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Organization Project
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| Project visible to | everybody |
| Name | Empowering Women through Sustainable Agriculture in Bundelkhand |
| Organization | Haritika |
| Location | Nowgong,madhya pradesh,india |
| Start date | Thursday, June 1, 2025 |
| End date | ongoing |
| Project overview | According to the latest estimates, 46 per cent of Chhatarpur and population lives below the poverty line. Life for this group is characterized by poor survival chances, landlessness, malnutrition, environmental pollution and social exclusion arising out of caste and gender discrimination and not necessarily linked to income in a predictable manner. Also with land-based resources becoming scarce and more degraded, the balance between what people need and what they can obtain shifts.
Recognizing that the poor and the under-privileged have not gained substantially from the development process, The proposed project participatory planning as an essential precondition for ensuring growth with equity. Some major objectives are: (i) Priority to agriculture and rural development with a view to generating adequate productive employment and eradication of poverty; (ii) Ensuring environmental sustainability of the development process through social mobilization and participation of people at all levels; (iii) Empowerment of women and the socially disadvantaged groups and; (iv) Promoting and developing people's participatory institutions, such as Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), co-operatives and self-help groups.
3.Brief description of the Proposed Project: Chhtarpur district are situated in the semi-arid region of the VINDHYA region in MP. Low and erratic rainfall, coupled with severe deforestation, have resulted in significant lowering of water table in the area, which was once covered with thick deciduous forests with abundant biodiversity. Nowgong Block in particular has a major problem of low water tables and increased levels of hard water. The decreased water availability and hard water has had an adverse impact both on drinking water and agriculture. Consequent decrease in agricultural productivity and fodder availability has completely eroded livelihood opportunities leading to migration from the areas of up to 70 to 100 per cent of the population.
The area has two major communities – the Sahriya /Ahirwar(ST/SC), who constitute 60% of the population and are primarily subsistence farmers in the plains area, and the (OBCs) comprising 25% of the population who live in the backward areas and are engaged in animal husbandry. There are few completely landless families (mainly belonging to SC population), with the average landholding being around 1.5 acres. Besides subsistence agriculture, the forests, grasslands and animals make up the food security system of the area. These are considered as common property resources and were traditionally managed by a set of strict rules, which ensured optimum utilization, preservation of biodiversity and regeneration. With the takeover of forests by the government, these systems are breaking down. Over the years, these sustainable means of livelihood have been systematically destroyed in the various developmental initiatives. Industrial processes initiated by the state and the central government led to excessive mining and the consequent large-scale deforestation for timber resulting in severe land degradation, which increased the frequency of flash floods and unnatural droughts. Migration was the end result.
In the course of evaluations, it has emerged that women have been the primary beneficiaries of the regeneration of water sources and forests, and there have been improvements in the conditions of their lives. However, their position and social status continues to be defined by traditional norms, as is evidenced by their lack of access to education, poor health and exclusion from decision-making on ‘public’ issues. In spite of the fact that women are the primary managers of natural resources, particularly water and forests, they are still seen as consumers and users of natural resources, rather than as planners and managers.
The issue of gender equality is critical to the vision of equitable and self-reliant communities living in harmony with nature. The experience of the organization has demonstrated that sustainable resource management demands equity in access and control, with all sections of the community taking informed and responsible decisions. Empowering women to come together and take an active role in management of natural resources is therefore an essential prerequisite for sustainable resource management.
Haritika has started some preliminary work in taking up issues of water, sanitation and health with women’s groups and integrated water resource development. The need is now to build on the gains of the earlier work in order to ensure that women become active participants in the entire resource management process. Their traditional knowledge of biodiversity and herbal lore can become a valuable resource for the community, and a good starting point for women’s empowerment.
Another problem has been that the existing groups do not have strong linkages with the panchayats. It is critical that these women groups (Women SHG) formed in the area with Haritika support be linked more closely to the local government, which would be to the advantage of both. Panchayats would become more accountable to the local community and through panchayats, the community could access more resources from other departments and institutions. This would also serve as a platform for the emerging women role in the development process.
Objectives:
The overall objective of the project is to support state efforts toward empowerment of women for poverty alleviation through a process of mobilization and people-centered development.
The specific Objectives are
(i) To facilitate social mobilization efforts for building and strengthening women organization
(ii) Assist the group for the managing the natural resources for development, through leveraging stakeholder participation.
(iii) To develop and build alliances and partnerships amongst various interest-groups in order to mainstream the lessons of pilot initiatives into macro-policy and programmes; and,
(iv) to advocate gender free policies for creating an enabling environment for women development
The approaches followed in implementing the project will be an issue-based approach and area-based approach. In the area-based approach, specific geographical areas will be identified where a process of social mobilization will be initiated. Social mobilization must lead to a process of formation of women. organizations,leveraging stakeholder resources and implemented by the community institution for effective use of local resources..
Major Activities:
1. Formation and strengthening Women groups
2. Capacity building of the groups, PRI, and sensitizing the local stakeholders for the strengthening the women issue.
3. Organizing livelihoods skill development Programme for women groups particularly based on local resources.
4. Micro planning of the project villages
Projected Outcomes:
Social mobilization and people’s empowerment are relatively long-term processes. Nevertheless, at the end of the project it is expected that:
• About 200 women’s groups would have been formed (about five in each village).
• Women’s control over community resources would have been enhanced by 50% and participate in planning and management of community development program (education, health, bio-diversity conservation, watershed development and forest conservation. )
• Increase in income would have been achieved by 75 % per family per annum due to agriculture and livestock development.
• Agricultural productivity would have improved by two times through soil water management
• Availability of drinking water would have improved to cover 70% of the population and availability of irrigation facility to cover 80% of small and marginal farmers (average landholding size is 1.5 acres).
• Migration rate would have decreased by 50%.
• Panchayati Raj Institutions would have been strengthened with an average increase in participation of community in gram sabhas to 60 % with at least 40% of women participants.
• Network of line department and other NGO partners would be established and standard model for Bundelkhand evolved to, and motivated to replicate people-centered approaches in the ongoing project for women empowerment.
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| Issue areas | environment and ecosystems
agriculture and food security
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