Monthly Archives: April 2020

Balhi Soren, is an ambitious member of Hatighoda Women Producer Group, lives with her small family in Hatighoda village of Thankurmunda block in Mayurbhanj district. Being a mason, her husband Mansingh Soren, somehow was managing the livelihoods of the family striving nearly 10 hours a day. He used to migrate for better earning to Chennai leaving two daughters with Balhi. Though they possess 1 hectare of land near river side, Balhi used to cultivate it only in Kharif season. Due to limited financial resources, she never tried for vegetable cultivation in that piece of land.

Being an active member of Hatighoda Producer Group, she got an opportunity to participate in a training programme on “Seasonal Vegetable Cultivation” which was being organized in her own village under Agriculture Cluster Programme of CYSD in 2019. Out of the training she acquired new knowledge and skill on how to initiate vegetable farming.

“After getting new ideas, I got excited to start vegetable cultivation in our riverside land, besides the Khariff crop and subsequently motivated my husband to stop migrating to Chennai. Then we decided to start vegetable farming in our field,” shared Balhi.

They initiated cultivation of different vegetables procuring one motor pump in subsidized price through OAIC with a view to irrigate the farm land lifting water from the nearby river. The vegetable yield last year was good, so also they earned a decent amount by selling the produces in nearby market.

“Good return further inspired us to extend our farm activities in other neighbours’ land on lease basis and we continued to earn 5 times more than the invested amount out of these activities in both Kharif and Rabi seasons” said Mansingh.

Initially, Balhi took a loan of Rs. 10000 from her SHG and started vegetable cultivation. Investing Rs. 10000, she got a net return of Rs. 70,000. With the intervention of CYSD project team she has applied for hybrid vegetable subsidy of Rs. 8000/- from Horticulture Department.

“Being an uneducated woman with scanty resources in hand, I was helpless due to a lack of information. I had never dreamed that one day I will run my own business successfully”, expressed Balhi in cheerful face.

This successful journey of Balhi has motivated other women producer members in her area and triggered a new lease of life for them by initiating vegetable farm activities. At present, 140 women producers have joined the Producer Group, out of which 54 producers are being engaged in vegetable cultivation in 26 acres of land and 40 households have initiated vegetable cultivation in 15 acres of land in Rabi season too.

Indeed, with her acquired knowledge and consecutive successes, Balhi is today mobilizing other women in her community to follow her footsteps and choose vegetable cultivation as a viable livelihood.

“The role of women has increased manifold since the Agriculture Production Cluster programme began. We now realized that economic self-dependence can come with this kind of new livelihoods source”, Balhi explains proudly.

A recently conducted Community Monitoring process in Bhalujhola village of Boipariguda block in Koraput district reveals that the beneficiaries of its Anganwadi Centre, like pregnant women and lactating mothers have hardly attended the Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND). Surprisingly, the assessment further dug out that VHND – popularly known as MAMATA Diwas, has ever been organized in this particular village.  The beneficiaries were deprived of health check-ups; unable to get the benefit of immunization; unaware about proper care and check-ups during the ante-natal and post-natal period; counseling services on birth spacing & intake of balanced diet during pregnancy, etc. The VHND, as an important tool, promises to be an effective platform for interfacing between the community and the health system and to provide first-contact primary health care. Also, VHND has to be organized once every month, preferably on a Wednesday or Friday for ensuring uniformity across the country.

The AWC of Bhalujhola village comes under Gupteswar Panchayat of Boipariguda Block which serves around 40 beneficiaries. Out of 40 beneficiaries, there are 3 pregnant women, 10 adolescent girls, 4 lactating mothers, 7 children under the age group between 6 months – 3 years and 16 children under the age group of 3 years to 6 years.

As part of the community monitoring of basic health services, facilitated by CYSD, both service providers i.e. ASHA, AWW and service users, like pregnant women and lactating mothers were interacted separately. While digging out the issue in detail, it was found that the beneficiary pregnant women and lactating mothers had neither participated in any VHND nor the event was organized in this particular village. The event was being organized by the concerned ANM in nearby Chadhipani village combining Bhalujhola village. Chadhipani village is located at a distance of 2-3 kms from Bhalujhola because of which the pregnant women and lactating mothers with their infants did not show interest to get involved in VHND. Even the Aaganwadi Worker of Bhalujhola was reluctant to accompany the pregnant women and children to Chadhipani for participation in VHND as she had to run the AWC. Besides, she always remained overburden due to non-deployment of a helper in her Centre. In absence of holding VHND, the consequences the mothers had to bear were manifold.

This issue was taken up as priority by the community during an interface organized between the service provider and the service users in Bhalujhola. A clear plan of action was developed to resolve the issue. The Aaganwadi Worker took the responsibility to present the case before the concerned ANM and request her to conduct monthly VHND in Bhalujhola. Mothers were also joined the AWW to persuade the ANM for organizing VHND at their own village.

After rounds of discussion with the concerned ANM, she agreed to conduct VHND in Bhalujhola. Since December 2019, the VHND has been organized at the Aaganwadi Centre of Bhalujhola. Beneficiaries are enthusiastically and consciously attending the VHND sessions on a regular basis and getting the required services hassle free. Moreover, the concerned ANM has committed to continue her support and cooperation in organizing the VHND in future too.

“It was too difficult for us to walk nearly 3 kms to attend the MAMATA Diwas at Chandipani. So we rarely attended it. Now, ANM Didi is convinced and organizing MAMATA Diwas in our village in every month. It has become priority for us to attend it and get the benefit of health check-ups during pregnancy”, said a 23 years old pregnant mother.  (Mother’s Name please.)

The unpredicted declaration of nationwide lock-down due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), just two days before 24^th March, the 38^th Foundation Day of CYSD, faded away the happiness of all its family members. The Foundation Day Celebration is one of the significant events for all CYSDians where each and every staff members including its Governing Body members and dignitaries from different walks of life join together to celebrate the day, exchange greetings and share lot of ideas and thoughts towards sharpening the organization’s vision along with adopting new strategies to move forward with renewed enthusiasm and commitments.

This year, we celebrate the event through a virtual (video conferencing) mode by avoiding physical gathering. The virtual celebration began at 11.00 a.m. with a welcome message by Shri P. K. Sahoo, the Chairman. In the message, he extended his good wishes to one and all and said, it is unfortunate that we could not make the event a grand celebration due to sudden outbreak of the novel virus ‘COVID-19’. We need to take care of ourselves, our families and our communities for whom we are working by maintaining social distance and using virtual medium. I am sure, we will have an opportunity to celebrate our 40^th Foundation Day in 2022 in a grand way. With all your sincere efforts and contributions in this long journey, CYSD have been well recognized in the development sector both in State level as well as in National level. I wish all the best in your future endeavors for the cause of the poor, the deprived and the marginalized communities. I hope and trust, your collective efforts will certainly help each other in achieving the objectives of the organization.

Shri Jagadananda Ji, the Member-Secretary extended his best wishes and appreciation to all CYSDians and their families. He said, in spite of the lock-down, we are reconnected on this auspicious day. During this 38 years of extensive journey, we have created lot of impacts on the lives of the disadvantaged communities which is greatly appreciated. However, we need to reflect our past interventions and recognize our failures and take oath to improve our quality of engagements and ensure not to replicate such mistakes time and again. We have undertaken various internal processes which need to be completed soon. Similarly, the monitoring standards must be strengthened. The Corona Viruses have created biological disaster across the globe and we must face the challenges collectively. As we are navigating through Covid-19 pandemic and followed by countrywide lock-down situation, this is the golden opportunity to ensure our self capacity improvement by undertaking quality online development courses, practicing Yoga and Pranayam for improved healthy lifestyle as well as to enhance our level of self-confidence. I am sure, our collective efforts will help us to overcome the present crisis. Once again my good wishes to all.

Besides, the good-wishes messages sent by a few well-wishers and partners were shared and following which everybody participated in the virtual celebration extended their best wishes and thanks to each other. The celebration was culminated at 1.00 pm.

ASHA worker has hardly paid any home visit to beneficiaries in Bharanibeda village under Thakurmunda Block of Mayurbhanj district, reveals a recently conducted “Community Monitoring Process” assessment. Even the ambulance driver openly asking for payoff of Rs. 200/- to carry each pregnant mother for institutional delivery, the study further discloses. While the ICDS beneficiaries were getting only 6 eggs instead of 11 eggs in a month, the village Anganwadi Centre was deprived of getting required kind of play materials for the pre-school children up to 6 years age too. Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), a popular flagship programme, provides supplementary nutrition, immunization and pre-school education through Anganwadi Centre in each village. Under ICDS, Anganwadi Centre in every village acts as the hub for service provision and looks into the nutritional aspect of pregnant women, lactating mothers and children up to 6 years.

The Mini-Anganwadi Centre in Bharanibeda village of Khandabandha Gram Panchayat under Thakurmunda Block is supposed to extend services to around 35 numbers of beneficiaries. Of the 35 beneficiaries, there are 12 children ageing 6 months to 3 years, 20 children between the age group of 3 to 6 years, one pregnant woman and 2 number of lactating mothers.

As part of the community monitoring of basic health services, facilitated by CYSD, both service providers i.e. ASHA worker, AWW and service users, like pregnant women and lactating mothers were interacted separately. While investigating the issue in detail, most of the service users said, “We are getting 6 eggs in a month, the ambulance driver is asking for Rs. 200/- to carry each pregnant mother for delivery at the health centre, ASHA is not at all paying any home visits, and our Anganwadi Centre lacks required kind of play materials for the pre-school children”. On the other hand, while the service providers were interacted, various issues, such as irregular supply of egg, scanty budget to purchase egg, limited supply of pre-school play materials and excess work-load of ASHA came to the notice.

Expediting the monitoring process, a village level interface was organized between the service users and service providers where the Ward Member of Bharanideda village was also present. While developing a village level plan of action, the service users demanded to know about their entitlements from Anganwadi Centre as well as the timetable for home visits and counseling by ASHA. At that time, the service providers had no other ways than confessing their irregularities. Instantly they were agreed to pay regular home visits and provide counseling care to the mothers. Moreover, it was also mutually agreed by both the service users and the service providers to pledge complaints at the CHC, Thakurmunda and Sub-Divisional Hospital, Karanjia regarding the ambulance driver’s illicit demand for payoff. Even, the village Ward Member took the responsibility to further interact with the concerned Sector Supervisor regarding supply of necessary pre-school play materials. This was happened during the last quarter of the year 2019.

A slight vigilant eye, close-knit monitoring and supervision by the community has changed the whole situation. At present the ambulance is coming to pick up the pregnant mothers at their doorstep for institutional delivery and driver is restrained from asking for bribe for his services. Anganwadi Centre is equipped with sufficient playing materials for pre-school children and children are enjoying their school life.

“Now I getting 11 eggs in each month as against 6 eggs earlier. ASHA Didi is making regular visits to our home for health check-ups and providing health tips”, said a Bishnupriya Mohanta, a lactating mother of 32 years old in cheerful face.