Monthly Archives: April 2020

Coronavirus Squeezed Summer Vegetables Marketing in Koraput

The restrictions on transport movements amid the lockdown owing to Coronavirus pandemic have brought misery for vegetable farmers of Koraput district. The vegetable growers are now staring at huge losses due to total failure of the marketing network. Farmers of, Boipariguda, and Dasmantpur have been producing tones of vegetables year the round, especially during Rabi and Summer following Market Synchronised farming method through promotion of Producer Groups under agriculture production cluster programme for last couple of years. Usually, the harvesting and marketing of summer crop activities are carried out in March to May. Every day bumper harvesting of different kind of vegetable is being available with farmers in the district but takers are few this year due to the restrictions on movement of trucks.

Gangadhar Producer Group (PG), a vibrant smallholder women farmers’ collective, is working in Boipariguda block, the operational area of CYSD. “During the initial phase of lockdown, nearly for a fortnight, our members faced huge difficulties in harvesting and selling the summer vegetables. Distress sale of our produces in local market added to our miseries too, said Ms. Sanadei Mali, the President of Gangadhar Producer Group. A total of 90 members are directly engaged in the producer group for the livelihoods of their families. The producer group is being supported by Sabujima Producer Company Ltd in Boipariguda, an apex farmers’ collective of producer groups, on input procurement, establishment of Synchronised production system, including Package of Practice (POP) in vegetable, availing government subsidy scheme and market service.

During lock down, one of the biggest challenges faced by the PG members was selling of their products in market. Looking in to the problem faced by PG members, CYSD initiated dialogue with District administration and its market support agency to sell the product in urban market. CYSD judiciously convinced the district and block administration on the farmer level issues and possible solutions. Block Administration was convinced to provide required entry-pass for members as well as for vehicles to transport the vegetable from farmer’s field to Jeypore market. Both Odisha Rural Development & Marketing Society (ORMAS) and Odisha Livelihoods Mission along with Horticulture Department have been mobilized to provide necessary support on marketing of the vegetables in Jeypore market until the lockdown withdraws.  Horticulture Department and ORMAS immediately supported 20 numbers Caret (Plastic Try) to carry vegetables from farm to market. In the due time, informal assurance was given by OLM and Horticulture Department to reimburse the costs of transportation which are borne by the Producer Company.   The CEO of Sabujima Producer Company also monitoring the activities and providing handhold support to the Group on day-to-day basis.

The PG, with the transport support from the Government sources, have been continuously selling vegetables from second week of April.  On 10 April the group sold 25.80 quintal of vegetables against of Rs. 40,500/- and on 18^th April it sold 13.10 quintals at the cost of Rs. 33,000/-. “As of now, within 10 days’ time, our Group has a turnover of Rs. 3,95,475/- against sale of 197.61 quintals of vegetables”, said Mrs. Sanadei.  “After the intervention of CYSD our financial situation is now gradually improving. Without their continuous support and guidance our situation would have been worse. We are really thankful to them”, she added in cheerful face.

Similarly, in Dasamantpur block, Maa Tarini Producer Group have started marketing of their harvested vegetables in Podagada Markets for couple of days with an average income of 7,500/- by selling around 2.70 quintals a day with the support of the Block Administration.

During marketing of vegetables, the group members have been following social distancing by using masks and practicing hand wash frequently for personal hygiene and care.

The Fourm has evolved further during the last week with following clear goals and mandate:

• Offer help and relief to people affected by the global pandemic, with a focus on the most vulnerable sections of the society.
• Mediate and facilitate effective implementation of policies and measures aimed at countering the social and economic fallout of COVID 19.
• Provide real-time feedback on working of policies and State intervention on the ground.
• Identify and outline immediate policy tweaks, legal remedies and other such state action that are necessary to bridge the gaps being reported.
• Design a longer term social and economic blueprint for a post-COVID Odisha.
• Be a credible voice for people, communities and social groups in highlighting the challenges they face and the deprivation they fight.
• Facilitate participation and inclusion of all stakeholders in making of policy decisions and their implementation.

The issue of stranded migrants has been a major concern of the group for advocacy. Links to the media report- Outlook l The Hindu l Times of India

• 186 Community volunteers and Community Resource Persons (CRPs) mobilized who have been closely working with the local government (Gram Panchayat) in managing quarantine homes, community kitchen and PDS distribution.

• In addition, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) including Gaon Kalyan Samiti (GKS) and Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC) have been sensitized towards providing support in organization of community awareness, sanitation drive, identifying vulnerable/left out people, tracking migrants, managing quarantine centers and community kitchens at the Gram Panchayat level in close association with the local government.
• Awareness programmes organized in 587 communities focusing on social distancing, hand wash practice and Do’s and Don’ts relating to COVID–19.

• Survival Kit (dry food items) distributed to 4130 tribal households including migrant labourers, landless workers, and NTFP dependent families in Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada & Nabarangpur districts of South Odisha in collaboration with ChildFund India and Ford Foundation.
• Survival Kit to 1700 most vulnerable slum dwellers and rag pickers under BMC in collaboration with Plan India and Royal Enfield.
• Distribution of Hygiene Kit (soap, mask and sanitizer) to 3353 households and the students of 17 Ashram schools.
• Distribution of Learning Kit among 300 children in collaboration with ChildFund India to keep the children engaged in various learning activities during lockdown.

Virtual Citizen Support Centre (Jana Sahayata Kendra) has been set-up jointly by CYSD, Human Context, Health Bot and Aaina sharing information relating to Covid 19 – precautions and safety measures, access to entitlements and psycho-social counseling to the affected people. People can dial the Toll free Number 8880592592 and access benefits from the centre remaining open from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm every day.

As on 19^th April, 665 calls landed to the system, out of which 393 were related to different services: 172 were about basic information, 163 were on entitlements, 33 were relating to psycho-social counseling and 25 on virtual care.  However, 272 calls were dropped/missed/wrong option selected by the callers.

Through the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN), national food safety authorities are seeking more information on the potential for persistence of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, on foods traded internationally as well as the potential role of food in the transmission of the virus. Currently, there are investigations conducted to evaluate the viability and survival time of SARS-CoV-2. As a general rule, the consumption of raw or undercooked animal products should be avoided. Raw meat, raw milk or raw animal organs should be handled with care to avoid cross contamination with uncooked food.

Jayanti is a next-door young woman of 23 years, living in Nipaniya village of Harichandanpur Block in Kendujhar district, Odisha. She hails from a marginalized family and her husband – who is a truck driver – is the only earning member with an inadequate income to support the expenses of a five-member family. She had always in mind to be a self-dependent and support her husband and increase the household income, though she was spearheading a SHG group in her village.

Meantime, she became mother a child. Life became more hazardous with new responsibilities. When she was in quest of new opportunity and a way to get connected to the outer-world, she came to know about the Internet Saathi programme of CYSD. It was really a great moment of her life when she was offered to work as an Internet Saathi, which was the great time for her change.

Internet Saathi programme being an innovative digital literacy campaign to connect rural women with the Digital World, Jayanti was trained to use the platform. Quickly she learnt the art of connecting with the digital field. While imparting internet education to the rural women, she also started surfing different websites for livelihoods and income opportunities in rural areas. She got to know more about the remunerative vegetable cultivation and post-production management. She also mobilized the other group members of her SHG to join hands with her. The group started Organic Vegetable production. They learnt the new way of farming from YouTube and started organic manure production and natural farming. The digital connectivity also helped them know about more the demand of organic vegetables and now the SHG has started establishing linkage with organic product traders.

Now, Jayanti’s family members are happy with her getting the opportunity of learning something new, that helped Jayati lead a life with dignity and support the family in long run. The Internet Saathi helped explore the inner-quality of her. She is now an entrepreneur. She adds on an average of Rs 2500 per month in her family income. “Internet Saathi has showed me a new initiative, I wish to fly high” – said Jayanti. She is now learning multi-layer farming system from YouTube to earn more from limited land. Truly, she is one of the active Saathis in the Harichandanpur Block, also a very committed worker and passionate about her work.

A creative and pragmatic education for children involves inculcating the habit of personal investigation. The act of personal investigation requires self-study to be followed by self-thinking and analysis. Self-study, otherwise referred to as reading at one’s own accord, requires reading habit which contributes to a better understanding of the child’s own experiences and it can be an exciting voyage to self-discovery. Reading habit is best formed at a young impressionable age in school, but once formed it can last one’s life time. Increasingly it is being recognised by educationists worldwide that the problems of low and slow academic achievement in school children is closely linked to the lack of reading habits. This habit has attained a form of consistency on the part of students toward understanding academic subjects. For an excellent performance, it is critical for students to develop good reading habit. Presently, due to the influence of the video games and mass media, children do not show as much interest in reading books, stories, newspapers and magazines. Many parents and teachers complain about students of young generation who do not develop proper reading habits among themselves.

Looking at the view above Child Development Project of CYSD had organised ‘Reading Weeks’ in 15 schools of Mayurbhanj & Keonjhar districts. Reading sessions were designed in three categories such as reading of story books that available in the school library, newspaper and text book. The associated teacher selects books from the school library and asks the children to choose one book for each group. Then each child of the group reads loudly a stanza and rotates it so that all the members of the group get a chance to read. After completion of a chapter they discuss on the theme and moral of the story. Newspaper reading session is suggested to accomplish just after the Morning Prayer. For this, children have to collect latest local, state, National or International news from the daily newspaper and read just after the prayer assembly. Sometimes teacher has to support children to collect news. For text book reading children are open to choose a subject and a topic in it and read loudly then discuss on it.

Gone are those days, but the idea still prevails and replicated; once upon a time Children’s Festival was called ‘JUAR’ followed by ‘Gaon Re JUAR’ and now Children’s Literary Festival (CFL) from School level to national level has been a good platform to equip the children for initiating child led advocacy with educationists, policy makers, teachers associations, writers, story-tellers, and publishers thus promoting quality education, joyful classroom learning and gender equality in children’s literature, stories and textbooks.

The Children’s Literary Festival was culminated in January 2020 with lot of activities undertaken at the state level. The three levels of activity in the State was further arranged in smaller activities at community school level, block level and district level. While the objective of school level activities was to promote reading habit amongst school children, the Block level activity was to familiarise/ sensitise/train children on issues of gender and how it impacts children’s lives on a daily basis, especially in schools and text books. At the same time, the State level CLF’s objective was to equip children to write stories poems, narratives that break the gender stereotypes and biases, to train children with skills to lead advocacy for quality in teaching and learning materials.

Reading sessions, loud reading sessions (Debate), word power game, creative story writing, creative art, song and dance were being the activities accomplished at school level. From the school level CLF process 2 best performing children each from 15 schools were selected to attend the block level/ district then Project level gender workshop and the audition process. The Child Development Project of Thakurmunda had organised this event at Padiabeda High School in November, 2019 where 10 best children were selected to join the State level CLF.

A three-day State level Children Literary Festival was held at Keonjhar during December 2019. A total of 30 children, including 10 each from 3 partner organisations of Plan India were participated meaningfully in this event. The children had lots of fun, joyful learning along with sharing their views/understandings on gender through creative writing, art, poem, loud reading/debate, song, dance, mono-actions, one act plays and puppetry. It was an effort to enhance their knowledge on gender, exploring inherent qualities & talent. Best ten performers were enlisted by different means of assessments to take part in the National level Children’s Literary Festival.  Out of 10 children represented CYSD in the State level event, 4 children got selected for participation in National level event. Children from 10 States participated in the National level Children’s Literary Festival organised by Plan India from 28-29 January 2020. The children represented CYSD performed well in the entire event.

At the national level event, in Painting competition, Badal Das from CYSD was selected as best performer and honoured with memento. His paintings were being printed in porcelain mug and photo-frames as token of gift to guests. Secondly, unlike other states, Odisha got two stalls to decorate – one for the main stall & other for the puppetry show. Stall was decorated very nicely with paintings, crafts, stories prepared by the children and material from Odia culture. So also in Puppetry, opening son, comic in camp fire and dance in cultural evening CYSD representatives came out with bright performance which was greatly appreciated by the Executive Director and other officials of Plan India.

The whole journey of CLF commencing from the community school level and culminating at the national level in Hyderabad was really an exciting voyage for some of the children like Badal Das.

Ms Johanna Uuranto, a Finland National, along with her husband Mr Samuli Mollberg visited CYSD’s Child Development programme area in Thakurmunda on 6^th February to see their Sponsored Girl Child Sarfa Marandi, a 14 years old girl of Bharendia village.

On their arrival in Bhubaneswar on 5th February, both the Sponsor Parents (SP) were wellcomed and briefed about their visit plan to Thakurmunda by CYSD representative, Mr. Dipti Ranjan Mohanty, Lead – Sponsorship. Following which, during their stopover/stay in in Bhubanewar, Shri P K Sahoo, Chairman of CYSD had an interaction with SPs on various ongoing programs and projects of CYSD, especially  with the support of  Plan International India.

The next day early in the morning, the SPs proceeded to Thakurmund by road and  around 10.15 am they reached in CYSD’s Child Development Project office. On arrival, they were cordially welcomed by the project team too.  In an introduction-cum-interactive session, they were aprised about the programmes and activites of the organisation in detailed.  Mr. Samuli and Ms. Johanna acknowleged the efforts made by CYSD and appreciated the Child Protection Policy being implemented in partnership with Plan India.

It seemed, the Sponsor Parents were  quite excited to see thier child, Sarfa. So just afer the  brief meeting, they proceeded to Bharendia village and reached their  at 11.30 am. The couple was cordially received by Sarfa’s family (the sponsored family) as well as wellcomed by other community members and entered into the village with traditional tribal song and dance. Further, a community meeting was organised for them where all CBOs members includinng Child Club, women SHGs, Child Protection Committee delightfully received the sponsor parents and shared with them on different community development programs / projects being implemented by CYSD in their village.  The assembled mothers also shared about continous support they have been recieving from CYSD for ensuring children’s right to health, education and quality of life.

During their visit, an awareness campaign on “Child Rights and Child Protection” was going on in the village where the SP couple also had the opportunity to get involved and could see a puppet show  focussed on creating awareness and educating community members on girl’s education and consequence of early child marriage, which the sposor couple enjoyed every much.

The SP family offered some gifts of play materials, like cricket bat & ball, skipping, flying disk and ring ball to the child club members at the end of the community meeting. Besides, they also interacted with the sponsored child ‘Sarfa’ and other family members offering gifts, such as notebooks, pencil, pen, dress materials, etc. Before bidding Adieu to the village, there was a few photo sessions with the community members and sponsored family including the Sarfa and her siblings.

Then after, the SP had visited the Girl’s High School where Sarfa was studing, especially the World on Wheel programme – digital literacy campain was being running at the school. The couple observed a digital learning session of girls in a well equiped bus. They were very happy and appreciated this innovative initiative taken for promotion of girl’s education. Moreover,  the SPs interacted with the school girls, teachers and its management committee (SMC) members and visited the school library, class rooms, WASH infrastructures and praised for the supports extended jointly by CYSD & Plan India ensuring quality education for girls.

Coming back to project office and after taking lunch, at 3.30 pm, the SP family had a brief meeting with the Sponsorship Team where the couple tried to understand about the sponsorship processes and loved to see the photo gallery of programs and visits of seveal sponsors.

On their departure, the SPs had given a written feedbacks and conveyed their sincere thanks to the team for making their visit more meaningful and memorable one. “It was a phenomenal visit to meet our sponsored child, we want to thank Plan and CYSD for this great experiment and hospitality. The visit was great and although we had high hopes, visit exceeded our expectations. It is great to see how your job is excellently done, keep on doing it untill we meet again” clearly wrriten by Ms Johanna and Mr. Samuli Mollberg in visitors’ note book.

In the year 2017, Jagaran Farmers Producer Company Ltd (JFPCL) was established with   834 small and marginal tribal women farmers in Laxmipur block of Koraput district. The memberships of the company are represented from 10 Gram Panchayats covering 72 villages. In formative state, the farmers’ collective work encompasses aggregation and collectivisation of forest produces and agro produces grown by the members. Some of the produces were being value added depending upon the market demand and to meet the buyers choice. The produces, like Tamarind, wild Amla and Turmeric were taken for second and third level value addition. Some of the value addition practice were taken at household level by members and some at the central processing unit setup by the company.

While promoting producer collectives, CYSD provided requisite technical support towards strengthening the systems and processes of the Company. Besides, the organisation facilitated the capacity building of Board of Directors on governance & management, skill building on product value addition and linking produces to different markets in a comprehensive package, etc. During these three years of progressive journey, FPO members are able to access both financial and non financial services from the mainstreem scheme offered by the State Government. In initial year of establishment, JFPCL was recognised as the Nodal CBO by the Odisha Millet Mission to facilitate all activities of the Mission at field level in Laxmipur block. This recognition boosted the morale of tribal women leaders those were continuously engaged in offering their time and effort to set up this Company. The second and most significant achievement was when the Company received the “Kruti Krusak Cash Award-2020” bestowed by the Government of Odisha. Being the first awardee in Koraput district, the Chairperson of JFPCL Smt. Sabitri Paraja was felicitated by the Koraput District Administration on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 2020.

Being the promoting organisation of Producer Companies, CYSD has been trying to bring both financial and technical instituions those are willing to  support the Producer Collectives in marketing, provoding working capital, facilitating skill building, establishing sytems and processes and initiating research & development activities, etc. In the meantime, partnership with  Safe Harvest Pvt Ltd. for market linkage of de-seeded tamarind and Organic Utparna Pvt Ltd for market linkage of Millet (Ragi, Sua and Kangu) are established. Besides, partnership developed with Trade Carft India for building efificient business leaders and establishing systems and processes of companies.

“JFCPL has consistently grown from a startup company to an establised one. The turn over of company has gone up from 6 lakh to 15 laks within three years of its operation meeting day to day expenses including administration cost from its profit. Now Collective is a self-sustained”, says Sabitri Paraja.

Indeed, a small inititatve has directly impacted more than 5000 tribal households ensuring a decent livelihoods opportuity.