Workshop on Micro Planning

The Micro Planning unit of National Council of Rural Institutes, Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Centre for Environment Development (CED), Kolkata and Gandhi Manav Kalyan Society, Udaipur organised two workshops in Kolkata and Udaipur in May 2009. They were aimed at bringing communities, policy makers and researchers together to share experiences, practices and to identify application areas in the panchayats and local communities in evolving strategies for making NGOs more compatible to the planning process.

Natural Resource Conservation Prof P.N Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University inaugurated the one-day workshop, “Micro Planning for Natural Resource Conservation” on May 20, on Jadavpur University Campus, Kolkata. NCRI chairman Dr. S.V. Prabhath, and Dr. Ashish KGhosh, Director, CED addressed. Dr Ghosh said most of the problems in India are village-centred and since India is a village-based country, these should be dealt with seriously. Problems pertaining to poverty, education and health are predominant in the rural areas. About 30 crore people fail to secure a square meal a day. Ghosh said highly funded, technologically equipped academic institutions and .national universities are coming up in the cities but the towns in the suburbs lacked infrastructure. Ghosh concluded that Jadavpur University offers partnership with NCRI. Chairman, NCRI in his keynote address spoke on the genesis of NCRI and he reiterated NCRI’s chief aim is to identify genuine rural institutes and work with them at various levels for smooth functioning and form a network with small rural organisations. Dr. Ghosh said micro planning starts at the Panchayat level. Every state should have a biodiversity board and in each block a biodiversity committee.

This committee should decide how much biological resources could be utilised for commercial purposes. Dr. Ghosh and Dr. B.P. Syam Roy, Former Special Secretary, Planning, Government of West Bengal discussed the NGO-Government partnership with reference to decentralised reforms. The second session centred around the use of Geographical Information System, Management Infor-mation System and Data Base in Micro Planning. Prof. Parthasarathi Dasgupta, IIM Kolkata and Dr O.P Gaba, NSDI, NRDMS Division, Department of Science and Technology, GoI, Sujit Sinha, coordinator “Swanirbhar”, Kolkata and Dr M Chatterjee, senior scientist, NAEB, GoI., Dr. BP Syam Roy have also participated. Dr Gaba presented a theme paperon the development of village information system covering some selected villages of Andhra Pradesh. Shri Sujit Sinha explained how the rural high schools play an important role in NRM Micro Planning. Angsuman Das, Secretary, DRCSC, Kolkata, in the final session chaired by Prof. Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, talked of the data and knowledge requirements for NGOs on Micro Planning. The second workshop on Micro Planning was organised in collaboration with Gandhi Manav Kalayan Society, Ogna at Udaipur in Rajasthan on May 25. Representatives from 27 NGOs and PRI members attended. Dr. SV Prabhath, in hiskeynote address in the afternoon session focused on promoting higher education in the villages based on Gandhian principles and insisted on making micro planning efforts more cohesive. The panellists stressed the need for preparing micro planning on food security as a priority area. The participants included B.K Gupta, CEO, ALERT Sansthan, Udaipur, Ganesh Purohit, JJVS, Udaipur, Mohan Dangi, Prayatna Samitee, Rajendra Sharma, Maha Seva Sansthan, Dr S.B Lall, Former Dean, Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Dr PK Singh, Associated Professor, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur, Dinesh Chandra Vyas, Coordinator, CASA, Udaipur.

Workshop on ‘Importance of Micro-level Planning in Rural Development’

The Micro Planning Unit of NCRI, in collaboration with Centre for Rural Education and Development Action (CREDA), organised a workshop on the “Importance of Micro-level planning in Rural Development” on 29thJuly 2009 at CREDA Rural Resource Centre at Village Sukhra (Rajpur, Halia, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh). The objective of the workshop was to create awareness among the ruralists about the importance of bottom-up approach, which is micro-planning, so that the village functionaries at village, block, mandal levels, the village inhabitants, especially the youth, would contribute their best to the overall development of the village by proper planning of material and human resources. Dr. Prabhath, Chairman of NCRI, formally inaugurated the workshop by lighting the lamp. Other dignitaries at the event included Prof. B.N. Juyal, a Veteran Gandhian, Mr. Shamshad Khan, Director of CREDA, Mr. S Satpahhi, Co-ordinator, Micro Planning Unit, NCRI and Dr. Sanjay Singh, Reader, M.G.K.V., Varanasi. Dr. Prabhath in his address, cited the example of the earthworm which helps the farmer in making the land fertile, and compared the organisation CREDA to an earthworm when it comes to serving the rural areas. The Chairman stated that the solution to the problems being faced by villagers could be effectively addressed by an organisation like CREDA. He lauded the leadership of Mr. Shamshad Khan in making useful contribution for the cause of rural poor. Dr. Prabhath expressed many problems like health, hygiene, and child labour which were plaguing the villages, could be solved through micro-planning and stated NCRI Would be happy to depute a group of youths to do an in-depth study and infuse awareness among villagers based on Gram Swaraj. Prof. B.N. Juyal highlighted the importance of models and techniques of micro-level planning. He emphasised on subjects like classification of the issues, wealth ranking, seasonability and scarcity period in a village setup. He further added a little work was done to understand the problem in the villages and thus no one was able to provide accurate solution. According to him, it was either a lack of solution or the responsible people were insensitive. Prof Juyal suggested the Gandhian way of planning was the right way for Total Village Develop-ment (Samagra Gram Vikas). It is possible only through village level micro-planning because Micro-planning will certainly highlight the resources available and the desired productivity. Ms. Shamim Bano educated the audience on micro-level planning by displaying various charts and diagrams. She also placed emphasis on how micro-planning could be beneficial in solving various problems faced by women and adolescent girls. She presented a few case studies and a food calendar to make the participants understand the availability of food across seasons and gave them a clear picture about their nutritional requirement. While speaking on the importance of micro-planning she emphasised the social mapping of the village. The map could be prepared through a participation of the village people. Concluding the session, Mr. Khan stated that this one day workshop built up a sense of understanding among the participants and have helped them visualise and think about the development of villages by adopting appropriate tools and techniques of micro-level planning and hoped that NCRI would partner with them in their rural welfare endeavours.

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