Case2-April-2012
I am happy to share the institutional achievements last year to all DHANites. The year was good for DHAN, not only we were able make to make salient achievements but also our work being recognized well, the feather in the cap of all being the Sitharam Jindal award to the organization which carried a prize money of one crore rupees. DHAN was awarded for the works we have done in the field of rural developments through various thematic approach. Along with DHAN, Shri Dharmasthaala Veerendra Hegde and the Rishi Valley Foundation got the award for the works in the field of health and education respectively. More than the award, the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Anna Hazare also being in the award list added value to our works.
DHAN has been organizing Madurai Marathon event every year, which is basically a event for creating awareness on different social issues and also a fund raising event. This year the Madurai Marathon event rechristened as Walkathan 2012, the theme of which was the Climate Change. Earlier event were organized focusing only Madurai and this year it got extended to other cities. The Walkathon 2012 conducted in Mysore had a overwhelming response. A fund of Rs.55 lakhs was raised for this event by Mr.Santhanam and another Rs.6 lakhs being provided by Axis bank. I extend my wishes to all those who have organized the event successfully. Unfortunately we had a problem this year in Madurai where the city commissioner gave permission for participation of only 3,000 people, while our original plan was for 25,000 participants. In fact, it was a not a problem but opportunity in disguise, because of which could strengthen the process by organizing Walkathon 2012 at the same date in different villages in and around Madurai, which created a good impact.
I also appreciate the efforts taken by the regions to celebrate Foundation day, which helped the regions to set up standards and milestones for moving ahead towards a definite goal. A special committee will be set up to identify and reward persons from poor background, who have strived hard to come out of poverty and have done salient achievement in their life during next Foundation day celebration. A committee for his will be constituted much earlier by June/July for institutionalizing the process.
Our plan to reach 1 million poor families through our developmental works by September, 2011 was achieved which is a great feat. Not only the reach but the impact we create through our programs are much important. A strategic plan for next five years, with targets for poverty reduction should be done at grass root level and that will be the focus for next five years. The impacts of our developmental efforts should be carefully documented, which will keep our spirits high.
As a developmental worker, we all have to have an eye on economy of our country and the path in which the country travel. The budget document of a country is the financial plan which speaks about the revenues and deficits, with focus on different developmental areas. I insist every DHANites to go through the Budget document 2012 and all regions to have a copy of it. Not only the national budget, the state, municipal and panchayat level revenues and expenditure should be known to grass root development workers.
Let me come to program wise achievements last year. The CALL program which works in coastal context completed the donor commitments to Oxfam and NOVIB by December, 2011 the effort of which got appreciation. The Minor millets project under Rainfed Programme, which is a basically a action research project is being carried out excellently and the milestones fixed were crossed in the first year, beyond the expectation which was very well acclaimed by all the stakeholders. Mr.M.Karthikeyan and Mr.M.Palanisamy, contributed much for this success. The process of constituting the advisory committee is a good start for the programme. More focus will be given by the organization to promote cultivation and consumption of small millets, which have high nutritive value and can fetch good returns to the cultivars.
DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation also has done a commendable job in implementing a CSR project of ITC, which will enable us to take similar such CSR sponsored initiatives in the near future. The collaboration between Government of Andrapradesh and DHAN, in implementing the states watershed program also yielded productive results. It also got support for India water week program the efforts of which are also commendable.
The UPNURM program which is a National Umbrella programme for resource management implemented by DHAN Vayalagam and KDFS is also in progress and the achievements of which also deserves appreciation.
With respect to community banking programme, the state sponsored SHG program in Maharashtra, gets implemented with DHANs support. The Maharashtra government, pleased with our efforts extended support for promoting additional locations which speaks of our work. Apart from this Convergence of Agricultural Interventions in Maharashtra(CAIM) project also gets implemented there with DHANs support. The proposal to SRTT also got sanctioned and much effort was made to fine tune to proposal. Anemia reduction program got diversified across many locations. Based on the initial success, the model was replicated to other locations, without incurring much additional cost. This model can be replicated by the respective state governments focusing on anemia reduction.
TATA DHAN academy completed the Ekal Vidhyalaya Foundation’s educational project with the support of our own team in different locations in different states which shows that resource is available with DHAN for taking any kind of research
People Mutuals got integrated with ITC because of which weekly communication through skype with people in Netherland was made possible. The establishment of IGNOU community college by DHAN People Academy and collaboration of DHAN ICT with IGNOU also adds value to our organization.
With respect to Panchayat programme, a proposal is about to get sanctioned by April, 2012. The new themes like Youth and development and Migration needs exclusive persons to coordinate.
The Center for documentation and communications, has ventured into a new initiative along with KTL to bring younger generation to exhibit their talent in art and short film making by enabling them through proper training and also through support of local television channels and other satellite medias. The task of submission of our achievements for Jindal award and subsequent facilitation of their field visits was done by Mr.P.Krishnamurthi of CDC. The center for research has completed the diagnostic study of cooperatives and came up with a quality report. The City Human Development Report preparation for Madurai and Salem which will get completed in few months will also be a good document for micro level planning in these two cities.
The Kalanjiam Development Financial Services is implementing housing program with the support of RABO bank, apart from focusing on regular loans. Livelihood loans for agriculture and dairy will also get extended through KDFS. People Mutuals has launched the micropension scheme and a MoU is to be signed with LIC
Though we have many achievements behind, I feel that there is lot more to do with focus on specific areas in the coming years.
With respect to Livelihood development, we have to further strengthen our approach. Livelihood deepening with concrete goals, strategies and plan for the implementation particularly in agriculture, dairy and livestock must be given priority. Strengthening the existing PPGs and PMGs and promoting new PPGs and PMGs must be done. Our efforts should result in poverty reduction the results of which should be properly documented. Like for minor millet project more farmers participatory action research project must be taken at a larger level in agriculture, which will help to solve the crisis now farmers and agriculture are facing.
I feel that we have rich experience in livelihood and livelihood models based on our experience should be developed and proposals to NRLM to be generated. The government has planned to support educational loan to the needy, but still the students face the problem of obtaining these loans and we should focus in the coming years to channel these educational loans to the students through our people institutions.
Regarding the Human Resource, we have few issues which we have to address by redeploying right person at right place and decentralizing and contextualizing the human resource development through regions. Each one of us can take responsibility for bringing a additional person with fire in his heart for development work, the process of which be made formal by allocating specific time for it. A separate policy is also need for the contractual staffs. DHAN People Academy and Tata- Dhan academy have a critical role in human resource development. The administrative services pool, leadership development pool and people organization pool should be strengthened
As a grass root organization Community Identity of our organization has to be strengthened which fill facilitate recognition of them by the stakeholders. I suggest for conducting retreat at federation and regional levels to enable the community to participate in the strategic planning process. The creation of public private partnership of our community organizations and of the government should be given priority in the coming years.
As our health program has expanded in a larger scale, Mr.R.Rajapandian will be assigned to look after it. A new educational initiative, the works of which has also commenced and Mr.N.Karthikeyan voluntarily came forward to lead this initiative. Special focus will be given for strengthening education in Tribal areas.
A data base management system has to be created at all program office, since documentation speaks more about our works and will serve as a reference not only to others, but also for ourselves in long run. ITC will take care of computerized management of data. The Publication division of CDC will come out with publications of our works through different programs. A monthly popular journal is also planned in the coming years.
The regions should make efforts to capture the lending processes followed in the locations to strengthen the system. I suggest for following cross guarantee mechanism in financial lending. Professionalizing the insurance packages to the community right from insurance education to claim settlement must be done. All locations should adhere to the non negotiable standards prescribed by the region.
I feel that there is a need for creating Medical fund for staffs at institutional level the mechanisms of which is to be worked out. Though medical insurance coverage is available to staffs, this fund will serve as a additional support. The institution has also planned for new salary package for both people and DHAN staff. As DHANite's we always closely relates with community and wearing the dress which symbolizes the community with which we work at least once in a week can be our dress code.
I once again appreciate one and all who have contributed to the achievements of the organization and hope forward for much progress in the coming years.