Friday, February 28, 2014

Link Worker Scheme

The Government of India estimates that about 2.40 million Indians are living with HIV (1.93 ‐3.04 million) with an adult prevalence of 0.31% (2009). For the readers, there is a popular myth that HIV, AIDS is an urban disease. As per the HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) of 2007, it was identified that 57% of the HIV positive persons in India are estimated to be living in rural areas.

Under the NACP III, Link Worker Scheme was designed for rural prevention and NACO implemented this programme with the financial support of Global fund through Lead NGOs. Link Worker Scheme was launched to saturate the reach of the HIV related services to the high risk groups based in the rural areas. The scheme aims at building a rural community model to address the complex needs of rural HIV prevention, care and support requirements. Under this scheme, a person who has been trained and has been made responsible to carry out specific activities is called a Cluster Link Worker. I visited field office of Humana People to People India (HPPI) at Lucknow on learning tour about Link Worker Scheme. There was formation of red ribbon club (RRC) in the villages. This was done due to dormant village health committee and uneasiness among village elders to take up issues related to sexual health. I observed that women from higher caste and men are reluctant to talk openly. Cluster Link Worker told me about the few cases that have been referred to STI services under this intervention. Information materials & commodities (condoms, needles/syringes) through collaborating with nearest government health facilities has been distributed among the youth in the community.

There are numerous NGOs and CBOs working on HIV/AIDS issues in India at the local, state, and national levels. The events are organized by NGOs are limited to shouting slogans and carrying placards depicting various messages related to HIV/AIDS. They also help in social marketing (SM) of condoms. The campaign uses targeted ads and community engagement opportunities to change the way man and women think about HIV/AIDS. The major reasons of AIDS can be contributed to Unsafe Sex and Low Condom Use. But it arises from the Low levels of literacy leading to myth and misconception. STIs very often go untreated due to both lack of information and health care facilities. Stigma towards people living with HIV is widespread among urban and rural community. There are sex workers hiding in plain sight.

The high risk group (HRG) among the population includes Female Sex Worker (FSW), Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) & Injecting Drug Use (IDU). Bridge Population is truck drivers, male and female migrant while vulnerable Population constitutes migrant spouse, HRG spouse, truckers spouse. Youth migrating for work and trafficked women forms a critical group because of their ‘mobility with HIV’. Migration for work lead them into new living and working conditions without support of family. Sexually active age and separation from regular partners for extended periods of time predispose them to paid sex or sex with non-regular partners. Movement is not a necessary element in the trafficking process, with the mechanisms of deployment, payment of advances and wages bear a striking similarity across the country. The various reasons of trafficking are a result of complex set of Gender discrimination, illiteracy, No sex education, violence against women, vulnerability and ignorance of girls is finally lack of opportunity.

The HIV positive population needs provision of safe spaces and support system to overcome shameful anxieties, fragile hopes and guilt. I saluted the guts of the social worker to work in the community on such a taboo issue. It takes moral courage to meet outcast and convince a socially rigid community. There is a lot of awareness now on HIV now than a decade ago and the attitudes about AIDS changing gradually. It's not because people suddenly understood the arguments that were made back by few social workers. With consistent awareness, masses get used to message, AIDS loses its disgust value. And, the new generation is just much more open.

Monday, February 3, 2014

SHG Model and Financial Inclusion

SHG Model in India“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell.

This statement might have been just said on SHG (Self Help Group) movement in India. The rural landscape of India has mushrooming with SHGs. Formal credit system has, over the years failed to deliver in rural India. The transaction costs of the rural credit systems are very high and the system is plagued by non-performing assets. SHG were started as a pilot project of 500 SHGs, by Nabard in 1992, they grew slowly. SHG  are viewed today as an entry point in rural landscape for NGO, Bankers, government and even MNCs.

Self Help Groups (SHGs) are informal associations of up to 20 women (their average size is 14) who meet regularly, usually once a month, to save small amounts (typically Rs 10 to 50) a month. Majority of SHGs are single-caste groups based on basis of neighbourhood and affinity groups concept. Prof. Malcolm Harper notes three aspects with regard to using SHG groups  [Source]:

1) Groups take time, lots of it, and we have always said that poor women are very busy.
2) Groups tend to exclude individualist (sometimes they are called as entrepreneurs) who dare to be different, to do mad things like starting new types of businesses, which may even create jobs for others.
3) Men are generally bad at working in groups, and they take bigger risk and are less reliable than women, but when they do succeed they tend to create more jobs than women do, for the vast majority who prefer to employed than to be self-employed.'

Financial Inclusion (FI) in India [Source] -  Typically speaking, the scope of financial inclusion (FI) in India involves the following and related services (not exhaustive):

Access to accounts: a) Savings (No frills etc); and b) Current accounts.

Access to deposits: a) Fixed deposits; and b) Recurring deposits

Access to transaction banking: a) Use of cheques, demand drafts and other such instruments; b) Receiving of social security (NREGA and other) payments through bank accounts; c) Transfer of money through RTGS or NEFT and remittance services; d) Debit cards and ATM usage; e) Credit cards including KCC and GCC; f) Bill payments through technology banking - mobile banking, internet banking etc

Access to credit facilities: a) Typical priority sector loans for agriculture and allied areas etc; b) Post harvest, post production loans; c) Loans for marketing of agricultural and other produce etc; d) Traditional working capital limits; e) Traditional MFI loans under priority sector; f) Traditional SHG bank linkage program loans; g) Loans from specialised credit and other cooperatives; h) Traditional MSME loans backed by credit guarantee from Government of India; i) Housing/mortgage loans; and j) Various kinds of overdraft facilities and so on;

Access to risk management services: a) Life insurance; b) Health insurance; c) Asset insurance; d) Crop and weather insurance; e) Livestock insurance; f) Other such products such as credit insurance; and g) Micro-pensions

Access to other Services: a) Deposit insurance; b) business facilitators (BF) and business correspondents (BC); c) financial literacy services and credit counseling (FLCC) centers; d) grievance redressal, ombudsman and legal aid services; e) credit bureau; and f) Other services

The above services can be acquired through various institutions such as (but not limited to) the following: Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), Cooperative Banks, Local Area Banks (LABs), Post Offices, State Cooperatives, Mutually Aided Cooperatives, Multi-State Cooperatives, Investment Grade NBFCs, NBFC MFIs, BCs/BFs, Other MFIs, SHGs and so on.

SHG Model and Financial Inclusion in India

Government has been pushing banks to step up their financial inclusion (FI). Most of the financial inclusion has been limited to opening of No-Frill Accounts. Due to lack of financial literacy, program is not achieving the vision. Banks are fulfilling targets through intermediaries such as business correspondents (BCs). The limited amount of the BC works revolves around disbursement of government funds, small-value credit; recovery of principal / collection of interest; collection of small-value deposits and sale of micro insurance. Facilitating access to microfinance through SHG-supported bank linkages is one of the most critical aspects of our Financial Inclusion program. More on SHG Bank Linkages will be coming on the blog pretty soon.

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.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Visit for Social Audit of NREGS - 2

What is a social audit? It is better to have an idea of the concept in the first place.  Social_Audit_Report is uploaded to the NREGS website. But almost all of the community seems to be completely unaware of the documentation part. The best part of these meetings is the opportunity to meet office bearers and government officials on the same day.


When the government makes the schedule for a social audit in October, it reviews work done/in progress from April to September months. SA was originally scheduled in October but due to a cyclone, it was completed in December. Advertisements were given in three Oriya newspapers giving dates and locations of the social audit meeting. Local NGO was invited to attend the meetings yet no provision of funds was available for community mobilization through local NGOs. This was all done when Gram Rozgar Sevak (GRS) [working personnel for NREGS at Village level] were gone on strike. Their online petition is worth a read on the problem faced at the implementation level.

Verification of Documents, Grievance Submitted, and Issues was tackled in the meeting with sincerity. Whatever issues were raised and action was taken on them.  The normal complaint was the wrong account number given by beneficiaries of bank accounts. One person complained about having no job card. He later told that he was a migrant and belong to well to do family. Since this card is one more government paperwork done free, he was eager to get in hope of anticipated benefits. Ensuring faster wage payment to beneficiaries under MGNREGS is the process lacuna. Payment within 15 days deadline is sometimes stretched to full month that came in limelight.

According to the guidelines of MGNREGA, a Gram Sabha has held the prime institution of planning and execution of MGNREGA. So much in writing but activities of Vigilance and Monitoring Committees (VMCs) at the Panchayat level are in hibernation all over Odisha. NREGS work for purposes like common grazing and livelihood is not taken much into thought. NREGS website is great. But even the BPL (as per the 1997 census in Odisha) doesn't seem rightly fed in that. I have highlighted with a red circle in the picture above and brought it to the notice of the concerned authority.

There is no convergence that household has taken benefit from which scheme like IAY/RSBY of the government.  Even demand generation suffers due to a lack of initiative of community. As per government officials, not much work can be generated if a lot has been already done in previous years. There is a limit of demand that can be achieved under the guidelines of NREGS. The demand scheme has been converted into a target scheme by the officers under pressure from the government to show numbers.  That was the most important lesson that came out in this exercise.

Social Audit has merely been reduced as an exercise for checking numbers, as rarely people complained about the quality of work and let accountable pay for corruption. Even mighty monitoring tools like social audits can become grievance redress mechanisms only in the hands of the dull community. The social audit may have helped in awareness generation but a lot of work needs to be done for community engagement.