Project Title: “Gram Swashasan Abiyaan”. Empowering Adivasi and other vulnerable Communities to access public service deliveries and claim their entitlements and forest right by strengthening Gram Sabha and governance structures in 15 Gram Panchayats
Gram Sabha Will be able to make rules and regulation on Citizen Rights /Entitlements and resource management out of total 154 Villages.
Service delivery through Gram Panchayats will be better
Traditional Practices will be documented and better traditional practice will be designed as long-term Program in 123 Trible dominated village
10 CFRMCS will be able develops plan of their CFR area through Management Plan and Nonseverance & All eligible Individual and Community Forest Claim for 60 Villages will be prepared and submitted in which 2500 Acres from 30 Villages Claim will be recognized and realized.
All eligible ST/SC/PVTG Families will be linked to NFSA and NFAP (Pension)
All eligible & Interested Trible People will get work average 60 days of work.
Strengthening Local Self -Governance System and Traditional System By empowering Gram
Sabha.
Strengthening Tribal Culture & Traditions and Supporting to PVTG Families in Emergency
Needs.
To claim for Community Forest Right (CFR) & IFR
To Ensure Ration, Pension & Employment through Social Security Schemes & MGNERGA
Ajim Premji Foundation
October 2023 to September -2026
Gram Swashasan Aviyan Project is being implemented at 154 villages of 15 GP’s in BarhaitBlock of Saheb Ganj district, Jharkhand.
The project has specific focus on marginalized section of the society living in 154 villages of 15 panchayats. Traditional Leaders, PRI Members, MGNREGA Laborers, forest dwellers, etc.
Humanitarian Assistance as Drought Relief Dry Ration Distribution Program (15Gps): -The project identified and provided relief to the most vulnerable community members affected by drought. Transparent selection criteria were established, and dry rations were distributed accountably. Materials were distributed among 820 families.
Training of Gram Pradhan: -: Training sessions focused on strengthening gram Sabha and traditional self-governance systems, involving 308 traditional gram Pradhan’s and other leaders
Training of PRI Member: - Training for newly elected panchayat samiti members, panchayat heads, ward members, and zila parishad members on the Panchayati Raj System, Pesa, rights of gram sabha, and local governance.
Training of Cader (Village Volunteers): -A "cadre" Member were selected from each village of 15 panchayats to ensure ration, pension and employment through the Social Security Scheme. Provided training to develop understanding about MIS system of Government Social Security Scheme and demand generation and application preparation. A total of 154 cadre have been trained on application preparation and demand generation of social security schemes and MGNREGA
Inauguration of Gram Sabha Sachivalay (Secretariat)- 154 Gram Sachivalay has been inaugurated in 154 model villages in which total participants attended the program were 7467, where 4115 were male and 3352 were female. The people of these villages are very excited for this initiative because they know that now they are more powerful and able to represent the needs and necessities of their villages with more authentically
30 Gram Sabhas Strengthened.
Gram Sabha Standing Committees: During this reporting period Gram Sabha Standing Committees has been formed in 30 model villages with 50% women membership.
Women Participation: women participation in model Gram Sabhas has increased up to 6 50%. Proposed and opposed by women in Gram Sabha meetings have increased up to 34%. This is a significant change in decision making process within Model Gram Sabhas during this reporting period
Dharampur village is located 20 kilometres away from the Barhait Block of Sahebganj District.
The village resides of Santhal community & it is a testament to simplicity, innocence, peaceful,
united and having community spirit. Dharampur village consists 127 Santhal families with 640
population.
The village is surrounded by forest & isolated. They also lack both gravel and paved roads. The
only mode of transportation for the villagers of Dharmpur is bicycle & by foot. Thus, residents
of Dharmpur have to face challenges in life due to lack of basic facilities. Agriculture serves as
the primary livelihood for the villagers i.e. rice, millet, kurthi, maize, pigeon pea and mountain
ash are the main crops.
Villagers sell these crops to buy their daily needs. Additionally, they support their families by
harvesting and selling forest produce like petal, mahua, datum and wood. Within the Tribal
community, there are traditional healers known as Baidya, who uses herbs to treat diseases.
These Baidya collect herbs from the mountains and forests and provide treatment to the
community. They also sell the herbs in the market. Dharmpur village is far & interior place
from the block. Due to poor condition of road, government officers neglect this particular
village.
The villagers are heavily exploited by the dealers of the public distribution system. By
arbitrarily cutting the ration, people are also deprived of it. On making personal complaints,
the dealers of the public distribution system threaten people with cancellation of their ration
cards. Out of fear, people are becoming victims of the arbitrary actions of the public
distribution system dealer. In, October 2022, as part of Village Self Governance Initiative,
Panchayat Coordinator - Tarun Mondal, CRP - Deepak Kumar and Pradeep Sharma started
visiting Dharmpur village. Mingling, coordinating & engaging themselves with the villagers and
traditional leaders, organizing community meetings and Gram Sabha’s, the team aimed to
raise awareness.
The burning issues of the village were addressed in a meeting with the Mahila Mandal, which
was presided over by the Gram Pradhan. These meetings highlighted the importance of Gram
Sabha and created awareness among the villagers. Important, problems related to water,
roads, electricity, pension, schemes and ration cards were discussed in Gram Sabha and
community meetings. In this sequence, it came to light that 26 families of the village have
been deprived of ration for the last 3 months.
In response, the Gram Sabha collectively prepared an application to resolve this issue and it
was decided that all the members of 26 families should come together and submit the
application to the Development Officer. The Block Development Officer took it seriously and
immediately sent it to the concerned department & instructed to solve the issues. Due to this complaint, Block Development Officer reached Dharmpur village for physical inspection.
Verified the complaint and found the complaint to be true.
Immediately took action regarding Public Distribution System dealers & they were suspended
within the next 3 days. The dues of ration were provided to the deprived families. Incredible
changes have been taken place due to the trust of the villagers towards the Gram Sabha.
Where there was little hope, Gram Sabha meetings and collectively resolve for changes have
paved a new path for the development of Dharmpur. Villagers now understand the importance
of Gram Sabha and organize regular meetings, which increases trust and hope for a bright
future. Impressed by this initiative of Gram Sabha, the neighbouring 4 villages of Khajurkhal
Panchayat, namely Dumra, Khajurkhal, Kalidah and Hathigarh villages too followed this path
of solution and they also achieved success for their villages.
