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Seva Mandir

Annual Report

2011-2012

Seva Mandir

Old Fatehpura, Udaipur Rajasthan, INDIA – 313 004

Tel: +91 294 2451041/ 2452001 / 2452002, Fax: +91 294 2450947

E-mail: info@sevamandir.org. Web: www.sevamandir.org

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS PROGRAMME 3

NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 7

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME 13

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 16

EDUCATION PROGRAMME 19

HEALTH PROGRAMME 25

CHILD REPRESENTATIVE PROGRAMME 32

PEOPLE’S MANAGEMENT SCHOOL 33

URBAN BLOCK 36

DELWARA PERI-URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 40

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION UNIT 44

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VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS PROGRAM The Village Institution Program of Seva Mandir aims to create and nurture alternative and autonomous platforms through which citizens can become responsible for their own

development. These autonomous platforms are called the village development

committees or Gram Vikas Committees (GVCs). Each village also has a village fund called a Gram Vikas Kosh (GVK). The GVKs have been built through people’s own

contribution.

During the reporting period of 2011-12, the focus on better fund management was

strengthened. Three critical steps were taken for this. One was better investment of funds through putting in more money in fixed deposits rather than savings. Second was

selection of appointment of capable community accountants and third was their grading on basis of knowledge and designing specific grade wise trainings.

Since trainings of village committees have been another major focus of this program, this year some very constructive changes have been introduced so as to make trainings more

interesting and participatory in nature. Additionally, a standardized process was adopted for strengthening information flow from top to bottom and vice-versa.

One of the most positive feedbacks of this year has been the coming together of communities to solve their local issues through the leadership of GVCs and with the help

of the use of the village fund for purposes of collective development. There are many examples this past year of communities coming forward to raise their voice against

inefficient practices of the government or certain individual’s vested interests in relation to land encroachments. A series of issues ranging from education, MGNREGA, Midday

Meal, Anganwadis have been brought up by the GVCs and many villages were found to

be efficient in monitoring government and non-government services running in their regions. Approximately, 60 villages have met the expenditures for the running of

different projects like Siksha Kendras, Baalwadis, Traditional Birth Attendants and other projects from their own village fund or GVK.

A. VILLAGE COMMITTEES (GVCs) The Gram Vikas Committees are democratically elected committees consisting of 7 to 13 people with 50% membership of women. Their responsibility is to ensure the proper

functioning of the village institution. The GVCs performs the role of managing different

development projects in the village and work towards increasing people’s participation in the meetings and decision-making processes. GVCs play a significant role in voicing the

opinion of the village in front of the Panchayat, other government structures and voluntary organizations. Presently, there are 525 GVCs, which is an increase of 7 GVCs

from the last year’s figure of 518. Similarly, in the past year, the number of GVKs has

increased by 9 to reach the figure of 626. The implication is that in 94% of GVCs there is a GVK and that 94% of Seva Mandir’s total work area has a village fund. Similarly, the

membership coverage during the year has increased from last year’s figure of 54,220 to 55,653, which is an increase of 1433. All together the total number of households in 7

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blocks of Seva Mandir’s work area is 80,525 and among which 67% of households have

membership to the GVC.

The organization of elections and reelections are very vital to this program. This provides people a space to exercise their opinion in selecting representatives who are doing good

work and are aiding the development of the village and voting out those that are

performing poorly. The formation of the GVC is dependent on a mandatory clause where membership from 80% of the households is fulfilled. Subsequently every GVCs

reelection takes place in an interval of 3 years. This year, a total of 55 reelections and 9 elections were held against the target of 93 reelections and 16 elections respectively.

Getting timely elections and reelections have been a challenge and we hope to

systematically address it in the coming period.

B. VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT FUNDS (GVKs)

Gram Vikas Kosh is built on a one-time membership fee. Subsequently, the fund grows

through the contribution of the community when various local development activities supported by Seva Mandir are implemented in their villages. As the fund grows, a bank

account is opened in the name of Gram Vikas Kosh. To increase the growth of the fund, a significant portion of the fund is kept in a fixed deposit account. The financial resource

plays a vital role in nurturing financial skills among villagers and increasing their

interaction with formal financial intermediaries like banks. This Village Development Fund also binds villagers together to discuss with each other issues regarding local

development and generates a sense of self-autonomy among the people.

During the year 2011-12, the GVK grew at the rate of 9% in comparison to previous year’s growth of 8%. At present, the total fund is Rs. 39,234,065. Till last year, March

2011, 46 % of the GVK funds were in fixed deposits. As part of our strategy on better

fund management, this proportion was increased to 58%. New fixed deposits of nearly Rs. 60, 00,000 have been made. This increase of the concentration of funds in Fixed

Deposits will earn an extra income of Rs. 3,00,000 – 4,00,000 annually.

A highlight of the program this year was inflow of contributions through earnings from

MGNREGA works carried out by Seva Mandir. For the first time, Rs. 41, 190 came into the GVK through earnings on MGNREGA. This is an indicator of people’s interest in

contributing to their collective development and their faith in the GVK as a powerful instrument of leveraging collective wellbeing.

Along with increasing their GVK, GVCs continued to also use their village corpus for local development projects. The usage of GVK’s was for a wide range of works including

pastureland management, payment of stipends for village volunteers, purchase of equipment for the storage of seeds, reparations of the community centre, payment of

doctor’s fee for animal camps and many other such examples. The amount utilized for

several different activities was Rs. 452,319. This amount increased from last year’s figure of Rs. 384,589 to Rs. 452,319. Additionally, this past year, 9 loans worth Rs.12, 27,000

were distributed to local self-help groups.

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During the year, several efforts have also been made for updating ledger books and village meeting registers. This year 60% of them were updated. As mentioned above, for

better management of GVKs, new accountants were selected and graded after intense community consultations. 150 potential accountants were recommended by the village

committees for the grading. On the basis of performance, accountants were awarded with

grade -A, grade-B, grade-C.

C. CAPACITY BUILDING EFFORTS

Regular trainings were held for the GVCs to support them in carrying out their

responsibilities smoothly. The trainings aimed to strengthen the group, as well as the management capacities of the GVCs and more generally nudging people to take

responsibility for building more cohesive and ethical societies. In total 104 Capacity Building trainings and workshops along with 150 Group Strengthening meetings-

workshops were conducted this past year. In all these trainings and meetings, the

participation of men and women was 34% and 65% respectively.

Building awareness and information regarding government schemes The knowledge of government schemes at the rural landscape is low, largely because of a

lack of awareness, bureaucratic official channels and unavailability of information. Seva

Mandir imparts training to the villagers so as to make them more aware about the various social welfare schemes that could potentially benefit those that are underprivileged and

disadvantaged. These training teach the villagers about the benefits of various schemes, the official channels with which to access these schemes, and the eligibility criteria in

getting enrolled. In the last few years, 100 odd people have been given trainings and some of them have been working to spread the information regarding government

schemes so to help needy people to avail of their rightful benefits.

As a result, participants have sent 1698 cases for 13 different schemes. Among these

1674 were sanctioned and 24 are in the pipeline and are still pending. The economic benefit gained by the community was approximately Rs. 33, 356,620.

D. SUPPORT TO PEOPLE’S INITIATIVE

Support to People’s Initiative program has been designed to give people a hands-on experience in the planning and implementation of different development projects. At

present, 353 GVCs have been handed over management and implementation of their

development interventions, including the appointment, supervision of village volunteers like the Balwadis sanchalikas, Shiksha Kendra teachers etc. These committees are

managing 1049 village volunteers.

E. VILLAGE COHESION INDEX Village Cohesion Index is a grading tool to evaluate the performance of GVCs on the

following four indicators: performance, management, leadership and resource. It is

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jointly carried out by PMS and VIP unit. A total of 14 workshops were conducted where

67% of the total GVCs were graded, that is, 351 GVCs out of 525 GVCs have been graded. In the 14 workshops held, 1122 people participated among which 883 were men

and 405 were women. In the grading done, 9% of GVCs were of ‘A’ grade, 48% of ‘B’ grade and 43% of ‘C’ grade.

F. STRENGTHENING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

From a long time the program has been facing problems with regard to collecting and managing data in an organized way. While there is more work to be done on this front, so

far a register has been distributed to the field offices seeking its maintenance on a timely

basis for the effective registration and transference of data according to program needs. The register is a compilation, in a more organized fashion, of GVC participants, GVK

amounts, interest rates, and all other related information that the zonal officer can document more efficiently than in longer qualitative reports. Through the register it will

become easier to review the data at a glance as compared to seeking relevant data from

written reports which would usually be longer and without a standardized format.

CONCLUSION

Through years of hard work on providing people an alternative experience of being active

agents of their development instead of being only recipients of welfare schemes, the idea seems to have become rooted in the village communities across Seva Mandir. This was

seen in the year 2011-12 through the fact that people contributed to the GVks through their personal wage earnings of MGNREGA, using the fund for common interests. More

remarkably, the political reordering could also be seen through the Panchayats selecting

Seva Mandir to be an implementing agency for MGNREGA programs. They could have easily used this space and scheme to further their own electoral patronage, but instead

they chose to opt for an NGO.

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NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Seva Mandir’s work on restoring and enhancing the productivity of the natural resource base in its work area dates back to 1970s. Rehabilitation of land, water, and forests play a

major role in strengthening sustainable livelihoods and in contributing to the

development of social solidarity.

73% of the land in Udaipur region is common land, owned either by the Panchayats, Forest Department or Revenue Department. This region has a hilly terrain, with bulk of

the common land situated at the uplands. In order to improve the productivity of the small

agricultural patches situated at the lowlands, it is critical that the soil and water erosion from the uplands be checked. Hence, while it is extremely critical that the commons be

rehabilitated, the process is complicated and made difficult by the fact that most of the commons are highly encroached. The encroachments on one hand constrain the

development of the commons and on the other force people into ties of cooption with

local land management officials, in order to preserve their illegal squatting on public land.

While Seva Mandir’s focus has been to develop the public and private lands to increase

food and water security, it has to engage with first resolving the contestations around the

land, especially the common lands in order to rehabilitate them. It has been a long struggle in persuading communities to give up their private occupancy and develop these

common property resources ala pasturelands and forestlands, for a common gain. However, this strategy of Seva Mandir has gained strong roots as probably it found

resonance in people’s own aspirations of sacrificing narrow personal gains for a societal

benefit and more so of their desire to move out of relationships of compromise. The results of this can be seen in the fact that about 25 years ago, Seva Mandir had to struggle

to work on commons, while today 85% of its afforestation work is on common lands.

The Natural Resource Management Program continues to make efforts at enhancing

ecological and livelihood security while also fostering social solidarity. The following sections describe the main activities undertaken in this reporting period.

A. AFFORESTATION

Work on Pasture Land During this reporting period, Seva Mandir carried out afforestation work on 243.30

hectares of pasturelands and individual wastelands. With this, the total number of pasturelands developed by Seva Mandir is 215, covering an area of 3,335 hectares.

These pasturelands annually yield fodder worth Rs. 45, 00,000. Internal monitoring data show that about 80 % of these sites are still protected and benefits are being equitably

being shared by the communities.

Work on Forest Land Forests cover 42% of the total landmass in Seva Mandir`s area of operation. The forests are a major source of fodder, fuel and other minor non-timber forest products like

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flowers, fruits, leaves, and vegetables. Since forestlands are situated upstream, these are

very critical, because a good forest cover helps in improving the productivity of the agricultural land situated at its foot. Seva Mandir has been engaged in supporting the

village communities in their efforts to conserve forest resources through the Joint Forest Management (JFM) program of the Government. Working on JFM has seen two main

constraints- on one hand it was freeing up the forest land from private encroachments and

on the other getting permission from the forest department to undertake protection and development of the forests in partnership with the communities.

From 1992 to now Seva Mandir has facilitated the development of 30 JFM sites. In the

past year, an additional 115 hectares across three sites were undertaken under JFM.

Proposals for permission to develop three sites covering an area of 173 hectares are still pending with the Forest Department.

Despite the resistance from forest department, Seva Mandir is encouraged by its strategy

of motivating and persuading communities to eschew personal encroachments on forests.

Even though the recently enacted Forest Rights Act makes real the idea of illegal encroachments on forest lands be potentially converted into legal titles, numerous

communities in Seva Mandir’s work area are opting for collective forest rights instead of personal land titles. They can see the huge risk involved in parceling of forestlands for

individual ownership.

Even though these are immensely poor communities, where owning a piece of land is

both an economic benefit as well as a source of pride, people have opted to spurn the possibility of getting individual titles over forest lands. Van Uthan Sangh has played a

very significant role in promoting and deepening this grass roots movement for protecting

its forests. Van Uthan Sangh and village communities have jointly put up 75 claims for collective rights on forests. However, despite their struggle for two years, the government

has not sanctioned a single claim even though it has sanctioned thousands of individual claims.

Van Utthan Sangh Van Utthan Sangh is a federation of more than 84 Forest Protection Committees, based

in Jahdol block. Van Utthan Sangh was promoted by Seva Mandir in the year 1997 and since its inception; it has been actively involved in its mandate of collective protection

and management of the degraded forest areas. VUS works proactively with the

communities, forest department and other stakeholders for better protecting the commons.

B. RESEARCH ON COMMONS

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A research on further investigating the nature of commons began in three districts of

Rajasthan—Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Alwar with an objective of initiating a comprehensive effort towards research, collaboration and advocacy on issues related to common lands

and resources. The initiative not only in the form of a research and documentation cell, but priority will be given to the mapping of the status and field experiences on common

property resources at a regional and national level.

So far, the study has been completed in Rajsathan and preparations to commence in

Madhya Pradesh and Orissa are being made. The data collection in Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Alwar districts of Rajasthan has been completed and currently work on analyzing and

and report writing based on the data is going on. Some of the major preliminary findings

are the following:

· In Jaisalmer and Alwar districts, the common lands exist in the form of sacred

groves while in Udaipur district the common lands are totally under state control.

In all the locations, commons are threatened due to privatization and diversion.

On one project location in Udaipur, all categories of common lands were found to

be encroached upon.

Level of Encroachment by Land Category in Village Ramaj

Column1 Pastureland Revenue Wasteland

Barren and Uncultivable land TOTAL

Area of land (ha) 75.79 45.91 109.18 230.88

Encroached Area (ha) 23.56 35.495 101.51 160.565

Level of encroachment 31.09% 77.31% 92.97% 69.54%

Source: Draft report of project “Safeguarding the Commons for Next Generation”

· Though proportion of common lands vary across the regions, they are, still

extremely critical in all three regions to the people`s livestock based livelihood.

· In all the cases, community led initiatives have revived common lands.

C. WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT

In watershed development, an area with a common drainage point is selected, surveyed

studied in detail and treated. Major watershed activities include soil and water conservation on all categories of public and private land, and production enhancement

interventions like silvi-pasture, horticulture, crop improvement and animal husbandry activities.

A total of 547 hectares of land was treated under watershed this year. These interventions will lead to reduction in the loss of runoff, which will reduce removal of productive

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topsoil and depletion of water from the area. Better soil and moisture regimen will

improve agricultural productivity, which will enhance both-local ecology and livelihoods.

D. WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

During the reporting period, 2 Lift Irrigation Systems and Anicuts (were anicuts built?)

were built to enhance productivity of agriculture. These systems will directly benefit 41 families and 15 hectares of land.

E. AGRICULTURE

A variety of interventions including horticulture, crop improvement, vermi composting, vegetable cultivation and activities such as introduction of improved varieties of crops

and vegetables, planting of saplings of fruit trees, organization of livestock vaccination camps and so on and so forth with 4300 households selected in the previous two years. In

total, 5000 households are being intervened with agricultural activities. As a result, some

initial impact like enhancement in food and income security has been seen.

Along with the program interventions, Seva Mandir was also involved in a research project called “Harmonizing Biodiversity Conservation for Livelihood Enhancement”

sponsored by the National Agriculture Innovation Project of the Indian Council of

Agriculture Research. The research entails surveys, trials, and characterization work aimed at the conservation of plant, animal and fish biodiversity. Seva Mandir was also

involved in research on backyard poultry; this is part of a nationwide initiative of Rain Fed Livestock Network.

F. INTEGRATED WATER AND SANITATION IN RURAL SETTLEMENTS

In this reporting period, the interventions on all three components - clean drinking water (CDW), sanitation and groundwater management (GWM)- made progress from the pilot

to the main stage. The activities of CDW and sanitation were undertaken in total 13 villages, with inclusion of two new villages while one village in which work was initiated

in the last year was dropped. The CDW interventions include restoration of wells,

construction of tanks, repair of handpumps, construction of artificial recharge systems, and installation of household bio-sand filters. The works completed in this year have

created CDW facilities for 966 families, while the ongoing works will provide CDW to another 320 families. All these works in total will create access of CDW for 55.5% of the

targeted 2,630 families (TF). The new activities planned for the coming year are aimed to

increase the coverage up to 90% families.

Water quality testing of the critical drinking water sources revealed the levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Hardness to be higher than the permissible limits in

handpumps of almost all villages. This could also be the reason for communities to still

rely on open wells for drinking water. Handpump repair toolkits were provided in each block that will be used by the youth trained in repairing. In this period, the kits were used

by youth in 4 blocks. This year, more concentrated efforts were made to assist the users

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and village institutions to evolve norms and systems for management of created

infrastructure. Some villages were able to evolve some mechanisms, i.e. responsibilities for chlorination were assigned to individuals, monthly contributions were fixed, etc.

Construction of 22 eco-san demonstration toilets in 11 villages was completed in this

reporting period. 3 to 6 months of observation and trial usage provided vital inputs in

revising its design. Many women and children who were initially skeptical have gradually begun to use the toilets. Following on the mostly encouraging response from

communities, a total of 213 toilets were under construction at the end of this reporting period across 11 villages with demo toilets. In addition, 4 new demonstration toilets were

sanctioned in 2 new villages. Even though the demonstration toilets have been well

received and the selection of families for new toilets was done through intensive deliberations, the village institutions and the social pressure they can bring to bear are

also being leveraged to ensure sustainable use of toilets. 5 villages finalised the sustainability norms for toilets as of March 2012. Liaison with the Total Sanitation

Campaign (TSC) got initiated in Udaipur District to receive support for the eco-sans

constructed with BPL families.

The study on understanding groundwater was continued in 12 villages where work was initiated last year. In current reporting period, 17 youths (4 girls and 13 boys) and Seva

Mandir staff were trained, through classroom instruction and field visits, to prepare 3

types of key hydro-geological maps.

G. RESEARCH ON CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

An Improved Cookstove (ICS) project, aimed to address the problem of rural households

related to energy use in cooking is being developed by Seva Mandir under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of Kyoto Protocol. The initiative will assist about

19,500 families of 120 villages to make a shift from less efficient stoves to ICS. The new stoves will reduce fuel wood consumption by almost half, resulting in the reduction of

Greenhouse Gas emissions. Imperatively, the financial support for the initiative will be

met through the sale of carbon credits.

In this reporting period, the project reached quite close to being registered with UNFCCC and Gold Standard. The validation of CDM project was undertaken in this year, and

along with that the Host Country Approval (HCA) and the project was submitted to the Government. The issuance of carbon credits will depend on adhering to regular and

comprehensive monitoring of the stoves’ usage. In accordance, a field pilot to understand

the intricacies of monitoring was initiated in one village. The pilot involves trying out different tools that can help in creating context specific, reliable, long-term and cost-

effective monitoring systems. In addition, some stoves are being used by households in rotation with the purpose of acclimatizing them with the new technology and also to give

feedback to manufactures for further improvements. Furthermore, on-line monitoring

software was purchased and customized to record all baseline information collected from families and their stove usage for 10 years.

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Last year, a study to understand the local climatic changes in the coming 60-80 years and

identify appropriate adaptation strategies was jointly conducted by Seva Mandir and Alterra, Wageningn University (Netherlands). Guarantee

H. MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE

ACT (MGNREGA) During the last financial year Seva Mandir received 32 sanctions for pastureland

development work under MGNREGA in Udaipur district, of which 31 are in progress, and another 15 works have been sanctioned for individual beneficiary land development

works, of which 11 are in progress. We have created around 49,867 man days during the

reporting year at an expense of Rs.56, 17,572. All these works will continue during the next financial year. For the next year (2012-13) 110 proposals to be implemented by Seva

Mandir have been endorsed by the Panchayats in the special meetings of the Gram Sabhas.

I. DAL MILL

With the objective of benefiting local small farmers, Seva Mandir with the financial

assistance from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, established a small pulse processing unit or Dal Mill in Medi village of Kotra block in the year 2009. This microenterprise is

involved in trading, processing and marketing of pulses. In the year 2011-12, 1765 kgs of pulse (pigeon pea) was processed and marketed by the enterprise along with 215 kgs of

raw pulse, which was also sold. As a result, a profit of Rs.41, 738 was earned by the

enterprise this year.

CONCLUSION

The Natural resource management program has been able to create and lead a large

people’s movement to protect their commons and restore ecological and natural resource based livelihood. Along with this, the program has made small but steady steps into

further augmenting the productivity of the natural resources through better agricultural practices, water conservation. This basic foundational work has also helped the program

venture into newer areas like developing clean drinking water systems, ecosan toilets,

improved cook stoves and understanding climate change effects .

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WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

The women’s empowerment program attempts to build more gender friendly societies. In order to so, it uses a variety of strategies with a special focus on women and youth but

also including other stakeholders like men, Panchayats and Caste Panchayats.

The work carried out with women can be broadly categorized into two categories, social

and economic empowerment. These categories, while useful for management and presentation, have a large degree of overlap on ground. The following sections describe

the interventions carried out by the program in the year 2011-12.

A. SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT

Work on social empowerment was carried out primarily with the 553 women groups,

which have a membership of 8452 women. Some of these groups have federated at the Panchayat level to form 29 Panchayat level associations. The 10 women resource centers

also contributed in this.

The Panchayat level Associations (PLAs) continued with their regular meetings and

217 of their leaders participated in 9 trainings aimed at improving their knowledge of government schemes.

The Women Resource Centers (WRCs) operated by local women leaders continued to provide space for women’s voices and to act as a forum to help resolve their problems.

During this reporting period, 110 cases were put forth to the 10 WRCs, of which 85 were resolved, 23 are ongoing and 2 were referred to the judicial system. The cases were

mostly related to domestic violence and difficulties in accessing government services.

Gender Sensitization of Women, Adolescents and Caste Panchayat Leaders Gender trainings were organized for 154 girls, 56 boys and 40 self-help group members. Engagement with Caste Panchayat leaders also continued through trainings, joint

meetings and public hearings. Joint trainings of WRC and PLA members with leaders of

their local caste panchayats were also held in an effort to increase mutual understanding and cooperation, and to relook their norms with a gender lens.

Two public hearings were organized with women and Caste Panchayat leaders. 653 men

and women participated in the hearing and 39 cases were registered of which 5 were

resolved on the spot. After the hearings, 21 cases were resolved by Caste Panchayat leaders in their regular meetings. As a result of these efforts, several Caste Panchayats

have now started offering space to women in their meetings. Some have revised their norms to be more women and poor friendly, such as giving women a chance to present

their cases in person and advocating reduced expenditure in death and marriage feasts.

Special efforts on gender sensitization aimed at youth were carried out in 30 communities

of Kherwara block. There were a range of issue-based and vocational trainings involving 348 adolescents, trainings for PLA’s, Caste Panchayats, and teachers with 120

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participants, and a number of public events and campaigns with nearly 1000 combined

participants. Organizational level interventions included a district level workshop with 17 partner NGOs and government officials, an exposure visit from NGO Sri

Bhuvneshwari Mahila Aashram, and a number of gender trainings at the Seva Mandir central office involving 86 personnel.

Short Stay Home The Short Stay Home, a shelter home for women in distress, provided shelter to 79

women and 50 children. Additionally, 20 women came for counseling support. Short stay home residents were provided different trainings and helped in securing a job to

make them economically independent (for a fuller report on this program, see “Urban

Block”).

B. ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT The economic empowerment program’s two main components are enabling women to run self governed savings and credit groups, and promoting small local income

generation activities.

Self Help Groups At present there are 553 SHGs with a membership of 8,452 women, with some of them federated in 11 clusters. During this period, 39 new SHGs were formed and 14 SHGs

were closed due to poor functioning. The net owned funds of SHGs through March 2012

was about INR 28 million . This money is loaned to members for a variety of purposes ranging from small income generation activities to loan repayment to personal

consumption. Earned interest amounting to Rs. 15,43,291 was disbursed to members on the basis of member saving and attendance. In this period, 118 SHGs paid their members

monthly individual dividends in the Rs. 30-100 bracket, up from the Rs. 20-30. 188

SHGs raised their accountant’s honorarium to between Rs.1 to Rs. 5. The March’12 financial audit, involving 209 SHGs, will be completed by the end of April’12.

This year SHGs were graded on the basis of six main indicators. Overall, SHG meeting

regularity stood at 95 percent, attendance regularity at 81 percent, savings regularity at 77

percent, principal repayment at 84 percent, interest repayment at 94 percent, and portfolio at risk showed a marked 6 percent decline from the last reporting period to 17 percent.

This encouraging reduction can be attributed mainly to timely loan repayment. SHGs were also individually graded on these indicators: 33% of SHGs are in grade A, 19% are

in grade B, 15% are in grade C and 33% are in grade D.

Capacity building exercises for SHG members, accountants, auditors and associated staff

were regularly carried out through in-house expertise and through PRADAN consultants. Seva Mandir, in collaboration with a team of outside consultants, also conducted its own

37 day Course in Rural Entrepreneurship, Administration and Management (CREAM)

for 10 staff and 8 entrepreneurs focused on small business operation skills.

Income Generation Initiatives

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Initiating small income generation activities has been a relatively simple project, but to

help them become economically viable and self-sustaining has been a challenge for Seva Mandir. The following is a list of new income generation activities undertaken this year.

A. 2 mature SHGs mobilized Rs. 9, 39,000 from the bank under the SGSY (Swarna

Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna) scheme of government to invest in a dairy.

A. 83 women from 8 different SHGs mobilized Rs. 11,15,000 from their local Gram Vikas Kosh (Village Development Fund). 26 put the money toward income

generation activities such as dairy, stocking small shops, and handicraft enterprises.

B. A soy-processing unit run by 3 local youth earned revenue worth Rs. 1,91,492. In

the coming year, efforts will be made to make this enterprise self-sustainable. C. 39 women received Rajasthan Department of Fisheries funds to construct houses

owing to their ongoing participation in a fisheries income generation project jointly sponsored by the government and Seva Mandir since 2009

D. 24 community agents sold 153 micro-insurance schemes

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EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

Seva Mandir’s work with early childhood care is centered on community run preschools called Balwadis. The Balwadis are safe, secure daycare facilities that offer educationally,

nutritionally, and developmentally appropriate preschool activities while providing relief to mothers and other caregivers.

A. BALWADIS During the reporting period, 202 Balwadis were running across 169 villages reaching out to 4606 children, 2188 girls and 2418 boys. These centres directly benefit over 3000

caregivers. The following sections give the main highlights of the program during the

reporting period.

New Curriculum The new curriculum for children in the 3-5 year age group was finalized in March 2012.

The curriculum was created in order to make Balwadis better preschools, even as they

continue to provide simple daycare for younger children. Age 3-5 is a formative life stage, and the new curriculum introduces structured activities aimed at holistic

development (cognitive, language, motor and psycho-social) and general school preparedness. It is being implemented in 22 Balwadis, and will be introduced in 70 new

centres during this coming year.

Nutrition and Health Several efforts were made to improve nutritional levels of children. Supply of fortified nutripops was resumed in the Balwadis. In order to prevent water borne diseases in

children, the Sanchalikas were provided with alum to purify drinking water. Sanchalikas

were trained on the issue of malnutrition. As a result of these trainings, Sanchalikas can better identify malnourished children, and have made small but significant changes to

food preparation for weak or thin children to make meals more digestible and nutritious. At an organizational level, more efforts were initiated to better understand and address

the issue of malnutrition. The health program has initiated two small pilots on using double fortified salt to address anemia and another pilot on communitybased

management of acute malnutrition. A study on food security has also been initiated.

Growth monitoring of all the children attending Balwadis is done every six months (in

this period, September’11 and March’12). A team of surveyors who carried out the monitoring was trained on measuring, categorizing, and annotating weight on

standardized forms. Comparative analysis of common children in the two surveys

indicates that there has been a slight improvement in the nutritional status of children in the last one year.

Ongoing immunization efforts resulted in the immunization of 952 children in 100

balwadis during this reporting period.

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School Enrollment Every year in the month of July, a school enrollment drive is organized to ensure that children in Balwadis more than 5 years old continue with their education. In July’ 2011,

Balwadis facilitated the admission of 972 children into school.

Capacity Building A series of meetings, trainings and observation visits centered on the new 3-5 curriculum were conducted for staff and Sanchalikas of pilot centres. The intent of the trainings was

to simultaneously strengthen the Sanchalikas’ capacity to implement the curriculum and help them understand how each activity contributes to a child’s development. There were

also general trainings, regular bi-monthly meetings, exposure visits and externally-led

assessments for the continuing professional development of Sanchalika staff not involved in the new curriculum pilot.

Engaging the Community Seva Mandir continued its efforts to encourage communities to involve themselves in and take community ownership of Balwadis. GVC (Village Development Committees)

contributed a sum of Rs 71,200 for the partial support of 9 Balwadis through payment of

Sanchalika stipend, rent and fuel. GVCs also continued to carry out a number of non-financial responsibilities including monitoring and evaluation of Sanchalikas.

Collection of Balwadi tuition continued to promote programme self-sustainability and

buy-in from parents. Parents contributed Rs. 1,95,299, or 48% of total expected fees this

year, which were deposited with Village Development Committees (GVCs). This shortfall was due to fee waivers and lackluster collection efforts. Regular parent meetings

were held with Sanchalikas to discuss individual children and general child development. As a result, parents of 398 children from 48 Balwadi centres are now availing weekly on

government Anganwadis for a nutritious baby mix to which they are entitled.

Monitoring Balwadis continue to be monitored by GVCs and staff both physically and through the use of camera technology. After last year’s pilot, it was decided to extend camera

monitoring to 72 centres. Because a Sanchalika’s salary is linked not only to her

attendance but also the attendance of children, the last 6 months saw continuous improvement in children’s regularity and punctuality and Sanchalika’s average monthly

stipend increased to Rs. 1800 from Rs. 1200 last year.

B. DAYCARE CENTERS

In addition to the rural Balwadis, 4 day care centers are running in urban slums. A total of

97 children (43 boys and 54 girls) in the age group of 0 to 5 years are enrolled in these daycare centers, benefitting 85 families. In this period, 38 children from daycare centres

were mainstreamed into schools.

C. LINKING WITH GOVERNMENT

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This reporting period saw various collaborations with government. In its role as a

member of FORCES, a national level network which works on childcare and advocacy, Seva Mandir undertook two studies on “Need Assessment of Crèches” and the feasibility

of improving ICDS services through advocacy. Seva Mandir also continued to advocate to government for the scale-up of its Balwadi model. The Collector of Rajsamand district

visited our Balwadis, and a proposal was sent to the Rajasthan State Innovation Council.

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EDUCATION PROGRAMME

The education program of Seva Mandir (SM) works to ensure education for out-of-school

children and empower communities to collaborate effectively with the government to

ensure quality education to their children. SM works in five rural blocks and one urban block of Udaipur district. The objectives are to ensure access to quality education for

rural and tribal children in the age group of 6 to 14 years, increase community demand for quality education, empower youth with agency and confidence to be community

participants, manage growth by bettering existing research and analysis, and work on

direct interventions with government schools. SM works toward these objectives through a number of programs described below including Shiksha Kendras (non-formal primary

schools), Residential Learning Camps, Urja Ghars or Youth Resource Centers, and government-school based Activity Centers.

SM works in areas where children face hurdles in accessing quality education. These areas are often predominantly comprised of people of tribal origins. The condition of

schooling is often one of severe neglect with high rates of teacher absenteeism, poor pedagogical methods, lack of learning materials, inadequate infrastructure, and above all,

an apathetic atmosphere. Parents and communities, in general, are not able to get the

government to address such issues. Their own poverty creates pressures to put every available hand to work and therefore does not allow the resources for them to fight the

battle for quality education.

In the villages, the economic situation, including the supply and demand inadequacies, compound and reduce the likelihood of a child going to or staying in school. In many

places, there is also a high incidence of children migrating either daily or seasonally for

work. Hence providing a meaningful education in this context is important not only for the intrinsic value, but also because attendance in school can often prevent the child from

migrating at such an early age. The following report will explain the activities SM undertakes in order to provide education for out-of-school children in rural areas.

A. RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, more popularly known as the

Right to Education (RTE) was enacted in August 2009 and the state of Rajasthan introduced it from March 2011. The Act defines what may be called a school. The

defination of a school is based on input measures related to human and physical

infrastructure, but not outcomes in terms of learning. A school under RTE Act is one which has a specified number of rooms; of a prescribed size, running water, toilets,

teachers with specified qualification and salaries as per governmnet norms. The Act requires that children progress to higher classes without any assessment.

In order to understand the current school-going status of rural children in SM’s work area, SM conducted household surveys in three villages of Kotra Block and in four

villages of Jhadol. The surveys covered a total population of 5,208 inhabitants. A total of 991 households with 1,242 children between the ages of 6-14 were surveyed across both

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blocks. Survey questions covered the current education status of each child age 6-14 in a

given hamlet, and the availability and condition of government school facilities in each village. The findings are worrisome. 49% children in these villages are found out of

school and out of these 32% have never attended school. Data from the most deprived block, i.e., Kotra, says that the percentage of out of school children is more than 70 %.

B. SHIKSHA KENDRAS

SM works with village communities to establish rural schools called Shiksha Kendras (SKs) or rural bridge schools, in remote rural hamlets with the aim of providing access to

quality education to out of school children between the ages of 6 and 14 years old. The

SKs offer primary education which enables these children to transit smoothly into Government schools. Since these children are first generation learners it gives them

confidence to persist with their schooling. The sound education provided at the SKs help the children become independent learners.

Over the years it has been a learning process for SM for the effective and better implementation of its programs. Consistent and concerted efforts have been made to

improve and maintain the quality of education provided by SKs. These interventions include improving the physical structures, using diverse learning materials, regularly

building teachers’ capacity, inculcating an interactive and child-centred pedagogy, and

building community participation. The SKs are able to secure the all-round development of children and considerably enhance their learning levels. The programme initiated with

10 SKs and over the years the number has scaled up to 200 in 2009-10 reaching out to 5890 children. In the past two years the number of centers has gradually decreased to

178. However the number of children enrolled has remained unaffected with current enrollment of 5861 children. The learning and challenges highlighted by this trend are

mentioned in the following sections.

Current Status of SKs Currently 178 SKs are reaching out to 5,861 children, 43% of which are girls, in the five rural blocks in which SM works. The number of SKs has decreased by 9 as compared to

last year however the number of children enrolled has taken a rise of 167 children. Every

year around 14% of total children take new admissions in the Shiksha Kendra. This year 2011-12, 2026 (34.56%) children were newly enrolled in 178 centers. The number of

newly enrolled children is higher than the average number because the children of 11 new SKs are also included.

Evaluation of children To measure the extent to which SK students have been able to acquire new knowledge

over the course of the year, standardized tests were conducted twice a year. In half yearly evaluation of November, 2011, a total of 4230 children appeared and 835(19.7%)

children reached level1 3 showing an increase of 10%.

1 To identify the progress of a child SM has categorized four learning levels from 0 to 3. The levels are

roughly equivalent to government classes. Level 0 is when a child enters the SK and can barely read or

write. The child has attained Level 1 when she or he can read and write small words, do simple counting

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A total of 1320 students were common in both the exams of November 2010 and November 2011. Result shows that out of all the common children many have moved to

higher levels as more than 90% children are currently in level 2 and 3. Enrollment in Government Schools:

Students from SKs are encouraged to enroll in a government school once they have basic competencies in language and mathematics. Every year around 14% students graduate

from Shiksha Kendras and further enroll in Government schools. During the reporting period, 1210 children mainstreamed in government schools for further education, out of

these around 50% children got admission in class 5 & class 6. This is the highest number

reached in relation to enrollment in the past 3 years, highlighting several good efforts including better capacity building of the instructors.

Capacity Building of Instructors Since most of our instructors have studied only up to 8

th or 9

th class, trainings are

conducted regularly to enhance their capacities and skills. In each block, at least one instructor meeting was planned for every quarter. Accordingly there were 36 meetings

held in all the five blocks. In these meetings, the instructors have the opportunity to interact with the block-level program coordinators, share their concerns, find solutions,

discuss new directions for action and review various skills required for running the

centers. First aid training was also given to all the instructors of Kotra block in the meeting of the last quarter on a pilot basis. First aid kits were provided to all of the

centers of Kotra block and the feedback on the usefulness of these kits will be shared in the meeting of June 2012.

In addition to the quarterly instructor meetings at the block level, annual trainings of

instructors form an integral part of SM's Education program. In the year 2011 it was

decided to separate the instructors in 2 groups: one group included new instructors and those instructors who need more assistance on classroom interactions. The second group

was for the more experienced instructors. The training for the first group was attended by 24 instructors from across the 5 blocks and 80 instructors, participated in the second

round of training.

Community Participation Community participation and ownership is a central component of SM’s vision and is a critical part of the SK program. The two main components of community participation

are Shiksha Shulk (Education Fees) and Parent Teacher meeting. This year a total of Rs.

4,07,650 (87%) was collected against the expected amount of Rs. 4,69,480. The collection of fees this year is much higher than last year’s collection of 72%. Parents-

Teachers meetings were organized once in 3 months at each SK. The meetings enabled the parents to get knowledge of the progress of their child and interaction with teacher.

and identify some numbers. When a child can start reading, understand simple sentences, write

small/incomplete sentences and do basic counting and simple operations like additions and subtractions

with small numbers, she or he is placed in Level 2. At level 3 a child can read and understand simple texts,

articulate themselves by writing a paragraph and understand the concepts of multiplication, division, etc.

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Camera Monitoring The digital camera monitoring programme in all SKs began in January 2010. These

cameras have helped to a great extent in checking instructor’s absenteeism and also helped in improving the monitoring mechanism of SKs. All the 178 SKs are camera

equipped and were open for 22.12 days per month on an average.

C. RESIDENTIAL LEARNING CAMPS

Every year SM organizes three residential learning camps for 200 or more children.

These learning camps operate for 50 – 55 days each and are very helpful in reaching out

to out-of-school working children. The camps are designed in a 3 part sequence of May-June, November-December and January-February. SM encourages children to attend the

3 consecutive camps and then enrolls them into school. The camps work to enable children to read and write independently, encouraging parents to enroll children in

schools for further studies.

Current Status of Learning Camps A total of 413 new children (198 girls and 215 boys) from 31 villages participated in 3 Seasonal Residential Learning Camps for the year 2011-2012. Of these 413 children, 255

children participated in one seasonal camp, 137 in two camps and 21 children participated in all the three camps. Number of children participating in 3 camps in a year

is very low due to the change in the cycle of first camp, second camp and third camp

according to the enrollment of many new children in the subsequent camps. A total of 28 (14 male and 14 female) instructors participated in all the 3 camps. Each instructor caters

to 10 children on an average and primarily teaches them Language (Hindi) and Mathematics. This year new initiatives were taken to introduce natural phenomenon to

the children. Interactive sessions were held on seasonal cycles, map reading, cultural

studies and the use of technology like computers, mobiles etc.

Assessments Regular assessment is an important part of the camps for ensuring quality of education.

The first assessment is conducted in the begining when children arrivee, the mid-term

assessment is conducted after a month of their arrival in the camp, and the final assessment takes place towards the end of the camp. The assessments help in assesing the

learning levels2 of children.

Comparing the November-December 2011 camp and the January-February 2012 camp

one can see a 50% increase in the number of A level students as well as a 31% decrease

in the level C students.

Results Looking at the results of 410 children who attended either 1 camp, 2 camps or 3 camps

are very hopeful. Out of those children that attended any of the camps, 95% left at least

semi-literate, and almost 60% became literate. Children who attended more than one

2 Level C are beginners, level B are in the middle of their learning or semi literate and level A is the top level

which indicates the child’s ability to be able to read and write indpendently with comprehension.

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camp were most likely to leave fully literate. This is an incredible achievement of the

learning camps.

Scholarship Programme To help the children who want to continue their education after the residential camps, a

scholarship programme has been initiated from 2010. Children who were 9 years and

above and who had attended at least two camps were eligible for the scholarship. They received the scholarship if they joined a school after attending the camp and were seen to

be attending it regularly as monitored through random attendance checks and monitoring.

In the two subsequent years, a total of 231 children eligible for scholarship were

identified and efforts were made to enroll them in schools. Out of these 231 children, 211 (91.3%) children (113 from year 1 and 98 from year 2) received scholarships, of which

46 % where girls. While the increase in number of children enrolling in schools is a positive output, there are still many issues with the schools themselves. Most schools

have a high rate of teacher absenteeism and a very low standard of education, making it

hard for the students to continue with their education and families to encourage their school going.

D. URJA GHAR (YOUTH RESOURCE CENTER)

Urja Ghars or Youth Resource Centers (YRCs) are centers that work with youth in the

age of 14-25 years in the rural areas outside of Udaipur, Rajashtan. These are places

where young people from different communities come together to gain knowledge and learn about various issues, increase their capacities and skills, expose them to livelihood

trainings and boost their confidence in expressing their views and opinions to adults in their community The programme also envisions to create a platform for fun activities,

games, and the sharing and exchange of youth related experiences..

Currently there are 21 YRCs across SM’s work area. Two facilitators, one male and one

female run each center. Currently there are 2266 youth enrolled across the YRCs, 38.5 % of whom are girls.

Brief of Activities at the YRCs The YRCs have a series of different activities such as movie screenings followed by

discussions that provide an opportunity for youth to talk about concerns relating to their own villages, health and personal problems as well as other social issues; cultural shows

and programs, a library space and the celebration of festivals and national holidays.

Additionally, center related activities are organized such as a “Learn Without Fear” painting workshop conducted with government school children in Badgaon, where

Children and teachers were given information about the negative impact of corporal punishment. In Jhadol, YRC volunteers have tried to explain the issues concerning child

marriage and early marriages to the community. Street Plays, Awareness campaigns and

discussion were held by the volunteers on such topics.

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Also in Jhadol, YRC volunteers conducted a survey on migration and insisted on safe

migration for such individuals like keeping one’s ID card with oneself and providing the workplace address to their family. In Badgaon, 21 youth had previously dropped out of

school. The YRC volunteers reached out to these youth, provided them information about school enrollment and motivated them about the importance of studying. Through

the YRCs they were enrolled in open schools and regularly study there. Some YRC

volunteers take special efforts to make sure all children in the village are enrolled in schools by taking constantly to the parents, Panchayat and for those children and youth

who are drop outs, they also try and make attempts to re-enroll them in schools and keep track of their attendance and progress.

Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Programme (YEEP) Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP) is a micro-enterprise project that aims

to inspire, train and support the youth in rural villages to become agents in creating energy independence, better health, a cleaner environment and at the same time provide a

unique business opportunity through the use of renewable energy options.

The implementation of YEEP over the last one and half years has had many upheavals.

There have been many good lessons learnt through this past year. As of now, 8 entrepreneurs made the total sales of Rs.315,170 from April to November 2011. On an

average, the youth get about 15% profit on their sales, and on that basis, each of them

have been able to generate income ranging from Rs.750 to Rs.3,000 per month over this period.

E. ACTIVITY CENTERS In response to the poor learning levels of children in government schools SM initiated 5

Activity Centers or Sahiyog Kendras. The activity centers are housed within the

government schools and are run by SM teachers. The main objective of the program is to enable the students to have a meaningful education by providing various opportunities

and activities from which they can learn from and those that they would not be exposed to in their schools. Through these centers SM is also trying to build a conceptual

understanding of children in Mathematics and Hindi. The Activity Centers are reaching

out to 821 children across 5 Government schools.

10 facilitators are associated with the Activity Center programme, all of whom go through an annual facilitator training, they are also placed in residential seasonal schools

for a week of classroom lessons. Facilitators work on lesson plans already taught, creat

support material for learning such as flash cards, charts and counting material for their own centers.

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HEALTH PROGRAMME The Health program’s main focus areas include maternal health, child health and issues

of adolescents. The programme uses a mix of interventions which are broadly classified

below along the following axes: home based and community based interventions; accessing institutional care; designing alternative ways of accessing institutional care;

and research and upscaling.

A. HOME BASED AND COMMUNITY BASED INTERVENTIONS

Maternal Health Program Through Trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) During the reporting period, 343 TBAs facilitated maternal health care in 152 villages across the 5 blocks. There has been a small increase in the number of TBAs associated

with Seva Mandir over the years with 299 TBAs in 2008-09, 310 TBA s in 2009-10 and 338 TBAs in 2010-11.

TBA Capacity Building Training of TBAs is an integral part of the maternal health program and focuses on

adding new knowledge and skills to the TBAs based on experience from the field and emerging health needs. During the reporting period, capacity building activities for the

TBAs included one round of grade based refresher training and block level review

meetings. Induction training was held for the 14 new TBAs inducted during the year. The new TBAs were found to be only conducting deliveries; not doing antenatal and post

natal care. The TBAs also reported of not using equipments/tools needed for safe delivery, and were conducting deliveries directly on the floor without the use of any

cloth/plastic.

The training sessions were conducted on the gaps that were identified in their practice

and also clarifying the various myths and misconceptions. The sessions included components of antenatal and post natal and newborn care, safe delivery (including

demonstration), identification of risks and proper referral. Contraceptive usage and the

importance of birth spacing was also included in the training sessions.

In the refresher training, the contents and techniques of the trainings were designed according to grades of TBAs to provide inputs as per the specific needs of each grade.

The training content was based on ‘teaching learning’ technique. Teaching aids included

pictorial charts, flip books, role plays, group discussions, demonstrations and practice sessions.

The training sessions included reinforcement of the topics on antenatal, safe delivery and

postnatal care.

The first round of grading3 of the TBAs was done in the year 2008-09 and thereafter,

several rounds of trainings were conducted for the TBAs based on their grades. The

3 The grades were A, B, and C with A being the highest and C the lowest

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competencies of each of the TBAs had undergone a considerable change during these

years. After the last grading process, 67 new TBAs were trained for whom grading was not done. Also, many of the TBAs needed to be replaced as they had become too aged

affecting their mobility and work. Given all these reasons, the second round of the grading of TBAs was done in this reporting period.

Of the total 338 TBAs, 309 TBAs (91%) participated in the grading process. The grading process involved evaluating the TBAs both on their knowledge and practice with regard

to maternal health.

41% of the TBAs were found in grade A against the 30% in 2008, 47% in grade B

against 45% in 2008 and only 12% of the TBAs were found in grade C against the 25 % in grade C. Hence, there seems to have been a good progress of the TBAs in their

competencies.

TBA Outreach Based on the data available till date, a total of 4385 women received at least one service from the TBAs during the reporting period compared to 7126 women during the last year.

The TBAs facilitated 2814 deliveries, of which 1603 were home deliveries and the rest 1211 were institutional deliveries facilitated by the TBAs. The percentage of institutional

deliveries has increased only by 1.5% i.e., 47.5% in this reporting period compared to

46% in last year.

The TBAs also conducted meetings with pregnant and lactating women in their respective villages on the immunization/MCHN days. A total of 627 meetings were

conducted in the reporting period which were attended by 3203 beneficiaries (Data from

Kotra awaited).

Monitoring of TBAs Monitoring of the work of the TBAs was done regularly by the program team members

and zonal teams through interactive interviews with beneficiaries of the TBAs. In the reporting period, 280 beneficiaries of 92 TBAs across four blocks were contacted for

assessing the TBAs’ work. (Data for Kotra is awaited). The monitoring was helpful in

verification of the TBAs’ work and taking corrective measures.

Verbal autopsies of maternal deaths was an attempt at a new and better system of capturing maternal death. While this was planned, it could not be implemented in the

field and that will be attempted in the coming period.

Child Health Program Neonatal and infant health care is facilitated by trained young women called Bal Sakhis. Their key role includes new born care and management of contingencies such as

hypothermia, low birth weight, identification of danger signs and appropriate referral;

counseling on breastfeeding for children aged 0-6 months and counseling on weaning and nutrition for children above 6 months.

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A cadre of 99 Bal Sakhis are working in 34 villages. 46 of these 99 Bal Sakhis were

inducted this year.

During the reporting period, one induction training for the newly selected Bal Sakhis and two rounds of block level review meetings for the trained Bal Sakhis were conducted.

The training sessions aimed at improving the knowledge and understanding of the Bal

Sakhis on health issues of neonates, major causes of neonatal deaths and how the deaths could be averted and imparting management skills in case of complications through home

based care. While the sessions included training the Bal Sakhis on technical skills through demonstrations and practical sessions, each session also focused on improving

their communication and counseling skills. The sessions also included discussions on the

prevalent practices regarding neonatal care to clarify the common myths and misconceptions. Kits were distributed to all the Bal Sakhis and the use of each of the

tools and materials in the kits was demonstrated. An exposure visit to the Pediatric Ward and Malnourishment Treatment Center of the Udaipur district hospital was a part of this

training.

Since the initiation of the intervention, we had been facing problem in capturing the

correct outreach of the Bal Sakhis. During this reporting period, a lot of work was done on developing a MIS system for the neonatal & infant care intervention, which would

track status, and services for each child registered with the Bal Sakhis.

During the reporting period, the Bal Sakhis reached out to 1950 children. The children to

which the Bal Sakhis reached out include children who were contacted for nutrition counseling, new born care and treatment for illness.

Immunization Immunization camps are being conducted in 125 hamlets across the five blocks. In the

last reporting period, immunization camps were conducted in 68 locations, of which four locations were dropped this year as the government MCHN days were started in these

locations. In the month of June and July 2011, immunization camps were initiated in 61 new locations across the five blocks.

During the reporting period, 1167 camps were conducted against the target of 1358 camps, which means 85.9% of camps were held against 96.8% in previous year. A total

of 191 camps had to be cancelled due to various reasons such as the unavailability of nurses and the inability to find a replacement for nurse or assistant, heavy rains and bad

roads, festivals, and vaccine not supplied from government department.

During the reporting period, a total of 1131 children were registered in the 1167 camps

against 1640 children registered in previous year. Apart from the routine vaccination, 1264 children were given treatment for diseases such as fever, cough, cold, measles, eye

or ear infection, diarrhea and skin infection. The camps also registered 1553 women for

antenatal checkups against 1449 women in last reporting period.

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Along with holding immunization camps in villages, the immunization team also worked

on immunizing the children attending the Seva Mandir balwadis. During the reporting period immunization at 100 Balwadis was completed wherein 952 children received

immunization. Since the Balwadis enroll children older than one year olds, a different immunization protocol was followed. A child over the age of one year who had not

received even a single shot was to be given measles and DPT in the first month, followed

by BCG and DPT in the second month and last dose of DPT in the third month with oral polio drops each month.

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Program In the previous years, the work with the adolescents involved improving the knowledge

and skills of the adolescents through an initial 3 days residential training followed by village level refresher training sessions. Though the adolescent trainings have been very

useful in building the knowledge of the adolescents, one of the gap areas has been the follow up trainings with the trained adolescents. The follow up trainings were planned to

be conducted at the Youth Resource Centers by the facilitators of the centers; but could

not be done regularly as we had the problem of getting back the same trained adolescents for the follow up sessions. Another finding was that the adolescents attending the training

were mostly school going, a very low number of non-school going adolescents were coming for the training as most of the non school-going adolescents were working and

hence attending the training for three days would mean a loss of wages to them. Also, the

adolescent expressed that they felt uncomfortable to attend the training with the school going children as they considered themselves to be less competent.

Due to all these reasons, a need was felt to revise the strategy of work with the

adolescents. As part of the revised strategy, it was decided the Health, Women’s

Empowerment and rthe Education program of Seva Mandir will converge their interventions with the adolscents through the Youth Resource Centres (YRCs). The YRC

facilitators would be trained as master trainers. The YRC facilitators in coordination with the block program in-charges would prepare a list of adolescents to be trained from the

catchment villages. In accordance with the revised strategy, four day residential trainings

were conducted separately for boys and girls that were attended by 79 boys and 76 girls. Thus, during the reporting period, a total of 150 adolescents from villages of 5 Youth

Resource Centers were reached out.

Study on Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge Among Adolescents A study was done to understand the knowledge among adolescents on key sexual and

reproductive health issues: puberty, pregnancy, safe sexual practices, HIV/AIDS, STDs,

contraception and safe abortion.

The key findings of the study are as follows. A total of 41% adolescents were aware of the changes during puberty. However, the knowledge was limited to physical changes; a

very few adolescents were found to have correct knowledge of reproductive organs,

menstruation, conception and safe sexual practices. 76% of adolescents have some information about pregnancy and reported that they were too shy to discuss the issue with

their parents. 50% of the respondents reported of having heard of HIV/AIDS; most of

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them were aware of only the sexual route of HIV transmission. Only 34% of the

adolescents were aware of STDs but did not know about symptoms and treatment of STDs. The knowledge on contraceptives and their use was amongst 42% adolescents,

similarly the knowledge about abortion was amongst 58% of the respondents but only a few of them knew about safe abortion i.e., the right time and right place for abortion.

The study pointed out the major gap areas in the knowledge of the adolescents with regard to sexual and reproductive health. Based on the findings, a training module is

being developed which would be used for training the adolescents in the forthcoming period.

B. ACCESSING INSTITUTIONAL CARE

Community Care Center The Community Care Centre (CCC) continued to provide medical and counseling

services to patients with the objective to ensure access to treatment for Opportunistic Infections (OI) and drug adherence among the people living with HIV/AIDS. During the

reporting period, a total of 866 patients were registered at the CCC, against the 1037

patients registered in previous year. Of the 866 registered patients, 376 (43.4%) were adult women, 453(52.3%) were adult men and 37(4.3%) children.

Referral Health Centers The referral health centre at Kochla in Jhadol block has been providing health services to

the villagers of the Kochla and nearby zones for over 10 years. During this year, a total of 877 patients were registered at this RHC compared to 890 in the last year. Of these total

877 patients, 269 were males, 494 females and 114 were children.

During the reporting period, the referral health center at Kojawada in Kherwara block

reached out to a total of -6200 patients against 4316 patients in the last financial year. Of these 5323 patients, 14 patients received inpatient treatment as compared to 74 patients in

the previous year and 12 were referred to the district hospital as compared to 15 patients last year.

Health Camp in Kotra Block In Kotra block eight health camps were organized in remote villages for seasonal

diseases. The demand for the health camps came from the villagers as the villages had high incidence of seasonal diseases in the post monsoon period and being remotely

located, the villagers could not get proper treatment facilities. Seva Mandir responded to

the problem immediately by identifying the areas which needed attention and organized health camps in those areas with the help of the level government health department. A

total of eight camps were organized reaching out to a total of 630 patients receiving medical aid.

C. DESIGNING ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF ACCESSING INSTITUTIONAL CARE

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Comprehensive Obstetric Insurance Program The Comprehensive Obstetric Insurance Program aims at reducing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity by increasing access to prenatal care, providing counseling and

removing barriers that prevent women from accessing obstetric care when it is most needed.

The insurance scheme sold at a premium of Rs. 350 ensures that women have access to two ante-natal care (ANC) visits, including lab tests, one ultrasound exam, and curative

medications at the partner institutions. The two ANC visits are covered 100% by the insurance. For delivery services, women are responsible for paying 25% of the costs; the

insurance covers the remaining 75%. In addition, transportation costs to the one of the

partner hospitals at the time of delivery are covered up to Rs 800. The insurance is valid for two years from the time of enrollment and one pregnancy within that period. Any

woman in the target area less than four months pregnant at the time of sale is eligible for enrolling in the program.

Initiated in 2007-2009 has a pre-pilot in 9 villages in the Kherwada block, the insurance scheme is now active in 24 villages of Kherwada block and 20 villages of Kotra block. A

total of 117 women in Kherwada block & 112 women in Kotra block were enrolled in the program when the Insurance was launched in these villages in 2010.

During the reporting period, women availed the insurance services for antenatal checkups and 17 women used the insurance services for delivery. Of these total 17 deliveries, 8

were normal deliveries, 7 were forceps delivery and the other two were cases of induced labor and medical termination of pregnancy.

D. RESEARCH AND UPSCALING

Pilot on Addressing Post Partum Hemorrhage Post-partum hemorrhage is one of the key reasons for maternal deaths in our work area.

During the reporting period, a pilot was initiated to addressing PPH by community distribution of misoprostol for home deliveries. While use of misoprostol as a preventing

measure for PPH in resource poor settings has been recommended by WHO, the pilot

intervention aimed at assessing the safety, acceptability, coverage, and effectiveness of the administration of misoprostol by TBAs during home deliveries. During the reporting

period, the focus was on ensuring that the TBAs understood and practiced the correct protocol of administering mesoprostol. Having made considerable progress on that, the

focus in the coming period will be in measuring the impact of this initiative on maternal

deaths.

Pilot on Addressing Anemia through Double-Fortified Salt: In the previous reporting year, the intervention on decentralized flour fortification to

address anemia was phased out. The intervention did not prove to be very effective in

reducing anemia due to low take up rates of fortified flour in the communities. However, a high rate of anemia is still a major issue of concern in our work area. In the reporting

period, another pilot was initiated on addressing anemia among Balwadi children through

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provision of double-fortified salt in their meals at the Balwadis. During this reporting

period, preparations for a pre pilot were conducted and the pre pilot will be launched in the coming period.

CONCLUSION

The work during this reporting period was more focused on improving the ongoing programs in terms of designing new strategies for addressing the gaps in the current

program areas and improving capacities of the team members.

In maternal health program, strengthening of capacities of TBAs was continued through

trainings and review meetings, a lot of efforts were made to regularize and improve the village level meetings of the TBAs with pregnant and lactating women. The village

meetings have not only helped in reaching out to women with correct knowledge and information but also have been very useful in identifying the specific issues with which it

is related such as service availability, social barriers etc affecting maternal and child health in each village. In the home based neonatal & infant care program, major work

was done on redefining the tasks of the Bal Sakhis and designing the training module

based on their specific roles. The immunization program saw an expansion to Balwadis and new villages to reach out to those pockets which did not have any access to health

care services. One gap area had been the MIS of the immunization program; in spite of our efforts, the immunization database at the blocks could not be operated on a regular

basis owing to the lack of computer skills among the new teams and also repeated

operational problems in the database at block levels.

The reporting period also saw conception of a new strategic design for addressing issues of adolescents wherein the adolescent’s present level of understanding of the components

of sexual & reproductive health were studied before developing the training module.

Besides, strengthening and further refining of program components, efforts were also made at improving the skills of the team members both in terms of the implementation

process and on analyzing the results of the work. In the staff meetings, team members presented analysis of data on TBAs’ work which helped to identify the TBAs not

performing well and needed attention.

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CHILD REPRESENTATIVE PROGRAM

In 2004, Seva Mandir expanded its relationship with Plan International. Part of the new

relationship entailed Seva Mandir incorporating a child-centred approach into all its

work. Since Plan raises its funds through a sponsorship mechanism, a variety of systems had to be established to support the various communication requirements that this entails.

A. Child Representatives

For child sponsorship to function properly it is essential that certain children are registered with Plan International and that regular communication is established between

the child, Seva Mandir, Plan and the sponsor. To address this issue, Seva Mandir formulated the idea of having Child Representatives at the village level. A major concern,

however, was that these children would receive preferential treatment as a result of selection and a great emphasis has been placed on ensuring that this does not happen. At

the same time, however, the Child Representatives provide a basis for introducing child-

centred community development to the community. Furthermore, since the child representatives constitute a representative sample of children from Seva Mandir’s work

area, they help to provide a better understanding of the critical issues that are being faced by children in its work area.

To date, a total of 4632 child representatives have been enrolled from across 134 villages where Seva Mandir works. The selection process is carried out through extensive

consultation with the community through which key aspects related to the selection of Child Representatives are shared, including the issue of non-discrimination, the principles

and values of child-centred community development and the kinds of follow-up activities

that selection of Child Representatives will entail.

B. Children’s Forums

Children’s Forums or Bal Manch constitute a critical intervention in moving toward

child-centred community development as they are the primary means through which children’s concerns can be given due attention. The Bal Manch consists of children from

the age of 8-18 years. There are 68 such groups, but focused work could be done with only 15 groups. Local youth photographers are also a point of engaging local young

people while also fulfilling certain sponsorship requirements. There are 35 such youth

photographers, who are provided regular trainings, so that they can use this skill for their livelihood also.

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PEOPLES MANAGEMENT SCHOOL The People’s Management School (PMS) houses the Research Cell; Planning,

Monitoring and Evaluation Cell; the Training Cell; the Social Environment Cell; and the

Library and Documentation Centre. PMS is primarily concerned with activities linked to knowledge management, organisational learning and internal capacity building.

A. RESEARCH CELL

Action Research on Panchayati Raj Recent reforms of Panchayati Raj institutions aimed at creating reservations for women

panchayat leaders have, in general, lacked concomitant grassroots-level work on building the capabilities of these leaders. For the past two years, Seva Mandir has been working

on a unique intervention where Mrs. Mohvini Devi, a barely literate agricultural worker elected to the position of Sarpanch, is shadowed and supported by her husband Mr. Tol

Singh ji, a former employee at Seva Mandir for 17 years. Women Sarpanchs are often

figureheads for their husbands, but Tol Singh ji has struggled to empower rather than dominate his wife. Since she was elected Sarpanch, Mohvini Devi has mastered village

procedures, begun taking independent decisions such as an initiative to monitor the village Anganwadi and Balwadi, and increasingly expresses her own opinion and

advocates for women’s issues in Quorom and Gram Sabha meetings. Tol Singh ji, at the

urging of Seva Mandir, is now transitioning to a back seat role. Through Tol Singh ji’s close relationship to Seva Mandir and his twice monthly progress reports, this ongoing

experiment has provided valuable learnings about the kind of support and capabilities that a Mahila Sarpanh might need a close hands on support for effective leadership.

Study on Child Migration and BT Cotton A study was conducted in 12 villages on child labor in BT cotton fields in Gujarat and

Rajasthan. The study found that child labor on BT cotton fields has increased from 2008 to 2010 in overall as well as in specific areas. The primary reason children work in BT

cotton fields is financial need, while illiteracy is a secondary reason. Among the study’s

most important findings is the fact that children are involved in the work of both cross-pollination and cotton harvesting, meaning that efforts aimed at mitigating migration

should take place at both times during the year. Another important finding was statistics related to child laborers’ educational status: 55% had at one point attended school, which

they left after fourth standard on average; 45% had never attended school; and 91% of the

children in the study were currently not attending school. Underlying reasons for these dismal statistics are the academic difficulty of reintegrating into school after having spent

long periods of time working, and poor school quality that motivates students to drop out and find work once they fail.

Child Labor Advocacy Network This project has created a network of NGOs in Udaipur district concerned with

advocating against child labor, especially child labor in the BT cotton industry. The forum held a series of workshops aimed at sharing studies on the subject and enhancing

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the capacity of civil society to communicate effectively with government officials,

community leaders, parents, teachers, and children. In this vein, a training manual meant to enable network partners to train their staff and the communities they work was

published. 50 copies have been distributed to each network partner. The forum has thus far met 12 times, benefitting from regular capacity building activities organized by

ChildFund and Seva Mandir, and is enthusiastic about its growing potential to lobby

government.

B. PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION CELL

Study on Effect Indicators as Per the Organizational LFA The study measured important performance indicators in the following programs: health (i.e. ratio of home to institutional deliveries, maternal death and immunisation rates);

village institutions (i.e. number and types of conflicts resolved by village development committee; use of village fund); natural resource development (i.e. management of

commons; change in farm land productivity); women and child development (i.e. access

to credit for meeting household needs, academic performance and malnutrition rates in Balwadis); and education (i.e. percentage of children who became literate; percentage of

children transitioned into mainstream schools).

Surveys A number of surveys were conducted during this reporting period. A Food and Security

Survey was conducted with 300 households in 30 villages. The survey was done as part of

a large-scale comparative study being coordinated by ICCO in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. A Demographic Survey was carried out on behalf of Plan India in 30 villages in

Seva Mandir’s work area. Among the major findings of the survey were a high malnutrition rate, low access to toilet facilities, and high rates of drinking from

unprotected water sources compared to state averages. A short study to assess the Extent

of Universal Birth Registration found that while families are registering births with the panchayat at relatively high rates, the panchayat issues very few birth certificates, leading

to complications especially surrounding school enrollment. An Orphan Study found that just 40% of orphans are in school, and will be the basis for increased advocacy aimed at

taking advantage of Palna Ghar government schemes which specifically benefit orphans.

C. TRAINING CELL

PMS carried out a number of trainings this year with the aim of enhancing individual

competency and organizational functionality. There was a Learning Centre Retreat for

staff from all organizational levels, which offered 12 seminars themed around the Gandhian concept of Swaraj (self rule) and its applicability to the work done in Seva

Mandir. Through the Rural Immersion Programme, a new collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management in Udaipur, Seva Mandir was one of 6 NGOs to host students on

prolonged visits to villages with the aim of exposing them to grass-roots realities. There

were a number of additional internal trainings including a workshop with female staff on self-examination for breast cancer; posture training for office-based staff; a two-day

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residential workshop on controversial traditions in rural village life; and 2 trainings on

the relevance of the law to short stay home residents and human resource policies.

D. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL CELL The initiatives that come under the ambit of the SEC present opportunities for the

organisation to interact with the development sector and society at large with the aim of experience sharing and cross-learning.

Seva Mandir pursues this goal with rising young professionals through its Internship

Programme. The programme has well-established links with over 20 premier domestic

and international institutions, and allows students at both the undergraduate and graduate level first hand exposure to contemporary issues in the development sector. During the

reporting period a total of 170 interns, 95 foreign and 75 domestic, joined Seva Mandir. 45 reports were submitted by interns, and have been added to the library’s document

centre. Additionally, 8 young professionals on two prestigious Indian social leadership

programs sponsored, respectively, by ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, completed fellowships at Seva Mandir. Seva Mandir also continued its Vikas Mitra Fellowship,

begun in 2008, which provides direction and support to community leaders who have dedicated themselves to the integrated development of their own villages.

Short-term visits, usually from other NGOs, educational institutions, or donors, are another important way in which Seva Mandir shares its learnings with the wider

development sector. A total of 41 visits were organized during the reporting period involving approximately 548 people from India and abroad.

E. PUBLICATIONS AND LIBRARY

PMS has also helped to bring out the organization’s publications. Significant publications this year included 2 Seva Mandir annual reports, Sadhna’s annual report, Seva Mandir

newsletters and greeting cards. The Library was open daily to the public during this reporting period. 200 students per day took advantage of its resources and study

environment.

Rafe Bullick Memorial Foundation The Rafe Bullick Memorial Fund (RBMF) has been set up to honor and continue the

legacy of Rafe Bullick, a long term volunteer with Seva Mandir who tragically lost his life in a land mine explosion while on a field trip in Sudan with Save the Children.

The fund supports activities such as village libraries, scholarships to needy but capable students, and corrective therapy for children with special needs. This year,

the RBMF funded a program for Seva Mandir’s volunteers and interns to spend

structured time with children at a local school for the deaf and blind. Volunteers organized several activities ranging from drawing, math and English games, sports,

singing, and celebration of Holi.

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URBAN BLOCK Those living in the urban slums are predominantly migrants from Udaipur's rural

hinterlands and further afield. Many of the inhabitants are involved in informal labour

work, typically earning low incomes and facing many hardships. Furthermore, there is a lack of access to quality basic services and facilities – including safe drinking water, a

clean environment, health care and quality education - that are necessary for people to live well. The urban poor suffer from a series of problems ranging from unemployment,

alcoholism, domestic violence, and so on and so forth. Women and children often bear

the brunt of this hardship and therefore Seva Mandir’s work is especially targeted toward them. There are also programs aimed at fostering mohalla (neighbourhood) solidarity

and cooperation and an urban Youth Resource Centre.

A. WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

Self Help Groups Self help groups are one step towards empowering women economically and lessening their dependence on money lenders. The cities’ urban slums comprise predominantly of

migrant workers who come from villages around, SHGs are a way to improve their financial standing, it is also a platform in which they can come together to discuss women

related issues and concerns. Last year there were 80 groups, this year the number has

increased to 94 SHGs, with an average of about 20 women in each group with an approximate total of 1866 women. An audit of all 94 SHGs was conducted this year and

the total profit of Rs 10,82,517 was divided between all the members.

SHGs are also great forums through which social and legal issues related to women can

be tackled. In the past year, 3 gender trainings were conducted in which 73 young girls came and 60 women participated. Additionally, Seva Mandir has been working with

Micro Insurance Scheme, under which a total commission amount of Rs. 57,259 has been distributed.

Short Stay Home The Short Stay Home for Women and Girls (known as SAMBAL) is a Central Social

Welfare Board funded project presently being run by Seva Mandir in Udaipur. In a country where most women—out of economic dependence, fear or a lack of support—

have no option of leaving a dysfunctional or abusive home, SAMBAL plays the role of a

haven that protects them by providing a temporary back-up. Sometimes the situation becomes so severe that the women need a safe and secure place to stay to recuperate and

decide how to move forward. SAMBAL aims to provide such a space to women and girls in need for a period ranging from six months to three years. Children accompanying their

mother or those children born in SAMBAL are also permitted to stay there. SAMBAL

also aims to build women’s awareness about their economic, social and legal rights. Other services provided include: casework and counseling services, medical care and

psychiatric treatment, occupational therapy, skill development and vocational training and rehabilitation services. There are also recreational outings organized for these women

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and all national festivals, holidays and the women and children’s birthdays are celebrated

at the short stay home. In this year 79 cases were registered and a total of 50 children were sheltered with their mothers. Of these, 14 cases were pending resolution from last

year. Of this total, 69 went back to their families and some others found jobs and livelihoods with which to support themselves independently.

B. PROGRAMS SERVING CHILDREN

Preschool Centers It is quite common for both parents in Udaipur’s slum areas to be involved in some kind

of labour work. In such a context, it is essential to ensure a safe and stimulating

environment for their children. For his purpose, Seva Mandir operates 4 day-care centres in selected slum areas for children aged 1 to 5 years. A total of 97 children, from 85

families attend these day care centres. The Sanchalika or pre-school teacher takes care of these kids for 7 hours per day, twice a day they are given a nutritious snack, and the

centre organizes medical checkups once every 2 months. As of now each child’s family contributes anything from Rs.10 - 30 per child, per month. The total fee contributed this

year is Rs. 7850. One of the challenges the centres face is involving the parents, which

they will continue to work on.

Bal Samuhs (After School Academic Centres) At present, there are 11 Bal Samuhs operating in city slums, reaching out to a total of 220

children, coming from 164 families. These are targeted towards those kids whose parents

are illiterate or have jobs that prevent them from helping their children with schoolwork. With the motivation of giving such children the required extra help after school, Bal

Samuhs are run by a volunteer for 2 hours in the evening, they are helped with their homework, and also given lessons on how to behave, talk and interact respectfully. Other

than helping students from disadvantaged households in completing their homework and

improving their standard of education so that they don’t drop out, they are also groups that organize cultural activities, outdoor games and art and craft lessons. Especially on

Saturdays there is one hour reserved for recreational activities. Additionally, all national festivals and holidays are celebrated with these children.

CHILDLINE CHILDLINE was established as a collaborative initiative of the Government of India’s

Ministry for Woman and Child Development and the CHILDLINE Foundation, Mumbai. CHILDLINE is India’s first 24-hour, free, emergency phone service for children from 0-

18 years in need of aid and assistance and can be contacted by dialling 1098 toll-free.

Seva Mandir operates CHILDLINE Udaipur. This year, 12,101 calls were attended and a total of 862 children benefitted from CHILDLINE. Different children have different

needs. Some examples of this year are as follows: 324 children, a figure that doubled from last years’, were provided medical care, 113 children needed protection from some

kind of abuse, 16 children needed shelter, 35 children were required to be repatriated to

their homes and many other such examples. In order to make CHILDLINE more accessible to all children a variety of outreach and awareness activities are conducted. 55

different group outreach activities were held, 20 meetings were conducted in different

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slum areas, and in several pubic locations an information canopy was set up to impart

knowledge regarding the services of CHILDLINE. Additionally, CHILDLINE is in touch with 4 Bal Panchayats with which it has a good rapport.

Children’s Corner Chilren’s Corners are safe spaces, open from 11am to 7pm, for children living in slums

that offer shelter, nutrition, education and various activities for recreation. Over time children’s attention spans have improved, they have become more interactive and more

aware of their surroundings than before. Children coming to the space on a regular basis have been exposed to more opportunities of learning, participation and sharing. Also,

slowly there is an increased level of awareness regarding health and hygiene. This year it

was found that while the age group envisioned for the Children’s Corner was from 6-14 years, mostly students of 10 years or older frequented this space. In the Children’s Corner

opened in 2008, children from many diverse castes and religious communities come to spend time together. With time, the number of children that frequent the Corner has

increased to 40-45 children who come on a regular basis. The second Children’s Corner,

started in 2009, is used by a lot of migrant children from Gujrat, along with many children from the Harijan and Muslim community. On an average 20-25 children come to

use this facility. Most of these children work with their parents and have never been sent to school. Economic restraints combined with several other social reasons act as

constraints for these children and their parents in getting even a basic education. As a

result of the great need for education and a challenge towards obtaining it through the formal means, Seva Mandir, in 2010 opened a Non-Formal Education Centre (NFE) at

the location of the Children’s Corner where 22 -24 children come to learn on a daily basis. There are some students who have shown a true commitment to learning and their

progress will be monitored to see how they can be mainstreamed eventually.

C. MOHALLA GROUPS The purpose behind Mohalla Groups or Neighbourhood Groups is to bring people

together with a sense of responsibility and have discussions regarding the importance and benefits of community participation. In 2004, 6 groups were formed and in 2009, 2 more

were added. It is an ongoing challenge for Seva Mandir to have people attend these

meetings regularly as many don’t see any short-term benefit or instant economic gratification from this effort. Work has continued on trying to make people understand

the value of coming together as a community. In this regard 4 different camps were held in which 769 people participated.

D. YOUTH RESOURCE CENTRE The Urban Block runs one YRC in which 20-25 youth, mostly over the age of 18, come on a daily basis. There are several workshops, trainings and daily activities that allow

them to engage with issues and think creatively. These have ranged from making

products out of trash, to making their resumes and applying for jobs through the internet, as well as trainings for those interested in writing and journalism, embroidery or being a

beautician. In addition to recreational activities and livelihood training workshops, Seva

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Mandir organized a Gender training for 3 days with boys and girls separately regarding

societal differences, sensitizing them towards equal and respectful treatment. These youth have also been engaged in development projects with the Gram Sabha regarding road

reparation, light repairing, and have volunteered to distribute voter IDs to people. Lastly, 2 youth from this YRC participated in an International Youth Festival, held in

Chandigarh where youth from 25 other countries came together to discuss and share

contemporary issues and responsibilities of the youth.

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DELWARA PERI-URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Delwara is a peri-urban settlement with about 5,000 inhabitants located only 28 km from

Udaipur city, and faces a rural-urban mix of development challenges. It especially faced lack of cooperation amongst a community already divided along numerous caste and

religious identities. In 2004, Seva Mandir established the Nagrik Vikas Manch (NVM), or Citizen’s Development Forum, which is a democratically elected and inclusive body

charged with directing development in Delwara. It is composed of 18 Mohalla

committees (neighborhood committees) with 5 members each, of which 2 members become a part of a town-wide Executive Committee (EC) for a 3-year term. These

platforms for participatory governance are the means through which Seva Mandir hopes to develop and empower grassroots leaders from Delwara and achieve the overarching

goal of local self-governance characterized by a socially just politics. The work at

Delwara can be broadly divided into following 3 categories: “Local Self Governance,” focusing on the separate bodies of the NVM and the constructive work they have

undertaken; “Water and Sanitation Programs,” granted independent consideration because of their extensive nature; and “Youth Resource Center,” describing projects

involving Delwara’s youth.

A. LOCAL SELF GOVERNANCE

Executive Committee and Mohalla Committees This reporting period was characterized by challenges and setbacks relating to the functionality of the EC. Elections instated a new EC, but no more than half of the 36

total members come to monthly meetings. There are however 15-20 committed

individuals who have been active throughout the year, but with little support from the rest of the EC. This disaffection is partly attributable to a number of individuals on the new

EC who contested elections largely because of the prestige attached and the ability to further narrow political interests. It is perhaps inevitable that political interests should

enter the NVM because it has become a real player in Delwara through the very

substantial work it has accomplished in the past and continues to do. At the Mohalla level, meetings have been irregular in most of the 18 Mohallas. In an attempt to re-

engage our base and replace defunct Mohalla committee members, 4 Mohalla meetings were carried out during January and February with further plans to meet in all Mohallas

and strengthen the foundations of the NVM. At the end of this reporting period, several

challenges and weaknesses have been identified and work plans to revitalize the Delwara Project are currently being implemented.

The NVM corpus is expected to grow from the June 2011’s total of Rs. 27,36,384 at 9.5% interest over 19 months to approximately Rs. 31,69,386 by the end of January 2013.

The new EC passed a resolution to have a Seva Mandir signatory - the Project

Coordinator - to both accounts of the NVM.

Cooperation With the Panchayat

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The Panchayat has alternatively opposed and supported the development work of the

NVM (examples of both are discussed in Section B). In an attempt to strengthen the uncertain and unproductive NVM-panchayat relationship, a workshop in which 31

members from the two bodies took part was organized at a nearby Mamta Resort.

Jagriti Mahila Manch (Women’s Forum) The purpose of the Women’s Forum is to provide a space for women to come together and raise and advocate for women’s issues. In this reporting period, 5 new leaders of the

Mahila Manch were elected. However, only a small number of women are actively participating. While there is a lot of scope to mobilize many more women, there are over

200 women of Delwara who are active members of Sadhna, a women’s handicraft

enterprise and an income-generating project that has played a major role in empowering the women of Delwara. There are also 8 Women’s Self-Help Groups in Delwara with

membership of 10-20 women. With monthly meetings and deposits ranging from 100 to 200 Rupees, in total these SHGs have accumulated savings over Rs. 2,30,300 which they

give out as loans for different purposes with 1% interest rate. In this reporting period,

members of the Women’s forum went on an exposure trip to an exemplary Women’s Resource Center in Madri village, run by Seva Mandir so as to see how they could learn

from such a center for the purposes of Delwara. They also participated in Women’s Day celebrations on March’12. This included several sporting activities and groups

discussions on pertinent women’s issues.

Heritage Development Program In collaboration with NFI and Devigarh Hotel, 9 signs marking heritage sites and a gate at a heritage step well was installed. 2 solar-powered streetlights at prominent public

spaces were also installed.

Trainings Team members went on a team building and exposure trip to Mt. Abu and a number of Seva Mandir’s projects in Kotra and Jhadol blocks. On February 23 the NVM celebrated

its Foundation Day. There was a 3-month training on patchwork by Sadhna, which taught and inducted 20 women from the Bhil Basti or tribal mohalla into the women’s

patchwork cooperative. 3 youth and 7 women SHGs participated in an SHG

strengthening training.

B. WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAMS

Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System - DEWATS Construction of a DEWATS system which began in 2010, was completed. It has a capacity of 20,000 liter per day and its use started in March 2012. It is connected to 49

toilets also built during this reporting period in the Bhil MohallaThe project has been noteworthy for the exceptional support and buy-in from the community. The community

universally declined a competing offer of free toilets through the government’s Total

Sanitation Campaign, citing poor quality, in favor of the Seva Mandir facilitated toilets despite the fact that they required a monetary contribution of Rs. 1100 along with a

42

contribution of labor. DEWATS will be managed by the Bhil Mohalla committee, which

has also fixed a Rs. 10 monthly contribution per household toward plant maintenance.

Construction of Toilets and Water Tanks 89 toilets were constructed during this reporting period, including the 49 in the Bhil

Mohalla. The construction of 21 toilets in the Meghwal Mohalla, and the ongoing

construction of an attached community septic tank, was noteworthy for the degree of collective action involved. Construction, long stalled because of politically motivated

objections by the Panchayat over the septic tank location, was permitted only after a series of public dialogues where both community members and the NVM advocated for

the toilets.

A new water tank was built and an old tank repaired in two Mohallas. Both tanks are

community managed and costs are recovered from community contributions. Another tank sanctioned by the NVM has been delayed due to Panchayat objections.

Solid Waste Management At the beginning of the year, the NVM employed one cleaning supervisor, 12 Arogya

Mitras (who clean the streets), and one cycle rickshaw puller (who collects garbage from households) to manage its most active program of solid waste management. Each

household and shop deposits a fee of Rs. 10 into their respective Mohalla accounts to

support this system, and 65-70 percent of citizens are regular contributors. This system of waste collection has transformed the appearance and cleanliness of Delwara.

Cleaning services have been carried on, on a daily basis during this reporting period. It

has attracted a lot of participation—both supportive and negative—from the residents as a result creating attachment of the people to the work of the NVM. A pilot program of

waste segregation at the household level was expanded to over 200 households in 8

Mohallas. Biodegradable waste collected will be used at a vermicompost plant, finished in March 2012, to produce sellable compost.

The cleaning program was interrupted this year by salary disputes culminating in a 10-

day Arogya Mitra strike. The strike only ended after a salary raise, and retrospective

payment of the salary hike amounting to Rs. 7200 paid by the Panchayat. This rare but valuable instance of collaboration by the Panchayat came after prolonged deliberation

and the intervention of a few intellectually and politically connected individuals, alongside pressure from NVM members. Subsequent decisions by the EC to repeatedly

change the Arogya Mitras’ designated work areas, in combination with continued

dissatisfaction over salaries and benefits, came to a head during March 2012 when 4 arogya mitras belonging to the same family resigned.

C. YOUTH RESOURCE CENTRE (YRC)

The YRC carried out a number of yearlong activities during this reporting period.

i. There are 3 youth self help groups (SHGs), including a new SHG established this

year, with a total of 51 members. They each meet monthly, and together

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contributed Rs. 21,400 this year toward a total combined holding of Rs. 94,300,

most of which is on loan to members. ii. The Delwara Video Unit, now in its 3rd year of existence, experienced a sharp

drop-off in participation and output this year. The Video Unit is planning a workshop to attract and train new members, and plans to hold regular meetings in

the coming year. A new camera, laptop, and editing software have been

sanctioned. iii. One edition of both Apni Patrika (a newsletter about the NVM) and Apna Josh (a

magazine about youth issues), each with a circulation of about 400 copies and featuring contributors from across the community, were published this year.

iv. The YRC film and book library experienced a monthly footfall of between 100-

150 youth during this reporting period. v. After YRC efforts to gather and spread vocational and livelihood training

information, a total of 30 youth, 8 of whom were girls, attended various trainings.

The YRC also ran a number of shorter term programs. Youth volunteers ran 2 months of

educational and recreational night classes for children of the Bhil Basti neighborhood who, due to economic reasons, often do not have the opportunity to go to school or have

dropped out. A volunteer from the USA and TESOL-certified English teacher ran 6 weeks of basic spoken English classes in government schools, using intermediate

English-speaking youth volunteers as assistant teachers. Other activities included an

annual sapling planting drive for about 60 school children to encourage environmental stewardship, a cleaning campaign of public space, an 8 week cooking class, a 2 week

performing arts workshop, a 4-day Winter Camp over school holidays, an essay-writing and painting competition, and a celebration of Children’s Week.

44

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION UNIT

The resource mobilization unit of Seva Mandir was set up in 2007 to explore new

avenues of funding- especially from individuals and corporate organizations. Since then,

the Resource Mobilization Unit (RMU) has been constantly working on various aspects to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in raising support from various stakeholders.

Some of the highlights of the year include: finalizing the complete make-over of Seva Mandir’s website; expanding our outreach by tapping into foundations; and strengthening

close connections with the Friends Groups (Friends of Seva Mandir) with the aim of

harnessing support from well wishers abroad. In addition, a better understanding of the utility of our contact database, continuing our relationship with corporate donors,

engaging more with the members of our Advisory Board and their friends, strengthening our feedback reports to donors were other significant achievements of the year. RMU

faced human resource constraint, trained staff left and the capacity building of the new

members was time consuming.

A. COMMUNICATIONS Print, Electronic and Social Media With regard to internal and external communications, 6 issues of Gatibimb, an internal

newsletter and 4 issues of Saksharta Sandesh, a newsletter in Hindi and Mewari, were published during this past year. Around 35 press releases were made in a number of local

and interstate newspapers covering various events of Seva Mandir. ETV Rajasthan released coverage on Seva Mandir’s Seasonal Residential Learning Camp, and a new

partnership is being explored with Wave Media, an online Daily News Portal.

Website Seva Mandir’s website was re-designed in early July. In order to familiarize staff with the

new user-interface, four training sessions were conducted.

Database: Updating the Contact Record for Donors, Friends and Well Wishers Maintaining Seva Mandir’s database of donors, friends and visitors is a very important task so as to maintain relations with all its well wishers. It was realized that there is a

need for better management of the contact database as well as better coordination

between the RMU and Finance department for keeping a track on funds being donated. Meanwhile, there are certain technical challenges that need to be dealt with in the coming

year in terms of the limitations of the software being used. The work of correcting the data was begun last year and is still ongoing.

E-newsletters 3 newsletters were sent out this year. Steps were taken to make mass e-mailing efficient

and improve the content of the e-newsletter.

Volunteers Seva Mandir receives many Indian and international volunteers and visitors every year.

Some of these volunteers provided specific support to RMU, while others were involved

45

in other programs of Seva Mandir. The RMU tried to engage with these volunteers and a

blog for volunteers “Seva Thoughts” was launched. However, the blog has not seen a smooth running and that will be corrected in the coming year.

Visitors The visits of researchers, academics, consultants and those interested in Seva Mandir’s

work from different walks of life were facilitated by the RMU.

B. SERVICING DONORS

While different programmes continued to service their respective donors with support from RMU, the RMU made special efforts to service the following donors.

Give India Seva Mandir continued to raise funds for various projects and for the plantation program (Make My Trip Green Initiative) through Give India. In addition to posting regular

reports for the Give India donors, visit from Give for their due diligence was also

facilitated.

Global Giving During the reporting period, the Fellowship Project was withdrawn from the Global

Giving Competition, as it was not receiving many donations. Two staff members attended

a workshop organized by Global Giving in Delhi in September 2011 to understand strategies of encouraging individual donors and using the social media for creating more

visibility amongst a particular segment of individual donors.

New Directions in Fundraising In January 2012 a brainstorming meeting on fundraising with a group of friends and wellwishers of Seva Mandir was held in Delhi. The discussion generated useful ideas on

potential fund raising while also bringing to fore the challenges of fund raising.

C. COORDINATING WITH FRIENDS GROUPS

Friend of Seva Mandir–USA: The RMU team leader visited the US for two months to update Seva Mandir’s donors and

supporters in America about the recent happenings of Seva Mandir. Efforts were also made to explore possibilities of initiating a chapter in Chicago as well as building on our

existing support base in Boston.

Friends of Seva Mandir - UK: A part time staff of FSM- UK visited Seva Mandir to understand its work in the field.

CONCLUSION

Overall, it has been a year of learning and re-working of certain fund-raising and communication strategies. New staff members have been inducted in the RMU.

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Participating in online fund raising challenges and developing effective strategies for the

same in the future are some of the highlights of the year. During this past year better communication has been established with the Friends groups. In the future, we hope to

strengthen our communication plan with customized solutions for each segment of our donor base. We also hope to strengthen our database in order for us to reach out to our

target audience more effectively and efficiently.

47

Credibility Alliance Norm Compliance Report

2011 - 12

Identity :

� Seva Mandir is a Voluntary Organization registered under the Society Registration Act 1958,

(Reg. No. 149/1967 – 68 dated 12.02.1968) and also registered in Rajasthan Public Trust

Act,1959.

� Seva Mandir’s Constitution & Trust Deed are available on request.

� Seva Mandir is registered u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

� All individual & corporate donations are also eligible for exemption u/s 80-G. The exemption

u/s 80-G is available vide their letter No. AA/Udi/Judicial/2010-11/3586 dated 14.03.2011

� Seva Mandir is also registered under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 1976 for

accepting any foreign donations & grants vide Registration No. - 125690002, dated 11-02-

1985.

Name and address of the Banker:

1. State Bank of India, Main Branch, 23-C, Madhuban, Udaipur 313 001, Rajasthan (FCRA

Account), and

2. Union Bank of India, New Fatehpura, Udaipur 313 001, Rajasthan (for Indian money).

Name and Address of Auditors:

� M/s B.L.Pagaria & Co., Chartered Accountants, B- 4 Bapu Bazar, Udaipur 313 001,

Rajasthan.

Mission:

Seva Mandir’s mission is to make real the idea of a society consisting of free and equal citizens who

are able to come together and solve the problems that affect them in their particular contexts. The

commitment is to work for a paradigm of development and governance that is democratic and

polyarchic.

Seva Mandir seeks to institutionalize the idea that development and governance are not only to

be left to the state and its formal bodies such as the legislature and the bureaucracy, but that the

citizens and their associations should also engage separately and jointly with the state. The mission,

briefly, is to construct the conditions in which citizens of plural backgrounds and perspectives can

come together and work to benefit and empower the least advantaged in society.

48

Governance: Details of Board Members: (As on 31st March 2012)

Name Sex Age Position on

Board

Occupation Meetings

attended

Shri Ajay S.

Mehta

M 56 President Mr. Mehta is currently a member of State

Planning Board, Rajasthan.

2/2

Shri V .B.

Eswaran

M 81 Member President, Society for Promotion of

Wasteland Development.

1/2

Shri M.S.

Kothari

M 75 Member Ex - Chairman, Udaipur Division, World

Wide Fund for Nature – India

2/2

Shri Jagat S.

Mehta

M 88 Member Former Foreign Secretary, Government of

India.

2/2

Smt. Neelima

Khetan

F 51 Member Head CSR : Coca Cola – India & South

West Asia

1/2

Prof.

Ravinder

Kaur*

F 52 Member Professor - Department of Humanities and

Social Sciences, Indian Institute of

Technology Delhi, New Delhi

1/2

Ms. Pamela

Philipose*

F 56 Member Director, Women’s Feature Service 1/2

* Co-opted Women Members are elected for a term of 2 years

� The Seva Mandir Board met two times in the Financial Year 2011-12 on 07th June,

2011 for Annual Meeting and on 21st November, 2011 for Half Yearly Meeting.

� Minutes of Board Meeting are documented and circulated.

Accountability and Transparency:

� No remuneration, sitting fees, or any other form of compensation has been paid since the

inception of Organization to any Board Member, Trustee, or Shareholder.

� The following reimbursements have been made to Board Members:

o Traveling expenses: Rs. 211,811/-(for attending the Board Meetings)

o No other reimbursements have been made to any Board Member, Trustee, or

Shareholder.

� Chief Executive’s remuneration: Rs.60,000/- per month

� Remuneration of three highest paid staff members (per month):

Rs. 60,000/-(Chief Executive) Rs. 57,500 /-(Chief Finance Officer) Rs. 45,900/-(Director Programs)

49

� Remuneration of lowest paid staff member (per month):

Rs. 3,300/- Peon

Staff details (As on March 31st 2012):

Gender Paid Full Time Paid Part Time Paid Consultants

Male 213 - 06

Female 93 01

Total 306 - 07

Volunteer details (As on March 31st 2012):

Paid Volunteers Unpaid Volunteers

43 127

Distribution of Staff According to Salary Levels (As on March 31st 2012)

S.NO SALARY GROUP MALE FEMALE TOTAL

1 <= 5000 8 4 12

2 5001-10000 73 32 105

3 10001-25000 105 44 149

4 > 25000 27 13 40

306

Total Cost of International Travel by Staff during the year (March 31st 2012):

S.No.

Name

Designation

Destination Purpose Sponsored Amount

1. Ajay S. Mehta President :

Seva Mandir

UK, USA To meet donors

and supporters for

Friends of Seva

Mandir – USA and

UK

NO Rs.17276

2. Priyanka

Singh

Chief

Executive

UK, USA

To meet donors

and supporters for

Friends of Seva

Mandir – USA and

UK

NO Rs.20568

3 Deepti

Ameta

Incharge :

RMU

USA Fundraising Trip Partly

sponsored

Rs.126029

4. Shailendra

Tiwari

Incharge

NRM

Indonesia –

Bali

For Training of

Trainers on

Programmatic

Approach.

Sponsored Rs.20211

5. Ronak Shah Program

Co-ordinator

:Climate

Change

Dhaka Meeting on

Climate Change

Sponsored Rs.4050

50

Financial statements (abridged / consolidated)

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64