03 Village Planning Report

8/8/2019 03 Village Planning Report

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Village PlanningEmpowering people through

self-help

Nchum Ovung

Katherine RandallPragya TanejaAsha Susan Titus

In collaboration with

Social Consultancy ServicesLucknow, Uttar Pradesh

For every childHealth, Education, Equality, ProtectionADVANCE HUMANITY

KCCI / 2007-03


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Disclaimer

The views expressed in this case study are those of the authors alone and do not necessarilyreflect the policies or the views of UNICEF and / or the Social Consultancy Services.

Design & Printing : Rajdhani Art Press | 98102 45301


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Table of Contents

11111

Acknowledgements 2Foreword 3

Acronyms 4

Executive Summary 5

Statement of Problem 6

Methodology 8

Background 10

Intervention 12

Objectives 12

Strategies 12

Activities 13

Actors 15

Outputs 16

Findings 17

Sunaura 17

Sironkhurd 19

Jamalpur 21

Dashrara 22

Impact 23

Analysis and recommendations 25

Service delivery 25

Social inclusion 28

Sustainability 31

Conclusion 35

References 36

Annexure 37


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Acknowledgements

The research team wishes to thank Mr. Syed Mohammed Baqar of the SocialConsultancy Services for his wisdom, his supervisory support and his good humour in

times of adversity; Mr. Shafqat Hussain, Mr. Sanjay Sharma and Mr. Amit Bajpai of

the Sarathi Development Foundation District Team for their hospitality, their guidance

around the villages and government offices of Lalitpur and for bearing with our

incessant demands; Mr. Akhilesh Tiwari, Chief Executive of the Sarathi Development

Foundation, Lucknow for his thorough and energetic introduction to village planning

and for feeding and housing us in his sparkling new offices; Mr. Rajib Ghosal, Mr.

Prosun Sen and others at UNICEF, Uttar Pradesh for setting our research and film

adventures on the right track; and finally the community members of Sunaura,

Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara and Bhadauna for their warmth, openness, enthusiasm

and generosity, and for opening our eyes.

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Foreword

The Knowledge Community on Children in India is a partnership between UNICEF and

the Government of India which aims to fill knowledge gaps and promote information-

sharing on policies and programmes related to children in India. In 2007, under the aegis

of this initiative, 57 graduate students from India and across the world visited and

documented projects focused on child rights and development. Their fresh perspectives,

commitment and hard work are reflected in this series of case studies, which are published

by UNICEF.

The case studies cover key sectors linked to children and development and address important

policy issues for children in India. These include: primary education, reproductive and

child health, water and sanitation, child development and nutrition, social exclusion and

village planning. Based on desk research and field work, these case studies tell the story of

innovations in service delivery, what works, why and under what conditions and put a

human face to the successes and challenges of development in India.

UNICEF recognises the potential and power of young people as drivers of change and

future leadership across the globe. As such, the KCCI Summer Internship Programme

also aims to develop a cadre of young research and development professionals withinterest, commitment and skills relating to child rights. UNICEF hopes to continue this

collaboration with young researchers, the Government of India, and various research

partners, so as to bring fresh perspectives and energy to development research and our

ongoing efforts towards the fulfilment of rights of women and children in India.

Representative

UNICEF India

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Acronyms

ABSA Assistant Basic Shiksha Adhikari (Education Officer)

ADO Assistant Development Officer

ANM Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (block and village level)

ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist

AWC Anganwadi Centre

AWW Anganwadi Worker

BCC Behaviour Change Communication

BCG Bacillus Calmette-Guerin

BDO Block Development OfficerBTF Block Task Force

BSA Basic Shiksha Adhikari (Education Officer)

CBO Community Based Organisation

CBT Community Based Trainer

CDO Chief Development Officer (Zila Panchayat level)

CMO Chief Medical Officer (Zila Panchayat level)

DM District Magistrate

DTF District Task Force

FGD Focus Group DiscussionHIV/AIDS Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-deficiency

Syndrome

ICDS Integrated Child Development Services

IFA Iron Folic Acid

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

NREG National Rural Employment Guarantee

OBC Other Backward Castes

PRI Panchyati Raj Institution

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

SC Scheduled Castes

SHG Self-Help Group

ST Scheduled Tribes

UP Uttar Pradesh

UNICEF United Nations Childrens Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

VP Village Planning

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Executive Summary

The village planning (VP) intervention is a government of Uttar Pradesh and UNICEF

initiative, implemented by the Sarathi Development Foundation in Lalitpur district of

Uttar Pradesh. It is a five-day participatory exercise which aims to empower the

community with the skills to identify the problems it faces and to build bridges to service

providers in order to solve those problems. With great justification, the VP intervention

is widely seen as a success.

Since the successes of village planning are extensively documented, the research team

set out to explore three questions that remain unanswered. These are:

1) Firstly, whether the success of village planning in generating demand for services is

matched by a similar improvement in service delivery?

2) Secondly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention extend tosocially

excluded groups?

3) Thirdly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention will besustainable

once UNICEF and theSarathi Development Foundation withdraw?

In summary, we found that VP has succeeded in generating an increase in demand for

services. As yet this has not been met by an equal improvement in service delivery. Any

future attempts to replicate this model should address service delivery vigorously from

the outset, seeking to integrate the government at all levels in the VP process.

The benefits of VP are not yet shared equally between all social groups in the villages.

Whilst women and girls have been empowered by the village planning process, members

of Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities have gained significantly less from the intervention.

There is a need for more focused attention and rigorous follow-up with ST communities.

There remain challenges to ensuring the sustainability of village planning benefits.

Integration with the government system at thePanchayat, block and district levels is

crucial to achieving sustainability. Similarly, intense follow-up with the Village volunteers,

Community-based organisations and frontline government workers in the immediate

aftermath of the five-day village planning exercise help to maximise benefits. In sum,

consolidation must be prioritised over coverage.

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Statement of Problem

The village planning intervention in Lalitpur is widely perceived to have been a success.

There is significant justification for this perception. VP seeks to effect change on 18 key

indicators, and its success in doing so, is impressive. For example, across the three

blocks (Birdha, Talbehat and Jakhaura) it has increased the number of mothers initiating

colostrum and breastfeeding from 39 per cent to 86.2 per cent; it has increased the

number of families consuming iodized salt from 15.4 per cent to 53.7 per cent; it has

increased the number of children (in the age group 14-18) with knowledge of HIV/

AIDS from nil to 41.3 per cent; it has increased the school enrollment of children in the

age group 6-14 years from 91.2 per cent to 98 per cent; and it has ensured that 36.7 per

cent (or 140 of 381) of non-functioning hand-pumps were repaired. From a baseline of

no schools providing hand-washing facilities with soap, it has ensured that 25 schools

have started providing such facilities. In the Birdha block alone, from a baseline of no

children having their births registered, it has ensured that 752 children were registered1.

In terms of qualitative data, the successes of village planning are easily identified through

Most Significant Change Stories. Here are two examples2:

Earlier everyone in theHarijan Basti in Menwar (Birdha block) used to consumeraw salt. Every household used to bring back one sack which used to last for almost

a year. Now more than 60 households have started consuming iodized salt in the

village. Meera was the first one who decided that her family would use iodized salt

only and as such she herself went up to Birdha block and bought two packets of salt.

. . Then she started the task of motivating other women to start consuming iodized

salt as it is healthier. . . Today Meera says that she doesnt find too much cost difference

in the salt . . . given that this salt also protects from many health hazards.

Shanaz never initiated colostrum feeding to her children as she considered her first

milk to be impure. However, when Taj was born and Afsana [Village volunteer]

reached her house at the time of delivery, she urged Shahnaz to immediately breastfeed

Taj. . . When Afsana insisted, citing reasons and quoting examples, Shahnaz gave up

her resistance.

66666

1 Source: Reassessment survey and Integrated village planning, Lalitpur district, a presentation by the

Sarathi Development Foundation

2 Sarathi Development Foundation, Annual Progress Report: August 2005 to July 2006 and August 2006

to October 2006 (Extension Phase), p. 25


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These quantitative and qualitative measures of success are recorded in the Sarathi

Development Foundations reassessment analysis and its annual and quarterly reports.

What is not recorded there is the fact that the village planning intervention in Lalitpur

has gained significant attention from outside organisations. For example, the World

Bank is interested in replicating the model as part of its UP Health System DevelopmentProgramme. Bank officials have met with UNICEF and Sarathi and visited Lalitpur

district, and are now involving UNICEF and Sarathi in the second phase of the project.

USAID has also shown interest in the model. Its partner organisation, Intra International,

has selected the Lalitpur village planning intervention to be evaluated for effectiveness,

replicability and sustainability under its evidence review process. Similarly, the National

Planning Commission is currently exploring whether this model can be replicated; given

the thrust on decentralised planning in the Government of Indias 11th Five Year Plan.

By almost any measure quantitative or qualitative, internal or external - the Lalitpur

village planning intervention can be seen as a success story.

However, these successes are well-documented, both by the Sarathi Development

Foundation and UNICEF, and by other outside organisations. The Research Teams task

in this report is not to provide another account of the successes of village planning.

Instead, it addresses three key questions about the village planning intervention, which

appear crucial to its ongoing success, and which remain unanswered.

1) Firstly, whether the success of village planning in generating demand for services is

matched by a similar improvement in service delivery?

2) Secondly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention extend tosocially

excluded groups?

3) Thirdly, whether the benefits of the village planning intervention will besustainable

beyond the period of UNICEFs funding and the Sarathi Development Foundations

involvement in the villages?

This report seeks to explore the answers to these three key questions through a case

study of four villages (Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur and Dashrara) in Lalitpur district.

The team has developed recommendations, which it is hoped may be taken into account

both in the future implementation of the project in Lalitpur and in the replication of the

model by other organisations, further afield.

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Methodology

In order to answer the three research questions, the team undertook ten days of field

work in Lalitpur, visiting the four villages mentioned above, which were selected on the

basis of the following criteria:

1) One village, where village planning had not taken place (Dashrara, Bar block);

2) One village, where village planning was carried out in the first phase of

implementation, July October 2005, and Response Planning had not taken place

(Sironkhurd, Jakhaura block);

3) One village, where village planning was carried out in the first phase and Response

Planning had taken place (Sunaura, Talbehat block); and4) One village, where village planning was carried out in the second phase, November

2005 January 2006, and where social exclusion was a concern (Jamalpur, Talbehat

block).

The team used quantitative as well as qualitative data to evaluate the three research

questions. For quantitative data, the source was reports provided by Sarathi and UNICEF,

in particular the annual and quarterly reports and the re-assessment rnalysis report3. For

qualitative data, a range of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools, including semi-

structured individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and dream-mapping

were used. The table below records all qualitative data collection.

Table 1: Details of qualitative data collection

PRA Tool Used With whom

Semi-structured ! Sarathistaff members (Lalitpur)

individual interview ! Pradhans (Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara)

! ASHA workers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd)

! Lady health visitor (Jamalpur)

! Anganwadi workers (Sunaura, Jamalpur, Dashrara)

! Anganwadi helpers (Sironkhurd, Jamalpur, Dashrara)

! Village volunteers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd, Jamalpur)

! Child reporters (Jamalpur, Sunaura)

! Other community members, including parents, adolescent

girls, women, children and representatives of STs

(Sahariyas), SCs (Ahirwar, Banskar, Rajak), OBCs (Yadav,

Kushwaha) and general categories (Thakur, Bundela)

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3

See References section for full details, p. 36


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! District Officials (CMO and BSA CDO and DM not

available) Block Officials (BDO, ABSA, ADO of Talbehat

block)

FGDs ! Womens Self-help groups (Sunaura, Sironkhurd)

! Pregnant and lactating mothers (Sunaura, Sironkhurd,

Jamalpur)

! Adolescent Girls Groups (Sunaura, Sironkhurd)

! Men (Sironkhurd)

Dream-mapping ! Children (Sahariya hamlet, Jamalpur)

In addition, the team observed the PRA techniques which Sarathi uses during the five-

day village planning process to understand the village and to encourage behaviour change:

in Sironkhurd, the team witnessed the use of participatory social mapping, chapatti

diagramming and a childrens rally. The second day of a three-day mini-planning exercise

facilitated by Sarathi in Badhauna village, Jakhaura block was observed, and a Talbehat

block task force meeting, chaired by the BDO, attended.

Research constraints

The team faced certain limitations. For example, though it benefited enormously from

having three Hindi speakers, in situations where respondents could only speak the local

dialect, some information and nuance was lost.

Since the team members were outsiders, it was not uncommon for community members

and frontline government workers to exaggerate in order to impress the team and ensure

that the community was perceived in a positive light. This made it challenging for the

team to uncover the facts in certain situations.

Given the fixed duration of the ten-day field trip, the team had limited time in each

village. This restricted opportunities for rapport-building with community members,

which was particularly problematic with adolescent girls groups, where the girls took

time to open up and discuss sensitive issues concerning menstrual hygiene, use of

contraceptives and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Being a film group, and needing to capture certain discussions and interviews on camera,

was a constraint on the research. The presence of the camera often intimidated

respondents, and determined the framing of their answers to questions.

Finally, the presence of Sarathi staff during some interviews and discussions may have

influenced the respondents to answer in a way that they believed would be acceptable to

the staff.

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Background

The Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh was chosen for the village planning intervention

in part because UNICEF had an existing presence in the district, but also because of the

particular challenges that Lalitpur faces. The district is over 300 kilometres from the

state capital, Lucknow. It is an isolated border district (see map on page 38), often

described as a teardrop of Uttar Pradesh in Madhya Pradesh. Agriculture forms the

backbone of Lalitpurs economy, but the district suffers from acute water shortages and

regular droughts, this in spite of its seven irrigation dams. In terms of transport, the

district has a poor road network and poor public transport. Government officials perceive

Lalitpur to be a punishment posting; there is rapid turnover of government officials at

block and district level and the district suffers from large numbers of vacancies for

frontline workers.

On key social development indicators, Uttar Pradesh performs worse than India as a

whole on almost every measure:

Table 2: Key Development indicators: Uttar Pradesh and India

INDICATORS4 India Uttar Pradesh

PovertyPercentage living below the poverty line 26.1 31.2

Infant Mortality Rate

Number of babies per 1,000 born alive who die before aged one 63 80

Immunization

Percentage of children fully immunized 44.0 28.7

Malnutrition

Percentage of children aged under 3 who are underweight 47 52

Water

Percentage of rural households using protected water 73.2 85.5

SanitationPercentage of rural households using toilets 21.9 19.2

School attendance

Percentage of children aged 6-10 attending school 82.3 80.1

Literacy

Percentage of population over 7 years who are literate 65 56

Birth registration

Percentage of children aged under 5 who are not registered at birth 65.3 93.5

1010101010

4

Data source: UNICEF, Mapping Indias Children: UNICEF in Action, pp.62-63


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Similarly, Lalitpur district performs worse than Uttar Pradesh as a whole on almost

every indicator (see Table 3). Most notably, Lalitpur has the dubious distinction of being

the district with the second highest rate of child marriage in the whole of India, behind

Tonk district in Rajasthan.

Table 3: Key development indicators: Uttar Pradesh and Lalitput district

INDICATORS5 Uttar Pradesh Lalitpur

Infant Mortality Rate

Number of babies per 1,000 born alive who die before aged one 83 85

Maternal Mortality Rate

Number of mothers per 100,000 who die during childbirth 707 800

Age at marriage

Average age in years 19 15

Exclusive Breast-feeding (EBF)

Percentage of mothers practicing EBF for first 6 months 56


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Intervention

Objectives

UNICEF believes that some previous interventions have not had the desired impact

principally because of a failure to achieve necessary levels of community ownership. As

a result, the village planning intervention was developed with the aim of bringing the

various sections of the community together, developing a common understanding of the

problems facing the village, and planning the necessary action to be taken by the

community for its own socio-economic development.

The key objectives of the VP process are twofold: to empower the community with the

skills to identify problems facing it on an ongoing basis, and to build the capacity in the

village to bridge the gap between the community and the service providers to solve

those problems.

Fundamentally, the VP intervention represents a demand-creation approach to

development. It rests on the sound assumption that members of the community are best

able to identify the problems facing them and to make demands of those whose

responsibility it is to deliver services to the community. This approach follows from a

recognition that the era of the supply approach has passed. Now is the time to empower

community members to change their own behaviours and to demand and realise their

rights to access the services to which they are entitled.

In addition, village planning seeks to address issues across sectors in a convergent manner.

In this, it is unique when compared to the vast majority of other interventions, which are

perceived to deal with issues within one sector (for example UNICEFs Quality Education

Package, the government of Indias Total Sanitation Campaign, etc.).

Strategies

The development of the village planning intervention should not be seen in a vacuum.

The 73rd Amendment (1993) provided constitutional status toPanchayati Raj institutions.

This ensured decentralisation of power to local self government institutions and facilitated

a bottom-up decision-making process in India.

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Furthermore, recent development theory, championed by Robert Chambers at Sussex

Universitys Institute of Development Studies, advocates for a shift from a top-down to

a bottom-up approach to development. In his bookRural Development: Putting the Last

First, Chambers argues that development practice needs to start from the point of view

of poor peoples experiences. This movement finds resonances in the work of AmartyaSen who, in his book,Development as Freedom said that the people have to be seen, in

this perspective, as being actively involved given the opportunity in shaping their

own destiny, and not just as passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development

programs. The village planning intervention fits squarely within this thinking by aiming

to empower community members to identify and solve the challenges facing their

communities.

Activities

The village planning process is divided into three phases: the pre-planning phase, the

planning phase itself and the post-planning phase.

Pre-planning phase

In the pre-planning phase, a zero day visit is carried out by a team from Sarathi. During

this day-long visit, a socio-economic overview of the village is conducted, rapport is

built with local service providers and thePanchayat(local self government), a friendly

environment is created in the village and local catalysts are identified. Various tools are

used during this visit including a transect walk, focus group discussions, childrens rally,

hamlet and community meetings and individual contact. A tentative schedule for re-

visit is agreed upon.

Planning phase

The Planning phase is an intensive process carried out in a village for a minimum period

of five days and nights. The Sarathi facilitators use a wide variety of participatory tools

to engage with and understand the community and its needs. Each of the five days has

many specific objectives and expected outcomes. At a high level, these have been

summarised by Mr. Akhilesh Tiwari (Executive Director of Sarathi) as follows:

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Day 1: Familiarisation with the community (including a village transect, village

rally, school andAnganwadi visits, village meeting, hamlet meetings etc)

Day 2: Collection of qualitative and quantitative data (involving the village youth

in conducting a house-to-house survey)

Day 3: Analysis of data (compiling household survey information and sensitisingthe villagers on the key findings)

Day 4: Initiating System Development (establishing a womens self-help group and

an adolescent girls group to carry forward behavioural change work)

Day 5: Developing a Village Action Plan (community members develop a plan on

the basis of the village planning process- identifying the problems facing

them, possible solutions and allocation of responsibility for follow up action)

At the end of Day 5, the Village Action Plan is painted on a wall in a central location in

the village and the responsibility for it is formally handed over from Sarathi facilitatorsto the Gram Panchayatin a village meeting. During this meeting, four to five Village

volunteers are identified by the community to drive forward change in the village.

Post-planning

After the five-day village planning intervention, the crucial work of follow up begins.

This takes some specific forms (set out below) and a number of more ad hoc forms:

! Village volunteers undergo a five-day training programme intended to build their

capacity to perform their new roles in the village;

! Sarathi holds Reflection Meetings for groups of volunteers at the cluster level on a

monthly or bimonthly basis;

! A village information centre is established holding a pool of information at the

community level;

! One of Sarathis field coordinators visits the village every 2-3 months to meet with

the volunteers and community based organisations, to help follow up the Action

Plan, and to liaise with the frontline government workers in the village;

! Approximately one year after the village planning intervention, a re-assessment

analysis is performed to measure progress against the 14 indicators (See Table 4);

! In some villages, an intensive two-day Mini-Planning exercise is carried out some

time after the village planning intervention to identify new issues that have arisen in

the village;

! At cluster level, Response Planning takes place identifying common needs (p.34).

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Actors

UNICEF

The UNICEF Office for Uttar Pradesh has funded the village planning intervention,

from January 2005 to December 2007, when the intervention will enter phase-out. The

Lalitpur intervention is part of a broader UNICEF India initiative to implement village

planning in 17 key districts across the country.

Government of Uttar Pradesh

The village planning intervention is a joint initiative of UNICEF and the government of

UP. The UP government is not funding the initiative, but supports its implementation.

Sarathi development foundation

Sarathi is implementing the village planning intervention in Lalitpur. This NGO has a

team of 17 personnel based in the district, who train the volunteers, facilitate the village

planning process, provide follow up in the villages and work with all levels of government

officials.

Village volunteers (orBal Bandhus friends of children)

The Village volunteers, selected for their enthusiasm and ability to communicate, form

the backbone of this intervention in the villages. Gender balance and representation of

the various communities within the village is ensured amongst the volunteers. Volunteers

are responsible for driving forward progress in behavioural change and service delivery

after the five-day VP exercise.

Womens self help groups and adolescent girls groups

These two Community based organisations are formed on the 2nd or 3rd day of the village

planning process. They are created to help further behavioural change work at the family

level.

Community based trainers

Certain Village volunteers are selected to become Community based trainers, undertaking

a 12 day training course including 5 days in the field. They are then ready to be volunteersin their own villages and to facilitate the VP process in other villages.

Field coordinators

Field coordinators are Sarathi employees responsible for facilitating the post-planning

phase. In each block there are 4-5 field coordinators, who visit each village around once

every two to three months. At village level, they are responsible for meetings with village

volunteers and CBOs, following up the action plan and liaising with frontline government

workers in each village. At cluster level, they facilitate reflection meetings for village

volunteers.

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Outputs

From the re-assessment survey conducted in 151 revenue villages, the following are the

overall outputs against 14 key indicators in all three blocks of Lalitpur district, where

village planning has so far taken place.6

Table 4: Findings from the reassessment survey7

# Indicators Baseline End line

1. Colostrum and Breastfeeding 39.0% 86.2%

2. Full Immunization 39.9% 49.4%

3. Education (6-14 years) 91.2% 98.0%

4. Use of ORS 24.0% 40.7%

5. Knowledge of HIV/AIDS (14-18 years) N.A. 41.3%6. Child Marriages 56.0% 55.4%

7. Institutional deliveries 19.1% 28.8%

8. Use of Iodized Salt 15.4% 53.7%

9. Hand washing behaviour (ash/soap) N.A. 66.4%

10. Hand washing behaviour (only soap) N.A. 33.3%

11. Access to sanitation facilities 9.9% 15.1%

12. Use of toilets 39.2% 62.4%

13. Access to safe drinking water source NA 50.9%

14. Birth Registration 0 66.4%

6 Source: Integrated village planning, Lalitpur district, a presentation by the Sarathi Development

Foundation. The above table is based on the results from the Reassessment Exercise conducted in 151

villages covering 12 Nyay Panchayats across three blocks. The data was presented to Government officials

during the Cluster Response Plan meeting.

7 For the Sample, refer to Annexure B. The sample was chosen in order to understand the status of the

most disadvantaged sections of society so may underestimate the outputs of VP for all sections of

society.

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Findings

The tangible outputs of the VP intervention observed in each of the four sample villages

are stated below.

Sunaura

Sunaura appears to be a model village in terms of the progress of the VP intervention. It

has an active Information Centre at the heart of the village, which was used regularly by

the Community based organisations for their meetings. The Information Centre houses

a detailed village file (containing a compilation of household surveys, names of

volunteers, names and backgrounds of school children and all other VP information), an

elaborate social map, a copy of the Action Plan and, crucially, a change map. The change

map was used to monitor progress against ten indicators for every household in the

village. It visually illustrated that the households making the most progress were those

of the girls in the Adolescent Girls Group, but it also clearly showed the lack of progress

in the Sahariya hamlet.

There was an active and knowledgeable Adolescent Girls Group. The group had divided

village households amongst themselves for the purpose of sharing critical behaviourchange information. The most significant obstacle to the girls education was the fact

that the junior school was several kilometres away, and parents were hesitant to send

girls to school alone. But in the group, there were girls who cycled their way to school

and were quite determined to finish their education. Two girls in the group who had

dropped out of school after the 8th grade were encouraged to start alternate education in

sewing and embroidery for which they now travel to another village.

Most significant change

Anoop, a child reporter for theBalvani magazine generated as part of this project,

narrated how prompt action was taken after his drawing was published showing the

local school teacher asleep at his desk. The volunteers and community members

marched to the block level offices to agitate and a new teacher was soon appointed.

The Womens self-help group held bi-monthly meetings to which the ASHA and the

Anganwadi workers were invited. The members vocally expressed how VP has infused

in them the courage to work with and speak with men, even though initially, they had

been silent spectators at VP meetings. They were keen to become a thrift and trade

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group and a couple of them had received training in Chennai on sanitary napkin

production.

Most members of the CBOs felt that the important changes brought about by VP include

hand washing with soap; before VP, ash or mud was used (see Table 5 a leap from 0

per cent at the time of the baseline household survey to 32 per cent in the re-assessment

of September 2006); the increased demand for iodized salt leading to greater availability

in the village (8.7% to 57.1%); and the spread of awareness of HIV/AIDS (nil to 90%).

Improvements in service delivery include the increase in birth registration (the efforts of

the village volunteers have led to the two-year backlog being cleared, taking birth

registration from nil to 100%) and the repairing of hand pumps enabling more families

to access safe drinking water.

Table 5: Sunaura-change indicators

# Indicators Sunaura8

Baseline % Endline %

1 Total households 150 100 70 46.7

2 Children in age group 0-6 months 46 - 5 -

3 Colostrum and breastfeeding 27 58.7 4 80

4 Children in the age group 0-1 year NA - 14 -

5 Birth registration 0 0 14 100

6 Children in the age group 0-3 years 55 - 24 -7 Full immunization 43 78.2 15 62.5

8 Children in the age group 6-14 years 131 - 70 -

9 Enrolled in school 117 89.3 69 98.6

10 Children in the age group 14-18 years NA - 30 -

11 Knowledge of HIV/AIDS NA - 27 90

12 Total marriages in the last 2 years 21 - 0 -

13 Child marriage 11 52.4 0 0

14 Families having access to

safe drinking water source NA - 70 100

15 Deliveries occurring last year 46 - 9 -

16 Institutional deliveries 6 13 6 66.7

17 Use of iodized salt 13 8.7 40 57.1

18 Toilets 1 0.7 1 1.4

19 Use of toilets 1 100 1 100

20 Hand-washing (only soap) NA - 23 32.9

1818181818

8

Source, Sarathi Development Foundation, A Brief Report on re-assessment analysis


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While the success stories are enthralling, a visit to the villagesSahariya hamlet shows

a stark contrast. Knowledge of critical information among pregnant women (like

frequency of check-ups and vaccinations during pregnancy, necessity of exclusive

breast feeding) was negligible and most did not use the services of theAnganwadi

Centre. Of the sevenSahariya households, most could not remember the VP exercisewhich took place eight months earlier and none could identify the issues on the action

plan. For several months each year, the Sahariya families migrate to construction

sites outside the village for wage labour, which exacerbated their isolation from the

rest of the village. Despite being entitled to them, they did not have ration cards and

were just beginning to receive Employment Guarantee cards that ensured access to

the governments NREG Scheme.9

Table 6: Sironkhurd-change indicators

# Indicators Sironkhurd


1 Total households 235 100 98 41.7

2 Children in age group 0-6 months 19 - 7 -

3 Colostrum and breastfeeding 5 26.3 7 100

4 Children in the age group 0-1 year NA - 21 -



7 Full immunization 34 37.8 22 48.9


9 Enrolled in school 184 71.6 103 100

10 Children in the age group 14-18 years NA - 31 -

11 Knowledge of HIV/AIDS NA 0 28 90.3


13 Child marriage 9 39.1 0 0


safe drinking water source NA 0 97 99


16 Institutional deliveries 8 11 5 23.8

17 Use of iodized salt 78 33.2 96 98

18 Toilets 95 40.4 77 78.6

19 Use of toilets 39 41.1 70 90.9

20 Hand-washing (only soap) NA 0 34 34.7

9 National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme ensures 100 days of work at Rs. 80 per day for each

family.

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Sironkhurd exhibited several benefits of VP, but overall, the planning exercise did not

appear as dynamic as in Sunaura and the ongoing success of VP seemed to rest largely

on the shoulders of a single volunteer.

Members of the womens group identified several benefits of VP, in particular, that theyhad become more outgoing and aware of behaviour change issues such as exclusive

breast feeding, sanitation and hand washing. Despite this, there was an acute lack of

critical information among pregnant and lactating mothers. The level of involvement of

women in the VP process was unclear. This was evidenced by the fact that, in spite of

the severity of the problem of lack of institutional delivery services for women (with the

nearest hospital being 10 kms. away), this major issue did not appear on the village

action plan.

Most significant changeIn the wake of the awareness generated by village planning, the Adolescent Girls

Group in Sironkhurd had succeeded in mobilising the village to prevent a 16-year

old girl, Shivani, from getting married.

The women and girls together sang songs and performed skits relating to behaviour

change communication. However, compared to Sunaura, the group lacked role clarity:

the girls did not visit households to disseminate information and were unable to answer

critical questions.

As in other villages, the discussion with men about the benefits of VP suggested a lower

level of involvement. They spoke about changes in women and childrens behaviour

without mentioning any change in themselves.

Direct benefits of VP could be seen in the ST hamlet of theSahariyas. They described

how the issue of improper drainage around their hand pump was taken up and fixed

during VP with the involvement of thePradhan and the Village Water Committee. This

contributed to the overall improvement in access to safe drinking water in the village

from nil to 100 per cent. Use of iodized salt and hand washing were the other behaviour

change practices adopted by the ST community.

One of the reasons for optimism for the future of VP is the fact that the village boasts an

extremely active and committed volunteer. Malkan enjoys immense popularity among

the villagers and gets enormous support from them. Added to this, he has family

connections to thePradhan. Although thePradhan, her husband (thePradhanpati) and

thePanchayatSecretary appeared to have participated very little in the VP process and

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to have very low levels of interest or knowledge about the issues on the action plan, the

volunteers links to thePradhan raise the hope for greater integration in the future between

demand generation and service delivery at the village level.

Jamalpur

The five day VP exercise in Jamalpur was conducted in November 2005 in the first

phase of the district wide intervention. Jamalpur suffers from acute water shortages and

consequently, poor harvests. Poverty is rampant in the village and is not limited to the

Sahariya (ST) population, who migrate in search of work, often taking their families

with them.

Jamalpur has a sizeable Sahariya population and was chosen in order to study the

difference that VP makes to socially excluded groups. The village is split in two by themain Jhansi road leaving the Sahariya hamlet on one side isolated from the services of

the main village on the other. The Sahariya women travel 1 kilometre for water as the

authorities lack the will to extend the water pipes to the other side of the road. Sahariya

parents are hesitant to send children across the road to the primary school: two children

died last year in road accidents and several were beaten up on their way to school.

Shivakuwar Sahariya, one of the more educated girls of the village (currently in the 10th

grade), who is now a village volunteer, has been running an open school for theSahariya

community children. The VP initiative bolstered her efforts by providing slates, mats

and charts for the children.

Sarathis reassessment data suggest that changes in behaviour have been the most

significant impact of VP. Exclusive breastfeeding has increased from 33.33 per cent to

84.62 per cent, use of iodized salt from 6.90 per cent to 77.93 per cent, use of toilets

from nil to 42.86 per cent and hand-washing with soap from nil to 44.83 per cent.

Improving service delivery remains a challenge, as evidenced by the dismal 14.48 per

cent of households with toilets and only 29.63 per cent of deliveries take place in hospitals

because of the difficulties of finding transport to travel the necessary 14 kilometres.

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Table 7: Jamalpur-change indicators

Indicators Jamalpur


1 Total households 145 100 145 1002 Children in age group 0-6 months 3 - 13 -

3 Colostrum and breastfeeding 1 33.3 11 84.6

4 Children in the age group 0-1 year 8 - 68 -



7 Full immunization 11 57.9 43 71.7


9 Enrolled in school 88 96.7 134 98.5

10 Children in the age group 14-18 years 39 - 71 -11 Knowledge of HIV/AIDS 10 25.6 21 29.6


13 Child marriage 3 100 6 85.7


safe drinking water source 64 44.1 113 77.9


16 Institutional deliveries 1 33.3 8 29.6

17 Use of iodized salt 10 6.9 113 77.9

18 Toilets 5 3.5 21 14.5

19 Use of toilets 0 0 9 42.9

20 Hand-washing (only soap) NA 0 65 44.8

Most significant change

TheAnganwadi Worker described the enormous difference that village volunteers

made to her work. They help to mobilise the community and persuade those in the

SC and ST communities of the importance of using her services. Crucially, they

continue to help weigh all the children, enabling her to give tailored advice for

children of different malnourishment grades.

Dashrara

This village, where VP did not take place was chosen for comparison purposes to

understand better the impact of VP. Women in this village had a weaker understanding

of issues related to health and pregnancy, sanitation, exclusive breast-feeding and other

behaviour change issues. They admitted that no daughter or daughter-in-law in the village

had passed high school, except theAnganwadi Worker (AWW) and that theKushwara

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community marries off their girls between the ages of 7-11 years. However, the women

seemed unable to reflect on traditional practices or to see any need to change them.

The adolescent girls of Dashrara are shy and those registered to assist theAnganwadi

Worker do not visit the Centre. The mobilisation and tapping of human resources thathas occurred in villages where VP has taken place, through the creation of Community

based organisations, was clearly lacking in Dashrara.

The major problems in the village were similar to those in the other villages: water

shortages, long distance between the village and the nearest hospital; migration of SC

communities to neighbouring states in search of work and a consequent neglect of

childrens education and immunizations. Although the AWC was in the process of being

constructed, the village AWW was an impressive and credible post graduate, possessing

critical information. The ANM also had a very good reputation and the governmentinfrastructure was well used by the village. This evidence of functional systems in

Dashrara, make it an ideal site for VP intervention in the next phase.

Impact

Ideally, it would be expected that the impact of village planning is that community

members are equipped with the skills to identify the challenges facing their community,

and empowered with connections to the service delivery arm in order to solve them. Yet,

in fact, the impact of VP is much broader and often much less tangible than this.

Undoubtedly, VP has had a huge impact on generating demand for services. Various success

stories such as the appointment of new teachers, installation and repairing of hand-pumps,

scaling up registration of births and increasing the enrollment in primary schools- all

highlight the success of VP in grassroots demand generation. But the more significant

impact lying behind demand-generation is the ability of the community to identify, analyse

and own challenges facing the village. It is this ability, fostered by the five-day stay of the

VP facilitators in the village, which is one of the lasting impacts of the intervention.

Changes in behaviour are another lasting impact of the VP intervention in these villages.

Critical information was far more widely understood by community members where VP

had taken place, and access to this information had clearly brought about impressive

changes in behavioural patterns. In particular, the significance of the use of iodized salt

was very well known among all community members. Similarly, awareness of the causes

of HIV and its transmission was pervasive, save for members of the ST communities.

Both the communities awareness of HIV and their willingness to discuss it without

significant inhibitions are testament to the powerful impact of VP on this significant

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area of behaviour change. Unfortunately, understanding of the importance of exclusive

breast feeding and critical information pertaining to the health of pregnant and lactating

mothers was more tenuous. It varied significantly between the villages and also between

the different communities of each village: perhaps testament to the strength of traditional

beliefs about mothers first milk.

The impact of village planning in empowering women and adolescent girls within their

communities was impossible to miss. The women of Sunaura talked explicitly of their

new-found courage to speak to and work with men in the village; the women of Sironkhurd

spoke of being more outgoing as a result of the intervention. Comparing the adolescent

girls of Dashrara with those of the villages where VP had taken place, a clear contrast

emerges. This is a significant impact of VP, and its effects should not be underestimated.

VP has also bolstered the cohesiveness of the different groups within the community.

By establishing accountable actors in the village volunteers, by involving the children in

the process of knowledge dissemination, by using the youth to conduct the household

survey, and most importantly, by establishing Community based organisations to shoulder

the responsibility of carrying forward behaviour change, VP has been extremely successful

in fostering a sense of togetherness within each of these groups. Ultimately, it is not just

togetherness within these groups that is important, but also convergence between them

in working towards common goals. However, sights like childrens rallies, monthly

meetings of adolescent girls groups, discussions of womens self help groups, speak of

the impact of VP in instilling unity and purpose in each of these groups. This is clearly

an important step towards convergence between the groups.

As well as convergence of actors, village planning achieves convergence of sectors: health,

education, nutrition, development and child protection. By their very nature, behavioural

change issues connect different sectors which are usually dealt with in a compartmentalised

manner both by development agencies and by the government. For example, exclusive breast-

feeding engages questions of child nutrition and child health (traditionally mothers first

milk is considered unclean, so the child is fed with goats milk or water, risking infection).

Similarly, prevention of child marriage engages concerns of child protection, girls education,

household work, maternal and child health (increased risk of complications in early pregnancies).

Within the five-day village planning intervention, the villagers are educated about issues

from all sectors, given an opportunity to evaluate the services of all sectors and devise

solutions to all problems faced. The platform of village planning enables issues from all

sectors to be dealt with holistically making clear the links between them. Besides that, by

devising forums such as Block Task Force (BTF) and District Task Force (DTF), where

different departments such as ICDS, Health, Development and Education meet, village

planning also attempts to fight the challenge of silo-working in the government.

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Analysis and Recommendations

We turn now to analyse the findings from the field in relation to the three key research

questions.

Service delivery

Village level

For the villages as a whole, it is evident that village planning has undeniably encouraged

significant behavioural change among the villagers. This is true not just for the four

behavioural change indicators (exclusive breast-feeding, use of iodized salt, HIV/AIDS

awareness and hand-washing with soap), but also in relation to various services. For

example, usage of toilets has increased in each village as a result of the intervention and

demand for the construction of new toilets has increased. Similarly, demand for

institutional delivery has increased, as has demand for birth registration.

However, important though these changes are, generating demand for services is only

half the battle. Ensuring an equal and opposite improvement in supply of services is

also essential, if village planning is not to be just a recipe for raised and disappointed

expectations. For example, despite the hype of the governments Total SanitationCampaign, toilet construction came across as one of the most intractable government

services. A combination of cost of construction and long-winded procedural formalities

for construction meant that the coverage of toilets had barely increased from 0.7 per

cent to 1.4 per cent in Sunaura and from 3.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent in Jamalpur. The

success in Sironkhurd, unfortunately, seemed like something of an outlier with coverage

increasing by nearly 38 per cent to 78 per cent10. Similarly, despite the demand for

safe institutional deliveries, the distant location of hospitals and the difficulty of

procuring transport at night made meeting this demand unlikely. Finally, while the

demand for birth registration has increased, there were a few cases where the issuing

of birth certificates was obstructed at the village level. For instance, despite being

provided with a list of children to be registered four months ago, thePanchayat

Secretary of Sironkhurd, who resided in the Lalitpur district, had still failed to take

any action to register the children.

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10

See output tables, p. 18, 19 and 21


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Given the challenges of official-turnover at block and district level, the village level is the

most crucial in ensuring effective service delivery and achieving integration between village

planning and the government system. It appears the most important factors determining

service delivery at the village level are the active involvement of thePradhan and his

committee members in village planning and the functioning of the six committees: Water,

Health, Education, Construction, Development and Planning. In all three villages, all but the

Construction Committee (which deals with considerable amounts of money) were defunct

and thePradhans openly admitted that most committee members do not even know which

committee they are members of. Also, thePradhansknowledge of village planning was

superficial and did not extend to any knowledge of the issues on the action plan.

Recommendations

! ThePradhan and the members of all six committees should be explicitly and

publicly involved in the village planning process.

- Warm-up meetings should be held between Sarathi and thePradhan and

members of the six committees during the zero day exercise to explain their

role in village planning.

- During the five-day process, groups of villagers should meet thePradhan

and committee members as they meet other government service providers.

! ThePradhan and committee members need to be educated about the government

welfare schemes to which the villagers are entitled. They must be clear about

who is entitled to the schemes and how to achieve access, so that they can join

with Sarathi and the volunteers in sharing this information with the community

during village planning and while working to achieve access afterwards.

If thePradhan is to take a more prominent role during village planning and in its follow

up, certain capacity-building steps need to be taken. ThePradhans met by the team had

painfully low levels of knowledge about the villages they represented, yet this would be

easy to rectify, as the volunteers and frontline government workers often had access to

all crucial information.

Recommendations

!

ThePradhan must be provided with the village statistical data compiled by thevillage volunteers during the village planning exercise. On an ongoing basis,

volunteers along with frontline government workers (AWW, ANM, headmaster,

etc.) should update thePradhan on the progress made in their areas, so he is

equipped with an updated picture of the village.

! Sarathis initiative to begin training forPradhans in the next phase of village

planning is to be commended and, again, should be started at the beginning of

any replication of the model. In addition, a forum forPradhans to share

experiences and best practice in relation to village planning would be an important

innovation.

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Block level

The Block Task Force (BTF)11 is the block-level body charged with overseeing the village

planning intervention. There are various concerns associated with the overseeing body

being a time-limited task force, rather than the permanent structure of the Block

Development Council, but in the short term, this should succeed in ensuring focus on VP.

However, the BTF which is supposed to meet each quarter has only met twice in the two

years that village planning has been existing. The agenda of the third meeting of the BTF

held on 5th July 2007 (and attended by the research team) was to review existing challenges

and set targets for the next six months. Although many challenges were noted by officials

from the relevant sectors, little was achieved in terms of target-setting. Unfortunately,

government officials seemed to view village planning as an NGO initiative, without

seeing the burden on themselves to partner with that NGO in ensuring effective delivery

of services and integration of village planning into the government system.

Recommendations

! BTF meetings must be held regularly and frequently in order that effective working

relationships between Sarathi and block officials can be developed and built

upon.

! Visits of block level officials both to see village planning in action and to watch

the training of village volunteers should be actively encouraged. Sarathis

initiative to hold volunteer training at block offices to facilitate this, is much to

be commended.

! In addition to the volunteers, villagePradhans should be encouraged to participate

in BTF meetings. This will help in building relationships between the village

and the block; it will also make the Pradhan upwardly accountable for the progress

of VP in his/her village.

District level

Recommendations

! Visits of district level officials both to see village planning in action and to watch

the training of village volunteers should be actively encouraged.

! The active engagement of Sarathi staff with the constantly changing district

officials is to be commended. Timely orientation of new district officials,

combined with visits to see VP should help to engage the individuals as well as

the system at district level with VP.

! The process of elevating service delivery concerns to the district level through

the Response Plans must be made robust.

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11 Membership includes the BDO, ADO, ABSA, MOIC, Child Development Project Officer (CDPO)

ICDS, Junior Engineer Water Works Dept.


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The prime challenge at the district level is the frequent transfer of district officials. The

District Magistrate has changed four times and the Chief Development Officer thrice

since September 2006. Also, between the start of village planning in Lalitpur in August

2005 and July 2007, the district has had three BSAs and five CMOs. Such high transfer

rates account for low levels of awareness of VP among district officials and necessitatea cumbersome and recurring task for Sarathi of orientating new officials. However,

more important than engaging the individuals is the challenge of engaging the system at

the district level. As yet, there have been only two meetings of the DTF in two years12.

The process of elevating service delivery concerns from the village and block level to

the district level should be institutionalised, so that it is not disrupted by changes in

district level personnel.

Social inclusion

Villages in Lalitpur are ridden with old social hierarchies and caste equations that can

tip any development process, if not carefully negotiated. The dominant castes areBundelas

and Brahmins; Lodhis, Yadavs and Kushwahas constitute the intermediate or Other

Backward Castes (OBCs);Ahirwars, Banskars Dhanuks, Basrohs, Khatiks, Bednis,

Balmiks andKoris belong to the Scheduled Castes (SC); whileKabutraras and Sahariyas

are classified as Scheduled Tribes (ST).

This section will address the impact of VP amongst the Sahariya13 community, in

particular. Along with theKabutraras (who were not represented in our sample villages),

Sahariyas are usually landless, always live on the fringes of their villages and are

considered to be indifferent to immunization, nutritional advice and standard education.

Through this focus on Sahariyas, we seek to make recommendations about larger

questions of inclusiveness and participation.

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12 DTF membership includes the DM, BSA, CMO, District Project Officer - ICDS, and the Exec Engineer

Water Dept.

13 The population of Sahariyas has been estimated to be around one hundred thousand in Lalitpur and

they also form a sizeable social group in some districts of MP and Rajasthan. They do not possess

sufficient agricultural land to earn a livelihood from, so they augment their income by collecting minor

forest produce. Sahariya women with loads of fire wood on their heads on their way to sell them are a

common sight on roads. The depletion of forest cover had driven this historically exploited community

into wage employment, particularly in stone mining. When stone mining activity ceased, it resulted in

the collapse of their economic opportunities in Lalitpur, causing them to migrate to nearby districts for

several months in a year.


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Volunteers

! More concentrated capacity-building efforts need to be focused on ST

volunteers. The separate training for ST volunteers proposed by Sarathi for

the next phase of the intervention is crucial and should be included from the

outset when replicating the model

village planning makes it a top priority to address social exclusion by selecting volunteers

from each of the different social groups in the village. Identification of an ST volunteer

is a hugely important symbolic step and is crucial to ensuring that the community has a

link to VP. However, the success of a volunteer is largely dependent on the amount of

support they receive from their community, and ST volunteers often receive little

encouragement from their community. Sarathi pointed out the huge disparity in

Sironkhurd between the amount of support the community-based trainer enjoys (also

because he is related to thePradhan and some co-volunteers), and the volunteers from

the Sahariya hamlet who struggle even to be recognised.

Involvement and ownership

Despite having a volunteer from their own community and despite village planning

being by its very nature a participatory process, a sense of involvement in or ownership

of the VP process by the ST community was acutely lacking. Certain ST community

members were not sure that they had been present in the village at the time of the five-

day VP intervention. The ST community members memories of the five-day process

were, if anything, of people coming from the main village to explain things to them

(behaviour change communication). There was no sense that the Sahariyas had

themselves gone to the main village to participate in village-wide activities and, with

one exception, no ST community members could identify any issues they had raised for

the village action plan.

Recommendations

! Ensure that the five-day VP process takes place when theSahariya community

is present in the village and not migrating in search of work. This is the most

basic barrier to their identification with the process.

! Strongly encourage ST community members to participate fully in village-wide

activities. Whilst recognising that they are unlikely to feel able to speak up, atleast ensure that they are present as a step to engaging the less powerful and the

more powerful in the same socio-political space.

! In this way, balance prescriptive and participatory elements of VP with respect

to the Sahariya population, so that VP is not solely associated in their minds

with exhortations to change behaviour.

! During the five-day VP exercise, more time needs to be devoted to identifying

issues with the Sahariya community. If real needs are identified, the chances

of the community identifying with and taking ownership of the Action Plan will

be significantly increased.

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Behaviour change

In the Sahariya hamlets of Sunaura, Sironkhurd and Jamalpur, the levels of knowledge

about HIV/AIDS, use of iodized salt, exclusive breast-feeding and other behaviour change

issues were painfully low. This would not have been helped by the manner in which

critical information was communicated, or by the lack of ST involvement in theCommunity Based Organisations (CBO)that drive forward behaviour change.

Recommendation

! At the risk of heightening traditional social fissures, the merits of establishing

separate CBOs in the Sahariya hamlet should be considered on a village-by-

village basis and particularly, where there is a sizeable Sahariya population.

This may help to address the inadequate behaviour change trends and engender

a sense of participation.

Service delivery

In all three villages, ST community members were less likely to access key services. In

Jamalpur, the Anganwadi worker suggested that it was their ignorance and lack of

education, which meant that they did not understand the significance of the AWC services

and failed to send their children to the AWC. Similar arguments were made in Sironkhurd:

it seems that service providers blame the STs for their lack of service access. Equally,

ST community members were unlikely to have access to the numerous government

schemes whose benefits they are entitled to. The government of India has an elaborate

array of social welfare schemes, which prioritise socially excluded groups, yet these

groups very rarely realise their rights to access these schemes.

Recommendations

! More efforts need to be focused on breaking down the barriers to ST community

members accessing key services; more efforts need to be focused on frontline

service workers reminding them of their duty to provide services for all.

! village planning must place more emphasis on educating thePradhan, volunteers

and community members on the government schemes whose benefits they are

entitled to.

! To prove what VP can accomplish for ST community members, Field

Coordinators should press for speedy sanctioning of ration cards and employment

guarantee (NREG) cards and encourage the community to advocate for access

to other schemes as a step towards addressing livelihood issues.

Follow up

Since it appears to take longer to generate in the ST community a sense of involvement

in the VP process by way of the ability to identify issues affecting them and an

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understanding of how to solve them, the post-planning phase becomes more crucial for

this community. Follow-up must not be limited to further advocating the need for

behaviour change.

Recommendations

! The post-planning stage needs to be vigorous in the ST hamlets. Field

coordinators and volunteers should engage the community on a regular basis in

identifying new issues and proposing solutions. In this way, this crucial skill will

be instilled in the community members and the ST volunteer, so that ultimately

they can run the process on their own.

Sustainability

Discussions of sustainability must take into account the different perspectives of the

funders, the implementing NGO and the community. Given that village planning has to

continue to be successful, once UNICEF concludes its funding and Sarathi withdraws

from Lalitpur, it must be the communitys perspective on sustainability that takes

precedence. The sustainability of the village planning intervention rests on the shoulders

of the Community based organisations and the Pradhan and village committees,

encouraged by the volunteers.

Community based organisations

Community based organisations should be at the heart of the VP process. These are

grassroots institutions with potential for collective action and huge responsibility rests

on their shoulders for pushing for follow up to the actions on the Village Action Plan

and driving forward behaviour change in the village. The Womens self-help groups and

the Adolescent Girls Groups can point to some considerable successes, but we came

across several groups that lacked clarity of role and purpose.

Recommendations

! More focus is needed on the CBOs, both in the five-day VP exercise, and in the

work of the field coordinators in the post-planning stage. Specific tasks (be they

household visits to communicate behaviour change information, monitoring

progress and charting it on a change map, following up actions on the village

action plan, etc.) need to be assigned to the CBOs early, on so they fully understand

their purpose, and they need to be trained to carry out these tasks. Functionality

of CBOs needs to be regularised across villages.

! Womens self-help groups should be encouraged to take on new roles, for example

as thrift and trade groups supported by NABARD, or as Mothers Support Groups

supported by ICDS. Such new roles will bolster their sense of identity and purpose

and ensure that the group continues to function.

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Monitoring progress

Monitoring progress should be an important component of the work of the CBOs. The

change map used by adolescent girls in Sunaura was an impressive example of the role

the CBOs could take in the monitoring progress. It had many benefits, among them

engendering competition between the girls to ensure their own household was seen tobe a success and creating incentives to communicate critical information to the households

for which they were responsible. Change maps have been used on and off by Sarathi

during the course of the VP intervention.

Recommendations

! Change mapping is critical to monitoring progress and celebrating the successes

of VP. It is a useful tool to generate enthusiasm for the benefits of VP.

! Sarathi should design a suitably complex change map (along the lines of that

used in Sunaura) that measures progress in each household against a number ofindicators. The CBOs in each village should be made responsible for regularly

monitoring and recording change on the map.

Dynamism

With the exception of the village volunteers and some CBO members, most community

members, including thePradhan, could not recall the issues on the Action Plan. Usually,

VP is equated with encouragement of behaviour change and only when prompted, did

some of our respondents remember that the Action Plan was painted on the village

walls. What seemed to us a very visible call to action may have been seen by the

villagers as no more than another IEC (Information Education Communication) notice

painted on the walls.

The greatest risk of the Action Plan is that it becomes a static document when it needs to

be part of a dynamic process. For example, the first issue on the Sironkhurd Action Plan

concerned the AWW coming late to the village every day. The proposed solution was for

someone to explain to her the importance of coming on time. When the AWH was asked

whether this had worked, she hesitantly said that it has not changed a thing. The nature

of some of the solutions is such that though they are accomplished, the root cause of the

problem may not have been solved. In the same Action Plan, it was noted that the children

in the village are weak in their studies. The solution was to hold a joint parent-teacher

meeting in the presence of thePradhan. Though the community members said that this

had taken place, they found it difficult to say with any certainty whether it had improved

the situation.

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Recommendations

! When the Action Plan is painted on the wall, blank rows and columns should be

added. The community can use these rows to record the new issues they identify

and the columns can be used to record progress against actions. In this way the

Action Plan becomes not just a relic of a five-day intervention, but the focus of

a dynamic and ongoing process of issue identification and solution.

Consolidation

It is critical to the success of the VP initiative to have time for thorough follow-up in

each village. Simply drafting an Action Plan and setting up CBOs in a five-day

intervention is not sufficient to ensure that the long-term aims of VP are met. The priority

should be for consolidation over coverage, to ensure that full benefits are gained from

the resources invested in VP. Those villages which had experienced thorough follow-up

in the first phase clearly show the benefits of this approach.

Recommendations

! It is crucial to slow down the implementation of village planning in Lalitpur.

Rushing to complete 365 villages in the remaining 3 Blocks (which are more

backward than the district hub) in the next four months seems counter-productive.

! More time and resources should be invested in timely follow-up with each village

after the five-day VP intervention. More focus should be put on the important

role of field coordinators in encouraging volunteers, working to embed CBOs,

liaising with frontline government workers and driving progress against the Action

Plan.

Integration

Critical to the sustainability of this project is the degree to which it is successful in

integrating with existing government systems. Most issues raised by the VP process are

capable of being tackled at the village level: integration at the village level should

therefore, be the top priority.

Recommendations

! The sixPanchayatcommittees need to be strengthened and used as the appropriate

forum to follow up sectoral issues from the Action Plan and any further issuesthat arise in the post-planning phase.

! Village volunteers and CBO members should be encouraged to be active in the

localPanchayatmeetings, which are the best forum for discussion of the issues

raised in VP and beyond. This will engender a culture of participation in the

local governance system and strengthen grassroots democracy, as well as effecting

integration of VP into the government systems and thereby, preventing parallelism.

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As noted in the previous section, in all the villages visited, most of the localPanchayat

committees were defunct as a result of which important local issues like health and

education do not get discussed, although the resources for the solution of most problems

are well within reach. However, it is far from impossible to revitalize these committees.

In Sironkhurd, the village volunteer has succeeded in arranging a special meeting of theeducation committee on 9 July 2007. This is the season of school re-opening and

admissions and the meeting agenda was to discuss the denial of school admission to

children without birth certificates. ThePanchayatsecretary is also invited so that he can

facilitate the issuing of the certificates from the block level on the spot.

Response planning

Response planning is an exercise undertaken to consolidate village action plans at the

cluster level and identify common and specific issues across the cluster. The issues that

need funds and responses from beyond the village are then tabulated and presented tothe block level officials for further action. Response Plans are crucial in facilitating

communication with the block and district levels, by translating the mass of village-

level information into neat cluster-level tables that block and district officials can easily

digest. It is a key tool in opening dialogue with the service delivery wing. So far, Response

Planning has been completed for 12 clusters covering 151 revenue villages.

Recommendations

! Response Planning needs to take place much sooner after the village planning

intervention. In this way, it can form the regularised mechanism to feed back to

the block and district level officials the service needs at the grassroots and facilitate

more rapid response on behalf of the government.

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Conclusion

Having considered the three key questions, the conclusions arrived at by the research

team are as below.

Social inclusion remains one of the key challenges to the success of village planning.

Traditional hierarchies in the villages are slow to change. Despite inclusion of all

groups being an inherent feature of the design of village planning, lack of ownership

of the village planning process by socially excluded groups (especially, STs) remains

a significant impediment. Focused attention and more rigorous follow-up with these

social groups are required to ensure that the benefits of village planning are sharedequally by all.

Village planning has been very successful in generating demand for services on the part

of the community. But this increased demand still needs to be met by an equal and

opposite improvement in supply. Sarathi is now making considerable strides to address

the challenge of inadequate service delivery (for example, cluster level response planning,

meetings of the block and district task force), sensitive to the dynamics of the relationship

between an NGO and government, but there is still a long way to go. Any future attempts

to replicate this model should address this vigorously from the start, making every attempt

to integrate the government at all levels in the work of the intervention.

Integration with the government system is ultimately what will determine the

sustainability of the intervention. Success in this will ensure that village planning moves

beyond being a project to being an empowering and sustainable approach. Intensity of

follow-up with each village in the immediate aftermath of village planning is crucial to

making this approach self-sustaining. Given this, attempting to cover over 300 villages

in the most backward blocks of the Lalitpur district in four months (as required by the

December 2007 deadline for all seventeen village planning districts) risks not realising

the full benefits of the investment in the intervention. Consolidation must be prioritised

over coverage.

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39/46

Annexure I

A: Map of Lalitpur district,UP

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40/46

B: NyayaPanchayats - At a glance

S No Name of Nyaya Number of Number of Total HHs HHs %age

Panchayat Gram Revenue Covered

Panchayats VillagesBirdha Block

1 Birdha 8 14 3377 1226 36.3

2 Jeeron 4 10 1337 484 36.2

3 Dongrakala 7 19 2370 872 36.8

4 Simardha 6 17 2180 377 17.2

Jakhaura Block

5 Nanaura 7 13 2761 1236 44.8

6 Lagaun 7 12 2451 976 39.8

7 Sirsi 5 8 1948 755 38.78 Thanvara 5 9 1896 678 35.7

Talbehat Block

9 Sunaura 5 13 2033 885 43.5

10 Banguankala 7 12 3698 824 22.3

11 Pooravirdha 6 11 3154 1118 35.4

12 Servaskala 6 13 2784 1113 39.9

TOTAL 73 151 29989 10544 35.1

Sample of Reassessment Survey - A Brief Report on Reassessment Analysis, Sarathi

Development Foundation, 2006

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3939393939

C

:Excerptfromanactionp

lanJamalpur

S

No:Issue

Problem

Reason

Solution

P

rogress

Forwhom

DeadlineResponsibility

Monitoring

Authorities

Concerned

1

Drinking

Nodrinking

Pipelineis

Pipelineto

T

hePanchayat

Community

19.11.0

5

Prakash

Pappu

Government,

water

water.

notlaiddown

coverthe

h

aspassedthe

Pradhanpati

(Prem

Panchayat,

completely.

entirevillage.resolution.

Narayan)

UNICEF

Waterfrom

OldtankstoP

roblem

thehandpump

berepaired

b

roughttothe

driesoutfrom

ornewonesn

oticeofthe

January

tobebuilt.

w

aterworks

onwards.

d

epartment.

Only3of24

F

undshave

handpumps

b

een

work.

s

anctioned.

2

Secondary

One

Shortageof

Teachersto

P

anchayatand

Children

30.11.0

5

Education

RajaBhaiya

ABSA

school

headmaster

teachers

beappointed.theEducation

committee,

teacher

andonepara

c

ommittee

Pradhan

teacherfor

w

ouldadvocate.

443students.

The

Thereisa

Newschool

childrenfrom

highway

tobeopened.

theSahariy

a

betweenthe

hamletdon

t

villageand

gotoschoo

l.

theschool

Drinkingwater

Nodrinking

Boringhas

Drinking

A

pplicationto

29.11.0

5

Sonia,UmaDevi

Jitendra

ABSA

inJuniorand

waterfor

beendone

watertobe

b

esubmittedto

secondaryschools.children

thriceinthe

made

theABSA.

childrenhave

secondary

availabletoE

ducation

togobackhome

schools,but

thechildren.c

ommitteeto

ortoawell

thereisstillno

Handpump

c

onsiderthe

situated50mfrom

drinkingwater.tobe

m

atter.

theschool.

repaired.


42/46

4040404040

S

No:Issue

Problem

Reason

Solution

P

rogress

Forwhom

DeadlineResponsibility

Monitoring

Authorities

Concerned

3

Anganwadi

Childrenare

Childrenare

Children

P

arentsand

Children

25.11.0

5

JaipalSingh,

Manoj

Panchayat

notbeing

malnourished.

shouldgotoA

WWtohold

Panchayat

weighed

fiveoutof28

the

a

meeting.

childrenare

Anganwadi

underthird

centreon

gradeof

timeandthe

malnutrition.

AWWto

weighthem

ontime.

4

Toilets

Problems

Notoilets.The

Construct

T

hose

Community

Pancha

yat

Pradhan

Panchayat

Block,

experienced

existingtoilets

propertoiletsinterestedtoget

toprop

ose

(UmaDevi)

members

UNICEF

duringnigh

ts

arenotusable.

withwater

toilets

afterBlock

supply

c

onstructed

gives

s

houldgive

directions.

theirnamesto

thePradhan

5

Birthcertificate

Children

Thereareno

Birth

P

anchayathas

Children

Indefin

ite

Pradhan,

Community

Block

dont

birth

certificates

a

skedthe

secretaryand

members

haveidentity

certificates

tobeissuedsecretaryto

community

issuethem


43/46

Thematic Area

Education

Specific issues

In village Sunauri 336

children, in the absence

of primary schoolbuilding, are left with no

option but to sit in

PanchayatBhawan

building having a

capacity of 3 small

rooms where an

Anganwadi centre is

also functioning

Children in village

Piprai are required to

travel a distance of 5-6

kms. to reach the upper

primary school

! There is one

headmaster and 2 para

teachers for 336 children

in Sunauri (112:1)

! In Hasguan there is

only 1 para teacher for

92 children

After a gap of two

academic years the

children in upper

primary school

Radhapur have finally

got a teacher posted in

their school but the

classes are still being

organized in primary

school building

Common issues

In spite of well

intentioned efforts only

93.1% children in theage group 6-14 years

could be enrolled in

school

In primary schools 1837

children are enrolled in

the academic year 2006-

07. For all these children

the opportunities for

higher learning is

restricted to only 04

upper primary schools at

the cluster level

Although at the cluster

level teacher: student

ratio is 1:45 yet there are

number of schools

where quality of

education is suffering

due to absence of

teachers

Proposed Solutions

! Primary school

building has been

constructed but has notyet cleared quality check

inspection. BDO would

write to the educ

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03 Village Planning Report

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