World Rabies Day, observed on September 28th each year, is a global initiative to raise awareness about the continuing burden of rabies and how the disease can be prevented. The campaign brings together thousands of individuals from health experts to everyday people for a unified show of support of anti-rabies efforts. World Rabies Day advocates for the health of the total population (human and animal), through a “One Medicine” approach and is the only worldwide event of its kind focused on global rabies control and prevention.

The inaugural World Rabies Day (2007) was celebrated globally as a great success and an important step forward for rabies prevention and control. Various World Rabies Day events were held throughout the world including vaccination clinics, runs for rabies, parades, educational seminars, festival and marches. The campaign saw participation of nearly 400,000 people from 74 countries. The phenomenal global response to the inaugural campaign illustrates the widespread recognition of the need for action to control this devastating, but easily preventable disease. Through the World Rabies Day initiative, awareness and resources are rallied towards Working Together to Make Rabies History!

In 2006, the Alliance for Rabies Control (ARC), a UK registered charity, was created to alleviate the burden of rabies across the world by promoting and implementing rabies control, prevention and education programs while accounting for animal welfare and conservation issues. The establishment of ARC marks the start of a new kind of initiative in the field of rabies: an independent, non-profit organization bringing together public and private expertise to establish a partnership involving field personnel, academics and a wide range of organizations with an interest and concern for rabies control. Working together, these partners aim to bring the expertise and motivation needed to control rabies throughout the world and reduce the impacts of this terrible disease on human and animal health.

For more details World Rabies Day – Official Site

Source: Wikipedia

PRADAN is a voluntary organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act of India.

Established in Delhi in 1983, PRADAN was pioneered by a group of young professionals, all of whom were inspired by the conviction that individuals with knowledge resources and empathy for the marginalised must work with communities at the grassroots in order to help them overcome poverty.

PRADAN believes that the path towards conquering economic poverty is through enhancing the livelihood capabilities of the poor and giving them access to sustainable income earning opportunities. In the process, the poor must be enabled to break free from their past, develop an alternative vision of their future and set achievable goals. They must be equipped with the technical, organisational, negotiating, and networking skills that will facilitate the fulfillment of their goals.

Today, some 268 highly motivated and skilled professionals under PRADAN’s fold are working in the remote villages of India, immersing themselves directly with target communities. These young professionals are recruited from universities and hold specialised degrees in subjects like management, engineering, agriculture, and the social sciences.

PRADAN professionals, divided into 27 teams, work with over 112,900 families in 3,044 villages across seven of the poorest states in the country. A majority of the families that PRADAN works with belong to the Schedule Tribes and Schedule Castes.

PRADAN follows a four-pronged approach to achieve its goals:

Promoting and nurturing Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of poor women and strengthening them as organisations to leverage institutional finances for members’ livelihoods.

Developing and introducing locally suitable economic activities to increase productivity and incomes among SHG members; building synergic collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders.

Mobilising finances for livelihood assets and infrastructure from government bodies, donors, banks, and other financial institutions.

Setting up mechanisms to sustain the livelihood gains made by the poor communities.

Challenged by the abysmal poverty of millions of people across India, PRADAN has resolved to reach out to 1.5 million poor people in the next 10 years as a part of its vision, PRADAN 2017.

Vision

PRADAN seeks to enable poor rural families to live a life of dignity.

Mission

Impacting Livelihoods to Enable Rural Communities

PRADAN’s mission is rooted in a clear understanding of the societal contexts that make poverty in India complex, a phenomenon which thrives in various interrelated factors including:

• The rural poor’s view of themselves;

• Their understanding and skills to deal with outside systems;

• Their access to resources;

• Their technical knowledge to use the resources that they have;

• The existence of feudal or semi-feudal agents which deprive the poor of their surpluses; and,

• Other causes that are rooted beyond the local context.

Over the many years that it has worked with India’s rural poor, PRADAN has learned valuable lessons that serve as a guide to fulfilling the organisation’s mission. Among those learnings are the following:

• Alleviating rural poverty is an extremely challenging task. Development efforts must be conducted with the collaboration of different and equally interested actors in order to make an impact.

• Rural communities are fragmented along caste and class lines. These tend to restrict the effectiveness of joint action for development.

• Among the rural poor, women are generally marginalised, yet they prove to be more effective agents of social change. Sadly, however, such potential is not well-recognised.

• There are plenty of resources in the rural areas – including human resources – which remain largely untapped.

• There is need for innovation in the social and technical spheres for generating ideas that can affect the rural poor on a large scale.

• The government remains the biggest and most dominant actor in development, but its efforts have had a limited effect on alleviating rural poverty. This could be due to various factors, including:

- lack of access of people to government;
- government programmes that have little relevance to rural communities;
- inappropriate design of some government programmes and schemes;
- low quality of human resources at the implementation levels of government; and,
- lack of recognition among government personnel that they have a stake in the poor’s development.

• While there are a large number of NGOs that implement government programmes across India, there are not enough of them who collaborate with the government and other mainstream institutions in a manner that is equal enough for them to be able to integrate in their development efforts relevant feedback from the grassroots.

• The context in which PRADAN operates is changing fast.

With all this in perspective, PRADAN seeks out to define the space in which it can be most effective, as well as the approaches that can best help the rural poor enrich their lives.

PRADAN’s core competency is in the area of sustainable livelihoods. By addressing issues of livelihood, PRADAN is able to immediately affect the lives of poor communities. Having access to sustainable livelihood opportunities, the poor become less vulnerable to adverse natural and man-made forces. Such is a powerful intervention to break the cycle of poverty. Control over their source of livelihood improves the poor’s image of themselves. Livelihood is a tangible instrument around which poor people could be organised, opportunities to deal with outside systems are created, and a greater impact on the fight against poverty is attained.

In this light, PRADAN is guided by the principle that for the rural poor communities to be able to access opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, they must first be enabled. This concept of “enabling communities” implies that PRADAN adopts participatory processes in its work with the people, making available ideas and technologies in a manner that enhances the poor’s access to and control over their resources. These resources, in turn, aid in the improvement of their lives, in organising them into appropriate peoples’ institutions at various levels to improve their bargaining power, and in enhancing their ability to deal with mainstream systems and provide sustainability to interventions.

PRADAN looks for concrete livelihood interventions in the local context after a scientific evaluation of the specific environments. We constantly seek to extend intervention that is sharper and more relevant, aided in the process by a thorough process of action, reflection, and learning.

But PRADAN does not pretend to be the sole actor in rural development work. As rural poverty is so widespread and multifaceted, it is not possible for any single actor to make a significant dent on the problem merely on its own. Efforts will be sustainable only when made at multiple levels and in a scale that is significant. Therefore, PRADAN also collaborates with, educates, and influences mainstream actors in development. A gap exists between the mainstream and the grassroots, and PRADAN is competent in expertly filling such void. Moreover, PRADAN strives to share its experiences to other development workers, recognising the unfortunate fact that knowledge about processes in addressing rural poverty is severely limited.

PRADAN carries out all of these programmes with the collective hard work of its highly skilled and dedicated workforce. The organisation recruits and deploys high-quality human resources at the grassroots, inducting, nurturing, and developing professional development workers who are able to operate in a wide spectrum, are able to reverse roles, are self-regulating, and continually seek excellence in their tasks.

Our Organisation

The governance of PRADAN is vested in a Board of Honorary Members who are persons with a distinguished record of public service as NGO leaders, academicians, business leaders and civil servants, and two nominated staff members.

Field-based teams, each led by a mid-career executive designated as Team Leader carry out operations and implement livelihood promotion programmes.

Human Resource Development, Finance and other departments assist the Executive Director in policy and institutional development, while other staff provide office and logistical support.

Our Board
Affiliated Organisation     Name     Board Position
Deepalaya Education Society, Secretary     Mr. T. K. Mathew     Chairperson
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Principal     Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath     Vice-Chairperson
Peoples’ Science Institute, Director     Dr. Ravi Chopra     Member
Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd., Executive Director     Dr. Bharti Gupta Ramola     Member
Bharatiya Samrudhi Investment & Consulting Services, Managing Director     Mr. Vijay Mahajan     Member
National Foundation for India, Executive Director     Mr. Ajay S. Mehta     Member
State Bank of India, Retired Chief General Manager     Mr. M. A. Krishnan     Member
Government of India, Media Adviser to the Prime Minister     Dr. Sanjaya Baru     Member
Government of India, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce     Mrs. Asha Swarup     Member
PRADAN, Programme Director     Ms. Nivedita Narain     Member
PRADAN, Programme Director     Mr. Soumen Biswas     Member
Executive Director PRADAN     Mr. Deep Joshi     Ex- Officio Secretary

The Governing Board comprises of 12 members.

Nine are invited Honorary Members with a distinguished record of public service in different arenas.

The Honorary Members nominate two senior staff persons to the Board.

The Board appoints the Executive Director.

The Executive Director is the ex-officio Secretary of the Board and by convention, serves a five-year term.

The Honorary Members are the independent directors with no material interest in PRADAN.

The Board renews itself periodically as members can serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms. All current Honorary Members are also members of the General Body besides others who joined the Society earlier.

PRADAN Programmes

1) Promotiion of SHG’s
PRADAN is one of the pioneers in the promotion of Self-Help Groups (SHG) in India, having formed its first SHG in Alwar, Rajasthan, in 1987. A savings and credit SHG is a simple yet effective way of reaching out and connecting with rural poor women.

A Self-Help Group is an informal association of 10 to 20 poor women belonging to the same village and sharing a common socio-economic background. The group enables its members to gain their identity as individuals, while realising – and utilising – the immense power of mutual aid. It provides them with a platform from where they can access banks and public services, and spearhead changes that affect them as poor women.

Nurturing Self-Help Groups for poor rural women is PRADAN’s key tool in fulfilling its mission and goals. The Self-Help Groups work for the women in a number of ways: they provide guidance; they give support and assistance to women; and they identify and promote home-based enterprises among its members. These home-based enterprises, called “honeybee activities”, involve a myriad of ventures. The SHG members take loans from the SHGs and set out to begin their enterprise on their own.

As a result of PRADAN’s intervention efforts, an increasing number of rural families – especially women – are engaging in independent livelihood activities. These activities serve as opportunities for diversifying and enhancing their incomes.

PRADAN gives particular attention to women because even as they comprise half of the country’s population, they remain the most disadvantaged sector among the poor. Yet it is the women who prove to be most effective in fostering change in their families and communities. They have demonstrated skills in resource management and they will, for instance, choose to save on scarce resources so they can be channeled to the family’s needs rather than throw them away for personal use.

With PRADAN’s guidance and the members’ own experiences, SHGs can potentially play four key roles through the different stages of evolution: mutual help, financial intermediation, livelihood planning, and social empowerment.

As of March 2007, PRADAN has worked with some 7,512 SHGs across seven states, representing a total membership of 106,090 rural poor women. These SHGs have mobilised a total savings of 225 million Rupees.

Also significantly, the financial accounting and Management Information System (MIS) of PRADAN’ SHG program have been streamlined through the innovative system of community-based accounting based on The Computer Munshi System.

FOREST-BASED LIVELIHOOD

PRADAN works mostly with adivasis and poor people who live near forests for whom forests and trees have, traditionally, been an important source of livelihood. Over the years, dwindling forests and the implementation of protection-oriented public policies have made serious inroads to these livelihood activities, resulting in decreased incomes for the local communities.

PRADAN’s forest- and tree-based livelihood interventions in Jharkhand and Orissa comprise of Tasar cocoon production, Lac cultivation and production, and trading of Siali leaf plates. Farm forestry has also been taken up as part of a programme on integrated natural resource management. In all, there are some 7,792 families who are involved in these various activities.

In its activities, PRADAN is supported by, and works in close association with various government departments such as the Ministry of Rural Development, the Agriculture Department and the Ministry of Textiles, and a number of resource institutions such as the Central Silk Board and the Indian Lac Research Institute.

Lac Cultivation

The insect Laccifer Lacca, living off the sap of certain trees, secretes lac resin. The processed resin is called Shellac and has numerous industrial applications including in the food and drug industries. India is a major producer of Shellac.

Among the Adivasis, Lac rearing and cultivation is a traditional occupation, and has proved to be an important source of income for thousands of poor families. However, the full potential of lac rearing and cultivation has yet to be tapped; the activity can generate higher incomes for the poor of the East Indian plateau region.

Despite its importance, lac cultivation is beset with numerous risks and uncertainties. For one, technological advances have not filtered down to the rearers, and they are unable to access adequate working capital to buy brood lac (mother insects). Furthermore, the availability and quality of the brood lac is highly uncertain. The lac insect itself is highly vulnerable to predators, diseases and natural elements, and no insurance mechanism exists to mitigate such risks.

PRADAN works to revive a dying traditional livelihood by helping to enhance incomes of lac rearers. In collaboration with the Jharkhand Government and the Indian Lac Research Institute (ILRI), PRADAN provides technical trainings on modern rearing techniques to local Adivasi youth and promotes technologies developed by ILRI.

Already, methods for rearing on alternative host trees such as palash and kusumi have been successfully initiated.

PRADAN’s intervention in Lac cultivation programmes has reached 2,107 families.

Siali Leaf Plate

PRADAN began its Siali leaf plate-making livelihood intervention in April 2002. Making leaf plates is a source of supplementary income for poor people living near forests in South and West Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. Virtually every household in those areas depends on this activity. Their annual incomes vary from anywhere between Rs 1,500 and 2,500.

This livelihood activity uses the leaf of the Siali creeper, abundant and available throughout the year, and which is widely used in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. PRADAN works in the Balliguda and Kandhamal districts where over 70 per cent of tribal women are engaged in making loose leaf and rough stitched leaf plates. The producers are trained to stitch plates of finer quality and produce a wider range of products either manually or with the aid of machinery.

PRADAN’s strategy is to help producers – mainly women – to increase incomes; organise them into SHGs to pave the way for access to credit; create storage facilities and upgrade products to close-stitched and machine-stitched plates. The returns are expected to be around Rs 6,000 per year for every family.

Tasar Cocoon Production

Sericulture – or the production of silk – involves the rearing of silkworms to produce cocoons, and then processing those cocoons to make yarn and fabric. Tasar is a variety of wild silk (Vanya silk) produced by the tasar silkworm, Antheraea Mylitta. This worm, unlike the mulberry silk worm, is only partly domesticated. Tasar is, therefore, reared in forest areas. The process requires round-the-clock vigil and, overall, dedicated husbandry for six to ten weeks.

Tribal, backward and disadvantaged communities living in remote forested areas are usually engaged in Tasar cocoon production. The activity is a source of supplementary income for the poor families who are otherwise engaged in small and marginal farming or are migrating to other places in search of livelihoods. Since cocoon production involves family labour, yields quick returns and requires simple technologies, it is ideally suited for these families. The activity requires very low initial investment, and the key requirements are labour which is readily available, and flora which is plentiful in these fringe forest areas.

The growth potential for this economic activity is simply enormous. There is constant demand for tasar silk, estimated – both for domestic consumption and the international market – at 1,500 metric tonnes (MT) per annum of raw silk fibre.

PRADAN works with Tasar rearers – about 4,436 families so far, almost all of whom are tribals – at various intervention levels. The rearers have been provided with trainings in improved rearing techniques developed by the Central Silk Board (CSB). Those techniques have reduced the risks and increased overall productivity.

PRADAN’s intervention in Tasar rearing comprises of 4 elements. They are:
Improving supply of Disease Free Eggs or Laying of the Tasar insect (DFLs);

Trainings on improved practices for silkworm rearing and maintenance of forest stock

Raising plantations of tasar host trees in privately owned lands; and,

Creating a pool of service providers.

2) Natural Resource Management

A vast majority of the rural poor continue to be dependent on land and water resources for their meager livelihoods. Sadly, however, various phenomena including deforestation, drought and soil erosion have resulted in decreased incomes for these families. Chronic poverty persists.

Thus PRADAN devotes a significant part of its intervention efforts on developing land and water resources. The aim is to enhance productivity, incomes and sustainable livelihoods.

Towards this objective, PRADAN promotes the Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM) of land, water, forest and biological resources to achieve and sustain potential agricultural productivity. INRM combines managing the use of natural resources along with their conservation and sustenance.

Programmes comprise of enhancing productivity in agriculture; diversifying into new crops; setting up irrigation systems; and instituting entirely new ways of managing the natural resource base.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood in the regions where PRADAN works. With current low levels of productivity in agriculture, PRADAN extends assistance in finding opportunities to enhance livelihoods. Over half of PRADAN’s livelihood programmes are focused on agriculture, its improvement – and the overall management of natural resources – remains key in the battle against endemic poverty in the rural areas.

Enhancing productivity and diversification are the core strategies of PRADAN’s agriculture programmes. Specific activities are increasing the productivity of the main cereal crops to improve food security, and diversification into cash crops such as pulses, oil seeds, and vegetables.

Whichever programme is undertaken, PRADAN seeks to ensure its sustainability. In order to achieve this, the organisation trains and deploys a large number of agriculture extension entrepreneurs to the field. Producers’ institutions around agriculture are formed and strengthened as well.

Horticulture

Horticulture is gradually emerging as a significant livelihood programme in the high-rainfall regions where PRADAN is engaged. Diversification has become an essential component of sustainable strategies, given the dwindling productivity of agriculture. Critical to the success of PRADAN’s horticulture programmes is the enhancement and management of natural resources, particularly in the hilly regions with limited potential for reliable irrigation.

PRADAN teams, fielded in the undulating and hilly terrains, are working to encourage farmers to take up vegetable cultivation on their small-scale homesteads and near dug wells. These activities provide the poor families with a dependable source of income.

PRADAN has taken up fruit tree plantation programmes on private lands. Over 6,000 families are currently involved in PRADAN’s horticulture programme.

Land & Water Resources

At the heart of PRADAN’s strategy has always been to work directly with the rural poor, build their capabilities, and introduce and develop new livelihood opportunities. While the organisation’s strategies, programmes, and methodologies have evolved over time, developing land and water resources has been a fixture in PRADAN’s work.

PRADAN takes the integrated approach to resource management and has demonstrated ways to promote the development of natural resources. This approach leads to an equitable and sustainable economic growth, ensures household food security, and helps minimise mass poverty.

An integrated approach to land and water resources management requires participatory planning with the people, to develop systems and treatment measures that are most suitable to the resources available. The technologies that PRADAN has developed are simple and labour intensive and best suited to the people they are designed to serve.

Water Harvesting Tank
PRADAN’s integrated approach to natural resource management (INRM) calls for the efficient management of soil, water and vegetation resources, yet maintaining a livelihood focus. INRM recognises that uncontrolled, unplanned and unscientific use of natural resources results in their decline. Therefore, managing natural resources calls for proper land use while protecting it from erosion; enhanced productivity while maintaining soil fertility; and water harvesting and conservation.

INRM not only optimises the productivity of land and water resources, but also helps fight mass poverty. In other-words, sustainable development efforts must take into account the relationship between the needs and priorities of the people, and natural resources.

3) Livestock Development

PRADAN works with rural families in the promotion of dairy and goat rearing activities in the project areas of Jharkhand, Orissa, and Rajasthan. While livestock populations in these areas are higher than the national average, productivity is low, rearing practices remain poor, breeds are non-descript, veterinary services are non-existent, and market infrastructure is often absent.

Yet dairy and goat rearing possess tremendous promise as livelihood supplements for the rural poor in these areas. Thus PRADAN seeks to help bring in better-quality breeds, veterinary care, while at the same time developing a reliable cadre of village-based service providers and marketing systems. Specifically in Rajasthan and Jharkhand, PRADAN is expanding its outreach programmes with support from various quarters like the government, financial institutions, and various resource institutions such as the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI).

Dairy

PRADAN’s interventions on Dairy programmes are being extended through the induction of better quality of breeds, the training of women in feeding and husbandry practices, veterinary care, the development of a cadre of village-based service providers, and the creation of systems for effective marketing.

Though holding potential, Dairying remains poorly developed in PRADAN’s project areas. In these areas, the populations of domestic animals are higher than the national average. Yet milk productivity is low, rearing practices are poor, breeds are non-descript, veterinary services are non-existent, and market linkages do not exist.

To fulfill the potential of Dairying in its project areas, PRADAN provides assistance for the induction of new animals, while giving attention as well to better housing and veterinary care, especially the provision of immunisation against diseases. In this light, systems have been set up to for the procurement and distribution of important vaccines.

PRADAN also assists participants in accessing funds from various sources such as centrally sponsored schemes, donor-aided programmes, and state governments.

In Jharkhand, PRADAN is promoting a women’s dairy co-operative. An additional two are in the pipeline, the setting up of which is being conducted with assistance from banks and the State Government. Meanwhile, in Rajasthan, PRADAN has set up a women’s Producer Company in collaboration with the Mother Dairy and the World Bank-funded District Poverty Initiatives Project (DPIP). The Producer Company will procure milk for bulk markets and provide technical assistance to the producers, too.

At present, the Dairy programmes reach out to nearly 3,858 families.

Goat Rearing

PRADAN is promoting goat-rearing programmes in Rajasthan and Orissa. As with other PRADAN initiatives, the focus is on assisting women in optimising their livestock resources. This becomes necessary given that in these project areas, goat rearing is characterised by the use of poor breeds and unscientific husbandry practices that result in low incomes and high morbidity and mortality risks.

PRADAN focuses on the induction of new animals, better housing and veterinary care, especially immunisation against certain well-known killer diseases like PPR (Peste des petits ruminants). Systems have been set up to procure and administer necessary vaccines in collaboration with government agencies.

PRADAN assists poor women in goat rearing as a potential livelihood supplement. The programme enables women to obtain credit to buy goats and provide improved shelter and veterinary support. Training a cadre of para-vets to provide animal health care on a routine basis is also an important intervention.

The programmes are implemented in clusters so that capacity building, veterinary support, and marketing can be taken up in a more systematic manner.

PRADAN’s goat-rearing programmes currently reach out to some 2,331 families.

4) Microenterprise Promotion

In PRADAN’s project areas, land, water, livestock, and forests remain the main sources of livelihood that are available to the rural poor. Most families depend on agriculture for their meager incomes.

But with continually diminishing outputs and declining farm sizes, it has become more urgent for the rural population to diversify their avenues of income. This necessarily involves introducing them to emerging home-based micro-enterprises. The aim is to take advantage of the rising demand for newer goods and services, which provide livelihood opportunities outside traditional farming.

PRADAN is promoting home-based micro-enterprises such as poultry rearing, Tasar yarn production, vermi-composting, mulberry sericulture, and cultivation of oyster mushrooms.

Tasar Yarn Production

PRADAN has identified the production of Tasar silk yarn as an activity that has the potential to generate a large number of livelihoods among the rural poor in the eastern and central Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. PRADAN has sought to separate Tasar yarn production from weaving, promoting it as an independent and viable enterprise for women.

Tasar yarn production has traditionally been a low-paying activity carried out by poor rural women in their spare time. Yet it plays a critical role in the Tasar fabric industry by supplying the raw material. Despite this key role and its income-generating potential, Tasar yarn production has not flourished independently, always being seen as a mere component of the entire weaving enterprise, to be done solely by the women in the weaver families.

PRADAN’s intervention in Tasar yarn production equips poor rural women with skills and provides them with infrastructure, inputs, and marketing support for yarn production as an independent enterprise. This helps ensure for them a steady and sustainable income.

The basic strategy has been to organise the rural women into ‘reeler’ or ‘spinner’ groups. These groups are then encouraged to establish links with other organisations and institutions to expand and improve the Tasar yarn production business.

The Central Silk Board (CSB) has developed technology and machinery to produce reeled (fine) and spun (coarse) yarn. It also provides trainings. PRADAN helps to market the yarn both as an intermediate product as well as the final woven products.

In 2006 alone, PRADAN’s Tasar yarn production activities impacted on 1,894 families.

Broiler Poultry Rearing

PRADAN has developed a model of decentralised smallholder poultry rearing which has emerged as a powerful tool for the livelihood promotion of poor rural women. Women from tribal and other poor families are organised into co-operatives to serve the growing needs of small town and urban markets.

PRADAN provides poor women – through the co-operatives – hands-on training and assistance in securing finances from either the banks or government programmes. These women rear a batch of 300 to 400 birds in rearing sheds built on their homesteads. In around 32 days the birds are ready for sale.

The women’s co-operatives, organised by PRADAN, also provide inputs like feeds, chicks, and medicines. At the same time, the co-operatives make arrangements to market the birds. Some of the producers are trained to provide veterinary care and manage linkages on behalf of the co-operative. By working together the women realise the importance of scale economies to the poultry business.

The poultry cooperatives suffered a depression brought about by the recent bird flu scare. Many units across the country were wiped out. Still, the co-operatives stayed afloat, taking on measures to mitigate the ill effects of the bird flu scare. As market prices crashed, they reduced production and offered members a minimum support price. They are now rapidly picking up from the depression, with most of them having recovered a significant proportion of their losses.

At present, PRADAN works with 2,809 families organised into 15 co-operatives, the largest conglomeration of smallholder poultry in India.

How We Do

Strategy

PRADAN’S strategies, programmes, activities and methodologies have evolved over the last twenty years. PRADAN’s institutional development processes have been guided by two themes right from the initial days: expanding livelihood opportunities for poor people and getting capable and caring people. PRADAN takes up and works only through grassroots projects.

PRADAN’s interventions generally begin with the promotion of women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs). Initial contact is usually with the women of the household. PRADAN focuses on women because they are half of the population and yet the most disadvantaged among the poor. They are vital in fostering change in their families and communities.

PRADAN personnel promote livelihoods on an ever-expanding scale in diverse sectoral activities ranging from agriculture and natural resource management to rural enterprises. PRADAN assists the SHG member families to choose one or several livelihood options based on their resources, skills and risk perception.

PRADAN supports and assists SHGs to leverage finances to create and sustain livelihood programmes, to enhance the productivity and carrying capacity of resources and to build people’s skills and capabilities.

PRADAN’s field staff are development professionals who are, working directly with the rural poor, building their capabilities, and developing and introducing new ideas to expand and strengthen their livelihoods.

PRADAN has a human resource development programme that focuses on systematic recruitment, training and deployment of some three score university educated people as grassroots development trainees every year. Once trained these professionals take responsibility for further enhancing and facilitating growth of PRADAN initiatives in the different locations.

In order to address the colossal poverty in the villages PRADAN seeks to expand its operations multi fold in the coming decade and reach out to 1.5 million families by 2017. To reach such scales of operation PRADAN realises that it is not enough to continue doing more of the same, but there is a need to do things differently. This requires a radical shift in stance, to be more outward focused, be more proactive in collaborations, and build synergies with external stakeholders

PRADAN is actively seeking to influence decision makers, mobilise development funds and support for programmes from the government and financial institutions. Advocacy is key factor in PRADAN’s strategy to expanding sustainable livelihoods for poor rural people.

PRADAN’s evolved and clearly focused methodologies to promote livelihoods are outlined in the following sections:

Promoting & Nurturing SHGs
Livelihood Planning
Sectoral Interventions
Human Resources at the Grassroots
Leveraging Development Finances

Human Resource Development

PRADAN owes its genesis to a strong belief in a simple idea: Caring and capable people – rather than material resources – are crucial in accelerating the process of social development in our country. PRADAN’s Human Resource Development Unit was set up with the core agenda of ensuring that young and educated people with empathy and the desire to effect positive changes in the lives of others are recruited, nurtured, and placed in grassroots projects.

PRADAN’s internal HRD processes and programmes were developed gradually and systematically. The initial focus was on recruitment, induction, and early training of new entrants. Eventually it also focused on the task of developing mechanisms to systematically build competencies among professional staff.

PRADAN has a Development Apprenticeship Programme that recruits fresh university graduates from over 60 campuses across India. Apprenticeship covers a period of 12 months. An apprentice is assigned to a PRADAN project under the guidance of a trained Field Guide as a “learner member.” During the first seven days, the apprentice conducts a reality check, while getting oriented in the team. If she is then interested in carrying on, the apprentice goes through a systematic learning process that includes two fieldwork segments, two foundation courses, and a visit home, to another team and another NGO. All these put together helps the apprentice to explore her preparedness – intellectual, physical, emotional, and social – in taking up a career in grassroots development. She learns the nitty-gritty required for being a development professional.

Apprentices who graduate to become Executives spend the first three to five years as task performers in specific projects. Executives with five to seven years of experience and significant achievements on the ground are later called upon to play project management roles. From about the tenth year, a professional would be expected to lead either a function, theme or operational region.

PRADAN’s structure, internal systems, and processes have been designed to provide space for self-expression to each professional staff’s desire to work for a super-ordinate goal. Self-regulation and autonomy are, thus, consciously fostered. At all levels, strong integration is ensured with processes of mentorship, peer review, and collective leadership. While these are facilitating factors, continued effectiveness of the development professional also depends on the ability of the human resources strategy to equip individuals to respond to changing field problems and role demands. This requires a combination of structured training inputs and systems.

In the last few years the central HRD unit has developed a broad framework to provide development professionals with necessary inputs to gear up for life and role transitions. The in–career programme focuses on enhancing human, technical and conceptual capabilities required by each role in the four broad arenas of work, viz. personal application and growth, grassroots transformation, organization roles, and building strategic alliances. Programmes are designed to help professional staff acquire the necessary capabilities to play their roles more effectively as well as to create systematic opportunities, exposure, and training for executives to make the transition to become Team Leaders, or for a Team Leader to make the transition to being a Programme Director.

With a combination of structured training inputs and mechanisms, PRADAN would continually develop effective on-going professional, structured Human Resources Development programmes.

Careers
Pradan Experience

PRADAN owes its genesis to a strong belief in a simple idea – that caring and capable people rather than material resources are crucial to accelerate the process of social development in our country.

Rural community development is a complex process involving the interplay of social, political and economic forces. Everyone is not cut out to be a “helping person”, which is at the heart of grassroots community work. It also requires youngsters to bear with unfamiliar and difficult conditions, of work and life, by choice.

Through a carefully designed multi-tier selection process PRADAN takes on board young people with varied educational backgrounds and prepares them to use their knowledge and skills to remove poverty and work for the benefit of the rural poor.

PRADAN has evolved a year-long apprenticeship programme, which provides an opportunity to assess a life in grassroots work. It allows one to experience the living conditions and broad content and pace of work in villages. The apprenticeship programme is a structured, learning-through-guided-practice to groom the new entrants and to help them to make an informed choice about this vocation.

They learn about the contexts in which poor people live, experience the conditions in which they would work and experience the kind of impact they would have. Above all they would learn the practical skills of grassroots development work. Apprentices also explore while they learn, about the changes they would have to make in their own lives.

Funding Agency Partnerships

PRADAN received financial support from several Indian and foreign organisations. We gratefully acknowledge the support of all our donors. Among Indian agencies, we received assistance during the year from several DRDAs across the country, the GOI Ministry of Rural Development, the Central Silk Board of the Government of India, CAPART, NABARD, the Convergent Community Services programme administered by UNICEF, the UNDP, Forest Departments in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa administering WFP supported programmes, Government of Madhya Pradesh’s District Poverty Initiatives Project (DPIP), Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

Our donors from overseas during the year included the Ford Foundation, ICCO of the Netherlands, the India Canada Cooperation Organisation, OXFAM (India) Trust, AusAid, the Embassy of Japan and Care India. We also gratefully acknowledge contributions to our Corpus Fund made in the past by the Ford Foundation, the Industrial Development Bank of India, the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, the Industrial Finance Corporation of India, ICCO of the Netherlands, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. PRADAN has research partnerships with IMP-ACT and the IWMI-Tata programme.

Contact Us

PRADAN

New Delhi
Post Box No. 3827
3 Community Shopping Centre
Niti Bagh
New Delhi 110 049
Tel: 011 2651 8619, 51640611
Tel/fax: 011 2651 4682
E-mail: pradanho@vsnl.com

Rajasthan
Alwar Road
Ramgarh – 301 026
Rajasthan
Tel: 01468 232119

Somnath Nagar, Agra Road
Dausa – 303 303
Rajasthan
Tel: 01427 221915
E-mail: alwar@pradan.net

2/371, Housing Board Colony
Dholpur – 328 001
Rajasthan
Tel: 05642 223671

J 2/11 L.I.C. Flats
Sector – 2
Vidyadhar Nagar
Jaipur – 302 023
Tel: 0141 233834
E-mail: jaipur@pradan.net

West Bengal
Lal Mohan Trivedi Lane
Nilkuthi Danga
Purulia – 723 101
West Bengal
Tel: 03252 223144
E-mail: purulia@pradan.net

Opp. Saraf Dharamsala
P.O. Rangadih
Balarampur – 723 143
District Purulia
West Bengal
Tel: 03252 80312
E-mail: bku_pradanbl@sancharnet.in

Madhya Pradesh
P.O. Sukhtawa – 461 553
District Hoshangabad
Madhya Pradesh
Tel: 07572 271338, 271339
E-mail: kesla@pradan.net

C/o Shri Vinod Bansal
Bansal Bhawan
Bhuteswar Path
At & P.O. Sironj
District Vidisha
Madhya Pradesh
Tel: 07591 253963

Chattisgarh
Vinobha Nagar
Boirdadar Chowk
P.O. Boirdadar
Raigarh – 496 001
Chattisgarh
Tel: 07762 225887
Email: raigarh@sancharnet.in

Orissa
Gourtota Sahi
Near Telephone Exchange
Keonjhar – 758 001
Orissa
Tel: 06766 2253066
E-mail: keonjhar@pradan.net

Patra Street
Balliguda
District Kandhamal
Orissa- 762 103
Tel: 06846 243119
E-mail: balliguda@pradan.net

NICA Computer Building,
College Road,
Karanjia – 757 037
Mayurbhanj,
Orissa

Jharkhand
Near Veena Cinema Hall
Chettar Road
Gumla – 835 207
Tel: 06524 223807
E-mail: gumla@pradan.net

Near Check Post
Torpa Road
Khunti – 835 210
District – Ranchi
Jharkhand
Tel: 06528 220164
E-mail: khunti@pradan.net

512, G- Road,
West Layout, Sonari
Jamshedpur – 831 011
Jharkhand
Tel: 0657 2303 134
E-mail: eastsinghbhum@pradan.net

C/o Mrs. Urmila Mishra
Devi Mandap Road
Jhumri Telaiya
District Koderma
Jharkhand – 825 409
Tel: 06534 24427

Behind Block Quarters
Gandhi Nagar
Godda – 814 133
Jharkhand
Telefax: 06422 22503
E-mail: godda@pradan.net

C/o K.K. Rajhans
Ground Floor
Radha Rani Sinha Road
(Behind Dr.Sarlaram’s Nursing Home)

Adampur,Bhagalpur – 812 001
Tel: 0641 2404694
bhagalpur@pradan.net

Flat No. 1,
Chetna Apartments
Opposite DC’s Residence
P.O. & District B. Deoghar
Jharkhand – 814 112
Tel: 06432 231355

60 Circular Road
K.P. Dutta Compound
Ranchi – 834 001
Jharkhand
Tel: 0651- 2561 552
Fax: 0651 2560615,3092870
E-mail: pradanranchi@pradan.net

Opp. Anand Vihar Lodge
Toklo Road
At & P.O. Chakradharpur – 833 102
District – West Singbhum
Jharkhand
Tel: 06587 238535

House of Mr. Mahesh Saw
Near New Bus Stand
Petarbar – 829 121
District Bokaro
Jharkhand
Tel: 06542 265757
E-mail: petarbar@pradan.net

Madhav Market
Dhanbad Road
Barhi – 825 405
District Hazirabagh
Jharkhand
Tel: 06543 266284

Sarai Road
District Dumka – 814 101
Jharkhand
Tel: 06434 224194
E-mail: dumka@pradan.net

Raghutoli
Lohardaga – 835 302
Jharkhand
Tel: 06526 224358
E-mail: lohardaga@pradan.net

About Azim Premji Foundation

Azim Premji Foundation is a not-for-profit organization with a vision to “Significantly contribute to achieving quality universal education to facilitate a just, equitable and humane society”. Operational since 2001, over 250 professionals and 1100 paid volunteers are engaged in realizing this vision in elementary education in India. The Foundation is currently engaged with over 14,000 schools (2.5 Mln children and 35000 teachers) in partnership with 13 Indian States.

Azim Premji Foundation has a three pronged strategy viz:
• Intervention: To engage with schools & other bodies to understand and impact elementary-level systemic change.
• Network: To build an eco-system of those who desire change, to work together.
• Advocacy: To provide a radical stimulus to influence the education system.

Approach

• Focus on “quality of education in rural government schools”
• In-depth research and impact assessment
• Develop “Proof of concept”, integrate in larger system and withdraw after quality sustenance
• Use experiences for effective advocacy to influence key systems and policies
• An implementing agency – not a project funding organization

When over 90% of elementary education in the country happens in government schools (especially in the 600,000 villages across the country) there is no way anyone can impact education without actively and constructively working with the Government

Learning Guarantee Programme
Over 70 percent of Government Primary/ Higher Primary schools out of the 9500 schools in the 7 districts of North East Karnataka have applied to participate in this programme. The Learning Guarantee Programme was launched on 23rd November by Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman Wipro Corporation at a public function in Gulbarga The Learning Guarantee Programme is designed to identify schools that demonstrate “Guarantee of Learning”, analyze the success factors and communicate these to other schools.

Technology Initiatives
Computer Assisted Learning
The pilot project with 34 Computer assisted learning centres (CALCs) was set-up in Bangalore and surrounding rural areas. It aimed at measuring the impact of computers in attracting out-of-school children to school, and the improvement in learning levels among children in their regular academic work.

Educational Software
There have been numerous efforts to universalise elementary education in the country over the past several years. In the recent past, Governments have been investing pubic funds into use of computers as part of their efforts to universalise elementary education. These are largely seen as initiatives focused on improving quality of learning in schools. Some of these initiatives involving computers have also focused on IT education to help children to build IT skills as part of their overall skill sets.

eMIS
Education Departments across various states in India have an MIS system. Azim Premji Foundation efforts are towards strengthening the MIS and making it user friendly.

Policy Planning Unit
The Government of Karnataka and Azim Premji Foundation have set up a Policy Planning Unit (PPU), as a joint initiative, as a part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Karnataka and Azim Premji Foundation

Community Learning Centre
The Community Learning Centre idea was born in response to the felt-need of the people in rural Karnataka. The pilot project was aimed at measuring the impact of computers in attracting out-of-school children to school, and the improvement in learning levels among children in their regular academic work.

Partnerships
It has also chosen to partner with some of the organisations that have a similar passion and dedication. While choosing to partner with any organisation or institution, the criteria given below are followed:
• Formal involvement of the Government
• Free from any religious, communal and political overtones
• Focus on improving learning levels while working within the school
• Transparency, sincerity, passion and sharing of information
• High quality processes related to deciding objectives / outcomes, establishing base lines, openness to external evaluation, making a tangible impact on the education in the given area
• Strategy of withdrawing within a reasonable time frame after achieving sustenance for integration into the larger system
• In all the above villages / schools, enabling the schools to guarantee learning will be the focus of the Foundation.

MOU
MOU between Govt. of Andhra Pradesh and Azim Premji Foundation
MOU between Govt. of Karnataka and Azim Premji Foundation

Wipro Applying Thought in Schools
This is Wipro Corporation’s initiative to contribute towards improving Indian education. We work with a network of over 25 social organisations across the country, and offer long-term developmental programs to teachers, principals and schools. Till date, we have engaged deeply with over 8,000 educators and 900 schools across 17 states of India.

Summary of Key Initiatives:

1. Learning Guarantee Program
The aim is to transform classroom practices from current rote learning to facilitate learning that promotes comprehension and application by appropriate assessment of children in Government schools. The program is expected to:
1. build accountability among schools and education functionaries
2. assist state Governments to address the issue of examination reform
The assessment methodology of the program has been adopted by the Government of Karnataka to be upscaled in over 45,000 government schools across the state. The program is also being piloted across 4 other states.

2. Technology Initiatives
Leverage technology for various stakeholders to facilitate quality universal education. Current focus is in three areas:
1. Multi media pedagogical learning supplement for Computer Aided Learning that is child centric, interactive, self paced and in local language.
2. Education management information system (EMIS) to build, access and use accurate data for superior education management.
3. Local content development by children to nurture creativity and learning using technology

3. Child Friendly School
This initiative is an experiment to demonstrate comprehensive and sustainable quality of education in all schools across identified geography. The initiative is in partnership with State Governments and UNICEF and will be implemented by the schools, communities, and Government functionaries facilitated by the Foundation team. The experiment aims at creating physically safe, hygienically clean and emotionally secure learning environment in identified schools.

4. Education Management
Partner with the Government in improving the education delivery system and building capacity across the Government organisation through structuring & training.

Contact Us

Azim Premji Foundation
Head – Advocacy and Communication
Azim Premji Foundation
134 Doddakannelli
Next to Wipro Corporate Office
Sarjapur Road
Bangalore – 560035
Phone : 80 – 55144900/01/02
Fax : 80 – 55144903

Earth Hour 2009

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.
Vote Earth

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF is urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.

In 2009, India joins Earth Hour for the first time. New Delhi and Mumbai are among 825 cities across 80 countries and territories that have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009. This number is growing everyday.

Noted film actor and icon Mr Aamir Khan will be leading the campaign in India. Many companies such as HP, HSBC and Wipro are also supporting the campaign. WWF-India Secretary General and CEO Ravi Singh says: “Earth Hour is a step in the world’s efforts to combat the threat of Climate Change and it holds tremendous potential to influence sound policy and people’s participation on the issue. Earth Hour is an unprecedented communication initiative to make people understand what they must”.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet.

People from 825 cities across 80 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28, 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.

Join the movement now!

About WWF-India

WWF-India is one of country’s largest non-governmental organization working towards the conservation of biodiversity and natural habitats. It engages with multiple stakeholders including local communities, teachers, students, state and central governments, industry and civil society organizations, so as to ensure a living planet for future generations. The mission of WWF-India is “The promotion of nature conservation and environmental protection as the foundation for sustainable and equitable development”. The organisation works through a network of 60 state, field and divisional offices with approximately 300 staff working across the country to implement its mission and work. The secretariat is based in New Delhi and the organization is a part of the WWF International network, with its headquarters located in Gland, Switzerland.

For more information about WWF-India and its programmes, please visit www.wwfindia.org

People For Animals Trust (PFA)
H.NO:1262, Sector-55,
Faridabad – 121004. Haryana

Email: kadyan.ipfa@gmail.com
Phone Number: 9813010595
Website: http://www.pfaharyana.in

Category  1 – Animal Welfare
coverage – Haryana, Delhi