ACTIVITY REPORT // BHARATPUR 2012 - 2013

All images and text Copyright 2013 Womens Action For Development // wafdindia.org No part of this publication, or any part of the contents therein may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Executive Director, Womens Action For Development. REGD. OFFICE: WZ-34/5, Asalatpur, A-2 Janak Puri, New Delhi - 110058 // (91) 11.2561.0344 wafd@wafdindia.org PARTNERS: Students Union, University of Jyvskyl // jyy.fi INSEDA // inseda.org

Foreword
The success of an organisation is measured in terms of sustainability of the activities by the people without anymore support from the organisation. After more than seven years of implementation of programs in the EVD project, WAFD is not active there anymore, but some of the women leaders trained in the different villages are now slowly taking over the task of motivating people to take up organic farming, make their own organic compost, or get biogas plants constructed - thus testifying to the success of WAFD in the villages in and around Bharatpur. WAFD has trained 4 women to take up this work and they are independently taking meetings, guiding other leaders who are not so confident and motivating people. WAFD is currently providing only background support in the form of arranging meetings, arranging conveyance etc. This work is being carried out with small grants from the Students Unions of University of Jyvskyl, Finland.

Zareen Myles, Executive Director, Womens Action For Development

About WAFD // 5 Eco Village Development // 6 Stories from Bharatpur // 7 Activities: April 2012 - March 2013 // 8 Action Plan 2013 // 12

About WAFD
Womens Action For Development (WAFD) was registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 (Registration No. 9670 dated September 18, 1978) as an endeavour of committed socially responsible people. WAFDs vision, mission and philosophy are based on the belief that women are central to any sustainable development efforts. Women have to be recognised asthe primary stakeholders in their own development and growth. The role of WAFD becomes that of a facilitator to equip the women for creative action through participatory implementation, management and maintenance, so that ultimately they can take over these projects.

One of WAFDs volunteers with a bar of home-made soap 5

Eco Village Development

WAFD, with support from University of Jyvskyl, Finland ( JYY), had been working on the Eco-village Development (EVD) project in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, from 2002 to 2009. From 2010 onwards, the aim of the work has been to develop the leadership of the women and promote and consolidate the work already done during the past years. The present program also aims at increasing the awareness towards sustainable development and climate change for the rural villages. As part of EVD, WAFD has also partnered with INSEDA (Integrated Sustainable Energy and Ecological Development Association) for technical assistance in bringing renewable energy technology to the village households.

The Eco Village - green and empowering the women 6

Stories from Bharatpur

Ram Dulari from village Saidpura is 55 years old and very enthusiastic in learning new things, practicing them and spreading this knowledge in her village. She never went to formal school but learnt some reading and writing in an adult literacy program. Her village had no toilets and sanitation and slushy roads were a real problem in the village. After being a part of WAFD programme, she developed confidence to travel by herself, and talk to people. Her respect among the village people has grown and they come her for advice at all times. She has attended almost all trainings organised by WAFD. She has motivated her village people, because of which, there are now 55 toilets there, and almost all houses have made a small soak pit near their homes so that the roads are dry and not slushy any more. Ram Dulari has also motivated seven people to take up organic farming in her village, and about 73 women to set up small kitchen gardens in their homes and fields. Seema from village Darapur Khurd is a young widow in her late thirties, who lives in a mud hut with her 4 children 2 daughters and 2 sons. She herself never had a chance to go to school, but is making sure all her children go to school. She had a NADEP compost unit built with some help from WAFD. She used the organic compost on her small piece of land and grew mustard. Her crop was the best in the entire village and she earned ` 20,000 from the sale of this. Since she gets a lot of organic manure and now also sells it, so far she has earned ` 4,000 from sale of the compost. Seeing her other people in her village have also got motivated to build NADEP compost units and take up organic farming. Laxmi from village Chak Chauba has studied up to the eighth standard, and is 52 years old. She has taken up all the activities which WAFD taught during the project duration. Laxmi has a biogas plant which gives her organic manure for her organic farming on 17 beeghas of land. She uses the methane from the biogas plant for cooking energy, which saves her 3 hours every day. She utilises this free time doing stitching work as well as teaching girls how to sew and stitch and is proud to tell all she earns ` 300 per month from this free time. From being a shy and scared village woman who could not talk to anyone, especially men, today Laxmi is a confident person who can travel anywhere, talk to anyone and hold her own. In her own village, she has motivated 27 people to take up organic farming and helped almost all the families to set up small kitchen gardens for better nutrition for the family and sale of extra produce.

Activities: April 2012 - March 2013

Clockwise from Left: Song and dance at a meeting, embroidery, and, soap preparation 8

With continuing minimal support from JYY, the following activities were carried out from April 2012 to March 2013: Sewing classes in Chak Darapur, Kalyanpur, Naswaria and Nagla Bhagat Monthly meetings of leaders in the WAFD office Monthly meetings at village level Monthly visits to villages by the change agents Training of leaders Celebration of International Womens Day

From Top: Sewing classes, and, one of the monthly meetings 9

A report of programmes conducted in the villages is shown on the next page. These results were achieved wholly by the efforts of the mahila mandals, who were also able to achieve the following: In Chak Chauba, 3 women also earned ` 3000 by selling the extra vegetables from their kitchen gardens. In Chak Chauba, Nagla Bhagat, Kalyanpur, Berga and Saidpura a total of 40 women are regularly are making soap for washing clothes and each woman saves ` 200 every month average as they do not need to buy any detergent any more. Nutritious recipes are being made regularly - soya chunks, balanced diet, soya milk, paushtik roti etc.

Clockwise from Top-Right: A volunteer holding her organic produce, women partners with their combined produce, home-made soap, and, a volunteer with her mini-market 10

Village Saidpura Chak Chauba Berga Naswaria Nagla Bhagat Kalyanpur Darapur

Organic Farm Units 6 85 6 4.5 17 10 30

Toilets 60 10 20 9 10 12

Kitchen Gardens 150 45 35 25 30 30 40

Soakpits 50 -

Tree Plantations 2000 1000 400 250 300 600 800

Roofwater Harvesting Tanks 10 30 2 1

Compost Units 10 50

Table 4.1: Activity summary for 2012 2013

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Action Plan 2013

The action plan for 2013 aims making village Chak Chauba into a model of sustainable development. The targets are to achieve near 100% eco-village transformation in the village. WAFD will only be providing motivation and guidance and no financial or material help will be given, as the aim is to gradually transform our women leaders into stakeholders in our activities. Of the 56 families living in the villages, 7 take small holdings on lease for growing vegetables for income generation as they are landless. The action plan aims at converting all 49 farmers into practicing organic methods on at least a small portion of their land. An organic unit and a NADEP/compost unit have been planned for each farmer. Each household is encouraged to have a kitchen garden for own consumption of vegetables as well as for sale. Roof water tanks for harvesting rain will be installed in as many houses as possible. Biogas plants, due to the initial expense to be borne by the households, still require strong demonstration and motivation. Self Help Groups will be strengthened and will focus on thrift and credit schemes. The yuvati dal (youth group for young girls) will meet once a month and make survey for trees and plants existing in village. The youth groups will also motivate village for tree plantations during monsoon (July August). All the women of the village will be motivated to join the mahila mandal so that every family is represented.

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Total number of families living in Chak Chauba: 56 Target Units (Current + Additional) 49 49 46 56 50 2 4 60

Programme Organic Farms NADEP/Composting Pits Toilets Kitchen Gardens Roofwater Tanks Biogas Plants Self Help Groups Mahila Mandal Members

Completion Target December 2013 October 2013 December 2013 December 2013 December 2013 December 2013 December 2013 December 2013

Table 5.1: Targets according to Action Plan 2013

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