Showing posts with label NRLM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NRLM. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Young Professional @ Odisha Livelihood Mission--- 2

Young Professional (YP) is a short-term work opportunity (three years) to experience development and gain exposure to government operations and policies. Panchayati Raj Department, Odisha is the agency in implementing National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) program delivery and interface in Odisha serving to the marginalized section of the population. While the government is always reluctant to share or de-valuate power to the community, NRLM has tried to build sustainable community institutions at the Panchayat level. YPs served either at the district or block administration level. In simpler words, YP is just another name of Management Trainee in a government agency doing the contractual job without any power.

Why I joined Odisha Livelihood Mission?  One can't have the right to voice their disappointments unless one understands the functionality of the government. I have also considered the government as the biggest development agency in India. Hence, it is of utmost importance to understand governance in India. Corporate look into so many people as consumers and term them as "Bottom of Pyramid". In contrast, OLM was trying to build the capacity of people without throwing away subsidized schemes. These are a few of the many reasons why I was able to work with the state.

I always wanted to have a balance between theoretical and practical work. It is different to know the name of something and actually observe or experience it. A course in rural management doesn't offer subjects that make their students ‘understand’ the rural people. Even with a bit of knowledge acquired in the college, I was looking for a job as a practitioner, not a professor. I have written in detail on this topic previously Young Professional @ Odisha Livelihood Mission.

I worked as YP in OLM from April 2013 to January 2014. This work gave me the opportunity to work with the Government and the community jointly. This time span has good, bad, and even ugly moments. I was able to show true character and talent by taking up the challenge and worked with a zeal to learn.

The Good:

The single strongest predictor of group effectiveness is the amount of help that peers do to each other. A bunch of YPs was no exception to the rules. Our workplace has qualified men and women with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds from educational institutions like TISS, NIRD, IIFM, XIMB, XISS, & KSRM recruited as YPs. Diversity is reflected in our inclusive environment that embraces all sorts of values and ideas; The best part was having people who weren't sycophants rooting for their college brand rather than cross-engaging for new collaborations.

I developed a decent understanding of the Odiya language. Rural India has been transformed over the last half-century, the people are freer and filled with aspirations, but the old values continue to extract a toll. What I saw was how significantly social networks influence people’s decision-making. There are people out there who didn't get the option to graduate or study in regional medium alone but have sound knowledge on development. There is also a feeling of powerlessness and an inability to make themselves heard in the corridors of power.

To counter the dimension of being voiceless, I tried to reach out to many people as possible and ask tons of questions. Typically, people don’t like to be questioned, but it is essential to engage with people in a friendly way and listen to them. It's a bit like an investigative journalist checking narratives of the beneficiaries, non - beneficiaries, government officials, & elected representatives. I was also lucky to interact with Dr. H.K. Pradhan, a senior faculty member of XLRI spearheading an initiative in Balasore. And yes, there are government officials doing honest work in a thankless job.

Our simple assumptions like simplifying schemes, running awareness campaigns, and make the public goods widely available were critically assessed in the light of new evidence. There is a wide gap between community, market, and government - like coordination problems and inequality in access to power and information. I was able to oversee as an insider working of Indira Awas Yojana, Mo Kudia, Mo Pokhari, MGNREGS, Gramsabha, social audit of government programs, and Panchayat administration. I learned two lessons on public policy and government.

1. Efficiency isn’t always the goal of policy as one has to give attention to social and cultural complexity. Public policy requires fairness, which doesn't lend to the most efficient policy but is virtuous nonetheless.

2. Government is anything but well-tuned, acting coherently and consistently in pursuit of a well-defined set of objectives, captured by a single social welfare function. Government is a crucible of interest groups, rather than a black box of noble intentions.

The Bad:

It is necessary to get the first step right to reach the solution to the problem. Once the first step is incorrect and the entire problem gets way too complicated. A sharp glance at the old schemes of the central and state government shows more tweaking rather than the innovative design of new programs. Hence, the failure rate of the government is of utmost high. There was quite a low emphasis on Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) job. Too much emphasis was given on the framework of old government programs; I have written in detail on this topic: Why Government Schemes Fail? and Why Government Schemes Fail? -2

Even Lord Curzon has complained, "Round and Round like the .... revolutions of the earth goes file after file in the bureaucratic & daily dance, stately, solemn, sure and slow". Guidelines, plans, programs, or projects tend to be neatly prepared for submission, but agencies and individuals return to business as usual once it comes to implementation. Meetings are important as they give part of the thought process of various govt departments. But in short, there was more time wasted in aligning the process than measuring qualitative results.

The Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman has established that unfairness is a larger motivator for action than fairness. YPs were assigned different salaries even with the same job profile that is unfair and the issue was pushed down under carpets. It puts the act of cohesion and coordination in jeopardy.

The Ugly:

Appointing consultants on a contractual basis, instead of employees on the rolls, is a common practice adopted by companies but most NGOs as well. It is done to evade the responsibility of providing PF benefits which are mandatory under labor law. And, this was done to YPs by an agency working on behalf of a government department.

The problem isn't that the staff don't contribute, it's that the official who takes feedback don't think of themselves as ignorant enough to learn something new in face of new proofs. Even officials are not cold to the problems faced by them but they are more tied in the tight framework of government norms. But, it was indeed a hierarchical institution with less space given to honest feedback as it may undermine the authority and raise questions. Shooting from the hip in presentation is an easy way out, but do dig a little deeper people will tell the real stories on the field. There was more tendency of risk aversion than performance in the staff.

Why I left Odisha Livelihood Mission? Personal reason to work close to home was the primary factor behind the decision. Due to being vocal initially, a lot of negative images was build in the central team. Yet, lack of mentorship, no clarity on the role, and working without powers was a frustrating experience to be as professional. Hence, the scope to take any concrete work was quite limited. I am a work in progress and don't want to stifle in starting phase of my career. Hence, I shifted to another grass-roots organization.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Validation and Grading of SHGs

SHGs were formed under Mission Shakti in Odisha. Odisha government started a validation and grading exercise to know SHG status in December 2012. The validation process aimed at confirming the existing status of SHGs, whereas the Gradation Process assessed their eligibility for receiving Revolving Funds.

Validation

In an ideal world, the Branch Manager/ Representative of the Bank, B.D.O/Representative from the block, and C.D.P.O/Representative from ICDS should visit the field and complete the process. This may take from 5-10 days depending on the size of the district. This doesn't happen in the real world where AWW sits with the President/Secretary of SHG for the complete assessment.

DRDA and ICDS Balangir have a record of 11097 SHG existing in the district but validation led to only 7846 functioning groups. Hence, we can easily imagine with these figures, the difference between SHGs claimed and existing can run in lakhs. Defunct and far SHGs form a major part of the numbers claimed by the government.

Grading

Grade I and II with A, B, and C as three categories of the SHG was the grading format. The format with various criteria is uploaded on Scribd. SHGs having 70% BPL members and passed the Grade-I test and categorized as “A” or “B” i.e. Scoring more than 60% marks during Grading will only be eligible for Revolving Fund in order of merit as per their scores. The Graded SHGs are assisted under NRLM, as this fund will aim to address the immediate production and consumption needs of members of the SHGs as well as encourage internal lending practices among the members.

In the intensive Block under NRLM, Revolving Fund(RF) of 10,000 or 15,000 depending on whether they had already received any prior assistance under any other government scheme. The SHGs who have qualified grade I test but have not availed of any financial assistance will be provided with a revolving fund of ₹.15,000/- in two tranches. In the first tranche ₹.5000/- will be provided and on successful utilization of this amount ₹.10,000/- will be provided to the group directly in 2nd tranche at least after 3 months of receiving 1st tranche. This fund will become a part of their group corpus. The group members can borrow from the group corpus to meet their various needs as decided in the group. However, the groups who have already availed of such financial assistance under Mission Shakti or any Govt. program will not be eligible for 1st tranche and receive only 10,000. I insisted on attaching Xerox copies of my BPL card and Bank Passbook SHG while working at Bhanjanagar block in Ganjam district. Hence, it created transparency and gave validity to the no. of BPL members by any SHG.

Conclusion

RF/PPIF is distributed in a campaigning mela organized at each block to sensitize the groups about NRLM. Generally, it is more show of the good work done by the government. In an ideal world, SHG assessment (or rating) should not just be limited to current performance but could also assess credit absorption and repayment capacity. That requires qualitative information to look for problems faced by each group. It is assumed by the government that the SHGs that are found ineligible would be provided hand-holding support, to improve their credibility for future assistance. However, there was no staff at the field level to do this tedious job. Record keeping at the group level has emerged as a very weak aspect of SHG functioning.

The main problem is that we don't have data on the Life cycle of a SHG. We are unable to understand how many groups are defunct or discontinued so we don’t know the mortality rate of the group. So, the government has no answer to these two questions: What groups work, and what works with groups?

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

e-NRLM

It is very essential for monitoring and evaluation to have solid data. There are thousands of functioning SHGs in the country. NRLM has taken step for transparency through data collection about SHG. MIS of NRLM is hugely important for tracking effectiveness of programs that would serve in a long way to establishing accountability at each level.

ICDS is already working with SHG movement in Odisha with Mission Shakti since 2003. Through validation and gradation of SHG in December 2012, Panchayati Raj Department was able to verify total number of SHG in the Odisha. Still, there was no concrete record of name of all SHG members. Name of President and Secretary can only be obtained through all given data. I formed a template as required for MIS and termed this E-NRLM format. Our OLM team at Bhanjanagar and Surada block of Ganjam district used Aagan Wadi Workers (AWWs) for collecting data about SHG.

Data collection exercise is a tough thing in India. Education of the most of the AWWs varies mostly from class 7-12 range. They are overloaded with core responsibilities and other auxiliary works. Other hurdles in data capture is Demand of Information in English Language. This is a huge problem at all India level as the necessary level of English is not achieved by  AWWs, GRS or any other extension staff. If we collect data in the regional language, it will be very tough for translating them in English for data operator sitting at block level. One more precaution should be taken while collecting data at rural level. Agriculture season shouldn't be selected for the exercise as women members are busy in all activities. That will add burden to AWWs and make process more tedious.

Gathered information is static in nature. We need to re-validate all old SHGs each year for any change in members, amount of savings and bank linkage history. There is need to colled basic information also need about new SHGs formed each year. There will be upcoming need to update BPL(Below Poverty Line) data related to SHGs in near future. Currently, 1997 BPL census data is used in Odisha for any scheme. 2011 BPL data will be soon made public and must be incorporated soon.  Why this is important ? Each government schemes has guidelines to select beneficiary mostly on the basis of either SC/ST or BPL card per household. Hence, a more transparent way will emerge with the help of this MIS.With each opening of bank branches (public and private) in the locality, they should be readily integrated in MIS data.

In a review meeting, we were battered by a senior officer for not taking ownership of the mission in data collection exercise. This task was not possible without having a single field staff dedicated for NRLM at our disposal till December 2013. And, nobody remembers all big talks of convergence of various government agencies! I was working at Balangir district where few villages/GPs name were missing from MIS. We readily took help from MGNREGS MIS software. Now, that is a fine example of convergence. We are collecting BPL card number instead of just writing yes or no in BPL column for e-nrlm. That is ensuring much transparency in the system. It is plan to do this data collection exercise each year conjoint with re-assessment schedule of all SHG. That will ensure much light on proper SHG health.

Social investment is not being done just be formation of SHG and quality is not being maintained as government is only chasing numbers. Our huge ignorance of how good or bad SHG works is barrier to their development. MIS is a tool that will be give quantitative answers. There is still need of huge qualitative data to explain the numbers. NRLM need rigorous and reliable information of impact assessment studies, social audit, panel studies etc. Open data-Base is a new kind of 'public good' that can be generated through this mission. With this huge amount of publicly available data disseminated to policymakers, industry, bankers, researchers, Academia, students and others can give more understanding social reality.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Restructuring of SGSY as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)

Launched on 1st April 1999, Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was an integrated scheme for providing opportunities of self employment to the rural poor. Like any other government schemes, this was also prone to corruption and failure. Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) has been renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) with added provision. I was reading notification of RBI on National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) issued way back in June 2013.

Uneven spread of SHGs, defunct SHGs and high attrition rate of members were the main issues faced in functioning of SHG in SGSY. This has been tackled through Universalisation of SHGs. Setting up of federations of SHGs is the salient feature of NRLM that can ensure monitoring and validation at community level.

Identification of Swarozgari was major source of corruption for Bank, Block and District level officers. A lot of money was taken as bribe for clearance before proper credit reached the beneficiary. Even non existing beneficiaries were created for embezzlement of grants. No Capital Subsidy will be sanctioned to any SHG from the date of implementation of NRLM. SHG Federations at GP level will be given grant under Community Investment Support fund, which will be used by the Federations to advance loans to SHGs. There is provision of interest subvention to Women SHGs, enabling them to avail loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at an interest rate of 7 per cent per year.

Lack of dedicated implementation structure are identified as responsible factors by the draft for the poor performance of SGSY. There will be an autonomous, adequately staffed, professionally managed and empowered agency both at the national and state level to implement the mission under the Societies Registration Act. Creation of Dedicated Machinery will reduce burden on existing government machinery, hence reduces the chance of corruption!

There are some changes to National Rural Livelihoods Mission (Aajeevika) recently approved by Cabinet. Under the existing framework of implementation of N.R.L.M, only rural households included in the official BPL list could be targeted under N.R.L.M. This list was prepared in 2002, has not been updated and has many defects. The target groups under N.R.L.M will be determined by a well defined, transparent and equitable process of Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP), at the level of the community. This is welcome approach but can surely increase number of members of Extreme Poor and Vulnerable Group (EPVG) during PIP process. I always believe that identification of the poor is a political gimmick not a statistical exercise at ground level.

National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP)

Government of India has availed a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) for implementing the, National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP), under NRLM. The NRLP would be implemented in 13 high poverty states accounting for about 90 percent of the rural poor in the country. Intensive livelihood investments would be made by the NRLP in 107 districts and 422 blocks of 13 states (Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). Distribution of project funds among the states would be based on the relative share of rural BPL population in the total states. NRLP will broadly support the following components:

(i) Institution and human capacity development at the national, state, district and sub-district level such that support institutional structures are created,
(ii) State livelihood support towards establishment of institutional platforms of the rural poor for improved access to financial, livelihood and public services,
(iii) Innovation and partnership to identify and partner innovative ideas which address the livelihood needs of the rural poor and help pilot or scale them,
(iv) Project management and monitoring and learning systems.