4th quarterly progress report of jeevika

7/23/2019 4th Quarterly Progress Report of JEEViKA

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E X E C U T I V E S U M A R Y

This quarter led to the end of the 1styear of the main project. Although, the financial and physical progress of theproject has not been as per the plan, a significant work has been done in recruitment, training and capacitybuilding of staff, system setting; operationalization of field offices; procurement of infrastructure, and hiring of theservices of technical agencies. Setting up infrastructure and administrative systems at the field Offices, settingup Grievance Redressal System, rolling out of HR manual and preparation of financial and administrativemanual, building strategic partnerships with COMPFED, ASA, PRADAN, SBI, SERP are some of the keyhighlights of the 1styear.Confidently, project would take benefit of these institutional and human infrastructures in the coming years.

During the last quarter, project sent half of its field staff to SERP, Andhra Pradesh for 18 days for villageimmersion and exposure trip. Staff learnt about the nuances of institution building and required best practices forthe promotion of pro-poor community institutions. The staff of DPCUs and BPMs were also sent to AndhraPradesh for 2ndround of training on village organization. This was important as in most of the villages whereBRLP has enteredthe triggers for formation of village organization had started showing up. To strengthen thevillage organization, further, six teams of senior CRPs along with Project resource professionals came fromAndhra Pradesh and provided handholding support to the BPIUs in promotion of model VOs, in each projectdistricts.

The project has so far promoted 2432 SHGs and 30 Village organizations (VOs). To increase the role ofcommunity participation in the project-a policy document on Community Mobilizers (CMs) and internal CRPshave been developed and finalized. 16513 (54%) SHG members out of total 30498 SHG members have beenidentified as someone who could not sign. Out of these 7350 members have been trained to write/ink their name/ signature. A new simplified, though comprehensive books of accounts for SHGs has been prepared. It wascrucial that all BRLP staff get training on the same before rolling it out in the field. All the field staff of BRLPexcept from Purnia went through 7 days long training programme on new books of accounts, micro-planningprocess and banking activities. Due to flood-training could not be organized in Purnia.

Mainstreaming of the groups promoted by JEEViKA, particularly, linking the groups with bank is one of the

important component under the project. Till now, 779 groups have opened their bank accounts and out of them123 groups have been credit linked with a loan amount of Rs. 16.12 Lakhs. However, still there are 974 groups,which are more than 3 months old but not have been able to open their bank account. The project is indiscussion with 3 of the RRBs to have MOUs with them to smoothen the account opening and linkage relatedissues. The RRBs are more frequently present than any other bank in BRLP project districts. In addition to this192 groups have been provided initial capitalization fund (ICF) amounting Rs. 17.89 Lakhs.

Under the livelihoods component, project scaled up the already piloted System for Rice Intensification (SRI) withmore than 5000 farmers in 173 villages of Gaya and Nalanda. The scaling up of SRI is being done with the helpof 81 Village Resource Persons (VRPs) trained and promoted by PRADAN. These VRPs are providinghandholding support to the SRI farmers, who are collectively following this methodology in 1359.95 acres. Alongwith several other visitors, the Commissioner of Magadh Division and Senior Agriculture Consultant of Planning

Commission visited the SRI fields of BRLP. Another important methodological intervention being promoted byBRLP is Participatory Varietal Selection & Promotion (PVSP) in summer Moong. Through this method, new seedvarieties are introduced in the farmers field in a participatory manner. This was piloted with 698 farmers in 18villages of 3 blocks. Four nos. of composite varieties were identified namely K-851, HUM-1, PDM-139 and TM-9937 to conduct trials. It was found that the best variety was TM-9937 about 66% farmers got yield more than 12quintal per hectare, which is more than 4 times of local varieties (89% farmers of local variety got 2.1-2.8 quintalper hectare).


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There is no better livelihoods opportunity for the poor households other than getting a secured job. Regardingthis an agreement has been made with AeA for training and placement of 500 rural youths from Purnia district inservice sector. Similarly, discussion has been held with G4S to provide training and placement of projectbeneficiaries in security service domain.

The devastating flood of Kosi River affected millions of people in 6 Districts of North Bihar, particularly. TheBRLPS responded to the needs of the hour and extended its support to the district administration in Madhepura,Araria, Purnia and Saharsha District. BRLPS staff coordinated the rescue and relief operation and facilitatedformation of committees for managing different activities at Rehabilitation camps.


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I N T R O D U C T I O N

The end of the 4thquarter marks the completion of 1stone year of the JEEViKA. During the first year of the project, it haswitnessed rapid expansion in terms of both its geographical coverage as well as manpower, particularly during the last twoquarters. Around 61 % of field staff joined the project towards the end of the second quarter, while 26 % during the lastquarter of the year-1. Around 6 % positions of the BPIU are still vacant.

The project intervention began in 12 new blocks in the month of February; however, it took more than 3 months in makingthese units fully functional and operational. The newly joined staff had two weeks of field immersion, further two weeks classroom training subsequent to which training and exposure in Andhra Pradesh. Setting up offices, procurement of officeinfrastructures and other facilities took its own time--altogether no less than 6 months. Therefore, the take away point fromthis experience is that BPIU takes almost six months as incubation before they are ready to perform. Therefore,preparations for the IInd phase of the main project should start well in advance so that by Oct, 09 the staff are on board andBPIU is well equipped with systems in place.

PROJECT OUTREACHPresently, the Project is being implemented in 285 villages from 132 Panchayat of 18 blocks. There are 168319 HHs inthese villages from which 74919 has been identified as target HHs, which constitutes 44% of the total. Out of these 285villages 53 (19%) villages have been saturated i.e. more than 80 % of identified target HHs have been brought under the

fold of SHGs, and 25 of them have been handed over to CMs. About the size of the village, while the project started itsoperation with smaller villages during the beginning of the year and moved towards the bigger villages. During the Q-1 theaverage number of HHs in the entered villages were 287, which has gone up to 591 by the 4thQuarter. Also, the size ofvillages in Khagaria and Muzaffarpur appears to be much bigger than particularly Gaya and Nalanda.

S.N.Name-

DistrictsNo. ofBlocks

No. ofPanchayats

No. of Villagesentered

Total No. of HHsAv. No. o fHHs/Village

Total No. of Target HHs(identified)

% Targeting

1. M.pur 3 27 57 66322 1164 25065 38%

2. M. bani 3 31 34 33553 987 16081 48%

3. Purnia 3 21 31 22751 734 6358 28%

4. Nalanda 3 19 47 12099 257 6518 53%

5. Gaya 4 26 104 19343 186 12768 66%

6 Khagaria 2 8 12 14251 1188 8129 58%

Till 4thQTR( July- Sep,08)

18 132 285 168319 591 74919 44%

Till 3rdQTR( April- June,08)

18 132 269 111382 414 53349 47%

Till 2ndQTR(Jan-Mar,08)

7 79 138 60619 439 34259 56%

Till 1stQTR(Oct-Dec,07)

5 24 53 15224 287 4421 29%

PROMOTION OF SELF HELP GROUPS

Self Help Group is the primary community institutions, which the project is promoting. So far around 2432 groups have beenpromoted with the highest number of groups i.e. 530 in Gaya, followed by Nalanda with 470 groups. In terms of formation ofgroups Q-2 of the year 2008 has been very crucial, when more than half of the total groups were formed. This is the periodwhen not only newly recruited AC and CC joined the Project after the training on SHG but in the month of June,08 theexternal CRPs from Andhra Pradesh and Internal CRPs from BRLP project area worked intensively towards this.


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Until 30thSept, 07 (Pilo t Phase) Q-4, 07 Q-1, 08 Q-2, 08 Q-3, 08 Up to Q-4,08

236 132 145 1381 538 2432

As it is evident from the table, a large number of the groups have been

formed during the Q-3 in the year 2008. Therefore, these groups areless than 6 months old. There are only 513 groups, which are morethan six months old. Based on the socioeconomic condition, out of2432 groups promoted, 1797 are homogenous in nature and 633 areheterogeneous. Out of 283 groups graded so far 191 (67%) groupsturned out to be of A category.

SHGs MEMBERS-A SOCIAL PROFILE:

Out of 30498 SHG members, around 63% belong toscheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and extremely backward castes (EBC), which constitute socially and

economically marginalized sections of the society. If one includes the memberships of backward castes (BC) the figurebecomes 93%. The rest 7% belong to minority and general category. While SC and BC are spread across all the locations,EBCs are largely from Nalanda and Madhubani. Muslim members have significant share in Muzaffarpur and Purnia.

March-08 June-08 Sept-08Name of District s

No. % No. % No. %

Gaya 144 26 393 21 518 21

Nalanda 106 19 324 15 470 19

Muzaffarpur 76 14 220 12 369 15

Madhubani 100 18 274 17 391 16

Purnia 119 22 403 22 435 17

Khagaria 5 1 244 13 249 10

S.N.

MEMBERSPROFILE (%)

Purnia Muz Nalanda Mbani Gaya KgariaTotal

%

1. SC 2820 2800 2199 1909 4048 1210 14986 49

2. ST 533 00 01 00 00 00 534 1.7

3. BC 1845 705 1879 1368 2016 1267 9080 30

4. EBC 12 805 1099 1247 242 363 3768 12.3

5. Minority & General 535 650 162 450 206 127 2130 7

6. Total 5745 4960 5340 4974 6512 2967 30498 100


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VILLAGE ORGANISATIONThe village organization is the first level federation of the SHGs. Once in a village / hamlet more than 8 SHGs are formed ,the process of formation of next level institution starts. 8 -12 SHGs of avillage form Village Organisation (VO) in which 2-3 representatives ofeach SHG form the Executive Committee of the VO, and all themembers of SHGs become part of the General Body . As in the last

Quarter , the focus of JEEViKA has been the formation of good qualitySHGs in large number , the VO formation could not get a momentum .We formed 9 additional VOs during the last quarter. VO helps incollectively manage community services, bulk purchasing and decisionmaking. During the various meetings and trainings the SHG membersare introduced about the importance, objectives and roles andresponsibilities of the VOs. Out of 34 VOs formed, 24 have openedtheir Bank accounts and have mobilized around Rs. 59,020 asmembership fee and share capital.

Training to newly recruited DPCU officials, BPMs, AC and CC:

Newly recruited District level staffs, Area Coordinators and Community Coordinators were immersed in thevillages for 15 days that was followed by an intensive training about the project and Institution building aspects.The main objective of the Village immersion was to acquaint the newly recruited staff with the village life andmake them understand the socio-economic condition of rural poor households, better.

The new recruits were imparted training by the Training Cell Personnels at Patna in two batches. The specificobjectives of the training were:1. To enhance the knowledge about the SHG formation and its role in reduction of poverty.2. To learn about the process of institution Building and its best practices.3. To equip them with the training and implementation methodologies so that they can replicate the same training

with the SHGs and VOs in effective manner.

Village Immersion of Area Coordinators and Community Coordinators in Andhra PradeshAll existing 49 Area Coordinators and 226 Community Coordinators have undergone the Village immersion andintensive training on the process of Institution Building conducted by the Training Cells in Batches. After trainingthey were placed in their respective work stations where they have used their training knowledge and formedsome of the SHGs. Thereafter, after having a first hand experience in the social mobilization and group formationthrough the above process of village immersion and intensive training, 85 Area Coordinators & CommunityCoordinators were sent to SERP, Andhra Pradesh for Exposure visit for 18 days from 13thAugust 08 to 31stAugust 08.

PARTICULARS GAYA NALANDA MUZAFF. MBANI PURNIA KHAGARIA BIHAR

No. of VOs Formed 6 6 11 5 6 0 34

No. of SHG part ofVillage organization

54 73 114 51 78 0 370

No of VOs having BankAccount

6 4 6 2 6 0 24

Total individualmembers of VO

672 874 1390 481 1052 0 4469

Total Share Capital &membership mobili zed

13870 10750 10320 6220 17860 0 59020


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In Andhra Pradesh they were divided into smaller groups and were placed in the SERP operational areas wherethey interacted with the SHGs and Village Organizations. Main objective of the village immersion was to makethe new incumbents learn about the process of institution Building and its best practices. There they were sent toOrvakal (a District where the oldest federation was formed) and were provided with the chance to interact withthe best Community Based Institutions and their staffs. Exposure visit for next Batch of 285 AC & CC is due inthe month of November 2008.

Training cum v illage Immersion of DPCU officials and BPMs on Village Organisation.

All DPCU and BPIU staffs are involved in forming quality SHG and nurturing them through trainings andExposure visits. To initiate the process of village organization all the DPCU officials including DPC, DTC, DTOand the Block Project Mangers, altogether 23 staff, were sent to SERP from 13thAug 08 to 29thAug 08 toundergo the training on the process of Village Organization formation and their nurturing. The main objectives ofthe training cum village immersion were to equip the District Training Cell and Block level team with themethodologies on the under mentioned areas, so that they can replicate the same training with the ACs/CCs andthe SHGs and VOs in effective and efficient manner.

1. Importance and process of Village Organization formation.2. Understanding process of Conducting VO Meeting.3. Importance of subcommittee formation and their roles and responsibilities.4. Process of conducting appraisal by Village Organisation and importance of Book Keeping.

The entire training programme of 15 days incorporated field visits and interaction with the Village Organizationsand Mandal Samakhya of SERP.

External CRP Visit

6 teams of external CRPs from Andhra Pradesh visited JEEViKA to provide support to the field teams in establishingthe best practices in the Village Organizations. Each team was placed in the pilot blocks for 30 days and with theBlock team they were instrumental in nurturing the Village Organisation. The CRPs were involved in imparting trainingrelated to VO concept and forming the Sub-Committees and making them aware about the roles and responsibilitiesof the same.

CM Policy

Community Mobilizers (CM), preferably women, acts as facilitator for the self help groups. Their main responsibility isto facilitate meetings of the associated SHGs and writing theirbooks of records. These Community Mobilizes are fromthe community itself, identified by the community and works for the community. To achieve scale in the project,capacity building of Community Mobilizers becomes very important. Till Sep 08 the district wise CMs status isenumerated below:

PARTICULARS GAYA NALANDA MUZAFF. MBANI PURNIA KHAGARIA TOTAL

Number of BookKeepers/CM identified

66 40 54 33 59 13 265

Number of BookKeepers/CM trained

18 20 15 15 30 00 98

Trained bookkeepers/CM providi ngservices to SHGs

16 20 15 15 30 01 97

No. of SHGs in wh ichBOA are updated byCMs.

247 200 268 254 264 07 1240

SHGs/CM 15.4 10 17.86 17 8.8 7 12.78


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A separate policy guideline for the Community Mobilizers has been framed depicting the selection processes, roles

and responsibilities, training and payment of honorarium. As mentioned above,CM participate in all the weeklymeeting of the assigned SHGs and facilitate the meeting process with the timely updation of all books ofaccounts and both the activities are vital for graduating the SHGs towards strong institution. Hence, thehonorarium of CM is linked with the number of weekly meetings attended and weekly updation of all books ofrecord.

Deployment of PRPs from SERP

As per the contract Agreement with SERP one-one Professional Resource Persons (PRPs) have beendeployed in each DPCU. These PRPs are having long field experience of formation and nurturing the Villageorganisations and Mandal Samakhya in SERP, Andhra Pradesh. They will be working with the Field teams in thepilot blocks of JEEViKA for one year and support in creating strong Resource Villages with strong VillageOrganisations. These resource villages will become the training ground for other community Institutions createdin other blocks. Quarter wise PRPs Key Performance Indicators for one year have also been developed fortracking the progress.

Process initiated for taking up of t he WDC SHGs

As WDC is also operational in some of the 18 blocks where BRLPS has started their operations, need was felt tohave a strategic alliance between the BRLPS and WDC to overcome the issues of overlapping and duplication ofeffort in the same area. The MOU with the WDC has been signed and WDC has agreed to handover all the olderSHG promoted by their partners to the BRLPS. As per the strategy, meeting was conducted with the concernedNGO partner of WDC, WDC officials and BRLPS in Gaya, Khagaria and Nalanda. In the meeting, NGO headalong with the field level workers were also present and they are committed to support JEEViKA in working withthe SHGs formed by them. The meeting was also followed by the field visit in which JEEViKAs field levelCommunity Coordinators and Area Coordinators were introduced with the group of SHGs.

Development of Flip Charts on Social Mobilization and tr aining to SHGsTo impart the training to the SHGs and seek participation of the community, two sets of Flipcharts weredeveloped. These flipcharts were developed and finalized after conducting field test with the community. Someof the basic principles followed in the design of flipcharts are to give choices to the Community Coordinators /Area Coordinators for imparting training in the community.


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M I C R O F I N A N C E

FINANCIAL MAINSTREAMING OF SHGThe fourth quarter has witnessed intensive staff trainings, where a significant amount of time were devoted incapacity building of the staff. In addition, rigorous follow-ups were made with Bank officials and staff to co-

ordinate the process of Bank Account opening and Bank Linkage process. An entire month was solely devotedto Bank A/c opening of SHGs and Micro Plan preparation. As a result of this concerted effort more than 400Bank Accounts have been opened during the last quarter.

Banking Activity (SHG):

District-wise Progress in banking activity:

MonthNo. of

SHG

No. of SHGshaving

Bank a/c% Bank Linkage %

No. ofgroups

received CIFCIF

Up to June 1841 352 75 78 22 145 1237900

Up to July 2210 490 68 94 19 158 1457000

Up to August 2363 647 58 111 17 178 1802400

Up to September 2432 779 41 123 15 191 2002200

Distri ct No. of SHGNo. of SHGshaving Bank

A/C% Bank Linkage %

No. of SHGhaving

received CIF

Purnia 435 132 30 64 48 31

Khagaria 249 36 14 00 00 00Muzaffarpur 369 187 50 16 08 56

Gaya 518 241 46 34 14 36

Nalanda 470 110 23 5 05 33

Madhubani 391 73 18 4 05 35

TOTAL 2432 779 123 191


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Challenges in Dealing wi th Banks :Banks are still not very forth coming in opening of bank accounts and linking of groups. Different banks and theirrespective branches have different understanding and excuses for not opening SHG Bank Account. More overthese issues come in installments and varies quite widely across the banks. The challenges that were faced indoing business with banks are mapped below:

PROBLEM MAPPING OF OPENING OF BANK ACCOUNTS

Branch Manager Identi ty Proof SHG-ISSUES Bank Linkage Others

Branch Manager unaware aboutSHGs-- Acute shortage of Bankstationery-unavailability of formsbecomes a good excuse.

Voters Identity Card& Residential proofis to be endorsed byBDO

Representatives ofthe SHG are requiredto be literate personsor at least theyshould know to sign.

Denial of linkagedue to presence ofdefaulters in group.

Groupsperformancemade criterionfor openingaccount of SHG

The Branch Manager wishes toOpen SHGs account only whenBank has its MOU with BRLPS

Require residentialcertificate of all themembers

Group should be inexistence for sixmonths for Bank A/copening process

Stamp duty of Rs300.00 and 100.00as documentationcharges was takenfor Linkage.

Non inclusiondue to servicearea approach

Single officer branch is a majorcause for not opening Bank A/cof SHG.

Discrepancies inVoter Card commonissue (Name spellingmistake etc)

All members of SHGare called for Bank

A/c opening

Sometimes morethan 40-50signatures arerequired to get abank linkage.

To sort out the problem faced in carrying out banking activity a presentation of the problems were laid before theState Level Bankers Committees (SLBC) meeting and rigorous follow-ups were done with Bank Official atregional level as well as at the Branch level. In addition our staff have been given training on Know YourCustomer (KYC) guidelines which requires to be followed for opening of bank account.

Books of Record of SHGThe books of accounts of SHGs which were prepared in the previous quarter have been printed now, and areready to be rolled out by the end of September. A detailed roll out strategy had been framed, which entailsrigorous training to the staff of BRLPS. In turn these trained staff will provide training to Community Mobilizer andBook Keepers. A detailed plan has been worked out with them.

Capacity Build ing of Staff on SHG Books of Record and Micro PlanningBooks of account training has been organized forthe staff in three phases:

a. Capacity Building of D.P.C.U staff: Fourday training was organized at Patna in which

40 staff and 6 professional resource personsfrom SERP were given training on Basicaccountancy, Cash-Book maintenance,General Ledgers and Receipt and Paymentaccounts. Three case studies wereprepared to facilitate practical sessionsduring the training. On the fourth day


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training was provided exclusively on Micro Planning Process. The training on Books of Accounts of SHGwas imparted by External Resource persons who were also involved in providing technical support inpreparation of Books of accounts.

b. Training of BPIU Staff:Two days training was organized at district level for the Area Coordinators andCommunity Coordinators. This training was imparted by the training cell of each district. This training was

organized with the view to acquaint the staff with new books of accounts of SHGs and also to enhance thecapacity of training cell on the subject matter.

c. Training of staff on the Books of Account and Micro Planning Process:Seven days long training was organized for all the staff at district and block level. Training has beenorganized in six batches, each constituting of 40- 45 participants. The training has been imparted by a groupof external resource persons on Books of Account and the training on Micro Planning was provided byinternal resource persons. Till now, training has been provided to all the staff of Gaya (70 participants),Nalanda (43 participants), Khagaria (30 participants), Muzaffarpur (43 participants), Madhubani (45participants) and only 7 staff of Purnia district.

In the seven days training, Len-Den Prapatra, General Ledger, Saving and Loan Ledger and Receipt and

Payment A/c preparation was taught to the staff . Further to make them well versed in recording aspect, 4case studies were prepared and practical sessions were pressed in simultaneously. Besides, a detailedrolling out process was discussed with the staff to smoothen the process of rolling out of new Books ofaccounts of the SHG.

Together with the training on Books of Accounts, training on Micro Planning was taken up, in which theentire planning process was discussed citing examples from field. The process of need identification,investment plan and the processes involved in reaching to a solution at group level were also taken upthrough simulation exercises. Through these training inputs we are expecting a significant progress, wherein all the staff will be in position to take up Micro Planning exercise of the groups and significantdisbursement of CIF will take place wherever there is credit need in the groups.

FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

S.N.

Financial Heads Purnia Muzaff. Nalanda M bani Gaya Kgaria Total

1.C. Saving(Rs. Lakhs)

1640601 825762 801230 1640601 114374 4246195447187

2.Groups involved inInter-Loaning

370 317 423 347 466 216 2139

3. Members took loan 3163 1405 1985 3899 2349 1436 14237

4.C. amount inter-loaned

(Rs Lakhs)

2981288 870797 1091263 1644765 2357089 437945 9383147

6.On time Re-paymentRate (OTR)

84 93 93 87 85 94


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BANKING TRANSACTIONS:

CIF DETAILS GAYA NALANDA MUZAFF. M, BANI PURNIA KHAGARIA TOTAL

Amount (Rs. Lakhs)Disbursed ICF

2.44 3.19 7.66 3.74 2.98 0 20.02

No. of Groups receivedICF 36 33 56 35 31 NA 191

Av. ICF/Gr. 6.78 9.67 13.68 10.38 9.61 0 9.32

SHG members r eceivedICF

92 66 170 187 73 NA 588

AV. CIF/Member(Rs.thousand)

2.65 4.83 4.51 2.00 4.08 NA 3.33

No. of Groups submittedUC

29 26 48 20 35 NA 158

UC submitted (Rs. lakhs) 1.9 2.02 3.24 1.34 2.9 NA 10.98

Community investment fund is the amount of project money disbursed through micro-planning process. So far 145 groupshave gone through micro-planning process and have

received Rs. 12 lakhs as initial capitalization funds.Around 600 members of these 145 groups have beenable to take benefit of this fund at the first instance.Nonetheless, the members who took ICF at the firstinstance have started paying back. The returnedamount is being ploughed back to other members of thegroup, as well, both directly through SHGs and throughVOs.

The groups whose credit absorption capacity is morethan what they have received as CIF and internal savingcan be linked with Banks. Till now 78 groups have beencredit linked with Bank. The table below shows the

progress till June, 08.

S. N. BANK LINKAGES PURNIA MUZ NALANDA MBANI GAYA KHAGARIA TOTAL

1. Number of SHGsformed

435 369 470 391 518 248 2432

2. SHGs having BankA/C

132 187 110 73 241 36 779

3. SHGs CreditLinked with Banks

64 16 5 4.0 34 0 123

4. Amount (Rs.Lakhs) Loaned byBanks

6.97 2.74 1.35 0.75 4.29 0 16.1

5. Av. Lending /group 10.89 17.82 27 18.75 12.62 0 13.09

Though, the senior management of most of the banks has shown their willingness to give thrust to the SHG movement andprovide all kind of support; however, at the branch level it is not getting translated into action. Prima facie, this appears a


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case of lack of sensitization of bankers to the issues of SHGs. Some of the issues mentioned below are the obstacles thatare coming in the way to which we have to make an attempt to find a solution.

Bankers are finding difficulty to open the account of the SHGs on the following pretext:

1. Identity proof Most of the banks are reluctant to accept the endorsement of the Mukhiya as certificate of

identification.2.

Minimum Balance- Banks with core banking facility are asking for minimum opening balance of Rs.1000.3. Age of the groups-- Banks is reluctant to open account of those groups which are less than six month old.

Bank Linkage process is witnessing following issues :

1. Reluctance of the bank to lend a group where any of the SHG member family is having outstanding loans to theirname.

2. Many bank branches having minimum man power prevents them to take up visits to groups and taking initiative ontheir part.


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L I V E L I H O O D S

Scaling up of SRI (System for Rice Intensification):

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is one of the key livelihoods interventions, which was planned to scale upwith 2000 farmers. This was planned after the excellent performance of SRI during the pilot phase. During thepilot, the average paddy yield with SRI methodologywas 10 tones per hectare against the 3.3 tones perhectare of traditional practice.

During the last phase of season in 173 villages, SRIwas initiated with 5795 farmers comprising both SHGand non-SHG farmers of Gaya and Nalanda districts.The non SHG farmers are mainly from our targetcommunities and are from BRLP project blocks onlybut have not been brought under the fold of SHG. In

Gaya, SRI has been practiced in 5 clusters of all 4project blocks, while in Nalanda, it is in 4 clusters.

This scaling up of SRI would not have been possiblewithout the involvement of Village Resource Persons(VRP). This follows the principle of farmer to farmer extension model and is one of the low cost methodologythrough which technology is made available to the small & marginal land holders. Around 81 Rural Youths wereidentified and were given 4 rounds of training on SRI methodology. Many of them belong to the families who did

SRI in their field during the pilot phase.Different communication technologies likeaudio-visuals, Flex, Fur and sharing ofexperienced SRI farmers were used

extensively during the awareness campaigns.The payment structure of VRP for providingextension services was positively biasedtowards farmers belonging to scheduled casteand scheduled tribes and particularly towardsthose who were taking land on lease or doingshare cropping e.g. Rs. 35/ Month/HHs forSC/ST doing SRI on lease land/ sharecropping while Rs. 20 and 25 for general andbackward caste, respectively. Each VRP wasgiven the responsibilities to provide servicesto 30 to 120 farmers based on their skills and

abilities. Extension officers of the govt. dept. and scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra further strengthen theawareness process by visiting SRI villages during the campaigns.


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Current Status of SRI

The average acreage of SRI per household is around 0.28 acres in Gaya, whereas in Nalanda it is 0.17 acres.Due to flood water in Nalanda, around 285 farmers fields got inundated in water. However, efforts were made toreplenish the same through mobile nursery. A central nursery was prepared in relatively upland of Gaya, and itwas transported to Nalanda for transplantation. Presently, the average tillers in Nalanda & Gaya are around 40-50, however the maximum tillers observed, so far, are 70-80 and minimum tillers observed are 25-30.

Visitors to SRI demonstration Sites / PlotsConsidering the pilot success of SRI, many visitors including farmers fromdifferent areas visited SRI fields and interacted with the farmers. TheCommissioner of Magadh Division, Senior Agriculture Consultant ofPlanning Commission, Project Director ofATMA, Project Coordinator ofKVK, DistrictAgriculture Officer, Plant ProtectionOfficer, Field Officers of concerned districts haveVisited the SRI fields. Non GovernmentOrganizations and Private Companies suchas ASAand BASIX brought their farmers from Munger andGaya for exposure visit to the SRI fields in Gaya.

Impact of PVSP PilotingParticipatory Varietals Selection & Promotion (PVSP) was piloted with 698farmers belonging to SHG and non-SHG members in 18 villages of 3 blocks namely Bochaha, Dhamdaha andHarnaut of Muzaffarpur, Purnea and Nalanda districts respectively. The objective was to introduce & validate themethodology for selection of seed in a participatory approach. This selection is entirely based on the farmerspreference to experiment with a basket of choices before zeroing down to any particular variety. Three VillageResource Persons (VRPs) from Munger (where PVSP has been done for last 2 years) and 3 VRPs from Harnaut,Bochaha & Dhamdaha were identified & trained to implement the pilot and undertake the trials.

Moong (Green Gram) was selected for the pilot, as majority of the farmers practice Moong during the summerseason. Finally 646 farmers participated in the PVSP mother andbaby trial. Around 757 trials were conducted in 90 hectares of landwith 646 farmers. Four nos. of composite varieties were identified

namely K-851, HUM-1, PDM-139 and TM-9937 to conduct the trials.It was found that the most productive variety in the local context wasTM-9937 in which about 66% farmers got yield more than 12 quintal/Ha which is more than 4 times of local varieties (89% of farmers got2.1-2.8 quintal per hectare under the local variety). The next bestvariety was HUM-1 in which 50% farmers got yield more than 6.5 8 quintal per hectare. But varieties like PDM-139 & K-851 are sown

Districts No. ofVRP

No. ofVillage

Total SRIFarmers

SHG Farmers(Area-Acres)

N-SHGFarmers(Area-Acres)

Total Acresof SRIPaddy

Net Acres ofSRI Paddy

GAYA 57 143 4441 1827 (485.23) 2614 (740.38) 1225.61 1225.61

NALANDA 24 30 1354 869 (171.92) 485 (31.238) 203.16 134.35

TOTAL 81 173 5795 2696 (47%)(657.1) (48%)

3099 (771.62) 1428.76 1359.95


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slightly late & both were heavily prone to Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV). The maximum yield these twovarieties were around 5-7 quintal/Ha. Therefore the two varieties namely TM-9937 & HUM-1 have beenpreferred by majority of the farmers. It is also discussed among the farmers to promote these two varieties in thecoming years.

Capacity Building Programme on LivelihoodsA three days training programme was organized on Livelihoods Promotion & Market Development for the Block /Cluster level staffs with the help of MART. Two staffs from each district, who were taking interest in livelihoodsinterventions, were identified and sent to the Indian Institute of Training & Development (IITD), Kolkata for thetraining. The components of training comprises livelihoods promotion, local economy, marketing, rural marketstructure, marketing avenues for rural products, marketing plan, business plan, micro and macro livelihoodsplanning & strategies.

After the training programme, one month action plan was prepared by all the six teams for carrying out thelivelihoods activities in their respective districts. Some of major economic activities identified are goatery, piggery,milch cattle purchase & milk selling, incense sticks, grocery shops, stationery hawker, vegetable vending, etc.

In addition to this one day training cum orientation programme was organised on SRI in which 65 staffparticipated from Gaya & Nalanda.


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N O N F A R M S E C T O R

Partnership with Asian Heritage Foundation

Asian Heritage Foundation was founded by Shri Rajeev Sethiwho is a leading artisan designer, and noted internationally for

his contribution to preserving and celebrating South Asiasrich cultural heritage. Asian Heritage Foundation has -overthe years- worked in close cooperation with policy levelbodies such as the Planning Commissions Task Force onCreative and Cultural Industries, Local Self Governmentssuch as the Panchayati Raj , Khadi and Village Industries anda number of trading Organizations, Non-governmentalOrganizations and Civil Society Organizations.AHF had organized the Product Development Workshop withthe artisans in the Month of June 08 at Madhubani. As aresult, AHF has received an order for development of 1000 pieces of Modular wall paper painted in the form ofMithila Art. Therefore, 9 artisans have been selected as master trainers from 6 SHGs of one Village organization

of Ranti village in Rajnagar Block for the production of1000 pieces of Mithila art based modular wall paper. RantiVillage Organisation took the initiative and liason with theline department and PRIs to acquire community hall atRanti to be used as production center. Under thesupervisions of Village Organisation, these artisans havefinished the production of the 1000 pieces.

To develop understanding about process of formation ofProducers Group among the artisans, 5 days trainingprogramme have been planned at Patna from 7thNovember to 12thNovember 08. Some of the participants

will go for an exposure visit to see the artisans cluster developed by various agencies in different parts of India.

Expression of Interest has also been published in the leading newspaper to work on Incense Sticks, Sujni,Khatwa and Banana Fiber.

Livelihoods--Job Sector Initiative

In this domain, following progress has been registered.

An agreement has been made with Aid et Action (AeA) for training and placement of 500 youths from Purniadistrict in service sector. AeA has started initial workand has almost completed the study on employmentpotential as per the agreement. The work has beenlittle delayed against the schedule due to flood.

It has been planned to have a partnership with G4S

for training and placement of project beneficiaries insecurity service domain. G4S is a renowned securityservice agreement with its head quarter in UK


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S O C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T

1. Flood Relief Support WorkThe devastating floods of Kosi River affected millions of people in 6 Districts of North Bihar. The CEO, BRLPS

was placed as Special District Magistrate in Madhepura for two weeks. Using that as an opportunity, the BRLPSquickly responded to the affected families. The Staff of BRLPS extended their support to the districtadministration in Madhepura, Araria, Purnia and Saharsha Districts.

a. Coordination work:With District administration BRLPS staff coordinated the rescue and relief work. Theteam Facilitated formation of Committees for managing different activities at Rehabilitation camps. Anexternal assistance cell was set up at Madhepura to co-ordinate the activities of NGOs / external agenciesand also coordinated the relief material from the various agencies , companies & NGOs.

b. Website developed for separated families: A website with the help of SAFAL Solutions has beendeveloped to assist the SAMBAL Project of the Social Development, Govt of Bihar Project . The websitedetail may be seen on www.vikasdwar.com/floodsmissing

c. Flood Affected Area :Purnia, the one of the 6 project districts of BRLP which is affected from Floods. Allthree operating blocks of Purnia affected by this devastating floods. The total affected SHG is 200.Following flood relief activity has been undertaken for affected SHG members of Purnia:

1.

First Aid kit:All three BPIU teams have been given medicines, halogen tablets, and bleaching powderto provide emergency health support to the affected needy members. Small training was organised onuses of first aid medicines.

2.

Water and Sanitation training and support : Community being made aware on uses ofBleaching Powders, Halogen tablets and ORS .Around 5000 hand pumps has been made purified(drinkable) water through use of the bleaching powder. Through Community participation it has beenensured that more then 10000 halogen tablets were used properly and community also got benefited toget ORS access by the SHGs members within their Villages.

Liasioning with UNICEF and District Health Society:liasioning with the Unicef and DHS we got 13000 halogen tablets, 20 Bags Bleaching powder and 7000ORS bags and IEC to utilise the material properly.After educating the community and SHGs, BRLPS team distributed the material and ensured utilisationof the material.

3. Flood Relief materials: The BRLPS had received flood relief materials from various agencies anddistributed it among the flood affected SHG members.

4. Emergency and rescue support given to the affected SHG members: Our field team has shownsensitivity to help the community during emergency and rescue work done at village level. The team

provided moral support to keep patience during this critical period.


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2. Signature CampaignTo increase in number of making own signature instead of using thumb impression for all SHG membersbecame the focused activity during the quarter.

District No . member who could make their ownsignature by Last Quarter

Ach ieved Til l the date

Purnia 1056 1841

Khagaria 51 364

Muzaffarpur 558 1070

Gaya 580 1620

Nalanda 300 1062

Madhubani 94 1393

Total 2639 7350

3. Health Risk FundThe concept of Health Risk Fund introduced with Village Organization level in Bochaha, Dhamdaha, Harnautand Bodh Gaya BPIU. The project has decided to pilot it in three BPIUs. The Concept behind this fund is thateach woman in the SHG will have Monthly saving separately in the name of Health Risk Mitigation Fund and thissavings will be submitted at VO level in monthly basis and the project will contribute the fund against the savingsmade by SHGs at VO level. The amount of savings per members for health risk mitigation fund will be decidedby SHGs. This saving amount can be Rs. 5/- to Rs. 10/- per month per member.

Entitlements

A. Job Card : Job card campaign camp was organised with coordination of Block line department at BishanpurPanchayat of Dhamdaha BPIU. The concerned NREGS Block Program Officer and Panchayat samiti membersfrom the Government side and BPIU staff jointly organised the two days camp. The total number of turned outmembers were 375 and they have been given job cards through this camp.Different BPIU have also taken initiatives for mobilizing the SHG members for getting job cards.

Sl No. Districts No. SHG member received job cards Have bank A/C

1. Purni a (Dhamdaha) 375 98

2. Gaya (Bodh Gaya) 200 50

3. Madhubani (Rajnagar) 173 82

Total 748 230


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Social initiatives & Achievements:1. Community Bhawan of Jindapur Village have been handed over to the Sarvodaya Village Organsation,

Jindapur by BDO Bodhgaya.2. The Annapurna VO of shekhwara in Bodh Gaya BPIU has given application for old age pension and widow

pension.3. Sanitary latrine installation in Purnia district.

4.

Hand pump purification work has been initiated by the project staff in Madhubani district in our projectvillages.

1. Non negotiable Norms and VO level action plan:

Number of SHG have Decided their non negotiable Norms:

No. of VOs developed Action Plan on any social issues and got itimplemented.

District No. of SHGs haveNon- negotiable

Norms VO Formed VO have Action Plan

Purnia 93 6 4Khagaria 33 - -

Muzaffarpur 369 11 4

Gaya 40 6 5

Nalanda 220 6 2

Madhubani 58 5 -

Total 813 34 15

These are following issues on which these non negotiable norms have made by the SHG/VO:

1)

All children of SHG members to be sent to the

school/Baalwadi centre.2) All SHG members will learn to make their own

signature.3) All SHG members will always keep their house and

courtyard neat and clean.4) All SHG members will ensure to send their children

after taking them bath.5) Pregnant women will take complete immunization

and regular Ante natal check up.6) All children of age group of one year will be given

immunization.7) Social Committee will monitor the regularity of

children in the school.8) All common issues of the SHGs will be dealt by VO only.


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HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

During the last quarter, HRD team focused primarily on recruitment & rolling out the HRD manual. In additionsubstantial progress has also been made in staff capacity building and district mentoring initiatives.

A. Recruitment

On recruitment front, the HRD team has made the following progress.

S. N. LevelPositions Targeted during the

quarterPositions filled up during the

quarter% Achievement

1 SPMU 16 4 25

2 DPCU 23 6 26

3 BPIU 133 97 73

Total 172 107 62

During the quarter, two rounds of recruitment processes were conducted, through which 62% of the totaltargeted vacancies have been filled up. Six additional posts of secretarial support positions at SPMU have beencreated and approved by the EC taking into account the expansion of project work from 5 blocks to 18 blocks.Furthermore, to strengthen DPCU, 6 positions of Accountant cum Office Assistant at DPCU level have also beencreated. Out of remaining 65 vacant positions, advertisement has been floated for 9 positions at SPMU, 6positions at DPCU and 6 positions at BPIU. The project plans to complete all the recruitments by the nextquarter.

During the last quarter 33 staffs have left the society. Out of this 31 individuals have left or have been terminatedfrom BPIUs, mainly CCs and ACs; whereas SPMU and DPCU has registered very low attrition rate i.e. 1 at eachlevel.

The vacant positions are largely from reserved category. The experiences suggest that getting the right personfrom the reserve category for the management positions are very hard to find. So far the Society has completedthree rounds of recruitment for each of the positions, yet these positions are vacant. The society is seriouslythinking to bring in some required changes in the recruitment policy, wherever it is required. This becomes morethe important, considering the fact that recruitment process needs to be started at least six months before thelaunch of the 2ndphase. A preliminary discussion has been held over this particular issue, and preparation forthe same would start from December 2008 onwards. It is expected that the coming quarter would come out withthe following.

The Recruitment Policy incorporating learnings of the 1stphase experiences.

Identification and selection of agency for conducting recruitment.

Rolling out plan for conducting recruitment for various positions for existing positions and for 2ndphase of

the project.


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B. Rolling Out of HRD manual

Towards making the provisions of HRD manual operational, following progress has been made.

Committees at State and District level have been constituted for redressal of grievances of project

staffs. One such committee in each of the project districts and at SPMU has been formed. Thecomposition of these committees includes a female representative as well as representation fromST/SC community. A sensitization training for the all committee members will be done in the comingquarter.

For coverage of staff with Insurance benefit, an advertisement has been published seekingexpression of interest (EOI) from interested service provider agencies. It is expected that the processwill be completed in the coming quarter.

After introduction of the HRD manual and conducting HRD sensitization workshop in the last quarter,

certain feedbacks have been received. Based on it required addendum has been proposed anddiscussed. The addendum is related to expanding mobility support to the field staff, clarifying local

conveyance entitlements and addition in transfer policy.

C. Staff Capacity Build ing

Under this, major achievements have been registered under staff capacity building domain. They are asfollows.

CEO along with SPM-M&E, PM-HRD and PM-SD participated in Governance and AccountabilityAction Plan Workshop (GAAP) at New Delhi organized by the World Bank.

As per agreement with SERP, project staffs from DPCU and BPIU level participated in 20 daystraining cum exposure visit at SERP, Andhra Pradesh to learn the development dynamics andprocesses of forming as well strengthening Village Organisation.

1 DPC, 1 DTC, 3 BPMs, 7 Area coordinators along with 1 PM and 1 SPM participated in a 3 daystraining on small entrepreneurship development conducted by MART in Kolkata.

A twelve (12) days village immersion program for newly recruited AC and CCs conducted followed by

an Intensive Induction Training Program of nine days at SIHFW, Patna.


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Operationalization of field offices:

1) Furnishing and interior decoration of new office space of SPMU at 2ndfloor.

2) Establishment of 18 BPIUs and equipped all with basic infrastructure -

HEADS Requirements Gaya Nalanda Muz Mdh Purni a KHG

Office Set up 18 4 3 3 3 3 2

Furniture &Fixtures

18 Available Available Available Available Available Available

TelephoneInternet

18 2 1 2 1 1 1

Computer 36 4 3 6 2 6 4

Gen set 18 4 3 3 3 3 2

Operators 18 Available Available Available Available Available Available

Office Boy 18 4 2 2 2 3 2

Setting Up administrative systems at the field OfficesOffice-Orders and instructions have been issued for the regulation of various financial and administrative

functions of the office. E.g. Handing over charges, initiation for separation of office of DPCU for separate

accounting, manpower etc. A monitoring format has been designed for tracking administrative procedure.

The administrative reporting cycle from 26thof the previous month to the 25thof the current month has been

changed to 1stday to the last day of the month. A training has been imparted to the field staff for the filing system

and office management. Separate EPF account number for each individual staff has been also issued.


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M O N I T O R I N G A N D E V A L U A T I O N

Baseline StudyThe Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd. (AFC), New Delhi is conducting the Baseline Survey for the BRLPS.The baseline would establish bench-mark on the pre-project situation so that the progress could be trackedtowards the middle and end of the project. The survey work in both project blocks and the control blocks havebeen completed. They have submitted the final report for all the project districts except Muzaffarpur. The reporthas been also shared with district teams and a brief summary of the findings would be prepared to share with theother stakeholders.

MIS DevelopmentSafal Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Secunderabad has been hired by BRLPS to design and develop the MIS for the project.

The design of both first and second set of features of rural livelihoods software/application (RLMIS) has beencompleted. MIS system is installed in all 18 blocks. Training to key staffs in all six districts have been completed.Data Entry Operator in all the districts have also joined and they have been given training on MIS. In most of theblocks computer infrastructure, power back up support and other required infrastructure is also made available atthe BPIU and DPCU. A TOR for the IInd phase MIS support is ready and it would be shared with the world bank

during their upcoming mission.

PROCESS MONITORINGAn advertisement was given to invite expression of interest from different local and national agencies to conductprocess monitoring. 27agencies have applied for the assignment and six short-listed agencies were sent RFP,out of which 4 of them turned up for technical presentation. procurement process will be over by the end of thismonth.


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C O M M U N I C A T I O N

COM- Volume 1: SHGThe whole COM is divided into 4 volumes. The first volume of the COM deals

with various processes of village entry, SHG formation and other associated

processes. The designing, laying out and finally the print ready formats were

developed in-house. The procurement process for the printing has been

completed and it is sent to the printers. By October end it will be circulated to

all field staff.

Flip Charts for Social Mobilization & SHG Meeting Processes

The flip charts which are proposed to be used in the institution and capacity building processes in the community

have been developed. The flip charts have

been divided into two categories viz., Social

Mobilization and SHG Meeting Process. The

designing and laying out was completed in-

house. The first 500 copies of flip charts have

been received from the printers have already

been dispatched to all districts.

Printing of SHG Books of RecordsThe microfinance team has designed new books of

accounts. There are altogether 4 kinds of SHG Books

of Records- Transaction Register, Minutes Register,

Individual Pass Book and Saving & Loan Register. Thedesigning and lay out was completed. The first 2000

copies have been received from the printer and send to the districts for rolling out of the same.


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4th quarterly progress report of jeevika

Documents