New Projects Agreed

During my extended visit to India this spring, two of AVI's partners put forward new projects. ASSEFA asked AVI to fund part of a large dairy and vegetable farming project in Tamil Nadu and NBJK, sought support for girls' secondary education in through one of its related small grassroots groups in Jharkhand. These projects were approved by AVI's Managing Committee and the first funds have been sent.

16,000 families to benefit from new livelihoods project

AVI's partner ASSEFA has recently started a new three-year project aimed at improving the lives of 16,000 families in Tamil Nadu. The project will cover 400 villages in Kancheepuram and Villupuram districts, including the existing Lathur project area. The project, titled 'Promoting Livelihoods of the Poor and Women' will benefit economically disadvantaged women, the landless, small/marginal farmers and unemployed young people - more than a third of whom are classified by the government as living below the poverty line.

The project uses a comprehensive approach - including economic programmes, training in dairy production and vegetable cultivation and provision of capital items - to ensure that improvements are sustainable. Economic programmes will provide loans for 10,000 women to start dairy enterprises. ASSEFA has been promoting dairy enterprises, prioritising women from landless families, for several years. Encouraging women to take up dairy production on a full time basis has reduced their dependency on irregular work, for example in the agricultural sector, and provided a regular income. The project will also enable 5,000 small farmers to cultivate vegetables, which are more profitable than cereals and also generates employment. The project will encourage farmers to use organic methods.

Training

Training in dairy enterprise, vegetable cultivation and small businesses will be provided to 1000 people - from ASSEFA's latest innovation in training - the mobile Livelihood School. The School will be run from a vehicle, fully equipped as a training centre to ensure that remote villages and women with families can have access to training.

The School also aims to be part of a comprehensive support system for the people, developing training modules, identifying new livelihood opportunities in the project area, assessing constraints and developing intervention strategies. As poor sections of the community are usually excluded from the banking system, trapping them in a cycle of poverty, the Livelihood School will assist individuals with obtaining credit/grants from ASSEFA's credit facility.

Capital Equipment

Traditionally, lack of access to capital items used to keep milk cool and transport it to a dairy or market has been a major constraint on the ability of villagers to take up dairy on a large-scale. ASSEFA, therefore plans to provide milk cans, micro-coolers and bulk-coolers for women's dairy groups. The milk cans will enable dairy groups to send their milk to processing plants or to the micro-coolers, which will be distributed to young people in larger villages and market towns. Selling unprocessed milk directly to consumers in this way will reduce costs and increase women's income from dairy production.

Those who are interested in starting a business based on a milk cooler, will receive training at the Livelihoods School on all aspects of setting up and running the enterprise, including purchasing the coolers, choosing a location and ensuring that they sell good quality milk. To enable more remote villages to participate in the dairy programme, ASSEFA is planning to introduce two bulk coolers in the project area. Those coolers will then supply ASSEFA's existing processing plant at Pooriyambakkam.

In order to increase income for marginalised communities involved in vegetable cultivation, six market yards will be constructed, three funded by AVI. These will enable farmers to sell their vegetables directly to consumers. Presently, vegetables are marketed through various channels, which reach the consumer after three or four middlemen. In many cases, farmers receive barely 50% of the consumer price. ASSEFA already has experience in setting up market yards. In 1992 it promoted a market yard, which now provides an outlet for 125 farmers and enabled farmers to almost double their income. Depending on the type of vegetable grown (tomato, aubergines, etc) ASSEFA reckons that incomes from vegetables can rise by at least 20% through this initiative and more people will gain employment locally in marketing the vegetables.

In addition to the economic programmes, ASSEFA will encourage people to form users groups at all levels so that they can manage the programmes in future. It will also, through the Livelihoods School, begin a programme of training in mother and child health for women to improve the health status of these two vulnerable groups.

AVI has been asked to find £64,000 over three years for this project. Half of the funds are required for the raining programme, including the vehicle and half for the capital items required for the milk marketing and vegetable marketing yards.

Girls Secondary Education

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra AVI's partner in Bihar and Jharkhand has, for some years now, become increasingly concerned about educational opportunities, especially for girls. There has been a big push in India to ensure primary education for all children. But after those first five years, girls' school attendance rate falls rapidly, especially in backward and dalit families where the parents are likely to be illiterate.

Research by Stri Shakti, a grassroots group, linked to NBJK has shown that there are three main reasons for this:

¢ There are few government secondary schools
¢ The family cannot afford to pay their school fees
¢ There is no transport to get students, especially girls, to the schools.

In some families, both the girl and her parents are willing for the girl to continue her education but the parents cannot afford private school fees for both sons and daughters, so girls lose out. So, Stri Shakti and NBJK have asked AVI to find sponsors who will support one girl through her secondary education by paying £15 a year for five years to cover fees, books etc.

Satish of NBJK says "Education is every child's right, but in practice, it remains a privilege from which the poor are too often excluded. Only education can give children hope for the future and skills to ensure that they have options in life besides living on the streets, labouring under exploitative, hazardous or abusive conditions, or a life of crime. Girls deprived of high school education are often forced into child labour or taking care of their siblings at home. They tend to marry at an early age and are exploited economically and sexually."

The minimum educational qualification required for any vocational training or college education is to have passed the examination at the end of secondary education. The goal of this modest project is to put that possibility of further education within reach of 20 girls from poorer families and so help to end the cycle of illiteracy and poverty in their families. NBJK and Stri Shakti will also provide guidance and health education and work with parents to develop understanding of the importance of girls' education. The project will reduce the numbers of girl child labourers in the area and promote the participation of educated girls in decision-making processes in the family and society.

Case Study

Sarita Kumari of Rewar (Gurhet), 15 years old I am living with my 14 year-old sister and 9 year-old brother at my aunt's house. My brother is studying in Dhawaiya private school under the guidance of my aunt. But there is nobody to look after my sister's education and me. My aunt's financial condition is not good and she is unable to provide private school fee for us. She wanted me to get married but I refused because I want to study up to standard 10 and become a teacher so that I can help my brother and sister to continue with their education.