The power of community

Community-led rural development activities have created a new wave in over 350 villages in Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts of Karnataka and  made life easy for people in the rural areas. This has been made possible by a team of more than 75 motivated individuals, also called as community resource persons, who have been supporting the villagers in every aspect, from sustainable agriculture to strengthening self-help groups and availing government facilities. The team has facilitated the formation of village development committees or VDCs (voluntary associations of village people for local administration) in about 75 villages to accelerate development activities.

Thus, the team, with the active involvement of local people is trying to conserve natural resources in these villages. Village level meetings are held to understand the geography of the village, land use pattern and device a plan of action for conserving natural resources. The meetings are attended by people from different sections like self-help groups, village elders, gram panchayat members etc.

The impact of this community-led movement is visible in many villages. For example, in Bagepalli taluk, hundreds of hectares of community land had been degraded due to many reasons. Apart from that, over 400 water sources that once catered to the irrigation and domestic water needs of the villagers, had gone dry or had become unusable due to silting. With the help of the team, the people were able to revive these resources through soil and water conservation methods.

The community resource persons also facilitate smooth implementation of development activities by creating awareness about different government schemes and projects. One such scheme that has helped these efforts is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). To ensure necessary work is done under the act, community resource persons discuss the list of activities sanctioned under the MNREGA at the gram sabha. Then they connect the villagers with officials concerned, prepare the estimation and ensure that the entire amount is utilised properly. Thus, so far, the team has facilitated implementation of public works worth Rs two crore.

These activities that are aimed at achieving holistic development were conceived and supported by the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), which has a branch in Chintamani in Chikkaballapur district. The foundation is committed to strengthening, reviving or restoring the process of ecological succession and the conservation of land, forest and water resources.

In Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts, it has been working in drought-prone rain-fed areas to strengthen livelihoods of people through the revival of natural resources. The foundation has been working with both district administrations for the last two decades in the field of soil and water conservation. It assists communities in effectively integrating agriculture and natural resource management through proper conservation efforts such as revegetation of common lands. Apart from this, the foundation also focuses on strengthening village-level institutions, enhancing their capacity to self-govern.

A guiding force
To ensure effective participation of community members in the planning and implementation of development activities, the foundation identified motivated individuals in every village and trained them as community resource persons. Focus is also on building their capacity through  initiatives that are ecologically sustainable, and are socially and economically equitable.

These community resource persons are identified in the villages after discussion with residents and village leaders. The community resource persons act as a link between the administration and people. For instance, they help gram panchayats in conducting participatory rural appraisal  (PRA) for work identification, organising ward sabhas, gram sabhas, site selection, mobilising people for work, work measurement and payment. Their work is two-pronged. While they provide information about new government initiatives to people, they help government officials to reach out to more people.

“Community resource persons are helping us in undertaking MNREGA activities. They also formed village committees to implement development activities and  gave training on sustainable agriculture practices. Now, as a part of rejuvenation our environment, we have planted saplings in our gomala and are protecting it,” says Chalapthi, a gram panchayat member in Bagepalli taluk. To protect and improve the vegetation of common land, the community has taken up different activities like afforestation and water harvesting structures.

The foundation stresses on involving people and regulating natural resources and agricultural activities through mechanisms evolved by community institutions at different levels. Such activities go a long way in building and strengthening the processes of local self-governance. For more details, log on to www.fes.org.in.