COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME, BIHAR/JHARKHAND

AN OVERVIEW

Bihar On Development Indicators:

A Poor Count
State of Indias Public Services (EPW, Fe,28,2004)

Bihars overall ranking-16th out of old 16 Indian states

Drinking water- 16th , Health-14th Education- 12th, PDS- 12th, Transport-16th

National Human Development Report, 2001

Gender Disparity- Bihar ranks 32 out of 32 states

Female literacy rate- 34.5 against national average of 54%

Underlying Causes: CEP Strategic Response in Bihar

Poor Governance : Policy Advocacy & strengthening PRI

Inequity based on caste, class, gender, region, state of physical and mental wellbeing: Womens
empowerment & Social Cohesion
Weak and fragmented Role of CSO/Communities in Governance: SHG & CSO Strengthening
Inequitable development- Environmental degradation and Frequent Disasters: Some PACS supported
Local Initiatives (2 networks in disaster prone areas of Bihar to promote community based
management)

Programme Objectives of the current

phase

Enable SHOs to become self reliant in managing

their own affairs
Creation of Sustainable Community Systems and
their replication on a pilot basis within each PNGO
Strengthen and transform BADLAO, BMVS, PNDSS
and GVP as self-help promoting resource
organisations by December 2005

Target and Targeting

Profile of Target

Mainly women and children, in some cases Adolescents

Below Poverty Line and socially excluded caste groups
Overlapping Categories SC, ST, Dalit, OBC, Women,
Underprivileged

Targeting

A mix of household and community approach

Projects core focus: The Empowerment Model

Promotion of sustainable community institutions

Pro-poor Local Governance
Enabling access of focus group members to their entitlements
through institutional linkages
Promotion of Community based services through institutional
linkages
Policy Advocacy
Developing NGOs as resource organisations

How to?

Creating community institutions for participation in local governance

and undertaking advocacy initiatives
Developing perspective and information base for CSO and community
institutions on govt. programmes, policies, services and schemes
Building strategic alliances around common themes and regional
issues
Institutional Linkages: Negotiation, Protest and Dialogue
Policy Advocacy for long term change

SHIFT FROM SERVICE DELIVERY TO EMPOWERMENT

APPROACH THE PERCEIVED BENEFITS

Low resource requirement

More sustainable
Greater Community Ownership
Better Capacity to deal with the local power structure
Greater responsiveness of the state machinery

Community institutions and Their Role

Role of Community Institutions:
Primary Groups- for internal resource mobilisation, linkage
building with institutional finance, addressing village level
issues and platform for information sharing and capacitation
inputs.
Intermediate and Apex- for process extension and to act as
pressure group on PRI & Govt. offices and facilitate linkages as
well as advocacy initiatives

KEY PROGRAMMATIC ACHIEVEMENTS I N THE CURRENT

PHASE

Enhanced coverage of target group through process extension

Institutionalised linkage building
Enhanced internal resource mobilisation
Target group representation in PRI institutions
Effective Conflict Resolution
Scaling up of federation building
Successful organised initiatives for accessing entitlements
Emergence of resource pool of trainers at NGO as well as community
level
Promotion of sustainable volunteerism
Replication of CEP model in intervention areas supported by other
donors

Individual PNGOs Salient Initiatives

GVP

Core group driven process extension and capacitation

SSVK

CBO decision to form shgs and forge linkages with

financial institutions

Badlao foundation

Wider civil society engagement for advocacy initiatives

BMVS

NGO network at district level to facilitate district level shg

federation

PNDSS

Training module development around development themes

ORGANISATION WISE CURRENT STATUS OF SHGs AND THEIR

FEDERATIONS
BMVS
BADLAO
GVP
PNDSS
SSVK
State Level
Federation

None

None

None

None

District Level
Federation

None

None

None

None

Block Level
Federation

None

Panchayat
Level
Federation

13

14

116

225

107

381

144

61

28

30

45

30

30

Village SHGs

Community
Resource Pool

SHGs AND THEIR FEDERATION THE KEY CAPACITY

IN Capacity
SELF RELIANCE
LevelCONSTRAINTS
of SHOs
Challenges for Self Reliance/Sustainability

District Level Federation

Documentation, inadequate information regarding govt. policies and

schemes, Improvement in PME and advocacy skills

Block Level Federation

Linkage with financial institutions, absence of corpus fund, inadequate

information regarding govt. policies and schemes, improvement in PME
and advocacy skills, Documentation

Panchayat Level
Federation

Improvement in PME and advocacy skills, Documentation, Marketing of

products

Village Level SHGs

Documentation and Record Keeping, inadequate participation in PRI,

illiteracy, marketing of products, loan repayment, improvement in PME
skills

Community Resource Pool

Inadequate planning, facilitation and linkage building skills, inadequate

information regarding govt. policies and schemes,

DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Develop effective strategies for increased participation of community

representatives at all levels of PRI
Capacitation of elected representatives to make them more effective
Up scaling and strengthening of federation
Documentation of best practices and relevant information (PRI, Govt schemes,
etc)
Orientation/training for effective operationlisation of Right to Information
Evolve Community Resource Centre to address community needs
Process extension