Saturation Approach to Development

Another important approach of certain projects in creating self sustaining CBOs (Community Based Institutions) is the saturation approach i.e. covering all the target households in an area to ensure that all households are beneficiaries of a particular scheme or project. The drawbacks of this approach are as follows:

1. When dealing with human capital one should remember that “small is beautiful”. Trying to scale up and register progress in numbers alone shows an approach that lays higher emphasis on quantity rather than quality. This can be detrimental when one is dealing with human beings as opposed to objects.

2. Demand driven development: Saturation approach is somehow in absolute contrast to participatory approach to development. No wonder it has failed to succeed - an apt example being Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna which aimed to promote self employment through SHGs but in reality the sole purpose became formation of SHGs and providing credit to them without any focus on their capacity building. It completely overrules an individual’s will to be part of a project, in other words it does not believe in demand driven approach in identifying its beneficiaries. It is to be assumed that all target HHs need to be taken into the fold of project whether they desire it or not and if that fails to happen then there must be something wrong in the entire implementation of the project. I believe that indifferent people, even if they fall in the target population segment, should not be included forcibly as they will hamper the entire objective of any project and not result in much value addition. The initial stage of any project should focus on nurturing a few, quality CBOs and saturation approach, should the need arise, must be brought in at a later, mature stage of the project.

3. Taking forward the above point, there needs to be a substantial case in favor of a particular project for saturation approach to be given the go-ahead. A thorough impact assessment – social as well as economical - must be conducted for the existing areas of operation. This shall serve two purposes. Firstly, it will provide authentic information regarding any left out beneficiary households who might have been left out in the first phase. Secondly, it will throw up any flaws while implementing the project in its first phase so that the same mistakes are not committed when the project is scaled up. Resorting to saturation approach from the word go leaves a huge scope for wastage of resources – be it money, time or manpower- as there is no opportunity to test it on a smaller sample population. A lot of seed fund given to CBOs in the hope that it will result in some form of asset creation and livelihood enhancement is wasted as a lot of it is used as nothing more than consumption loans.

-Prerna Rana

Prerna Rana can be contacted at prerna.rana03@gmail.com

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Participatory Development | Still a dream!!

Participatory model of development lays emphasis on involvement of community members to bring about development. Participation includes not just membership of CBOs (Community Based Organizations like Self Help Groups) or providing member contribution in activities, but also in important decision making processes and ultimately the smooth operation of activities. The aim behind this is to ensure such development which is brought about by taking into account the needs of the people and not to impose a top down approach of development.

The idea behind this is very noble but has its own drawbacks. For example, in a subsidy fuelled rural context the willingness of people to step up and take charge is not an easy thing. The habit of getting quick relief just because one qualifies as poor was a quick fix solution. This is one of the reasons why even financially well off families want to feature in the “BPL” list. The handouts and doles given to the poor might not have done much to improve their standard of living but it has sure spelt success for political parties come election season, quite a few times. But participatory development seeks to create a more empowered society for which the rural poor might not be ready. After all, they have never been active players in the development process before, only passive receivers. And the participation required of them is not of a rudimentary nature. For instance, women self help groups are created in the hope that it will lead to women centric participatory development, but attendance is the least of the requirements; what is required from these women is active participation in the day to day affairs of their SHGs (Self Help Groups), making important decisions, ensuring the smooth operation of daily activities as well as taking initiative and suggesting changes which will better their socioeconomic condition. To achieve this some hand holding support must be provided in the initial stage to encourage dialogue. But, it can take a really long time to achieve the desired result since what is being undertaken is very ambitious.  For a woman who rarely steps out of her house, who is hardly ever consulted by her family in any household decision, it is unthinkable to take vital decisions about her destiny at a community forum like an SHG. Decades of societal conditioning makes it difficult to actually realize this dream of participatory development. It might be easier in matriarchal societies of South India or north East India, but very difficult in patriarchal societies. Also, as mentioned earlier it seems cumbersome to the people themselves who are more used to getting instant subsidy benefits. The history of rural development initiatives as well as the cultural context makes participatory development a not so easy task.

 To cultivate a temperament of decisiveness and drive is a long drawn process. A number of failed government schemes has led to this dependence on participatory approach but the important question is – are the people themselves ready for such a change, are the people ready to become masters of their own destiny or do they want to remain passive receivers?

Prerna Rana (can be reached at: Prerna.rana03@gmail.com)

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Microfinance and Development

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Microfinance and Development

Microfinance is a noble concept which in its entirety has the potential to help the needy get access to capital and raise their standard of living. It has the ability to help in development because everything in this world ends up being capital-centric. Considering the huge opportunity, the standing capital is being pumped in the economy with a generous hope that it may end poverty to some extent and make the poor self sustainable. But all the hope was not so generous because companies were eyeing big payoffs since the capital invested was based solely on trust and at huge risk (no collateral). This is the reason why initially Micro finance companies charged upto 36% interest, which in itself was not justified and equalled extortion similar to what is done by traditional moneylenders. Today, since MFIs are regulated by RBI, the interest rates are curbed to a maximum of 24%. Microfinance was envisioned as a tool which has the ability to change the Indian rural context in a big positive way viz to increase production, alternate livelihood development as well as reviving traditional arts, crafts and culture. After so many years and so many organizations having pumped lakhs of crores there has to be a mechanism to look back and reflect on what microfinance has done for rural population's development and the impact it has created on sustainability. What also needs to be assessed is the effect of microfinance on rural psychology keeping in mind many government and private sponsored rural development projects.

In the current context the meaning and significance of the word 'Microfinance' is lost somewhere. In reality the finance done by Microfinance companies is not micro at all since the individual loans are given to an extent of Rs. 50,000 to 1,00,000 depending on a person's credit history. Sometimes these companies form their own women groups and give loans to group members. The basic thing to look forward is that these so called Microfinance companies often laugh at the concept of self help. Their basic notion of “capital solves it all” is not a viable argument in general sense because we should be encouraging the capacity building of poor and collective action to raise their living standards. The capital being pumped into the rural economy through microfinance loans needs to be channelized in a more structured manner. Having seen the things done by some MFIs myself I sense that it has harmed and changed the psychology of rural people where they have inclined towards being individualistic and money centric (Govt. is equally responsible for bringing in schemes relying heavily on subsidies to the poor like SGSY). When we try to instill the ideals of collective action in community institutions we face a very tough and arduous task. Every once in a while some case happens where an individual drifts away from the basic principle of unity and collectivism which should be the core belief of any self help group and thus renders the effort put into rural development in vain. It is an undeniable fact that capital is required for development. But the point remains that pushing too much money in rural setting where you are not keeping track of the usage of money is a big hazard to economy. In my view microfinance must work on the lines of or at least promote collectivism. Merely targeting rural population for profit and business will make things worse for government as well as diminish NGOs rural development effort.

- Vaibhav Pandey (can be reached at: javatute@gmail.com)

Related:

Participatory Development | Still a Dream!!

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A Hope of evolutionary democracy

On my recent visit to a book store, I stumbled upon a book “IN SPITE OF THE GODS” by Edward Luce; and given its reviews I was tempted to buy it. Anyway, the book describes various aspects of Indian society - its lacunas, peculiarity and its impressive growth trajectory despite all the odds and contrasts. The book also describes in great detail the caste and religious dynamism existing in the society and the way they have been defining Indian politics, emergence of the leaders and very much the development story. Well, being born in UP and working in Bihar this is not something new to me; but with election approaching in Bihar the timing was impeccable to read this book.


The elections in UP and Bihar have been about caste, religion and vote bank politics more than anything else; I am not denying the fact that the same is not a ubiquitous phenomenon across all the states but the degree is a notch higher in these two states.  The caste dynamism in these two states has decided the political future of the party and leaders for far too long. I think this election and the one scheduled in 2017 in UP would be no different; the book came out around 2005 and almost a decade after, the elections may see no different fate. 


I would be following the Bihar election along with the one in 2017(scheduled UP elections) with great anticipation, anxiety and in the hope that these two elections would defy the caste politics and move India in to an era of mature democracy. The rising literacy rate and with a quantum of the voting population being youth; let’s surprise all -analyst, politician and every one generalizing it for far too long. The maturity of the Indian democracy would be dependent very much on the neutralization of the caste politics and ushering it into an era of developmental politics. This would be a dream come true for all the Gandhis, Nehrus, Ambedkars and all other nationalist; ultimately leading India in to an entirely new phase of evolution.  It would be pleasant to see that voting the caste would turn in to nothing more than adage; the election would be contested largely on the developmental strategy, goals and means.


It may seem a little farfetched, idealistic but the beauty of the democracy is it provides you an opportunity every 5 years to realize this dream (sometimes even earlier). This dream may be farfetched but certainly not impossible; dissemination of information is the first and essential step towards realizing it.


- Abhishek Singh (can be reached at abhi1471989@gmail.com)

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