Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
DRAFT only
Institutional Issues in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods
and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim Medinipur District in
the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Meera Jayaswal, Sumita Roy and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC
E-Mail: neelamukherjee@vsnl.com
Abstract
The paper is a field study in the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms in addressing anti-chronic
poverty interventions in Paschim Medinipur district in the State of West Bengal in India. Based on
fieldwork the paper maps out the following aspects:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
Different dimensions of chronic poverty
Identification of different groups of stakeholders
Review of the institutional initiatives in poverty reduction and institutional weaknesses,
Identification of processes and mechanisms, which have worked and
Suggestions for constructing an institutional road map for sustainable anti-chronic poverty
interventions.
In the framework of Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis and based on the methodology of Participatory
Rural Appraisal (PRA), the paper draws policy implications for sustainable anti-chronic poverty
interventions.
Introduction
The district of Paschim (West) Medinipur located in the South of the State of West Bengal (India)
is a dry area and once thickly forested still contains large share of the forest lands of West
Bengal. The district has a strange combination of social-political inclusion and exclusion. On one
hand there are development initiatives, supported by local political institutions, which have
emerged as pathways out of poverty for the chronic poor households. Such is the power of the
initiative that some chronic poor households have come together, formed Self-Help Groups
(SHG’s) and are slowly and steadily working towards strengthening their livelihoods-related
opportunities. In this context there are important lessons to be learnt in managing local
institutional mechanisms for removing chronic poverty. However, such a momentum is limited
only to a few blocks of the district – especially blocks Garbeta 1 and Garbeta 2 and Keshpur.
On the other hand there is a contrasting picture of social exclusion of indigenous communities in
Paschim Medinipur. Those indigenous communities living in and around forest areas of Paschim
Medinipur especially the sabar/lodha have been totally by-passed in the development process so
much so that cases of hunger deaths in sabar households have received wide coverage in the
media around the middle of the current year and the situation has been pretty grim. The paper
looks into the contrasting picture through the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework based on
people’s perspectives on local institutional capabilities and performance. The paper is essentially
based on field research in the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms in addressing anti-chronic
poverty interventions in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. Based on fieldwork the
paper maps out the following aspects:
1
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)
Different dimensions of chronic poverty
Identification of different groups of stakeholders
Review of the institutional initiatives in poverty reduction and institutional
weaknesses,
Identification of processes and mechanisms, which have worked and not worked and
Suggestions for constructing an institutional road map for sustainable anti-chronic
poverty interventions.
In the framework of Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis and based on the methodology of
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), the paper draws policy implications for sustainable antichronic poverty interventions.
I. Chronic Poverty in Paschim Medinipur District
The general mass poverty in Paschim Medinipur is synonymous with the definition of chronic
poverty (Chronic Poverty Research Centre: 2004), which includes remaining below the poverty
line for at least five years, with (i) Lack of social services, mainly in rural areas; (ii) Weak
productive sectors with strong focus on a limited number of commodities; and (iii) Institutional
weaknesses in planning, policy making, implementation and monitoring. There is a large chunk
of chronic poverty in the Paschim Medinipur district as indicated by the development indicators
from secondary sources and also by the interactive sessions with the poor groups during
participatory field research. Of the 18 districts in the State of West Bengal, Paschim Medinipur
ranks 18th in terms of percentage of villages covered with pucca (concrete) roads. In terms of
social and physical infrastructure, Paschim Medinipur is one of the most deprived districts of
West Bengal. Its rank is 8th with regard to coverage of drinking water though there is arsenic
content in water and also there is acute water shortage with water drying up during the dry season
and drought. In terms of female illiteracy its rank is as good as 14th when compared to other
districts of West Bengal.
The districts also has one of the lowest average wage rate of Rs.38/- per day as compared with
many other districts of West Bengal and also the official wage rate of Rs.66.50/- per day. Though
the state of West Bengal emerged as a major agricultural state recording the highest rate of
growth in agricultural productivity with major crops such as rice and potato, the economy of
Paschim Medinipur district is sparsely diversified with major dependence on rain-fed farming and
Non-Timber Forest Produce from the forests As we shall see later that Paschim Medinipur has
both institutional strengths and weakness at the local level in both development planning and
practice.
1.1 Backgrounder on Paschim Medinipur
The district of Paschim Medinipur has a total population of 96.3.lakhs (source Census: 2001) and
10.5 lakhs households where rural population constitutes about 90 per cent of the total.
Accounting for 12 per cent of the population of the State of West Bengal and 9 per cent of total
families in the State below poverty line, the rural female literacy rate is 64.65. As per Below
Poverty Line (BPL) Survey of the Government of West Bengal, the district has one of the highest
numbers of Schedules Caste and Scheduled Tribe BPL families in the State of West Bengal
numbering 99909 and 70316 respectively. Most of the indigenous communities such as Santhals,
Oraon, Bhumij, Mahali, Munda, Sabar/Lodha etc. of Medinipur are ultra poor and officially
neglected over ages. The number of women-headed poor families in the district is 38941 while
the numbers of poor agricultural labourers, physically handicapped, small farmers, marginal
farmers and rural artisans are 239323, 2984, 9421, 21582 and 29096 respectively..
2
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
The district has a total area coverage of 1323.88 (thousand hectares) with 12.9 per cent as forest
coverage and a net area sown to the extent of 66.04 per cent. One of its achievements, way back
in the seventies, was the concept of participatory management of forests, which emerged in a
small village named Arabari in the undivided district of Medinipur. The success of Arabari
experiment coupled with the social forestry programme led to the scaling up of Joint Forest
management based on collaborative management of forest on a mutual benefit sharing basis and
also proliferation of such idea on a global basis
1.2 The Institutional Context
In line with West Bengal’s policy and implementation of agrarian reforms since the early
eighties, recording of rights and distribution of land under the Operattion Barga in Medinipur
district (undivided) constitutes 29 per cent of the total beneficiaries in the State. In accordance
with the system of decentralized planning and governance, there is a three tier Panchayati Raj
System (PRI), the gram panchayat being the lowest tier of the local governance. Panchayats have
long been entrusted to implement and oversee government’s rural development programme in the
State at the district and sub-district levels
According to many studies including Dreze and Sen (2002), the most important result of the propoor policies of the State Government of West Bengal was a rapid decline in rural poverty since
1977. This is attributed to two primary causes: the “remarkable continuing political success of the
Left Front (the ruling Government)” and Operation Barga (land redistribution policy) which
embodies the pro-poor policies that were adopted. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows
that West Bengal has fared badly in industrial growth, but its green revolution (which combined
land reforms with capitalist farming) made a dent in poverty reduction. Though, as per secondary
sources the rural poverty in the State of West Bengal has been declining rapidly since 1977 not
much has happened in the District of Paschim Medinipur.. It is borne out by the same studies that
despite the declining trends in rural poverty, the State’s initiative in promoting social
opportunities in the rural areas is “mixed”. While land reforms and minimum wage- related
policies have been given priority, the social development services like health and education have
been “comparatively neglected” and the State’s achievements in these sectors are only “modest”.
1.3 Significance of the Study
Given this background, it is important to have a re-look at the dynamics of chronic poverty and
rural livelihoods and role of local institutions and draw lessons on that basis. Though some poor
households in selected blocks of Paschim Medinipur such as Keshpur and Garbeta have been
supported by local institutions to form and sustain SHG’s other chronic poor and socially
excluded tribal housheolds such as the sabar (indigenous) communities Jhargram and Binpur
blocks of the same district are in a precarious position. They are wholly dependent on forest
produce-Sal leaves, Beedi leaves, Sal twigs, fuel wood selling and mushroom selling and are
facing extreme food insecurity. Some related issues are how inclusive has been the
decentralisation process at the grassroots? Have the policies, institutions, structures and processes
enabled the poor to address poverty issues and compose sustainable livelihoods? What are the
implications of the present livelihood outcomes for policy and institutional changes towards
reduction of chronic poverty in Paschim Medinipur district? The paper looks at these and other
issues in a Sustainable livelihoods framework.
2. Field Inquiry
The field work is on-going since 2002 and some interim results are presented in this paper from
about 15 villages. The field inquiry is based on the methodology of Participatory Rural
Appraisal/Participatory Learning and Action (PRA/PLA). PRA/PLA is a widely used
3
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
methodology for an interactive process of social development throughout the world. It is a way of
learning from the people, with the people and by the people.
Study Villages - The villages were selected on the basis of different criteria such as - Coverage of
villages, located near roadside and those further interior; Coverage of villages of different size –
large (500 households and above), medium (between 100-500 households) and small (below 100
households) ; Selection of villages for broad coverage of socio-ecological-physical features;
Coverage of villages/hamlets with concentration of different livelihoods; and coverage of villages
with different development agencies -with success stories, moderate experience and failure
stories.
The villages in Paschim Medinipur were selected to study-self help group (SHG’s) and the
indigenous community namely sabar living in and around forests. The SHG’s have made good
progress for e.g. in villages, Sarberia, Kandhibandh, Ghusinga (Block-Garbetta-3), Egra (Keshpur
block). Women groups have empowered themselves in many respects - education, health,
sanitation, and social evils. Whereas, the sabar/lodha communities are living in acute poverty in
remote areas in villages for e.g. Lohamala, Belajuri, Montipa and Murakati of Jhargram
block, Paschim Medinipur.
3. People’s Perspectives: Who are the Chronic Poor?
Poor households live in different localities under diverse agro-ecological-social conditions.
However, such deficit households demonstrate many similar patterns with regard to access
to physical/social/natural assets, livelihood composition, food availability, social exclusion
physical infrastructure and institutional issues. In the study villages the poor groups were
facilitated to do their own social analysis of the village and come out with criteria for
differentiating such groups in terms of poor and non-poor. Since the poor groups do not own
many assets the emerging criteria include size of land owned, period of food availability from
one’s own land, type of house, period of wage labour etc. While doing the social analysis most
participants thought that it was important to distinguish between destitute households and
destitute women-headed households.
In terms of social capital the poorer the group the higher was the social exclusion. They are
mostly not involved in the planning and implementation of Government and NGO programmes.
Some of the women who live in other’s compound/house of their relatives work hard even when
they are aged. Many of them collect firewood and Sal leaves from the forest and also look after
the relative’s goats/cows and fend for themselves. Many of them are forced to go to the puddles,
pools of water and ponds in search of fish, snails, crabs etc. and exchange them for rice. Some
also glean paddy fields. They are vulnerable to falling ill. Many women from ultra poor
households work as maids and are engaged as wage labour. Many destitute women resort to
begging and depend on charity. In terms of social capital there is exchange of labour and
bartering of items. Social occasions and practices, marriage etc. are also causes for
impoverishment for they involve considerable expenses disproportionate to earnings. Similarly
expenses incurred on health also reduce resources available in the hands of poor households.
3.1 Poverty Trends
Regarding poverty trends in the study villages there are broad indications of both inter-and intragroup movements within the social groups in the study villages as in Table 2. In many study
villages, especially non –tribal and general caste villages livelihoods opportunities have been
created as a result of migration, limited crop diversification, SHG’s etc. which has helped poor
households to progress forward. These have also impacted upon the situation regarding food
4
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
security and nutrition. However, there are also indications of sliding down of households from
less poor to more poor status especially in the sabar/lodha villages.
On balance it may be said that the situation has improved for many chronic poor households
especially from the general caste though there is increased feminization of poverty with rise in the
number of women-headed households as destitute and ultra poor group due to breaking down of
conventional safety net. Added to this list is the social exclusion of the sabar/lodha communities
cannot be over-emphasized. With socially depressing forces such as high cost of medical
treatment and dowry payment, breaking the vicious circle of poverty is not easy. A kind of thumb
rule provided by women participants from some villages shows that on average, household
incomes of Rs.25/- per day and Rs.50/- per day meet subsistence needs of ultra poor and poor
households respectively. Continuous flow of such income is difficult since there is acute shortage
of employment opportunities and only those households who earn more than subsistence level are
able to save for difficult times.
4. What Livelihoods do the Chronic Poor Pursue?
As commonly defined, a livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and
social resources) and activities required for a means of living. The Sustainable Rural Livelihood
(SRL) framework defines livelihoods sustainability as the ability to cope with and recover from
stresses and shocks, as well as maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the
future, while not undermining the natural resource base.
4.1 Existing Livelihoods Patterns of the Chronic Poor
An overall picture on the existing livelihoods’ pattern emerges from the synthesis of livelihoods
ranking as shown in Table 3. It shows that in the study villages, poor people’s livelihoods mainly
revolve around wage labour, which is primarily agriculture labour (rank 1) and also nonagriculture labour (rank 1) followed by livestock rearing (rank 2), a small initiative
supplementary to main source of livelihood. Livelihoods are generally season-specific whether it
is agricultural labour in the cropping season or non-agriculture labour in the off-season. Both
types of labour –agriculture and non-agriculture can involve migration within the district, or
cross-states. Livestock includes goat/sheep, chicken, duck cattle and pig.
Table 3: Existing Ranking of Livelihoods in Study Villages
Livelihoods
Rank
(i) Cultivation of one's own land
7
(ii) Livestock rearing
2
(iii) Wage labour
1
(ix) Making bamboo craft
4
(x) Working as maid
Not available
(xi) Making Sal leaf plates
5
(xii) Making Muri (puffed rice)
Not available
(xiii) Catching fish
Not available
(xiv) Homestead gardening
8
(xv) Selling fuel wood
6
(xvi) Colliery labour
Not available
(xvii) Cultivating pine apple
Not available
(xviii) Beedi rolling
Not available
(xix) Out migration
3
5
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Note: The ranks on livelihoods have been estimated based on the scoring/ranking method of PRA
which was applied during field study for village participants to rank different livelihoods –related
activities in terms of their local significance based on the number of poor people engaged in such
activities..
For study villages, agriculture on one’s own land is 7th .Both bamboo craft and Sal leaf plate
making are important activities for the ultra poor followed by selling fuel wood and dry leaves
from forest.
Some characteristic features of poor people’s livelihoods based on the study villages are listed as
follows.
 Agricultural labour is the main livelihood activity.
 In forest villages forest-related livelihoods are quite common.
 Though least preferred, the most common livelihood-related activity is wage labour whether
in agriculture, plantation, construction activities, mining and stone cutting.
 Most livelihoods-related activities are highly seasonal in nature and induce vulnerability in
poor households mainly in terms of food insecurity and health care.
 In rain-fed farming areas, seasonal migration is a pronounced strategy in the non-farming
season.
 As for forest dependent livelihoods there are qualitative differences in households having/not
having access to local forests. The differences are significant in case of thick Sal forest or
Sonajhuri (Accacia) forest, the latter being considered to be an inferior option as stated by
local people since it mostly provides dry leaves/twigs on a daily basis and timber at a later
stage. Those poor households with access to dense Sal forest are generally in a better position
during difficult seasons. They are able to harvest a variety of food items and other products
from the forest for selling them and/or for household consumption. The Sal leaf plate making
is an important activity for women in poor households in Paschim Medinipur.
 In case of degraded forest the forest dependent communities are forced to migrate during offfarm seasons.
 Some households are dependent on plantation and horticulture, whose strength depends on
the local markets and cost of cultivation.
 Those livelihoods are vulnerable, which are dependent on aman paddy, whose price is
unstable and un-remunerative.
Those poor households, which have access to natural resources such as thick Sal forest, fish
pond/s or reasonable water for cultivation of crop are in a better position to compose their
livelihoods along with their human asset i.e. physical labour. Those households have better
options, which are endowed in terms of skills in bamboo craft, weaving, beedi rolling, tailoring
and other income generating activities. However, those who are physically weak and aged or
handicapped have very limited options and find it difficult to cope with chronic poverty
especially during off-seasons.
5. What are the Chronic Poverty Outcomes?
Livelihoods’ outcomes vary depending on the asset structure accessed by poor households,
vulnerabilities faced, policy and institutional framework and strategies adopted. Poor people’s
livelihoods are far from being sustainable. Many poor households undertake migration to cities
and other districts/States as a strategy.
Some field results indicating broad patterns of livelihoods’ outcomes are as follows.
6
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
(i)
Any single source of livelihood is not sustainable so the poor tend to combine diverse
sources of livelihoods. Such sources of livelihoods differ seasonally and there are
considerable variations in using assets for composing livelihoods on a seasonal basis.
This is true, both at the inter-household and at the intra-household level across
villages, also amongst women, men and children and between young and old.
(ii)
The returns from livelihood-related activities vary widely across activities and
localities. Bartering and exchange of labour is also prevalent.
(iii)
The economics of rice cultivation in terms of financial returns turns out to be
negative. Though agriculture is a critical livelihood, cultivation of Aman paddy is no
longer profitable. The economics of paddy cultivation shows that per bigha of land a
farmer can make a surplus of about Rs. 200/- Rs. 230/- without adding the imputed
cost of his/her family labour and the cost of “enterprise”. On an average, there is a
net loss of Rs. 300/- to Rs.330/-, of which Rs. 100 can be recovered from the sale of
straw.
(iv)
There is also rapid fall in land productivity. Land is not laid fallow and there is
excessive use of fertilizers and insecticides due to lack of extension support.
(v)
A noticeable trend is towards rapid conversion of agricultural land into nonagricultural land as pointed out by some local villagers, which eats into sustainability
of agriculture-related activities.
(vi)
Many owners lease their lands to others for cultivation. Contract cultivation is on the
rise. Though agriculture is an important source of livelihoods the owners do not
always cultivate their own lands. There is contract cultivation i.e. those who own the
land lease out the land on fixed rent..
Mixed forest e.g. Sal forest provides a range of livelihoods especially for ultra poor
groups residing near forests. However, the poor groups have expressed difficulties in
harvesting NTFPs due to constraints posed by forest department and there is also a
declining trend noticeable in forest produce.
Marketing opportunities/linkages are becoming difficult for crafts-related product.
(vii)
(viii)
5.1 Preferred Sources of Livelihoods
Given a chance, the poor groups have preferred sources of livelihoods as shown in Table 4. The
preference rankings indicate a combination of access to one’s own land for cultivation
supplemented by different types of livestock rearing activities. However, in absence of one’s own
land such preferences are especially for agriculture/plantation-related work. In the study villages
of Paschim Medinipur income generating activities (2nd rank) are equally preferred as much as
Sal leaf plate making through machine (2nd Rank) and also making value added items of bamboo
with upgraded skills (2nd Rank).
Table 4 - Preference Ranking of Livelihoods
Activities
Paschim
Medinipur
Cultivation of one's own land 2
Livestock rearing
1
Skill-based IGA
2
7
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Bamboo craft
Making Sal leaf plates by
machine
Making “muri” (puffed rice)
Fishery
through
pond
excavation
Tree Plantation
2
2
4
6
6
Wage labour, whether in agriculture, plantation, construction and mining, a dominant mode of
livelihoods is least preferred by the poor, because it means strenuous work, high uncertainty and
discrimination against the weak and the disabled. Similarly migration outside is much low in
preference for both poor women and men due to inconvenience and uncertainty of finding jobs.
6. Gender and Chronic Poverty
There are separate domains of livelihood-related activities for women and men although some
activities are common to both. Even when they are sharing the work with men their roles are
defined either by tradition, social construction and societal pressure. In some villages it was
pointed out that in difficult seasons when men have no work, it is generally the responsibility of
women to procure food and feed the family. Women from poor households are over-loaded with
work and little or no recreation time as compared to men. Children from poor households
including school dropouts are engaged in many of the above activities
Table 5 -Livelihoods-related activities- Women and Men
Women
Livelihood-related activities
Collecting Sal leaf from forest
*
Making Sal-leaf plates
*
Selling Sal plates in the market
* (Women-headed HH)
Collecting fire wood
*
Selling fire wood
*
Growing homestead vegetable
*
Rearing back yard poultry
*
Agriculture work
*
Agriculture labour
*
Collecting bidi leaves, other NTFP
*
Nabal (migration) to distant places for Sometimes women accompanying men
earning livelihood
Making Muri (puffed rice) and selling *
Making Talai & selling
*
Fishing
Rearing cattle
*
Making rice from paddy
*
Selling eggs
*
Rearing goats/sheep
* (often taken care of by children and
elderly)
Selling goats/sheep
* (Women-headed HH)
Work in brick field,
*
stone/sand/morrom quarry
Note: HH stands for households; * stands for who does it –women, men or both.
Men
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
8
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Table 5 lists some common livelihoods and provides an indicative picture of the gender aspects of
who does what. Gendered division of livelihood-related activities has some local variations. In
village Charka, Paschim Medinipur, which has mostly Muslim households and women are not
engaged in agriculture work. However, in village Pathra, Paschim Medinipur, women are mainly
engaged in work related to paddy, livestock, back yard poultry and flower work. They also share
daily labour on agricultural fields and selling of fish and vegetables. Some of them work on brick
field and sand quarry along with men, though engaged differently.
6.1 Assets – During the field inquiry it was stated by women groups in selected study villages in
blocks – Gorbeta-1 and Keshpur of Paschim Medinipur that poor women’s asset in terms of
social capital, awareness and skills have increased over time through SHG formation. As
expressed by two women groups that though the men were supportive of such women’s SHGs
they were not that hard working to improve their lot. It was also found that women were
relatively more active than men and had inculcated thrift habit on a regular basis. The men were
found to be indifferent to thrift and local women were of the view that men had a tendency to
spend more and shoulder less responsibility. Even in deficit households, when men had cash in
their hands they spent it on liquor and merry making. The women thought that cash in hands of
women was more useful for the family. Though literacy is higher among men, the women, mostly
illiterate, were becoming conscious of the significance of education for their children. However,
many poor households were forced to make their children work due to poverty.
6.2 Power, Status and Exclusion – Gender bias is pronounced in most study villages in terms of
men wielding the power in the sphere of governance, institutions and processes. The social status
of women as compared to men is low in general and abysmally low for widows, deserted,
divorced and mentally and physically challenged women. Women-headed households, whether
ultra poor or destitute are socially invisible and excluded. Many men die young and the young
widows have added social problem due to their age. In case of elderly women the participants
mentioned that the trend was that of neglect of elderly parents by children.
6.3 Decision-Making – In the study villages, men make the major decisions except for a few
women SHGs under SGSY, which are spearheading certain village-level decisions and raising
issues not normally done by women. In most cases of decentralized gram sanshad planning
including Forest Protection Committees men tend to dominate and the women are generally
neither vocal nor visible. Women functionaries in panchayat mostly belong to better off
households. However, it may be said that women groups from poor households are relatively
more progressive and performing better in selected blocks such as Garbeta and Keshpur of
Paschim Medinipur. As regards the study villages, there is a social bottleneck in terms of
conservative attitude towards women’s roles. Women from poor households face socio/cultural
inhibitions in terms of work opportunities e.g. women working as construction labour find it
difficult to get their daughters married.
6.4 Access and Responsibility - For many poor households, including tribal households, the
woman has access to cash available from her own earnings and what her husband gives her.
Though the women have the main responsibility to rear livestock the men sell them in the market.
6.5 Livelihoods Preferences – Common preferences of groups of poor women are those related to
skill training and self-employment opportunities in activities such as sewing-cutting-tailoring,
masala (spice) making, bamboo craft, embroidery etc. while men prefer to continue with their
existing activities.
9
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
7. What Assets the Chronic Poor Access and Use?
The village exercises show that, in general, there has been a positive trend associated with asset
holdings of poor groups though the sabar/lodha and other tribal poor have been left behind in the
process. With land reforms, decentralized governance, infrastructure development, opening of
bank branches, health centre, social forestry, literacy, training, self-help group activities,
sanitation and drinking water there has been general progress in different rural assets. With
increased assets and more choices, the quality of life has improved over time. However, there are
crucial aspects of asset holding, which indicate that though this is a good start, there are major
issues in asset status and access, both in case of poor households and also in case of remote
villages. It becomes difficult for poor households to cope with loss in asset/s without having any
fallback position in terms of government support, compensation or insurance.
It is important to mention that though different assets are locally available in a village their access
and ownership issues become crucial in terms of composing livelihoods by poor households.
Some field findings in this context are as follows.





Though the process is on-going, not enough assets have been created for the poor. Such assets
creation has been disproportionately small in size with regard to the scale required and much
more needs to be done.
The ultra poor groups have remained deprived and have not experienced any increase in
assets except a few households getting support under Indira Awas Yojna (housing scheme)
and still fewer getting widow/old age pensions or support under Annapurna Yojana.
There is absence of critical threshold of physical assets in many study villages and the quality
of existing physical assets/ services is low, e.g. tube well for drinking water, quality of
embankment constructed, functioning of health centers etc.
Many natural assets such as ponds and rivers have degraded over the years thus leading to
diminishing structure of asset portfolio for the poor and limited options for livelihoods.
Assets created in the public domain have differed from the perspectives of poor people’s
livelihoods. For example, in many areas, species for forest regeneration have been decided
without attention to issues important to those groups, which are dependent on such forest.
8. What Makes the Chronic Poor Vulnerable?
The vulnerability of the poor relates to particular sensitivity to an event or occurrence that pose a
threat to health and social and/or economic well-being. It is important to learn about the
vulnerability context in which the asset exists. The factors determining such context can be
grouped under trend, shock, seasonality and local cultural practices, which affect livelihoods of
poor households. In the villages studied such factors were identified as follows.
8.1 Trends
Some of the trends shared by poor groups are listed here though they are not universally
applicable to all poor groups in the study villages. Such trends are gradual silting of
river/pond/water bodies; increase in agriculture production; movement from traditional farming
towards chemicalization of agriculture; regular pest attacks on crops cultivated; animal attacks on
crops; changing trend of livelihoods from food crop to cash crop cultivation; non-diversified
economy with little diversification towards cottage/village industries; increased dependence of
majority people on agriculture; increased dependence on markets for both acquiring inputs and
selling outputs; rising inputs prices (fertilizers, seeds, pesticides); rise in public thieving and
corruption; increased social exclusion of ultra poor/destitute households; increase in dowry
payment for daughter’s marriage; increased incidence of homelessness and residing on other’s
10
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
land/home, especially women-headed households; and interior location of village due to low
growth of rural road network
8.3 Seasonality and Vulnerability
Vulnerability of assets is made acute by seasonal forces, which are pronounced in case of poor
households. The rainy season is especially difficult when the incidence of disease of both humans
and cattle/birds increases. Typhoid/Jaundice is quite common in areas using water from shallow
and indigenous wells. Fever is a common occurrence. The cattle and poultry suffer from different
diseases. The non-availability of health centre and veterinarians makes life difficult during the
rainy season. The prices of agriculture inputs and outputs and selling price of NTFPs differ
depending on the seasons. Many poor and ultra poor groups undertake seasonal migration during
agriculture off-seasons.
9. Chronic Poverty of Sabar/Lodha Community
Many villages in Paschim Medinipur have Sabar/Lodha residing in them and some of the issues related
to the chronic poverty of such tribal communities are highlighted here by means of bullet points on
different aspects of their living as well as case study.
Livelihood related issues - The means of livelihood is mostly dependent on forest produce. The return
from forest produce is depressingly low. One person’s income is not enough to feed the family. For a
sick or elderly, it is nearly impossible to collect forest produce and sell in the market. The time
consumed is very long. Each livelihood means engages 8 to 10 hours and the return is Rs.10/- to
Rs.12/-. Men folk get about Rs. 20/-. With exception of few days in paddy related work, there is no
other work available other than forest produce collection. Livestock cannot be raised because of extreme
poverty and also due to attack by wild animals.
Food consumption related -.With exception to one – two months, the food consumed is half or less than
the normal consumption. The food basket lacks nutritious items. More rice is consumed most of the
time. When there is no income, they remain without food or wild potato is consumed. The children,
pregnant and lactating women are not given supplementary food. Many nutritious food – fish, meat and
chatu are customarily restricted for the lactating women.
Lack of money: - There is literally no saving. Due to lack of money, they are not able to collect ration at
subsidized rate. They are not in a position to purchase clothes even children under 5-6 remain without
clothes and adult and grown up people have fewer cloths.
Dwellings: - They have tiny dwellings, without window and doors. A few have been supported by
houses constructed under Indira Awas Yojana (housing scheme for the poor).
Education: - It is very difficult for such poor people to invest Rs.10/- on a monthly basis to meet the
hidden cost of educating their children. Hence, most households are not in a position to send children to
school or continue studies unless the food and teaching – learning materials are free.
9.1 A Case Study on Sabar Village, Bhellai Thar, GP: Patasimal, Block: Jhargram,
The village, Bhellai Thari is a tribal village, inhabited by the Sabar community. The village is about 9
kms inside Kolkota – Bombay road. The village participants classified households into two categories –
very poor and poor. They considered 2 households as very poor because these are women –headed
households. Both are elderly womne. One is Hizra and another is deserted by family. The Hizra begs
for survival because of old age, it is difficult to work. The other old woman collects firewood, leaves
11
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
and also works if she gets a chance. She gets old age pension. The total number of poor households is
43. A few (8 – 9 households) have khas (government allotted) land on which paddy is cultivated. The
households’ assets are earthen, steel and aluminum utensils. Around 5-6 households have 1 – 2 cows, 45 households have few chickens and 2 households have pigs. People want to rear livestock but are
unable to purchase these. There is no toilet.
The food availability is limited to the agricultural months. In other months, they have food crises. Due
to forest, nearby, they collect wild potato and consume. The poor people migrate to Sham chak during
paddy harvesting. They get Rs.30/-, food and accommodation.They remain there for few days. Their
main sources of livelihoods are: forest produce and migrating for agricultural labour.
Forest Produce - All villagers earn from the forest produce. They sell sal leaves, bidi leaves, fuel wood,
dhup and chatai. The people sell above materials despite earning is meager. Women earn lesse than the
men because the fuel wood bundle is smaller. On average, women earn 10-12 rupees per day and men
earn 15-20 rupees per day. During odd days – heavy rain or health problems, there is no income; hence
the food intake is nothing. Generally, no one can share as very little is available.
Agricultural labourer - During Asarh and Sraban people migrate for paddy plantation for 10-12 days at
the wage of Rs. 30/- plus food and accommodation. During Agrahyan and Poush, they migrate to
harvest on a daily basis.
Seasonal food calendar - The seasonal food calendar is given in Table 6. It is seen that: most of the
month, the people consume rice and salt. During Bhadra and Ashwin, there is severe food problem
because the income is literally nothing. Due to rain it is difficult to collect wood, and the Sal leaves are
not dried. Many persons remain without food for 15 days. In the rest of the 15 days, they consume little
rice and salt. During Baisakh and Jaishtha, there is food crisis. There are no Sal leaves. The hot climate
makes earth hard and hence it is difficult to dig out and find wild potato. In the four month of migration
– Asarh, Sraban, Agrahyan and Poush the food consumption rises. But those who remain in the village,
face the same food crisis. In Kartik, Phalgun and Chaitra, only rice and salt is consumed. If available,
vegetables are consumed once a week.
Trend of Food - The villagers mentioned that their economic condition has slightly improved through
migration, some help form local political party and earnings form leaves, fuel wood and NTFPs. Due to
this, the food deficit and starvation periods have declined slightly. Earlier, people did not migrate and
the situation was precarious. However, the quality of food has not improved. Earlier also people were
consuming rice and salt which is continuing presently.
Table 6
Seasonal Food Calendar of Sabar community in Vellajuri village
Months
Intensity
Food Consumption
of the
problem
on a score
of 16
Baisakh (April-May)
16
Rice, salt the amount reduces to half.
Jaishtha May-June)
16
Rice, salt the amount reduces to half.
Asarh (June –July)
6
Food position is better because paddy work is available
Sraban (July-August)
6
Food position is better because paddy work is available
Bhadra (Aug – Sep)
16
Acute Food problem acute because there is no income for 15
12
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Ashwin (Sep- Oct)
16
Kartik (Oct-Nov)
12
Agrahyan (Nov-Dec)
6
Poush (Dec- January)
6
Magh (January- Feb)
6
Phalgun (Feb- Mar)
Chaitra (Mar-April)
12
12
days
Severe food crisis. No income is there small amount of rice
and salt only once a day for 15 days, remain without food.
Rice (When there is money) wild potato vegetables (Once a
week).
Improves- Rice, vegetables –2-3 times in a month, Men (250
gram); purchase is Rs.20/- to Rs.30/- and collect and eat wild
potato (pan alu, chun alu, kata alu).
Improves – Rice, vegetable-2-3 times in a month, Men (250
gram). Purchase is Rs.20/- to Rs.30/- and collect and eat wild
potato (pan alu, chun alu, kata alu).
Condition aggravates for the local. Those who migrate earn
and have good food rice and vegetable.
Rice and salt (vegetable once a week).
Rice and salt (vegetable once a week).
10. Policies, Institutions and Processes and Chronic Poverty
Policies, institutions and processes are critical in determining who gains access to which type/s of
assets, which in turn determines feasibility of livelihoods’ strategies. Markets and legal
restrictions impacting on asset conversion and livelihoods strategies are also significant variables.
Some groups remain socially excluded from policies and institutions and it is important to
identify the processes through which such exclusion occurs. Based on fieldwork certain common
factors can be identified, which make for social exclusion (partial/total) of the poor groups. Some
major factors influencing social exclusion of poor groups in the study villages are described
below.
Exclusionary Processes and Impacts on Livelihoods
Attitude and behaviour is a major factor leading to social exclusion of poor households. For
specific poor groups such as adivasi (tribal), attitude and behaviour engrained in local
governance, is a major issue. Able bodied and educated sabar/lodhas as well as sabar/lodha youth
feel discriminated against local employment opportunities, both government and private.
Similarly many Santhals in the villages of Binpur-II discussed their problematic relation with
local police. The attitude of the Forest Department officials and staff are also seen as problematic
for the adivass who have symbiotic relationship with the local forests and are dependent on them
for their livelihoods. Similarly approach of bank-institutions towards self-help groups of poor
women is an important factor. Attitudes/ cultural beliefs/ social practices are loaded against
women-headed households, where people treat such households as “invisible” in their own
localities. The local/state administration is generally aware of such issues as indicated in the
meetings held.
Those landless and homeless who have not received patta land under land reforms lack a
minimum threshold level of asset structure for constructing livelihoods. Many poor households
lack access to basic physical and financial capitals. Institutional linkages with the villages are
lacking. In many study villages, road, health centre, functioning wells and tube wells and other
basic services are not available. Finances are limited with no banks in the vicinity. One social
arrangement noticed in many study villages is that the better-off group provides advance wages
against future labour thereby extending some support to the poorer people in their months of
crisis.
13
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Decentralized governance
The policy of decentralization has helped Panchayats to support local people and the Panchayat’s
role has been a crucial factor in lending support to the poor groups. The Panchayat functionaries
have done good work in a few villages though not in all the study villages. Poor groups have
performed better in those villages where the Panchayat functionaries have taken keen interest and
created enabling conditions. However, progress has been hindered in those villages where
political affiliation of panchayat is different from the ruling party. By and large, in most study
villages, the ultra poor and destitute households including the indigenous communities are mostly
excluded from the development work of panchayats except for a few beneficiaries included under
IAY/rural housing scheme and/or widow (old age) pension/Annapurna Yojana. It is not clear as
to whether this is due to the flaws in the policy framework, which does not allow enough thrust
on the social inclusion of poorest groups or due to the poor implementation of government
programmes.
The National Literacy Mission motivators entrusted with the task of forming and mobilising
SHGs have done exemplary work in many villages of Paschim Medinipur.
Lack of transparency and accountability for development schemes especially on the part of
functionaries of local governance has hindered information dissemination and awareness building
of poor groups including adivasis. As perceived by many poor households, corruption and
dishonesty have become rampant in governance. This has resulted in inefficient and low quality
asset creation at the local level, which in turn has impacted on livelihoods. Similarly in many
study villages, villagers remarked that official exercise for identifying households below poverty
line has led to the inclusion of many better-off households and exclusion of poor.
Absence/Delay of justice is another issue with poor households. As stated by local tribal villagers,
many tribal men in Jhargram area have been arrested by police and are being detained for long
periods without recourse to bail/justice.
Lack of an effective and well-implemented state policy on literacy/education has constrained poor
groups from participating in the local development process.
Lack of access to health services (both in terms of facility and quality) by the poor is another
problem area. With high incidence of diseases including malaria, fever and diarrhea-related
diseases, on a yearly and seasonal basis this is all the more serious.
Availability of drinking water is a problem in many tribal villages. The tube wells are mostly out
of order and/or provide low quality water. Maintenance is not routinely carried out.
The size of poultry vaccine available in the market is so huge in quantity and expensive that poor
households rearing one/two or few chickens can seldom afford it.
Forest policy
Forest management Policy affects livelihoods. The decisions taken by the Forest department
whether to grow Sonajhuri or Sal or some other species have differential impacts on poor
people’s livelihoods, especially the ultra poor. The richer the local forest (e.g. a Sal forest) and its
access the easier it is to cope with difficult seasons. Identification of NTFPs, their socio-economic
relationship with local livelihoods and group formation of women for augmenting their access,
14
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
production and sustainable harvesting are important steps in supporting the ultra poor for
increased access to forest products.
The Joint Forest Management (JFM) guideline no. 22-8/2000-JFM (FTD), Government of India,
dated December 24, 2002 of Ministry of Environment and Forests, though general in nature,
provides a broad framework for Forest Department for closely linking forests with local
livelihoods for forest dependent communities. However, there are limitations in the framework in
terms of the following.
 Bureaucratic procedure for establishing such linkages
 Encouraging one-way top-down communication channels and
 Absence of a pro-poor stance and inter/intra-community equity issues (by treating entire
community as one and equal)
Banking policy
Banking facilities for BPL families formed into SHGs under SGSY in terms of bank loans are
generally constrained. They are hindered or promoted by the approach of individual banks and
their concern for the poor. For some banks such SHGs are a low priority and they refuse/delay
giving loans to them. The DRDC money for contribution towards a rotating fund of SHGs is
differently understood by the banker, administrative and Panchayat officials. The Reserve Bank
of India’s letter (no RPCDSP BC 03/09/01 dated 13.10.02 says that DRDC/DRDA fund should
be adjusted against the loans of SHG and adjusted against any default. The letter loosely
describes this DRDC/DRDA fund as “subsidy”, which it says will not be available to those above
the poverty line of Rs.11200/- as annual income. The use of the term “subsidy” for the
DRDC/DRDA contribution towards revolving fund of SHG, though a misnomer, has run from the
top channels of banking to the bottom and has hindered the mind set of the bankers from moving
forward. Some bankers have adjusted the “subsidy” amount from day one with disbursement of
loans to SHG in order to show on record that a part of the loan of Rs.15000/- by banks has been
repaid by the amount of Rs.10,000/- on the same day.
Bank workers, in remote branches often consider transfers to rural/remote areas as a punishment
posting and their mindset is seldom favourable for supporting social capital formation amongst
poor women in terms of SHG. They view recovery of loans to SHGs as problematic since they do
not perceive them as credit-worthy. Some banks do, however, try to assist despite low standing of
poor households with regard to their credit-worthiness. In many cases the banks delay/deny loans
to SHGs on the ground that some of their members’ husband/father-in law have defaulted in the
past. Though many poor households in the areas concerned are defaulters on IRDP loans most
women forming SHGs have no record of taking loans from banks. SHG’s forward movement is
affected in the process if it is denied loans or facing delay in getting bank loans. Many SHG
members have stopped putting their own contribution to their common fund because of not
receiving their promised loan money from bank and the DRDC/DRDA contribution towards their
rotating fund.
11. What Worked in Reducing Chronic Poverty?
This section gives a summary of some of the processes and best/innovative practices, which
despite their constraints and shortcomings are working better than others and have proved more
effective in translating development objectives into action. A list of selected processes is give
below.

Self-Help Groups

Decentralized Planning - GDGP
15
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.


Swashthya Swahayikas (Para –Health workers)
Agriculture Diversification Initiative
11.1 Self Help Group (SHGs) under SGSY
Government of India launched a new programme called “Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana”
(SGSY) from 1st April 1999 by replacing IRDP and its allied programmes like TRYSEM,
DWRCA, SITRA, GKY, MWS thus avoiding multiplicity of programmes. To overcome pitfalls
of IRDP, a holistic programme such as SGSY was adopted covering all aspects of selfemployment - group formation, training, credit, technology, infrastructure and marketing. Under
SGSY, the beneficiaries are known as Swarojgaris whether as a group or as an individual. The
main objective of SGSY is to bring the beneficiary poor families (Swarojgaris) above the poverty
line in 3 years time by providing them with bank credit and subsidy, which would enable the
family to earn Rs. 2000/- per month through some micro enterprise initiative. It has been
officially estimated that an average investment amount of Rs. 25,000/- for an individual
Swarojgari and Rs. 2.5 lakhs for a group of Swarojgaris can enable them to earn the estimated
net income of Rs. 200/- per month after the third year of investment. SGSY is a process-oriented
scheme and formation of SHG passes through different stages depending on location, capacity of
facilitators, literacy, awareness etc. There is a set of guidelines for SHG such as code of conduct,
agenda for meeting, regularity of savings, record keeping, participatory decision-making etc
There are a number of achievements on diverse fronts by SHGs formed under SGSY as listed
below.
 Social Bonding
 Leadership
 Thrift Habit
 Risk Taking
 Skill –Building
 Opportunities for Productive Investment
 Opportunities for Income Generating Activities,
 Preventing Alcoholism and Domestic Violence
 Social Empowerment especially for Women
 Easy Convergence of Development Activities/Schemes
 Networking with other Organizations/Institutions
SHG Mobilization under SGSY
Both women and men’s SHG’s are active under SGSY. Some lessons and experience from both
SHG’s are given below.
Women’s SHG under SGSY –
Women’s SHG’s is an emerging model for women’s socio-economic empowerment and
strengthening of social capital at the group level. This is emerging as a dominant route for
developing women’s capacity in Paschim Medinipur. Illustrations from Paschim Medinipur will
prove the point where many women’s SHGs have been mobilized and are functioning well. Based
on the study villages it may be observed that many SHGs have started functioning, after forming
groups 2-3 years back or even earlier. However, only a few SHGs have reached the stage of
group-initiated development activities and are actively performing group activities with or
without outside support. Ways of institutional linking and integration of SHGs with panchayat
bodies are yet to evolve. The following provides a local assessment of the strengths and
limitations of such SHGs and ways to improve upon them.
16
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Social Bonding
Many women through their SHGs have come closer and have established meaningful ties with the
group members with a feeling of camaraderie and social bonding. They have come together as a
group and are gradually realizing their own potential through it. Those groups with like –minded
members, mutual empathy and similar background have higher levels of cohesiveness and
feelings of unity.
Leadership
Given a chance, good leadership as a factor has also emerged in many SHGs and has shown the
way for organized group work, group perseverance and getting institutional support.
Thrift Habit
Through SHG formation, thrift has become a habit and personal savings and group savings are
rising over time for many groups. It has also become one unifying factor for bonding poor women
in the villages. Some women groups feel a sense of empowerment as reflected in their increased
participation in gram sansad meetings, family welfare programmes and sanitation campaign.
Entrepreneurship and Risk taking
Entrepreneurship and risk taking capacity has increased of the group as a result of group-based
activities. Many of them have taken bank loans for the first time in their own names and are
contributing towards revolving fund.
Skill building
Some SHG’s have enhanced their skills through opportunities for capacity building. The skills
include social skills e.g. skills to share a common platform as a group; income generating skills
e.g. making incense sticks and networking skills such as linking up with banks, panchayat bodies
and other relevant institutions..
Opportunities for Productive Investment
Many SHGs are taking initiative to explore opportunities for income generating opportunities for
supporting their livelihoods. Though there are many constraints in generating returns from
productive investment many groups trained by government have started in a small way such as
incense stick making in small quantities and are able to sell them in the local market.
Preventing alcoholism and domestic violence
Some SHG of women under SGSY have also been in the forefront to organize public opinion
against alcoholism. Such empowerment of women groups have also lent influence on scaling
down of domestic violence to some extent.
Social empowerment especially for women
The members of SHG’s, especially the women have found a new social identity through their
groups with official recognition and fruitful linkages. The social relationships between women
and men are changing gradually. The women’s voice as a group is being heard in different
quarters such as BDO office, gram panchayat, bank and gram sanshad. They feel empowered
through such a process and many groups are making use of such an opportunity.
Easy convergence of development activities/schemes
17
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
The SHG’s under SGSY have provided a ready platform for convergence of development
activities such as health schemes, capacity building activities, sanitation, taking polio drops,
family welfare schemes etc.
Networking with other organizations/institutions
There is considerable heterogeneity in the progress of SHGs under SGSY. Those groups, backed
and motivated by panchayat/party and officials of development administration have gone much
ahead in terms of initiative and enterprise. This has led to motivation for other local groups to
follow similar path. Success stories of SHGs in Keshpur and Gorbeta Block have led to
adaptation of “enterprise” effect in other groups.
Facilitation of SHGs
Some volunteers/motivators from National Literacy Mission (NLM) have done good job of
facilitating SHG formation under SGSY and in helping to mobilise them for. In some places there
is evidence that the SHG members have started rotating their own funds amongst themselves
rather than depositing their savings with banks. Such informal groups have not only gained
interest income on funds offered as credit but have also learned ways to rotate funds.
Selected Constraints Facing SHG under SGSY
Some constraints facing SHG’s under SGSY as described by such groups are indicated below.
Acceptance of the SHG produce: The members feel that the public acceptance of the produce is
lower than the branded produce flooding in the market. Many-branded produce is not
qualitatively superior. Several are the duplicated ones .The SHG members feel that they have
maintained a reasonable price level. They think of the poor consumer and also keep very low
margin. Despite the sincere approach, the acceptance of the SHG produce is as expected even in
the local market by the local consumer. People do not show enthusiasm in purchasing the SHG
produce. They receive this feedback by the dealers whom they approach for marketing.
Marketing Network - The networking for marketing is not satisfactory. Although some SHG’s
manage to have stalls is fair / exhibition they are not able to have good market.
Lack of Work Place - Work place is the main problem everywhere. There is no common place
for the SHG operation hence it is very difficult to undertake the works smoothly. Essential
materials are scattered in various places, such as, raw material in one place, produce in another,
documents in another place and work is done in another place. This poses as a major constraint
for smooth functioning of SHG’s.
Lack of Backward Linkages and Training - There are difficulties in carrying out Dhupkathimaking (incense –stick making).Dhupkathi making is one of the preferred activities of several
SHG’s It is relatively simple and does not require much technicalities. It has a big potential
market for many people need Dhupkathi for ritual activities or for its aroma. But women group
are under severe constraints, such as lack of raw materials, lack of training for attractive
packaging and lack of skills for improved quality of Dhupkathi.
Banking constraints - The behavior of the local banks and the attitude and language used by the
employees. The banks take a long time to undertake second grading of the groups, which hampers
progress. The sincere efforts put in by the groups are not recognized.
18
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
Lack of Capital - The SHG’s do not have much capital for loan has not been given. This
constraint is faced by the tribal people who cannot afford to save. Their daily earnings are very
low and not that certain. A meager earning of 10-12 rupees daily is not sufficient to procure even
bare minimum rice. When there is no income, they are on fast or survive on NTFPs such as wild
potato, which they boil and consume. In case of acute scarcity, they cannot save hence the scope
of loan gets reduced. Very poor people do not have time and money to contribute. They do not
have time to spend in group formation and social service activities.
Lack of Security - It is extremely difficult to take up any activity for the excluded tribal groups
who dwell in the dense forest. The wild animals attack livestock; there is no electricity to have
machine-based activities; and the wild elephant damage go-down if paddy is stored. Local sale is
limited because local people are too poor to purchase any SHG produce.
11.2 GDGP and Gram Sanshad Planning/Action
For optimal usage of resources flowing to the panchayat bodies from Centrally-sponsored
scheme, state-sponsored scheme, grants –in-aid and other funds, programme for a holistic village
plan by village people exists at the gram sanshad level. This alternative planning process starts
from the basic issue that in the absence of foreign/domestic capital whether the local communities
are integrating all productive forces/assets and using them to their full capacity. The crucial part
of this alternative planning is how to make sustainable utilization of local productive assets and
improve human welfare.
Box 11 - GDGP Experience in Ranisarai GP, Narayangarh Block, Paschim Medinipur
A five year plan was made involving the villagers in 40 villages across 48 mouzas covering 2800
households in 9 booths. The planning process followed 3 days training of panchayat members by
Haripada Jena in which the development issues were prioritized. Para baithaks wer conducted
over 15-20 day sin which, the women and men sat in separate groups and the women discussed
on SHG and health. In the planning process apart from the panchayat members, the service
holders, teachers, local women and members of other political parties were included. The gram
sanshad has 12 members in 2 committees with 6 members, each. The survey started in September
2002. All voters in the sanshad were given a letter informing them of the planning process and
this was also publicized over the mike. Villagers from 5 villages around 100 to 150 in number
gathered at one place to do the gram sanshad planning as facilitated by panchayat members. With
this methodology more people can be involved by the panchayat. The panchayat can use GDGP
as a weapon to involve people in constructing assets and the results are better in terms of
ownership and maintenance. Nowadays, all development schemes require beneficiary/user-group
formation as prerequisite for further action and GDGP can help in that direction.
Some issues faced in GDGP are as follows.
(i) One major issue is of problem prioritization – whose development? Should it be development
of household or of area?. The well-off want to prioritize social assets/infrastructure in the locality
while the SC/ST members from poor groups would like to have personal benefits.
(ii) There is acute shortage of development funds and it is difficult to keep demand low. Most
demand is for infrastructure, especially in agriculture. Those who are landless do shared
cultivation for the second crop.
Source: From the Field Notes of Neela Mukherjee
19
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
The official booklets mention that the success of the alternative planning process lies in strong
organization of workers/labourers and it is especially important that every gram sanshad trains at
least 5 to 7 real volunteers and motivators through this planning movement. The decentralized
village plan aims at integrating agriculture, irrigation, craft, education, health, housing and other
related aspects. The basic idea is to formulate a road map for local development of a village based
on decentralized planning.
Such action research in gram sanshad planning has continued over time. An illustration above in
box 2 for Ranisarai GP, Paschim Medinipur indicate the kind of progress made under GDGP by
the State Planning Board.
11.3 Swashtha Swahayikas (Para –Health workers)
This is an innovative experiment in providing health services by local para-health women
workers as observed in selected blocks (Garbeta and Keshpur) of Paschim Medinipur district. It
has immense possibility of scaling up in the same districts and also scaling out in other districts.
A cadre of para-health workers known as “Swashtha Swahayikas”, have been created for
promoting good quality health and sanitation awareness. The Swashtha Swahayikas play a very
important role in inculcating healthy habits amongst villagers. They are also playing the role of
publicity agents for any government health schemes or special drives against any disease. Most of
these Swahayikas have been selected from the Self Help Groups in the blocks and they act as the
agents of health care on behalf of the government machinery. They have been given basic training
for awareness about the common diseases they need to handle in the villages and the details of the
medicines they can administer. Bicycles have been provided to increase their mobility in the
locality concerned. This scheme has been running for the past 2 years. The local NGOs supply the
medicines that are distributed by the para –health workers. The Swashtha Swahayikas maintain
detailed records of their daily activity in a set format in notebooks provided to them.
The important aspects of their role are:






They visit every household in their area and are intimately aware of the condition and
structure of each family.
They carry the message of family planning to every woman and supply family planning
devices for their use. They have themselves realized the advantages of a small family and
therefore tell all the women about the same.
Through their efforts, in most villages, there is no delivery done at home by the local
midwife under unhygienic conditions. On their insistence, most deliveries are done at the
local health centres. The ambulance available in the Block Office is summoned and the
expecting mother is taken to the center even in the late night. The incidence of infant
mortality and pre-natal death of mothers have reduced.
The mothers-to-be are also advised about of the food they should take during pregnancy.
The other female members of the family especially the mother-in-law are also advised
suitably. The 3 essential inoculations during pregnancy are also arranged for and
administered at the right stages of pregnancy.
Dysentery and other stomach diseases were very common in the villages mainly due to
the water and unhygienic habits. The Swashtha Swahayikas have gone deep into the root
causes and have first taught the villagers the immediate medication in the form of ORS
when anyone is sick. Then they have taught hygiene habits like washing hands, keeping
foodstuff covered, eating freshly cooked food and avoiding left-overs etc.
They have brought in a wide acceptance of using the sanitary latrines being set up. This
has helped to keep the surroundings clean and fresh.
20
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.

The Block Health Officers give the Swashtha Swahayikas some common medicines like
paracetamol, ORS packets, family planning devices etc. to be used by them in their areas.
The Swashtha Swahayikas are the grassroots channels through whom the government reaches the
various health and sanitation programs to the villagers. Programs such as pulse-polio have been
popularized by the Swashtha Swahayikas. Such a cadre of para-health workers from SGSP groups
and others can form the backbone in poverty –stricken localities for promoting primary health
care and sanitation.
11.4 Agriculture Diversification Initiative
Some villages have demonstrated good capacity in agriculture diversification with or without
support from local panchayats. There are 2 instances cited here, which illustrate how crop
diversification such as crop rotation, growing new crops, growing suitable crops in dry season
etc. can help to strengthen the rural economy. For instance, in Ranisarai GP, Narayangarh Block,
Paschim Medinipur, the land can produce 2 crops with paddy as one crop followed by another
crop which can adapt with less water for e.g. til (sesame), mustard, moong (lentils), peas and
groundnut. In this agriculture year, til was widely produced as a second crop in this GP, which
turned out to be highly remunerative. An estimate for til production runs as follows. About 40
decimal land producing 2 quintal and 22 Kg of til with 750 grams of seeds at Rs. 47 per Kg plus
Rs. 110/- worth of manure and chemical fertilizers amount to a total expenditure of Rs. 850/including labour cost of Rs. 100/-. Last agricultural year one quintal of til could fetch market
price of Rs. 1500/- on average.
12. Selected Development Constraints
Though there are good initiatives such as SHG’s in Paschim Medinipur, some developmental
constraints as observed are described below.
(i)
Inadequate Pro-Poor Development Initiative/s – The most common problems
indicate that there is lack of pro-poor development initiatives at the local level. It was
pointed out by the poor groups themselves that there is general lack of interest and
apathy amongst the local leaders and many could not be approached. There is
absence of any holistic approach in thinking and implementing grassroots
development initiative. On the other hand, the present way of implementation of
development activities is ad hoc as directed from the ‘top’. Pro-poor development
initiatives are scattered and considerably limited in coverage. Take for instance the
lack of effectiveness of the Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) as described
above in terms of employment guarantee or for that matter the investment made
under the Indira Awas Yojana or the Annapurna Yojna for the elderly women. Some
examples are given below to show how government schemes like SGRY are a drop
in the vast ocean of rural unemployment. With regard to 100 days of employment
guarantee by the government to at least one member from each poor household in the
rural areas the present size of investment is abysmally low. Take for instance, the
case of SGRY in Ranisarai Gram Panchayat in Narayangarh Block of Paschim
Medinipur. In 2004-05, a rice-cash equivalent of Rs, 350000/- is available under
SGRY where 60 per cent of that amount can create 3390 man days at a daily wage
rate of Rs. 62/- for unskilled labour. With 940 households under BPL only 7 man
days per person per BPL household can be created in a year’s time given the present
size of investment.
21
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
(ii)
Inadequacy of Integrated Approach to Local Development – Small, scattered and ad
hoc interventions –e.g. the housing scheme under IAY is surely not enough in terms
of the problem of housing the poor are facing. With interventions done in a scattered
manner and mainly on an ad hoc basis there is no optimum threshold level to be
achieved in terms of poverty reduction
(iii)
Lack of Critical Minimum Threshold for Local Productive Investment – Similar to the
issue raised above, many localities visited pointed out that they lacked the minimum
basic infrastructure such as tube well, well, SSK, PHC, anganwadi, primary school
and others. Many of them were required to visit other localities to avail them
especially for availing drinking water and health care services.
(iv)
Problem in Pro-Poor Location of Basic Assets/Services – In many areas studied it
was stated and illustrated that critical basic infrastructure has a locational bias in
favour of the better-offs hamlets/households/colonies/para, whether it is a tube well,
well, pond, road or a ICDS.
(v)
Problems in flow of development funds/items – The funds and items for different
schemes do not arrive in time. The flow of funds from the government needs to be
better regulated so that the “hump effect” of all interventions being jumbled up
towards the last quarter of the financial year is avoided.
(vi)
Poor Maintenance – There is no maintenance planning accompanying the
development interventions. A tube well installed in a locality, often breaks down and
the villagers are required to be at the mercy of the line agencies for repair and
maintenance. There is little or no ownership of those physical assets, no maintenance
fund. The people are looking forward to the government for every single problem.
(vii)
Lack of Pro-Poor Monitoring – There is lack of stated mechanism for monitoring of
pro-poor activities/impacts and local government decision-making, whether at the
household level, group level or area level.
13. Some Institutional Weaknesses
(i)
Inadequate Capabilities for Development Management –Lack of skills, capabilities
and initiatives of panchayat functionaries appears to be a chronic constraint
pervading all levels of Pachayati Raj institutionss. Many of such functionaries
(especially women and some men) when interviewed made self-assessment to point
out that they were missing the larger vision and picture behind many rural
development programmes/schemes and lacked enough information on the linkages
and technological aspects between government schemes and poverty reduction
approaches except for the government guidelines received on such programmes from
time to time. They also mentioned that orientation sessions were important for
gaining the larger picture on development programmes and their role and linkages in
reducing poverty. According to them their hands could get strengthened from
learning about the modern development concepts, tools and techniques, appropriate
technological developments and legal aspects of development management. There
were such commonalities in case of both panchayat functionaries and party workers.
Many line agencies’ staff had similar problems of lacking an integrated and holistic
picture of development.
22
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
(ii)
Political Dimension of Local Development is a dominant factor though considerably
underplayed at present. Party functionaries are dominant in determining development
interventions at the local level and to that extent decision-making of panchayats,
block office and line agencies are considerably influenced and there are not enough
checks and balances in the system to overcome some of the decision-making biases.
(iii)
Low Accountability of Service Providers – It was pointed out repeatedly in many
villages that there is little or no accountability of the local school staff, teachers,
doctors and the local development functionaries.
(iv)
Lack of Awareness and Information – Many poor groups lack awareness about the
types of government services, the benefits that they are entitled to, the nature of such
benefits and services, their rights and privileges, ways of accessing such benefits etc.
14. Selected Policy Recommendations
Some recommendations for strengthening institutional weaknesses are mentioned below.








Overcoming Selected Weaknesses of SHG’s under SGSY
Increasing Transparency of the BPL List
Reducing Chronic Poverty of the Socially Excluded Group
Linking-up Institutions with Livelihoods and Pro-Poor Stance
Initiating Need-Based Resource Allocation
Adopting Ways for Supporting Ultra Poor Groups/Destitute
Building and Nurturing Partnerships with Civil Society
Supporting Right to Information for Poor Households
Overcoming Selected Weaknesses of SHG’s under SGSY- In several government programmes,
like the SGSY, there should be major reservation for women. This is likely to succeed as
demonstrated by the experiences from large development organizations like SEWA, Ahmedabad;
Working Women’s Forum, Chennai and the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh. SGSY should also
target unemployed youth and provide scope for building their capacity and self/group enterprise.
Some other recommendations for SGSY are as follows.
Quality of Social Capital
It is important to take stock of the situation on SHG formation taking place almost mechanically
at considerable speed without reflecting on the quality and the objectives to be achieved through
the SHGs. The spirit of self-help needs to be released amongst women. Targetisation and speed
can only promote formation SHG by name though not necessarily in content and practice.
Financial Capital
Rural branches of many banks need more sensitization towards poor people’s livelihoods and
opportunities. This is acting as one major constraint to SGSY though some improvements
(though not enough) have taken place over the past two years. Communication between the State
Government and the banking system needs to improve so that the rural branches have clear
instructions for fulfillment of criteria regarding credit facilities to local SHGs within a reasonable
time period. It is important to tackle the issue raised by bankers about repayment of loans by
23
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
IRDP defaulters. Timely credit disbursements need to be ensured by DRDC and the Bank.
Cooperative banks need to be included under the SGSY programme
Broadening Mindset/ Vision Building
The “mindset” of SHG members needs to be broadened to include a vision and a plan for
achieving that vision. At the moment most have formed groups to get government subsidies for
income generating activities. Many panchayat leaders and local administrators have raised their
expectations from Government and banks to high levels.
Strengthening Political Will
Political will of the political parties is a major factor for progress of SGSY. The political parties
control the Panchayat bodies. In some areas such people have played a negative role and
discouraged SHGs The administration needs to interact with them for more positive linkages..
Targetisation of SHG’s
In case of SGSY, targets and disbursals are being given greater weight instead of its quality. This
has led to over-emphasis on reaching targets and the quality has been compromised. Fewer
targets can yield meaningful results. SGSY need proper monitoring and needs to have more
emphasis on quality. BDOs are over-burdened with a range of activities, which reduces their time
to attend to the fieldwork and thereby affects progress of SGSY activities.
People’s Recommendations for Strengthening SHGs
Selected Recommendations by the SHG members are also important in this regard. They are as
follows.
Providing Work Space - If the government provides work space for SHG activities and go-downs
it can help in bettering production..
Improved Access to Raw Materials - The raw materials for various items, e.g., Dhupkathi ,
detergent etc. should be provided at subsidized price.
Opportunities for Training - Training should be provided to increase the quality of items
produced such as Dhupkhati and also for attractive packaging. Regular training centers for SHGs
are required to be built at the Block level.
Better Access to Micro Credit - The upper ceiling of the loan for the ST people should be
reasonably low enough so that they can get loan with minimum savings or no savings.
.
Establishing Linkages - SHGs should be linked with other development programmes. The leaders
of SHGs should be allowed to get involved with the Iswar Chandra Jana Chetana Kendra
Advertisement of Products - Advertisement is urgently needed for convincing the authenticity of
the produce. Advertisement is an expensive affair. In the initial stage, there is no fund to divert
for this urgent need. If the government supports advertisement by wall painting, television, radio
etc., then it will help the to grow the market for SHG products. For institutional networking, the
support of Gram Panchayat, block office, Zilla Parishad and DM’s office is needed. Both
Panchayat and administration should maintain regular linkages with the SHG’s
Increasing Transparency of the BPL List - Transparency in the preparation of the BPL List is
critical. There is wide spread mistrust about the authenticity of the BPL List. It will be necessary
24
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
to change the way the BPL List is prepared so that greater transparency can be imparted to the
process, though, as it is understood, the parameters themselves for categorizing households as
falling below the poverty line can not be changed, at the state level. A clear improvement in the
methodology for compilation of data can make a significant difference and restore the confidence
of the people in the veracity of the BPL. The data for the different parameters has to be collected
through the PLA methods.
Reducing Chronic Poverty of Socially-Excluded Groups For e.g. sabar/lodha - Strategy for
socially excluded groups, especially lodha/ sabar and others will be mainly in terms of food-for–
work programmes to be designed in such a manner that it takes care of their food and livelihoods
insecurities and also helps to build local productive infrastructure (e.g. school building, water
harvesting tanks, livestock cages, road, pavements, culverts, minor irrigation structures etc.) for
further use. Exclusive and conscious strategies for providing minimum basic services such as
drinking water, primary health care, SSK and primary school should be well formulated and
implemented. Each family should be provided with patta land or lease-hold forest land to
cultivate /grow trees based on the Nepal model of leasehold forestry where 1ha.each, of forest
land, is leased to a group of poor household for 40 years and sufficient capacity is built of that
group to improve their food security position and enhance their livelihoods.
Selected Developmental Activities Through Food-For –Work Initiative:
 Construction of shade to protect livestock from wild animals
 Construction of work place for handi-work and go-down
 Pucca road construction to increase the communication especially during rainy season
 Construction of school/ICDS/health center
 Electrification
 Pond construction-for fish cultivation
 Social and leasehold forestry etc.
The food-for work initiative to be integrated with local women’s empowerment, preventive health
and nutrition schemes and rights –based approach. Social inclusion of sabar, adivasi and other
marginalized groups, especially in the forest areas. There should be continuous effort at
promoting NTFPs in collaboration with panchayat and forest department is important for in many
villages 80 to 90 per cent of poor villagers are dependent on NTFP as a major source of
livelihood. The following ways are suggested.
-
Management and utilization of trees important to the marginalized community
Provision and distribution of marginal and wasteland to the marginalized communities on
long leased basis to grow trees, NTFP’s, herbs and plants.
Road-side tree re-plantation programme implemented and protected through women
groups
Land allocation for tree species and NTFP’s important to the marginalized groups.
Exploring marketing opportunities for locally produced NTFP’s
Exploring opportunities for processing and semi-processing of NTFP’s
Linking-up Institutions with Livelihoods and Pro-Poor Stance
The way to link-up governance with poor people’s livelihoods can be explored through “planning
for sustainable rural livelihoods” done by poor and ultra poor groups supported by local
governance. Three different approaches are suggested depending on processes operating in a
village.
25
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
(i)
In villages where the process of decentralized planning has been undertaken an
additional window can be opened for group-specific livelihoods’ planning through
mobilising SHGs of poor and ultra poor groups within the decentralized planning
framework. Such planning can be based on the SRL framework with a list of
prioritised actions for implementation and review by poor groups and gram sanshad.
(ii)
“Planning for sustainable livelihoods” can be directly initiated in those villages where
decentralized planning has not taken place. In such villages it is important as a first
step to identify the social/livelihood-specific groups and help them to make their own
livelihoods’ plans and support them by means of effective implementation through
local governance.
(iii)
In those villages where SHG is progressing under schemes such as SGSY “group
planning for sustainable livelihoods” in the SRL framework can be introduced
amongst women groups.
Initiating Need-Based Resource Allocation
The policy adopted by the gram panchayat of distributing resources evenly across the wards
seems to generate problems of sub-optimal investments. Thin spread of resources over a large
area/large number of programmes needs to be closely looked into. Instead of equal distribution of
resources across wards, a system of micro level planning can be undertaken starting from the
villages and moving upwards. Livelihoods’-based participatory planning can also allay the fear of
the ward-members being questioned by people on non-deployment of development resources in
the ward.
Supporting Ultra Poor Groups/Destitute
The ultra poor households, especially the women-headed households have practically no
(negligible) asset base. Pre-development interventions are essential to minimise negative impacts
and build conditions for future development interventions. The asset base will have to be
strengthened gradually in such a way that they are in a position to minimise or overcome their
vulnerabilities. A gradual incremental approach to asset formation (through asset transfer),
through provision of patta land, strengthening of social and human capitals and capabilities and
improving access to official programmes can help such households.
Supporting Sustainable Harvesting in NTFPs for Livelihoods Composition
Close focus is required on livelihoods of poor related to NTFPs especially during difficult
seasons. The revised JFM guidelines recognise the importance of NTFP management for the
success of JFM and lay emphasis on capacity building and institutional reforms. It further states
that JFM Committees should be given authority to act and adequate monetary and other
incentives to participate as genuine stakeholders. It also advocates JFM committee/s taking
advantage of the administrative and financial strengths and organizational capacity of
Panchayat/s. In the above context it is important to suggest the following.
 Form and mobilise user-groups of women as forest users consisting of poor and ultra poor
groups and link them up with forest-based sources of livelihoods. FPCs have dominance of
men and it is important to support poor women to come forward and be actively associated
with forest management and have more ownership of forest resources.
 Focus on these poor groups of women and build their capacity and document their indigenous
knowledge.
26
Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
 Have extension services to help women groups with homestead gardening, growing trees and
plants within their home and pisciculture etc. and also support them for marketing.
 Develop concept of sustainable harvest with women groups for different NTFPs and
accordingly plan for such harvest and put it into action.
 Consult the poor and ultra poor groups for the type of forest most useful for livelihoods’
purposes for plantation or regeneration of forest. Link up forestry with other programmes and
projects.
Building and Nurturing Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations
If for any reason the state is unable to carry out essential interventions, a policy of nurturing and
encouraging civil society to step up could be given serious thoughts. The need to supplement state
action by more organizations cannot be over-emphasised. Nurturing civil society organizations,
who will work at tandem with the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti is an important area of
intervention.
Supporting Right to Information for SHGs/CBOs/Poor Groups
At present all information on utilization of funds, availability of funds and plans are mystified
areas for most poor households in a village. Right to information should be an integral part of
capacity building of SHGs/CBOs/poor groups. In this context, there is need to set up boards and
placards in public places for disseminating summary of project planning and action, funds utilized
and available, total man days utilized etc. Such information will also need to be updated at regular
intervals. At present such information is available mainly with the leaders while others are
hesitant to ask for such information. This would also help in making the process inclusive.
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Institutional Issues and Mechanisms in Chronic Poverty Reduction, Rural Livelihoods and People’s Participation: A Study of Paschim
Medinipur District in the State of West Bengal, India
By Neela Mukherjee, Sumita Roy, Meera Jayaswal and Amitava Mukherjee
Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi.
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