Diary of a Rural Manager!

Young Professional (YP) is a short-term work opportunity (three years) to experience development and gain exposure to government operations and policies. Panchayati Raj Department, Odisha is the agency in implementing National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) program delivery and interface in Odisha serving to the marginalized section of the population. While the government is always reluctant to share or de-valuate power to the community, NRLM has tried to build sustainable community institutions at the Panchayat level. YPs served either at the district or block administration level. In simpler words, YP is just another name of Management Trainee in a government agency doing the contractual job without any power. Why I joined Odisha Livelihood Mission?   One can't have the right to voice their disappointments unless one understands the functionality of the government. I have also considered the government as the biggest development agency in India. Hence, it is of utmos...

SHGs were formed under Mission Shakti in Odisha. Odisha government started a validation and grading exercise to know SHG status in December 2012. The validation process aimed at confirming the existing status of SHGs, whereas the Gradation Process assessed their eligibility for receiving Revolving Funds. Validation In an ideal world, the Branch Manager/ Representative of the Bank, B.D.O/Representative from the block, and C.D.P.O/Representative from ICDS should visit the field and complete the process. This may take from 5-10 days depending on the size of the district. This doesn't happen in the real world where AWW sits with the President/Secretary of SHG for the complete assessment. DRDA and ICDS Balangir have a record of 11097 SHG existing in the district but validation led to only 7846 functioning groups. Hence, we can easily imagine with these figures, the difference between SHGs claimed and existing can run in lakhs. Defunct and far SHGs form a major part of the numbers c...

It is very essential for monitoring and evaluation to have solid data. There are thousands of functioning SHGs in the country. NRLM has taken step for transparency through data collection about SHG. MIS of NRLM is hugely important for tracking effectiveness of programs that would serve in a long way to establishing accountability at each level. ICDS is already working with SHG movement in Odisha with Mission Shakti since 2003. Through validation and gradation of SHG in December 2012, Panchayati Raj Department was able to verify total number of SHG in the Odisha. Still, there was no concrete record of name of all SHG members. Name of President and Secretary can only be obtained through all given data. I formed a template as required for MIS and termed this E-NRLM format . Our OLM team at Bhanjanagar and Surada block of Ganjam district used Aagan Wadi Workers (AWWs) for collecting data about SHG. Data collection exercise is a tough thing in India. Education of the most of the AWWs v...

Launched on 1st April 1999, Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was an integrated scheme for providing opportunities of self employment to the rural poor. Like any other government schemes, this was also prone to corruption and failure. Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) has been renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) with added provision. I was reading notification of RBI on National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) issued way back in June 2013. Uneven spread of SHGs, defunct SHGs and high attrition rate of members were the main issues faced in functioning of SHG in SGSY. This has been tackled through Universalisation of SHGs. Setting up of federations of SHGs is the salient feature of NRLM that can ensure monitoring and validation at community level. Identification of Swarozgari was major source of corruption for Bank, Block and District level officers. A lot of money was taken as bribe for clearance before proper credit reached the beneficiary. Even non ...