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Annex 7 Profile of other projects for comparisonIn chapter 9 a comparison is made between the four Danida supported projects and a number of other more or less similar projects. This annex gives a brief account of these other projects as a basis for the comparison. The projects are the following:
Central Sector Scheme of Women in Agriculture This scheme was launched by the Government of India on a pilot basis during the 8th Five Year Plan (1992-97) in one district each of seven states, namely Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala. Under the 9th Five Year Plan (1997-2002) the scheme was extended to one district of 8 North Eastern hilly states, namely Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. The scheme mobilises women farmers to form Farm Women Groups (‘Krishak Mahila Shakti Samuh’). These groups become the focal point for agricultural support services such as extension, technology, inputs, credit etc. The scheme also provides recurrent village based training of 3-10 days duration. The aim is to help the farm women to adopt new technologies in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and allied areas. Organic farming, vermin-composting, bio-technology and nursery raising are among the skills taught. The farm women are also being trained in managerial, entrepreneurial and decision-making skills. The leaders of the farm women groups are trained as link workers. The extension component includes field demonstrations and study tours. It is expected that the scheme will lead to development of 450 farm women groups as Self Help Groups and provide direct training and extension services to 9,000 farm women. These are in turn expected to disseminate their skills to 90,000 farm women. Clearly this scheme is very similar to the Danida funded projects as these have evolved in their recent phase with focus on Farm Women Groups/Self Help Groups. Although the scheme is implemented in no less than 15 different states it can be seen that the total number of farm women trained is only a fraction of the numbers trained under the Danida supported projects. Food Security Programme The programme was initiated in 1998 as a collaborative venture between the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of India. For the period 1998-2002 UNDP has contributed US$ 13 million. The programme is an umbrella for a number of sub-programmes in different states with the following objectives: Intensification of agriculture, diversification of farming systems and value addition, transfer of technologies for sustainable agricultural practices with focus on rain-fed and marginal lands, developing alternate distribution system, and mainstreaming gender issues in agriculture. Four of the six sub-programmes have some similarities with the Danida funded projects, and those implemented in Orissa actively collaborate with TEWA. Strengthening of Natural Resource Management on Sustainable Livelihood for Women in Tribal Orissa This sub-programme uses NGOs and women’s organisations to facilitate and coordinate linkages between women Self Help Groups and the Directorate of Agriculture. A central objective is to improve the tribal women’s skills as farmers and managers of natural resources. The main input is in the form of micro capital assistance plus capacity building. The programme aims at covering 700 SHGs, i.e. approximately 14,000 women in seven districts. Additional Support to Cyclone Affected Districts in Orissa The objective of this sub-programme is to enable women SHGs in four cyclone affected districts to reconstruct the agricultural economy and ensure household food security. This is done by providing micro capital assistance, capacity building and infrastructure support to the SHGs. The programme aims at covering 225 SHGs, i.e. approximately 4,500 women. Empowerment of Women Farmers for Food Security in Uttar Pradesh This sub-programme aims to enable women farmers from poor and marginalised groups to gain access to productive assets, including land, inputs, technology and credit. At the same time it will establish linkages between Farm Women Groups and the General Extension System. Training, extension and micro capital assistance are the main inputs provided to the groups. The programme will focus on 300 existing SHGs in six districts, 200 of which have been established under Mahila Samakya (see below). Sustainable Dryland Agriculture by Mahila Sangam in Andhra Pradesh This sub-programme aims at supporting groups of women farmers to take up dryland farming activities in degraded and fallow lands. The state Department of Agriculture provides training, extension and input support. Micro capital assistance is also provided to the women groups, most of which have been organised by an NGO, ‘Mahila Samatha’. The programme will cover 700 women groups in five districts with about 15,500 women. It can be seen that the approach varies somewhat from one sub-programme to the other. In comparison with the Danida funded projects these programmes rely much less on training and extension and much more on provision of micro capital assistance and capacity building of groups of farm women. Training of Women in Agriculture (TWA), Gujarat In Gujarat the Department of Agriculture collaborates with The Netherlands on the implementation of a Training of Women in Agriculture project. The aim of TWA is ‘empowerment of women by providing better access to agricultural knowledge to increase production, thereby improving their socio-economic status’. The project is executed by Farmers’ Training Centres (FTCs) in twelve districts in the state. The programme started in 1989, entered its second phase in 1997 and ended in 2003. Its main components according to the plan documents are: needs based training; bottom up extension planning; farmer driven, farmer accountable extension services; promoting farmer interest groups and self help groups and door step delivery of services. The training package consists of a residential institutional training, a village level training, pre-seasonal follow-up, study tours, training of convenors of ‘Charcha Mandals’ (discussion groups of women farmers) and ‘Mahila Krishi Melas’ (farm women fairs). Unlike the Danida supported projects the project plan does not provide for female extension workers. Another major difference with the (majority of the) Danida-supported projects is that the emphasis is on institutional rather than village based training. Reports on implementation and outcome of the project are far from unequivocal. A recent impact study found that in quantitative terms the project is successful. A total of 209,000 farm women have been trained under TWA. However, it found that considerable numbers of trained women are from large farms; that extension does not address the needs of farm women; that it is top-down, not region specific and not suitable for poor farmers; that the staff lacks gender awareness and that gender sensitivity is not addressed (TWA 2001:18, 21). The latest annual report is positive, both on reaching the target group, determination of the training package in accordance with the needs of the farm women, training methodology, functioning of the women discussion groups, and training impact (TWA 2002). Andhra Pradesh Training of Women in Agriculture (ANTWA) ANTWA was the second project aided by The Netherlands for training women farmers in India, starting in 1994. The initial objective of the project was ‘to increase agricultural productivity of small and marginal farm women, so as to improve their socio-economic position’. Empowerment objectives were only added in the second phase of the project. The target group was women from small and marginal farms and (later) landless women (ANTWA, n.d., p. 9). The rationale for initiating the project was the overall feminisation of agriculture in Andhra Pradesh due to male migration into non-farm activities. ANTWA is one of the steps taken to increase agricultural productivity. The trainings were initially mostly ‘Mela-like’ village based trainings, and they were criticized for being top-down, upper caste and male dominated meetings with pre-determined messages and no practical learning (ANTWA, 1998 p. 9). Consequently, a shift was made towards a judicious combination of Village Based Training (hereafter: VBT) and Institutional Training and later towards exclusively VBT. Training was imparted by the Farmer Training Centres (FTCs) and extension was carried out by Agricultural Officers. The training package consists of one six-day technology training, followed by a one-day pre-season refresher course and specialised training, and result demonstrations. An assessment in 2000 acknowledged that the project had made technical and economic impact, but observed that the approach was top-down and target-oriented. The approach relied on communicating technical information rather than on enabling women to understand the agro-ecosystem and empowering them to take their own decisions. ANTWA has established women’s groups, but questions can be raised about the viability and sustainability of these groups. There has been little convergence with other organisations working with women’s Self Help Groups. The report observed lack of integration of ANTWA staff within the over-all organisational set-up of the FTCs under the Department of Agriculture (DoA). Finally, it observed that gender concerns remain to be articulated at all levels (van Walsum 2000). Phase II of the project started in 2001 and reflects a more gender sensitive approach. It emphasizes the need for going beyond increased productivity and promotes value addition and entrepreneurship. To this end the DoA and the Women and Child Welfare Department work together, the first being in charge of VBT, result demonstration and exposure visits, and the latter in charge of post-harvest value addition training, entrepreneurship development and market linkages. Mahila Samakhya (MS) Mahila Samakhya (Education for Women’s Equality) was launched in 1989 in pursuance of the goals of the New Education Policy (1986) which brought a conceptual shift from equal opportunities for women to ‘education as an agent of change’ in the status of women. The programme started in 10 districts of Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh with assistance from The Netherlands and was later extended to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The programme was conceived as a women’s empowerment programme for socially and economically marginalized women. Its focus was on rural women. The programme philosophy emphasises the importance of education in empowering women. Education is understood as a ‘process of learning to question, critically analyze and seek solutions’. Empowerment is defined as enhancing the self image of women. Core components of the Mahila Samakhya organisational approach are:
Sanghas have taken on a great number of activities, but there has been a concern that they failed in creating critical mass. Programme outreach is limited in numbers. So far 1470 villages have been covered. In recent years sanghas are coming together as federations and the role of MS has changed into one of specialists supporting these federations. |
