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.



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