YASHADA News June-July 2008 Page 3 Volume 1 Issue 2

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Training to help implement Dalit vasti sudhar yojana
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The “Dalit Vasti Sudhar Yojana” scheme implemented since 1974 by the Government of Maharashtra assures basic amenities such as water, sanitation, community centers and public libraries, especially in dalit vastis in the State.

The Centre for Equity, Justice and Empowerment (CEJE) at YASHADA has been conducting several training programmes to help build capacity for implementation of the very crucial activity of the government.

Training Needs Analysis conducted by YASHADA identified training requirements for gram sevaks and Village Development Officers (VDOs) to help prepare proposals, support, implement, monitor, and evaluate people’s participation. The gram sevaks and VDOs were also found to be crucial to ensure sustainability of the scheme.

More than 35,000 villages in Maharashtra have dalit vastis and require appropriate capacity-building. The Academy has provided a 3-day training programme to gram sevaks and VDOs to enhance local community coordination with various government departments to ensure that need-based projects are identified, developed, approved and implemented.

YASHADA’s initiatives will help the government ensure better coverage for beneficiaries of the Dalit Vasti Sudhar Yojana. The Academy will also provide support through training to help increase target villages and coverage period.

Six 3-day training programmes were conducted during January-March 2008.
Faculty from the Academy, Dr. Dhanraj Patil, Assistant Professor (020-25608226) and Smt. Anita Jadhav, Research Officer (020-25608276) are coordinating the training programmes.

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The Grey Hornbill... a rare visitor to the YASHADA Campus nowadays


The Grey Hornbill photographed by Shri Ashwani Kumar, IAS, Additional Director General, YASHADA. A family of 3 hornbills used to visit YASHADA daily during 1996 to 2003 to the joy of those who could spot them. They are now rare visitors, with the loss of green cover in the region around the campus. Hornbills are key indicators of impact of extensive urban growth that does not include planning for biodiversity and wilderness zones within cities. More than 75 bird species, some seasonal migrants, can be spotted in the YASHADA campus.


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Monitoring and evaluation of resettlement villages of Sardar Sarovar Project in Nandurbar, Maharashtra





YASHADA has been conducting an on-field action project as the monitoring & evaluation agency for resettlement and rehabilitation of project affected families (PAFs) of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada River. The project enables documentation of status of resettlement of declared PAFs in Maharashtra in nine resettled villages. The project has also developed a very detailed database of PAFs and has conducted a comprehensive socio-economic study and assessment through field surveys.

The Relief and Rehabilitation Department of the Government of Maharashtra provided the mandate to the Academy to conduct the studies, monitor and evaluate the resettlement and rehabilitation and develop the database of PAFs.

Consultations with stakeholders and officials, NGOs and PAFs have helped the study remain neutral and without bias. Nine villages were studied during 2007-2008 by the project team. Socio-economic studies were completed for three villages while family-specific database and documentation was finalized for nine villages during this period.

The project team, in February 2008, has finalized the interactive web-based ASP networked software to analyse the database. The software has been appreciated by the Narmada Control Authority and the Government of Mahrashtra as a tool for better monitoring and planning of the rehabilitation process. Contact Mr Sumedh Gurjar, Additional Director (020-25608149) for information.



YASHADA News June-July 2008 Page 4 Volume 1 Issue 2


Right to information
workshops at Mantralaya


RTI awareness workshops were held at Mantralaya in Mumbai in early 2008 by the RTI team from YASHADA led by Shri Pramod Mane, Advisor, RTI Cell. Smt. T. Thekkekara, IAS, Principal Secretary, GAD, GoM inaugurated the RTI awareness workshop on 18 February 2008 for the Secretariat staff.

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Photo File



Hibiscus flowers in various colours, at the YASHADA campus
can be seen in their monsoon splendour in different varieties.


The new lecture halls at the MDC Auditorium premises with
the best of audio-visual and training facilities at YASHADA.


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YASHADA Campus
Out of the classroom...



Our open-air green classroom is huge and a choice venue for key get-togethers and gatherings. The lush green lawns, local native deccani trees with wide canopies and the excellent puneri climate makes it very tempting to move training sessions outside lecture halls and auditoria. The green training /interactive sessions are of course, fully “air-conditioned”.

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YASHADA to evaluate mid-day meal and out-of-school grants

The Child Rights Cell (CRC) at YASHADA had completed evaluation of implementation of the mid-day meal scheme by the Government of Maharashtra in Thane, Sindhudurg, Parbhani and Amravati districts. Subsequently, the CRC has now been invited to conduct the evaluation in thirty districts in the State.

The Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme is being implemented in Maharashtra since 2001 for students of the 1st to 5th standards in all schools. Since 2008, MDM is extended to all students up to the 8th standard. In a key innovation, women’s self-help groups (SHGs) or locally identified needy persons would be given the responsibility of cooking the MDMs to help provide hot food to the students.

The CRC proposes to seek data from about 7300 schools comprising 10% of schools from all the selected districts for the evaluation.

In a separate project, the CRC at YASHADA will evaluate “out-of-school” grants provided by the Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad. The evaluation study will enquire from volunteers of the education guarantee scheme centres, including parents of children attending these centres, block education officers and similar officers, village (rural) and ward (urban) education committee (VEC or WEC) and NGO representatives.

The study will focus on understanding the status of alternative schooling, NGO-led centers, their functioning and local-level monitoring by district, block & state officials and the impact of the centers.

2,000 VECs and 45 WECs will comprise the sample size for the study to be conducted by YASHADA in perspective to the 42,000 VECs and 450 WECs in Maharashtra. Vastishalas will also be included in the evaluation study. 200 data investigators from MSW colleges will be trained by the CRC.


The Child Rights Cell (CRC) at YASHADA is conducting the Post-Graduate Diploma in Child Labour (PGDCL) in affiliation with the University of Pune. For more information about the PG Diploma and other training programmes to help fight against child labour, and for admissions to the programme, Contact: Dr. Minal Narawane, Associate Professor (020-25608152) at YASHADA.

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Excellence through Training


YASHADA NEWS

YASHADA NEWS is distributed for non-profit circulation. PDF edition is also available upon request from - niyojan@gmail.com

Managing Editor: Ashwani Kumar, IAS Additional Director General, YASHADA

Editor: Dr. Bharat Bhushan, Professor, YASHADA - bharatbhushan@yahoo.com

Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration. YASHADA Campus, Baner Road, Pune 411007 India. Phones: (020) 25608000. Fax: (++91-020) 25608100. Web: http://www.yashada.org/



YASHADA News April-May 2008 Page 1 Volume 1 Issue 1



YASHADA’s renewed vision





The Academy has grown from conducting about 100 programmes for 3,000 trainee- participants annually during 1993-2003, to more than 1,200 programmes for nearly 40,000 participants. Plans for further growth visualized during a session led by Mr. V. Ramani, Director General, YASHADA on the Foundation Day include university affiliated long-term diploma, and multi-language distance education programmes.



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RTI awareness through street plays




Street plays were used as a medium of extending awareness about the Right to Information Act by YASHADA at various districts in Maharashtra. The Academy is ‘State Implementing Agency’ for the Act.


The Government of India (GoI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have provided support to YASHADA to implement a comprehensive capacity building project for access of information (CBAI) in Maharashtra. The Right to Information Act (RTI) Cell at the Academy has been a successful pioneer in enabling the operationalisation of the Act through training processes. The training of information officers and appellate authorities in Chandrapur and Nandurbar helped in dissemination of the RTI Act immensely. Advocacy workshops and an "Information Fair" were conducted at Chandrapur in December 2007. Street plays were conducted in Nandurbar.


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SIUD at MUNICIPALIKA 2008




The SIUD team at the YASHADA exhibit with the PGDUM posters’ display and publications.

YASHADA's State Institute of Urban Development (SIUD) participated in MUNICIPALIKA 2008 to showcase and present the Post Graduate Diploma in Urban Management (PGDUM) programme. The SIUD Faculty also participated in the 5th international conference "Good Governance for Inclusive and Sustainable Cities" during 31 January to 2 February. The exhibition focused upon "Municipal Services, Urban Development and Public Works". The YASHADA exhibit presented information about the PGDUM programme and was visited and appreciated by several officials and urban managers, including Mr. T. C. Benjamin, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, GoM and Mr. Jairaj Phatak, Municipal Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

YASHADA News April-May 2008 Page 2 Volume 1 Issue 1



Distribution Franchising
training programmes for
Power Sector

The national-level Distribution Franchising training programme conducted in December 2007 was attended by 40 senior engineers from various national training institutes and distribution companies. The new concept in electricity distribution requires specific training programmes and is conducted by YASHADA under the national DRUM project with the assistance of USAID, Power Finance Corporation and Ministry of Power, Government of India. A training programme on Franchising was conducted at Ahmedabad in February 2008 for senior engineers. The CPSD will conduct several training programmes on Distribution Franchising during 2008-2009.




Participants of training programmes on power sector management during a site-visit to the HVDC Station.


National Portfolio:
Training the Power Sector



The Centre for Power Sector Development at YASHADA has been conducting training programmes on Project and General Management, Distribution Reforms and Franchising for Junior and Senior Engineers of Power Utilities in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat among others.

Contact Shri V. V. Joshi, Director, CPSD, YASHADA (020-25608094), if you would want us to conduct training workshops on distribution franchising and power sector management topics such as project management and monitoring.


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Global Portfolio:
International Programme of
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
IPEC-ILO Workshop at YASHADA



The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has identified YASHADA as a leading agency working to combat child labour. An international workshop for functionaries on occupational safety and health of young workers was organised at the Academy in November 2007 with participants and IPEC consultants from 27 countries.


The workshop helped share information on hazardous child labour, strengthen the knowledge base on the topic, and improve the application of this knowledge. New studies on hazardous child labour were reviewed. Points of agreement from the consultation will form the basis for an international programme of action on youth employment and protection of young workers.


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Training police to rescue people

The Centre for Disaster Management at YASHADA has been conducting hands-on training programmes for police officers. The workshops focus on the roles and responsibilities of police officers during disasters, mainly during earthquakes. The police are usually seen as the first respondents during disasters and are required to be trained in team action and coordination with other officers and NGOs.



A volunteer was hung in mid-air from a tall building. A police officer climbed down the exterior side of a multi-storeyed building. Several police officers cheered their colleague while he climbed down the building. One of the participants pretended that he had broken his arm. They were all trainee-participants of the disaster management workshop conducted by the Academy’s Centre for Disaster Management (CDM) in March 2008 at Latur.


Contact Col. V. Supanekar (Retd), Faculty, CDM, YASHADA (020-25608208) to conduct training workshops for your teams.

YASHADA News April-May 2008 Page 3 Volume 1 Issue 1

YASHADA’s PG diploma in rural management


Participants from SIRD's training programmes discussing with stakeholders during a study visit to nearby villages.

The SIRD (State Institute of Rural Development) at YASHADA has launched the one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management recognized by Mumbai University. The syllabus and contents combine the expertise of expert academics and senior government officials and are suitable for working officers. One of the officer-students, Shri Tejpal Singh, Executive Engineer, Ropar, Punjab, had remarked about the course, “To get a chance to participate in any training programme of ‘YASHADA’ is a great opportunity for any officer…The knowledge will augment the skills of the officer. I feel lucky to be one of the participants of the first batch of the PGDRM of YASHADA.
The course is also open to graduates from any discipline from recognised universities, working government officials, elected representatives from Panchayati Raj Institutions and NGO representatives. Admissions for the second batch are open.

Gramlekha Software developed
The SIRD and Centre for Information Technology at YASHADA have developed web enabled software called Gramlekha for computerizing the operations of the Gram Panchayats in the state to improve service delivery at Panchayat level. The software will help provide a host of services to users ranging from birth and death certificates to property tax assessments and will computerize the taxation and accounting system, record-keeping and increase revenue of the Gram Panchayats. The software is available at a one-time cost of Rs. 2000 per panchayat.

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Capacity building for poverty reduction



(From left) Dr. S. K. Sarkar, Joint Secretary (RTI), DoPT, GoI; Shri Ajay Sawhney, Joint Secretary (Training), DoPT, GoI, and Shri Ashwani Kumar, Additional Director General, YASHADA inaugurating the CBPR and RTI training initiatives of the Centre for Public Governance of YASHADA on 17 January 2008.
Video CDs of Direct Trainer Skills (DTS) developed with support from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India (GoI) were released by Shri Ajay Sawhney and Dr. S. K. Sarkar while reviewing the Academy’s CBPR and RTI training initiatives. The CAPACITY BUILDING FOR POVERTY REDUCTION training initiative addresses poverty alleviation for cutting edge-level functionaries.

YASHADA has been identified as one of the four institutes to implement the CBPR project by the DFID, UK and DoPT, GoI. The replicable training module achieves its objectives through developing knowledge and skills for poverty reduction. It helps modify governance attitudes towards service delivery.

The gramsevak and talathi cadres in Pune District have been identified as the project’s target participants by the Academy. The first phase of training for the talathi cadre has interacted with 1040 trainee-participants. The second phase is for gramsevaks of the three blocks of Purandhar, Junnar and Khed.

The Zilla Parishad trainers attended specific ToT programmes during January-February 2008. Seven training methods helped the trainers improve their skills in imparting capacity building training programmes for poverty reduction. Distance learning material also helped ensure continuity for the training processes. With the conclusion of assignments, the participants will be invited again for 3-day debriefing training programmes.

YASHADA News April-May 2008 Page 4 Volume 1 Issue 1


Sustainable Development:
1st All-women Sarpanch Meet

80 Women Sarpanchas discussed methods to improve rural sanitation in their villages on the occasion of the World Womens' Day on 8 March 2008. The State-level All-Women Sarpanch Meet was organised by the Centre for Environment and Development at YASHADA. The women Sarpanchas were able to integrate village-level rural sanitation issues.
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Photofile

Shri V. Ramani, Director General, YASHADA flagging off the
WISA's Maharashtra Car Rally in November 2007



Participants discussing occupational safety and health of
young workers at the international workshop in YASHADA



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YASHADA Publications
on development administration



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State-of-the-art training facilities at MDC YASHADA



The Management Development Centre (MDC) at the YASHADA Campus in Pune has now become the most preferred venue for conferences, workshops and training programmes for government departments, NGOs, public sector & corporate organisations.

The MDC along with the adjacent 270+ seater MDC Auditorium offers 200 air-conditioned accomodation, seven conference rooms, indoor banquet and dining halls and a splendid lawn-setting for outdoor workshop sessions and dining under the pleasant starlit sky.

The MDC was preferred by WISA as the venue for flagging off the State-level Car Rally in November 2007. An all-State Advertising Design Congress and exhibition was successfully conducted at the MDC. The SEBI used the MDC premises to hold their long-term training programme for probationary officers and it was much appreciated by the participants.


To conduct residential & non-residential workshops, seminars, conferences and training programmes for your teams at the MDC premises or the MDC Auditorium in YASHADA – Phone: (020) 25608001, 25608007 Fax: (020) 25608033 Email: mdc@yashada.org and mdc.yashada@yahoo.com
Contact: Mr. Yuvraj Kadam, Manager, MDC-YASHADA.

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Excellence through Training
YASHADA NEWS

YASHADA NEWS is distributed for non-profit circulation. PDF edition is also available upon request from - niyojan@gmail.com
Managing Editor: Ashwani Kumar, IAS Additional Director General, YASHADA
Editor: Dr. Bharat Bhushan, Professor, YASHADA - bharatbhushan@yahoo.com
Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration.
YASHADA Campus, Baner Road, Pune 411007 India. Phones: (020) 25608000. Fax: (++91-020) 25608100. Web: http://www.yashada.org/