Diary of a Rural Manager!

The international standard for the definition of the poor i.e. a household that spends more than one-third of its income on food is followed in India, 95 percent of all households would be considered poor. Every country needs an inclusive political and economic institution to break out the cycle of poverty. The delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of extremely poor and vulnerable groups of people is a necessity for the development of India. Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. — Dwight D. Eisenhower Budgets help to determine how much money one has, where to invest it, and whether one can achieve your financial goals. A budget is a forecast of all cash sources and expenditures. MIP is a tool for financial planning that can be used for both SHG and its members. Socio-Economic Analysis of each SHG is performed as risk is involved in giving loans without any collateral. The format used in  TRIPTI  can be downloaded here. Indica...

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...

Disaster Management in Phailin was remarkable in its aspect of losing minimum lives when faced with challenge of massive proportion. India evacuated more than half a million people as massive Cyclone Phailin hit eastern ghats at Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. An early warning and timely actions saved countless lives. Earlier entire nation prays for the well-being of the people of disaster struck zone. Yet never care to plan. Things started changing with 1999 Odisha cyclone . And even world bank blog has put an article on the preparation by Odisha government. In the case of flood/tsunami/cyclone, torrential rains always play havoc and diseases are rampant due to decaying carcass. The relief center must be equipped with grains, deworming pills, Trampoline sheet, dhoti/lungi with saree, mosquito net, blanket, towel & utensil kitchen as an immediate requirements for the household affected with cyclone. My prior experience on preparation for disaster management was itself a big lesson....

The Government of India estimates that about 2.40 million Indians are living with HIV (1.93 ‐3.04 million) with an adult prevalence of 0.31% (2009). For the readers, there is a popular myth that HIV, or AIDS is an urban disease. As per the HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) of 2007, it was identified that 57% of the HIV-positive persons in India are estimated to be living in rural areas. Under the NACP III, Link Worker Scheme was designed for rural prevention and NACO implemented this program with the financial support of Global Fund through Lead NGOs. Link Worker Scheme was launched to saturate the reach of HIV-related services to high-risk groups based in rural areas. The scheme aims to build a rural community model to address the complex needs of rural HIV prevention, care, and support requirements. Under this scheme, a person who has been trained and has been made responsible for carrying out specific activities is called a Cluster Link Worker. I visited the field office of Humana ...

SHG Model in India :  “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell. This statement might have been just said on SHG (Self Help Group) movement in India. The rural landscape of India has mushrooming with SHGs. Formal credit system has, over the years failed to deliver in rural India. The transaction costs of the rural credit systems are very high and the system is plagued by non-performing assets. SHG were started as a  pilot project of 500 SHGs, by Nabard  in 1992, they grew slowly. SHG  are viewed today as an entry point in rural landscape for NGO, Bankers, government and even MNCs. Self Help Groups (SHGs) are informal associations of up to 20 women (their average size is 14) who meet regularly, usually once a month, to save small amounts (typically Rs 10 to 50) a month. Majority of SHGs are single-caste groups based on basis of neighbourhood and affinity...