“Jeevika Livelihood Security Project for Earthquake affected households in Gujarat” Presentation to ENRAP Regional meeting 19/06/2004 Presentation to ENRAP Regional meeting 19/06/2004

Introduction to Jeevika Jeevika is a comprehensive, integrated livelihood security project undertaken by SEWA in conjunction with IFAD, GoI, GoG, and WFP after the 2001 earthquake It is demand driven and need based It is highly decentralized wherein Village Development Committees (VDCs), and Self Help Groups (SHGs) play the role in program planning, implementation and monitoring It will cover clusters of 400 villages in approximately 14 blocks in Kutch, Surendranagar and Patan districts of North Gujarat Approximately 40,000 households are expected to benefit directly from the project

Jeevika - Rationale The project area has experienced erosion of natural resource base over the last 30 years which has severely affected livelihood opportunities. Effect of natural hazards is disproportionately high and debilitating for the poor, leading to higher entrapment in debt cycle, loss of existing resources, and often migration.

Jeevika’s Aims and Objectives Empower and build capacity of marginalised groups Increase livelihood security to economically vulnerable households Improve the productivity of the natural resource base in a sustainable and equitable manner Create effective mechanisms to involve communities in decision-making Strengthen capabilities of communities to establish and manage their own development projects and assist other communities to do the same.

Jeevika Components Integrated Land and Water Management Agricultural Development Nursery & Plantation Development Craft Development Gum Development Microfinance Earthquake Resistant Housing Support Programme Drinking Water Programme Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Health Care Child Care

Jeevika’s Unique Features Comprehensive and integrated approach Water as a regenerative input Women led approach to community based natural resource management New dimension to a rural development interventions through the disaster preparedness and mitigation sub component Process oriented and demand driven approach to planning and execution Focus on the poorest of the poor

Jeevika: Targeting the Poorest Why? Relative elite generally reap the benefits of development schemes Poorest are most vulnerable to natural disasters, exploitation, exclusion from resource access, etc. What is meant by ‘targeting’? Process of identifying the poorest in a community Intentional inclusion of the poorest in the planning, implementing and monitoring of community projects

Jeevika Process Village Selection Gramsabha JSM Formation Information, Data, and Perspective Generation Data Analysis Issue, Need and Asset Identification Demands and Priorities Action Planning Work Planning Implementation

Approach and Process / Strategy SEWA’s approach is of enabling & empowerment process Borrows many techniques from traditional PRA’s Existing resources- Appreciate, Build upon and strengthen Extends participation to the actual planning process itself 2 primary aspects Information and perspective generating (i.e. PRA exercises) Creation of the village microplan

Alternative Employment Opportunities Expanding Horizons of Landless / poor households –Video documentary capturing path breaking work techniques and new vocations has been made and shown in the project villages –Establishing linkages with technical institutions

IEC-Innovative communication strategies Songs, street plays, rallies, bhajans, posters – teams have been identified to give musical performances, drama or bhavais, for education and awareness of the village on Jeevika

Jeevika – ICT Proposal Background –Need to track the benefits accrued to a particular household through Jeevika to assess the extent of the success of the programme as also the need for intervention. –Need to develop a mechanism for identifying the poor and monitoring the pre-decided parameters of their participation in these activities –Need for data at all the three level Village level District level Central level –Consolidate and analyze data and enable formulation of strategies on the basis of realistic and online data

Objectives To enable Village Development Committees to monitor the status and development of each and every household by tracking the same with the help of biometric smart cards. To provide smart cards to each member of the household beneficiaries of Jeevika To track information on the basis of transactions captured in smart card To upload transactional data into a database which will be further analyzed for further action

Activities Develop smart cards Swiping machine in each activity center to capture data of the persons coming to take part in these activities With each swiping, updation of data on the cards Cards to have fields defined for each activity and the data to be updated incrementally on the cards with each swiping. Transfer of data into the village level database to be maintained by the Village Development Committees

Expected Outcome Foolproof means of identification of members and families Empower and strengthen Village Development Committees. Help them to monitor the development and benefits accrued to each household through employment, income, access to health care, child care, savings and credit and insurance, etc. Timely and updated reports on resource utilisation Tracking of activity participation by members Better micro planning based on hard core online data Generate analytical reports for a DSS like system