-

tiations and buying better quality

of commodities at bulk from the

open market.These commodities

are then sold to their members at

a price lower than the retail out-

lets.

Apart from the cut-rate prices, the

SHG members can also purchase

groceries on credit. The amount

can be paid to SHGs and VOs in

easy and convenient installments

based on the pattern of their earn-

ings.Thebenetsofthisinterven

tion are multiple; Firstly it assures

food security, Secondly the VOs

realizebenetsofcollectiveaction

and microenterprises. Though not

a substantial employment gen-

era tor, it still provides potential

for local commerce. It has also

reduced the menace of hoarders,

middlemen and money-lenders to

a great extent.

Under this initiative, 11,57,877

families in 1,22,984 SHGs in 8,921

VOs were provided food security

by March 2010. The performance

of most of these VOs has been sat-

isfactoryandhasresultedina-

nancially viable initiative reducing

food shortages and tackling rising

prices of food.

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E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010

The Food Security Credit

is a direct interventionto tackle the hunger gap

in rural areas.


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Gender-- Jamuna P, SPM

selected and trained on universali-

zation of social agenda in 2008-09.

These Gender CRPs started work-

ing in 120 mandals of nine districts

where female infanticides and

trafcking were the main issues.

In addition to these, 6 mandals in

Adilabad were taken for implemen-

tation.

As a part of CRP training, 840 pro-

spective ICRPs were selected and

General objectives of the Gender Programme

To achieve intra family equity among SHG members families

To ensure that basic rights of all SHG women are not violated

To build a safe environment for women in their own surround-ings

To enhance the womens capacities in decision making at dif-

ferent levels, their control over assets and their free mobility

Reduction in domestic violence and child labour; No child mar-

riages and 100% education of children among SHG families.

376 of them were sent for exposure

visit to DDS and call centers at San-

ga Reddy.

To bring in better coverage of Gen-

der CRP strategy, it has been ex-

tended to NPM* cluster of villages.

In the rst phase NPM villages

in 36 mandals were covered and

farmers were given inputs on the

social agenda.

Giving due importance to check

Women Empowerment can go a

long way in making equitable de-

velopment a reality. The ability of

women to have access and control

over assets, incomes and various

other services available at village

and individual level has been the

basic outline of SERPs Gender

strategy. The Gender Program

helps women to increase their un-derstanding of intra-family equity

issues, decision making levels,

free mobility, and the necessity of

building a safe environment.

To address the violence against

women in the private and public

spheres, female infanticide, child

marriages, girl education, preven-

tion of HIV-AIDS, equal wages,

humantrafckingandalcoholcon-

sumption, a model social agenda

has been evolved.

The Gender strategy started off

in 208 mandals in the districts of

Krishna, Guntur, West Godavari

and Prakasam with the establish-

ment of Social Action Committees

(SACs) at VO and MS level. The gen-

der awareness empowered women

to resolve family disputes and do-

mestic violence cases through im-

proved negotiation skills and the

strength of SHGs. To extend the

gender strategy to other districts,

640 gender CRPs were

**Hover over

the boxes to

view statistics

Salient Pointsof Activity

Progress DuringFY 2009-10

E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010

CRP Training

Adolescent GirlsGroups

Child Marriages


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the menace of child marriages in

Chitoor district, 15 mandals were

covered with the stop child mar-

riages campaign. Rallies were

conducted in every village and

Panchayats were made to spreadawareness about the law. Gender

CRPs counseled parents and girls

to stay away from child marriages.

46 child marriages were stopped

in villages and related issues were

discussed with the village heads

and community.Identiedmarried

Children were sent to school.

Special focus has been given to ad-

dress trafcking issues. Girl chil-

dren were trained and village level

watch committees were formed

to stop trafcking. The excessive

liqour consumption in Warangal

and Khammam has led to several

deaths turning young women towidows and making them prone to

be deceivedbytrafckers.Topre-

vent this, steps have been taken to

identify such women and link them

to the existing schemes. Apart from

this, a Workshop with 100 women

whoweretrafckedwasconducted

in Anantapur district. In Guntur

district, all VOSACs and Mandal

SACs have been working against

trafcking in coordination with

ICDS* and local NGOs.

To curb the meance of abandon-

ment of girl children, mandal SACs

have been working in indentied

mandals in Nalgonda. Round the

clock monitoring of the cradle sys-

tem and parent counseling is being

done apart from the several discus-

sions by SPMU and Gramya re-

source centers with the SHG wom-

en.

In order to facilitate proper imple-

mentation 5630 VOs have identi-

ed gender point persons in all

SHGs and made them responsible

for implementing the gender agen-

da. Gender Forums have also been

formed that maintain VO Gender

books in which all activities related

to gender in their village are writ-

ten.

kin Disposal Bins were constructed

in coordination with Panchayats

with the cooperation of men in the

community.

The Gender based initiatives have

had an encouraging acceptance

from thebeneciaries resulting in

an amount of Rs. 69.74 lakhs col-

lected as gender fund from the SHG

members. This fund is being used

to sustain their Family counseling

centers and to create a sense of in-

volvement among the members in

gender related activities.

Realising the importance of

personal safety and hygiene,

5878 adolescent girl groups

were formed and 74040 girls

were trained with related

modules. 300 Sanitary nap-

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E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010

*ICDS Integrated Child DevelopmentScheme

NPM Non Pesticide Management


15/18

when it comes to showcasing their

talents. All they need is a conduciveand sensitive environment to realize

their potential.

Aimed at addressing the needs of

differently-abled people, SERP has

initiated a project to train physically

challenged persons to make them

job-ready and ensure inclusive em-

ployment for them. In addition to

enhancing livelihood opportunities

with proper training, SERP strives

to ensure optimum utilization of

residual abilities by PwDs. Several

programmes to improve the quality

of life for PwDs and their families

have been initiated.

As an organization SERP is sensi-

tized towards needs of PwDs and

factors their concerns in Policy ma-

Persons withDisability (PwDs)

-- Sudhakar Reddy, RPD

king and line activities. In its role

of implementing agency, SERP has

improved capacities of PwDs to ac-

cess and avail various entitlements

and services offered by the govern-

ment.

The disability interventions are be-

ing implemented in 128 Project

mandals in the State. The prime

Objective of the Project is to evolve

a model of institutional relationship

between Community Based Organi-zations (CBOs) of Persons with Dis-

abilities and various Government

and Non-government stakeholders.

These can be used as resource man-

dals to replicate the same through-

out the State.

Since Differently-abled people need

support at several levels, SERP has

taken a holistic approach in under-

taking several interventions cen-

teredaroundrstlythereSocialmo -

bilization and building institutional

support. Secondly several livelihood

support programs are planned for

them supplemented with Commu-

nity based Assessment, Treatmentand Rehabilitation services. The

nature of interventions warrants

that there is adequate convergence

with line departments particularly

Health and Education departments.

There has been extensive coverage

of these schemes. As of June, 2010

around 24,505 SHGs of PwDs hav-

ing 223081 members have been

formed. The livelihood support have

resulted in building a capital base of

Rs 158 crore. The assessment, treat-

ment and rehabilitation services

cover 95% of the SHG members.

Lastly in order to bring in better

convergence and transparency,

SERP has introduced Software for

Assessment of Disability for Access

Rehabilitation and Empowerment

(SADAREM). This involves the as-

sessment of Persons with Disabili-

ties (both new as well as existing)and recording the percentage of dis-

ability. The assessment will be done

phase wise and initially will cover

persons getting disabled pensions,

followed by Widow and Weavers

pensions and those who do not re-

ceive any pension at all.

Under social security pensions

granted by the Government, over

8.38 lakhs PwDs will be covered un-

derrstphase.Furtherthedata

People with disabilities need due

recognition and active participation

in mainstream society. It needs to

be inculcated that they are entitled

to a normal and respectable life.

Disabled people or rather differ nt-

ly-abled people, are second to none

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Contents Page -->

generated through SADAREM will

be useful to know various needs of

PwDs for providing rehabilitation

services to them simultaneously.

SERP is also hopeful of establishingbest practices to assess and extend

requisite support to PwDs in a sen-

sitive manner.

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August, 2010


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The last mile of a marathon is oftenthe most challenging and crucial

distance to be covered for a success-

fulnish.Similarlyintheprocessof

eradicating poverty it is elemental

to reach out to those at the bottom

most of the pyramid. In an effort to

be true to our vision as an organi-

sation therehas been a signicant

effort to identify the most vulner-

able groups, the poorest sections

whose needs need to be specially

understood and addressed. Under

the prevailing socio-economic con-

ditions, these people have remained

neglected.

Since its inception, Indira Kran-thi Pratham (IKP) has been put-

ting continuous and diligent effort

to achieve its goal of eliminating

poverty in all its forms through

strengthening of community based

organizations at grass roots.

The programme can be termed

successful as more than one crorewomen have got organized into over

9 lakh groups during the last ten

yearsandarederivingbenetsfrom

various programmes.

SERP, while implementing IKP has

created an eco-system where multi-

ple opportunities have been made

available for the rural households toaccess and come out of poverty.

Evaluating our evolution over the

PoP Strategy-- Senthil Rajan, YP

last decade, we have realised thatthe poorest of the poor were unable

tobenettothedesiredextentfrom

the Self Help and Common Interest

approach and lacked the minimum

wherewithal to access all the income

generating support programs being

initiated by various developmental

agencies including SERP.

Though Institutions of the Poor

have been built and strengthened,

a closer observation of their perfor-

mance depicts that their outreach to

the Poorest of the Poor households

still needs to be improved and it re-

quires a concentrated and focused

attention on suchhouseholds.

The poorest of the poor (PoP) fami-

lies have poor productive assets or

no assets at all and the community

based organisations failed to ad-

dress their issues leaving them in

the lurch of abject poverty. The most

unity Managed Sustainable Ag-

riculture), one of the livelihood

programmes of SERP provided a

breakthrough by addressing poverty

through converting the small and

unproductive lands into sustainable

and viable productive assets. This

initiative has proven successful with

hundreds of landless farmers who,

provided with a meagre acre of

land on lease have been able to gen-

erate better earnings than before.

Taking the lead given by CMSA, theidea of PoP Strategy evolved with

converging different livelihood pro-

grammes along with the various hu-

man development components im-

plemented by SERP. It also involved

looking beyond the black box i.e.,

SHGs to focus on the PoP household

and tracking the progress made by

each household in all key aspects.

Thus became the objective of the

PoP strategy that Every poorest of

poor family in the state should earn

an income of Rs.1,00,000 per an-

num

vulnerable predominantly be-long to the Scheduled Castes

and Tribes compounding the

challenge of providing ben-

etstothePoPfamilies.These

families are either depend-

ent on the primary sector or

working as menial labour, and

hence heavily dependent on

the vagaries of nature.

In this context, CMSA (Comm-

Where the poor participate as

subjects and not as objects of

the development process, it is

possible to generate growth,

human development and equity,

not as mutually exclusive trade-offs but as complementary

elements in the same process.

E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010


17/18

and a signicant improvement in

human development indicators with

3 years of intensive handholding

support.

For the current nancial year, the

PoP strategy is being implemented

in around 3200 PoP Gram Panchay-

ats in 337 mandals where CMSA

programme is functional. The start-

ingpointistheidenticationofPoP

households in the selected panchay-

ats.Foridentication purpose, the

support of EGS CRPs has been tak-

en. Till June 2010, around 5.4 lakh

SC&SThouseholdswereidentied

from 3100 panchayats.

To provide the required handhold-

ing support to these identied

households, a community activist

(PoP CA) has been selected from

one among them. For every 100 PoP

households or a remote habitation

having at least 20 PoP households,

a PoP CA was selected. The selected

PoP CAs will play a pivotal role in

the implementation of PoP strategy

at village level.

At mandal level, one Project staff(PoP CC) has been kept in charge

exclusively for the implementa-

tion of PoP strategy. The necessary

handholding for the PoP CAs will

be provided by the PoP CCs and the

progress made by them will be mon-

itored on a day-to-day basis through

a Decision support system.

The PoP strategy has holistic ap-

proach and cuts across various

programmes of SERP being imple-

men-ted. It tracks each of these pro-

grammes, its implementation and

benetsforaPOPhousehold.

This necessitated having a plat-

form wherein all the components

would be discussed and planned

for effective convergence to take

place at SPMU level resulting in the

emergence of SPMU PoP cell in the

month of April 2010. The cell has

representation from all the compo-

nents of SERP with the Additional

CEO as its Head.

Each PoP cell member acts as a

bridge between the PoP cell and the

parent functionary department

communicating all the decisions

and discussions that have happened

The cell members update them-

selves on other components too inorder to have an overall perspective

about the strategy. In addition, each

cell member will be responsible for

a district so as to provide the hand-

holding support to the PoP CCs and

the district PoP cell. The major re-

sponsibility of the PoP cell involves

monitoring the implementation of

PoP strategy in the districts and im-

parting the training to the PoP staff

in-charge as required.

In order to track every PoP

household,a detailed multi-dimen-

sional baseline survey of PoP house-

holds is being carried out for a bet-

ter understanding of the aspects to

be addressed in the PoP strategy.

This collected baseline will be up-

dated periodically through PoP CA

which will be the basis for rollingout

the Decision Support System.

SERP aspires to play a major role

in facilitating the attainment of the

Millennium Development Goal of

halving the number of people living

in poverty by 2015. At the same time

it will ensure that the most desti-

tutegroupbenetsfromallpoverty

eradication efforts to the maximum.

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Contents Page -->

The objective of the PoP

strategy is that Every poorest

of poor family in the state

should earn an income of

Rs.1,00,000 per annum and asignificant improvement in

human development indicators

with 3 years ofintensive hand

holding support.

EGS Employment Guarantee Scheme

SPMU State Project Management Unit

E-Sandesham-Issue I

August, 2010


18/18

Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty,HUDA Hermitage Complex, 4th oor, HillFort Road, Hyderabad -- 500004.

Ph: +91-40-2329 8981/76/802329 8665/92, 2329 8461/67Fax: +91-40-2321 1848

E Sandesham Issue I

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