CYSD

Last year, when the unprecedented nation-wide lockdown was imposed, hundreds of migrant workers throughout the country lost their livelihood overnight. They had no work, no roof and no food with the blink of an eye. Walking thousands of miles in tattered chappals, migrants with their families marched towards their hometowns in despair in the scorching heat of late March. Some were brought back by the State Governments through trains and buses. These included many who returned to the tribal dominated undivided Koraput district in the southern part of Odisha, including Rayagada district,

Rayagada, covered with dense forest, hills and natural resources, is a home to major tribes like Kandhos, Jhodias and Souras who sustain widely on agriculture and collecting forest produces.Most parts of the district are untouched by development with low level of education and chronic poverty that has led many to migrate to different parts of the country in search of better livelihood options. The push owing to crop loss and heavy debt burden driving them into poverty.

The unforeseen return of large number of migrants posed multiple serious challenges to the state and civil society. Envisaging to ensure and protect the rights and entitlements of migrants in Rayagada, a Migration Support Service Centres (MSSCs) were set up by CYSD in collaboration with UNICEF. MSSC developed a database of migrants on the basis of age, gender and skill sets acquired by them and the details of their employers for tracking, monitoring and response.

The centre facilitated the registration of workers under Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW), MGNREGS and inclusion in entitlements with the help of local government. It also tried to create an environment for inclusion of the children of the migrants in the social welfare schemes of the government, like the ICDS, ICPS, SSA, Kishori Shakti Yojana, Universal Immunization Programme, Biju Kanyaratna Yojana, Banishree, etc.

MSSC undertook activities for skilling and re-skilling of migrants and youths with a focus on prior learning of semi-skill migrants and development in the capacity of local governments towards integrating the needs of migrants, children, women and other distressed groups in Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and monitoring at the local level.

Harsha Kadraka, a 22-year-old returnee migrant who received Agri-based skill training on Mushroom cultivation from MSSC says that she is excited to sell her mushroom and earn Rs. 700 – 900 daily. “From a distress migrant to a self-employed has only been possible because of CYSD and UNICEF’s joint efforts” says delightful Harsha.
Besides, attempts were also made in strengthening the local institutions including Child protection committees; mobilizing Gram Panchayats (GPs) to strengthen infrastructures for children at Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) and schools, and facilitating community leadership development at source for safe migration.

The centre has been working towards ensuring better policy and programs for migrants in the context of inter-state registration portability of entitlement benefits. It is deeply engaged in exploring the opportunities for expanding and replicating the model.MSSC is currently functional in 10 Gram Panchayats of Kolanara Block of Rayagada district, namely, Kolanara, Rayagada, Suri, Dunduli, Gadiseshkhal, Bada Khilapadar, Jharidi, Bankili, Rekhapadar, Bhoimoda, Katikana covering 114 villages having 44677 population with 10174 HH. The Centre is benefiting 1049 migrants of 147 families from these 10 GPs.

The project is being implemented on the ground with the help of multiple-stakeholders, like concerned Sarpanch of 10 Gram Panchayats, 10 Samiti Sabhya (Members), 118 Ward Members, 10 PEOs, 10 JRS, 113 AWWs, 131 ASHA, 28 ANM, Medical Officer, BDO, WEO, BSSO, District Labour Officer, Block Chairperson, Community Resource Persons (Volunteers of CYSD-UNICEF) are a part of the initiative.

A total of 1046 migrants’ families are involved in this process; and about 586 new born babies have been registered in between January 2020 – December 2021.Initial intervention revealed that more than 5000 people were deprived of their basic social entitlements like, PDS, Pension, health insurance, Aadhar card, job cards, labour cards, Educational scholarships, immunization, birth and death registration, housing, drinking water, electricity and so on. The most affected of them were the migrant families. In order to address this problem, MSSC with multiple stakeholders’ collaboration intervened at the micro level through the ‘Single Window System’.

Nedi Padmabati, a 45-year-old widow from Darabada village in Rayagada district says that she is grateful to have received a ‘Labour Card’ with the support of CYSD and UNICEF. “Being a widow, it has become very hard and worrisome for me to survive amidst Covid-19 pandemic with the burden of nurturing two children of mine”, says Nedi.

The Labour card will make Nedi eligible in obtaining government benefits like; assistance in case of any accident, death benefit, pension, medical expenses for treatment, loans and advances for construction of own house, financial assistance for skill up-gradation, education for children, purchase of working tools, marriage of two dependent daughters and even assistance in funeral expense.Despite several initiatives, the number of distressed migrants has only seen a surge in the last two decades. The lockdown surfaced the problems of migrant workers and highlighted the dire need to ensure safety and security for 60 million people of the country who are inter-state labour migrants.

MSSC is a small joint effort by CYSD and UNICEF in Rayagada to solve the grassroots problems of Migrant returnee in dealing with the tsunami like issue. However, the necessity for similar initiatives holds special importance. It is the time to provide protection and care for greater outcomes. Projects like the MSSC need scale up, technical support and assistance in this mean time when the second wave of COVID-19 has already hit the state.

The Odisha Vikash Conclave-2020 was enriching with the evening session on “Development \prriorities in Odisha : Role of Civil Society” inviting eminent panelists. Initiating the deliberation, a brief overview of the day-long programme along with release of Odisha Development Report, 2020 and the outcomes of discussions on various thematic sessions were shared by Ms. Sneha Mishra, Secretary, AAINA. The esteemed panelists of the session, like Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik, Former Judge of Supreme Court; Dr. Rajesh Tandon, UNESCO Co-chair & Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, Prof. (Dr.) Amitabh Kundu, Distinguished Fellow, Research & Information System for Developing Countries; Dr. Bhagban Prakash, Former Senior Advisor, Election Commission of India, Shri Jagadananda, Convener of Odisha Development Initiative and Co-founder, CYSD, and Shri P K Sahoo, Co-founder of CYSD presented their valuable concrete suggestions on development priorities of Odisha focusing on role of civil society.

 “It is required to invest in building leadership among the tribals, youth and the women; engage with multi-national companies; have dialogue with them on how they can contribute to the development of the state. Also, Growth rate is impressive in Odisha, but the share of agriculture production to GSDP has gone down. Further, the state is lagging behind in the social sectors including health and education which is a matter of concern. The population growth rate is not so high in Odisha, but the death rate is high. There is need for increased relative pricing of rice.”

Dr. Rajesh Tandon

“Odisha seems to be in the development paradox as there are huge sources of water but irrigation coverage is low; soil is rich but productivity is less; there is political stability but development is not encouraging and inclusive; and being an agrarian state, its agriculture share to GSDP is not up to mark. Further, around 30000 civil society organizations are operating in Odisha, they need strong collaboration among each other to sort out varied issues of the State together.”

Dr. Bhagban Prakash

For the development of Odisha, drinking water, health & nutrition and education should be the priority areas. An increase in income of people is the need of the hour, so employability skills and entrepreneurial abilities require to be developed among the youth. Moreover, peace, harmony and fraternity should have to develop among the civil society organizations so that they can unitedly influence the legislature and the judiciary.

Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik

“The development priorities include both the hardware and the software components. While the government mechanism is good at dealing with the hardware component; the civil society is good at managing the software component including social mobilization and facilitating community actions. If both the actors join hands they can make the impossible possible. Therefore, collaboration among all the development partners is the need of the hour.”

Shri Jagadananda

There is need for collaboration and synergy building among the development actors through regular dialogue and discourse with utmost trust and solidarity. Equity and inclusiveness are the keys to development. Moreover, there is no substitute for volunteerism and voluntary action in development.

Shri Prafulla Kumar Sahoo

The Odisha Development Report, published by Odisha Development Initiative, released on the occasion of the 3rd edition of Odisha Vikash Conclave-2020, contains 40 insightful articles written by experts from diverse sectors. The report, in a studied and objective attempt, has assessed the present situation and identified the key areas of concern and constraints in achieving inclusive growth. The report also clearly states that partnership, collaboration and joint initiatives of government, civil society organizations, academic and corporates can take the development agenda to a new height and Odisha can be at the forefront of socio-economic growth of the country in the coming decades.

Though the state’s position in health parameters such as malnutrition, anemia is better than the national average, the situation in tribal districts are alarming says the report. Over a dozens of tribal dominated districts are above the state average of anemic mothers and underweight children, the report highlighted further.

The ranking of overall index highlights that districts in the coastal and the industrial belt of north-west regions of Odisha are having better social development scenario as compared to other parts of the state. In the case of basic amenities, five districts namely Khorda, Cuttack, Jagatsignhpur, Ganjam and Puri have been maintaining the top ranking, while southern districts namely Baudh, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur and Malkanagiri were found to be the worst performing.

Eight districts in Odisha have more than 50 percent tribal population. The report highlights that the districts with high share of ST population record significantly low levels of development in health, basic amenities, education, economic, and the overall social wellbeing.

“Despite the well-orchestrated interventions by Finance Commission, Planning Commission and other institutions, Odisha remained a low recipient of federal transfers and corporate investments. Besides, regional disparity in Odisha is a major challenge and needs special attention with specially designed development programmes and schemes. Moreover, social inequalities based on caste, sex, region, lopsided development, rapid urbanization, high distressed migration, and less income opportunities are noted to be major challenges in Odisha.”                                     

“Odisha Development Report 2020 clearly articulates the development priorities for Odisha; what the government and the civil society can do; and good civil servants who are open to new ideas, free to accept and translate them to action.”

“One-fourth of the state population consists of indigenous people and over 90 percent of farmers are small and marginal landholders mainly depend on agriculture and allied sectors as their primary sources of income. CSOs have proved the partnership with government agencies on effective implementation of OTELP, cluster farming, agriculture production cluster programmes, etc; and many CSOs have demonstrated successful development models that need to be upscale in undeveloped rural/tribal pockets of the State.”

“The State Government is emphasizing on the agriculture productivity and improvement in the quality of life and livelihoods of tribal people through various income enhancement programmers and alternative livelihood opportunities meant for them. Also, the CSOs have demonstrated partnership with government agencies on effective implementation of the programmes & schemes and many of them have developed successful models that need to be up-scaled in underdeveloped pockets of the State.”

For the first time when I heard about Coronavirus, I just took it very casually. Like African countries, endemics of Ebola and Zika were rumoured in India, same might be the case of Corona –  I imagined. Also, I thought – Is there any guaranty that people will die from Corona! But, they must die because of sudden closure of all transactions, i.e. due to state and country wide shut down!

Hasty closure of whole life transaction, from 24 March 2020 owing to COVID-19 pandemic, did much impact on the low income groups of people. At the beginning, when the govt closed everything all of a sudden such as business, travel, education, government offices, etc. people faced survival threats who were stuck at different points like, the persons who visited to non-native districts or states as hawkers, peddlers or small business holders.

I have had witnessed a similar case in front of my residence in Malkanagiri municipal area. A group of 9 families who had come from Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra for selling of different ply furniture, we used to call them as ‘Banjaras’, living under ripped tents in a barren land. Soon after closure of everything those families lost their earning source, dried up their earned money and even food stock. I realised and asked them whether they need any help from me, they replied with much hesitation, “Kya humko roti milega”. Then I rushed to home and collected whatever food items we had and offered them immediately. I informed the case to the Municipality Executive Officer hastily for arranging some food, but that was not sufficient as the government was providing very less quantity of ration to each person. To deal the issue, I tried to contact my near and dear ones for help, used social media platforms to generate support. Many likeminded people came forward to support the hungry families. In this way, I could help not only to those Banjara families but also to 40 other families who used to manage their livelihoods through daily labour. During day time, I used to work at office, very close to my residence, but at night, together with my cousins, our mission was to search for families or individuals around my colony who might have slept on empty stomach.

While one problem remained unsolved, another was cropped up. When Odisha Government called for the migrants to back home from their destination states, the situation became worse to worst, huge influx of migrants from different corners of Odisha reached Motu Tahasil of Malkangiri, the end point of the district and border of Odisha, Chatishgarh and newly emerged Telengana States. I was very closely watching the sorrows of migrants, hunger of labours along with their families travelled for 4-5 days from far away south Indian States, hopelessness eyes of mothers and crying face of children. I realised their pity, which continued to buzz in my mind until I did something for them. It was May, I was heavily assigned with project activities under Child Development Project adding to immediate Response to COVID-19 in terms of direct assistance to vulnerable families, young mass and children with survival kits, education kits & health kits at the join endeavours of CYSD & ChildFund India.

My involvement with CYSD and its response to COVID-19 once again reinforced me to initiate something different innovatively. Of late, it’s not me, but a group of likeminded young mass from Malkangiri town who were motivated through my social work, started mobilising funds for returnee migrants, especially who were going back home passing by Malkangiri town. With prior permission from District Administration we provided cooked food, dry food & water to the returnee migrants on their way to home. Looking at our initiative many civil society organizations in Malkangiri came forward to support the returnee migrants with food and water for a month or so. On daily basis we used to give approximately 1000 meals to the returnee migrants and for this activity we received enormous appreciations and blessings from the people. For the purpose, I had taken 2 days’ special leave from my office. The initiative was also supported and appreciated by my Supervisor.

The worst ever time came when the whole of my family members got infected in COVID -19, my father was in government quarantine centre, mother in COVID hospital, my wife and younger brother were in home quarantine. It’s me and my 3 years old daughter were left unaffected by virtue of God’s will, but had to suffer a lot by roaming from quarantine centre to COVID hospital and kitchen to medicine stores to support my parents for 20 days. But, these hurdles never stopped me to perform my duty and get involved passionate work.

Much earlier, I had assumed that economic crisis will impact the children’s education first, because it has become a trend in undivided Koraput district that my ‘Desia’ communities never give priority to education and discontinue their children’s education even for silly reasons. We the Education Team of the Child Development Project had identified some orphan, single parent and economically vulnerable children who were in the verge of discontinuing their higher education owing to economic crisis. We supported them financially for getting admission in the colleges by mobilising funds through social media campaign. The team mobilised around Rs. 80,000/- from the campaign and supported 12 such children for their higher education.

Of course, the Corona pandemic gave me a special opportunity to think and act innovatively for my society and the people. Still many more change initiatives are yet to bear fruits and I wish to keep enduring my mission during this pandemic crisis.

“With the implementation of the Agriculture Production Cluster (APC) programme in my locality, I was motivated to cultivate different seasonal crops adopting new ideas and technology. Now, I am earning around Rs. 30,000 out of vegetable cultivation in a season. Being a marginal farmer, earlier I used to cultivate only rice and millet-based crops in the traditional pattern of cultivation, but the income was hardly meeting the needs of my family”, says Dauna from G. Maliguda village.

Dauna Mali is a marginal woman farmer from G. Maliguda village of Kollar Gram Panchayat in Boipariguda Block of Koraput district. She is a very active member of the Pragati Producer Group and supports her husband in agriculture-related works. Following the traditional method of agricultural farming, both the couple were cultivating only rice and millet-based crops and hardly earning Rs 8000 to Rs 10000 in a year. With this meager amount, it was very difficult to manage the family. In the meantime, CYSD intervened in their Kollar Panchayat and facilitated the producer group members to adapt the Agriculture Production Cluster approach in their cultivation. Being an active member of the Pragati Producer Group, Dauna was quickly motivated to initiate cultivating different crops including vegetables along with other members through new ideas and technology. Gradually, she started cultivating Cauliflower, Brinjal, and Beans in her farmland during Kharif and Rabi seasons including summer.

During this Rabi season, Dauna was supported with 120 grams of Cauliflower seed inputs. She raised nursery and planted the sapling in 0.70 cents of land and protected the cropping area with green fencing boundary. Through attending orientation programs organized by CYSD periodically, she has acquired basic knowledge and skill on various steps of cultivation, nursery bed preparation, pest and disease management, main field management, winter crop selection, and appropriate application of pesticide, fertilizer, and manure in farmland for nutrient enhancement, so on.

 Having this agricultural knowledge, skill, and own interest in farming, with hard work, she has stood as a successful farmer in cauliflower. “This time, I had made an investment of Rs. 9500/- for cauliflower farming. As of the end of November, I have sold only 40% of cauliflowers earning Rs 12000, but yet to sell 60% of cauliflower”, says Dauna. 

Indeed, Dauna has become an example for other farmers in her village. She is well managing her family without any financial burden now. “Adaption of the APC method in agriculture has brought a transformation in the standard of living of my family. I look forward to chasing the new ideas and techniques toward cultivating more such vegetables”, she added. 

“I have never envisaged that a small initiative of backyard poultry rearing will one day bring changes in my life and livelihood. I had no space to accommodate 10 poultry birds initially, but now more than 60 are being well sheltered”, says Daimati Bhumia from Kupuliguda village of Koraput district.

Kupuliguda is a small tribal village under Kollar Panchayat of Boipariguda block.   Bhumia, being a poor tribal woman, was struggling to find out a way for sustained livelihoods by rearing 10 poultry birds in her house without a proper shed till end of 2017. During those days, buyers were coming to her doorstep to procure the poultry birds and she used to sell those with an estimated cost in absence of weighing machine. Her earning was hardly exceeded to Rs. 2000 per annum previously.

During 2018, with the intervention of CYSD in Kollar Panchayat for livelihoods promotion activities, Farmers’ Producer groups were formed through the Agriculture Production Cluster approach. Daimati was encouraged to become a member of the Pragati Farmers’ Producer Group in her village. Through attending regular meetings and orientation programs, she got to know the prospects of livestock rearing – as a better option for livelihoods. “With the facilitation of CYSD and support from ITDA, I have built a poultry shed and procured chicks phase-wise. Following the guidelines of a government scheme, I have segregated the birds and provided them with separate shelters. Now, I am owning around 60 poultry and ensuring vaccination to them on regular intervals”, shared Bhumia.

Bhumia’s keen interest and hard work enabled her to become a successful backyard poultry farmer in the village. She earns an average annual income of Rs.20000. Besides, she is involved in various agricultural activities to supplement her income.

“Adaption of APC approach in livestock farming with the intervention of CYSD has brought a big transformation in our lives and livelihoods”, added delightful Daimati.