State HDR 2003 Chhattisgarh

1
State HDR 2003 Chhattisgarh

• Amit Agrawal
• CEO, CHiPS
• Joint Secretary (IT), Govt. of Chhattisgarh

2
Concept / Objectives

• Bottom-up participatory exercise needed to view
  human development through the eyes of human
  beings rather than those of experts and
  statistics
• Need to juxtapose objective physical reality with
  subjective peoples perceptions
• Absence of data for (i) new districts, (ii)
  district incomes, (iii) district level IMR life
  expectancy
• Need to cover (i) society, (ii) institutions and
  (iii) natural resources for a holistic view

3
Process of Preparation

• Ideas refined in a wide-ranging discussion with
  all stakeholders including Civil Society
  Organisations, PRI representatives, public
  agencies functionaries etc. followed by two
  stages of pilots
• Local voluntary facilitators called sangwaris
  (friends) trained at State and sub-district
  levels by State and District level Master
  Trainers
• One pair of sangwaris each over clusters of 3
  Village Panchayats (about six villages on an
  average)

4
Process of Preparation

• A pair of sangwaris included at least one woman,
  one person from a BPL household and one person
  from amongst the weaker sections. Over 6,000
  sangwaris trained.
• Sangwaris identified on the basis of (i)
  willingness, (ii) prior relevant experience and
  training, and (iii) last priority to persons
  having had opportunity of assuming leadership
• Sangwaris identified about half a dozen to a
  dozen local village level volunteers per village
  and after orientation conducted initial few
  focused group discussions in each village to
  train them

5
Process of Preparation

• Focussed group discussions by local village team
  thus, about 1 of the rural population directly
  involved in authoring the Reports
• Discussions held separately for men and women in
  each habitation (over 50,000 habitations for
  about 19,000 villages) as well as for differently
  able persons and the poorest hamlet of each
  village
• Local folk dance drama troupes (kala jaththas)
  used for environment-building
• Primary data on over a hundred parameters
  gathered separately

6
Process of Preparation

• Compiled Village HDRs tabled before the Village
  Assemblies for confirmation
• Aggregated into District HDRs under the
  stewardship of District Level Guidance Committees
  and tabled for acceptance by District Panchayats
• Aggregated into State HDRs under the stewardship
  of State Level Guidance Implementation
  Committees and tabled to the State Government

7
Themes

• Health
• Education as well as Information Knowledge
  (including traditional knowledge)
• Livelihood
• Society
• Institutions
• Natural Resources

8
Contents

• Our Village gej xkao
• Our thinking gej lksp
• Our dreams gej liuk
• Our own report gej viu jiV
• Where are we? ge dgak gSa \
• Where do we want to reach? dgak igqapuk pkgrs
  gSa \
• How will this happen? dSls gksxk s
  \
• (What will we do? ¼Dk djsaxs
  ge \
• What is needed from outside?) Dk ckgj ls pkfg, \½

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Indicators Used

• Level of satisfaction of the villagers with
  their current status on each of the six themes
  assessed as good, average or poor

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Indices Prepared

• The indicators used may be contrasted with the
  village level database created and the district
  level HDI thereby juxtaposing subjective human
  perception with objective physical reality

11
Problems Faced

• Ensuring that the voices of the marginalised find
  place in Reports
• Ensuring the Reports are seen not as charters of
  demands or recitals of grievances to the
  Government but as bases for community self-help
  and planning by villagers
• Ensuring that facilitators and reporters remain
  precisely that and do not substitute the people
  as the authors of the Reports
• The need to have a structure for the Reports not
  to predetermine the topics of discourse
• Number crunching data on over a 100 parameters
  and descriptive reports on 6 broad topics each
  for over 18,000 villages

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Target Audience

• The people are not only the authors but are also
  the primary target audience.
• Although peoples representatives, the executive,
  PRIs, Civil Society, academicians, etc. too form
  part of the audience although these are not the
  primary target audience.
• tu jiV Dk gS \turk ds kjk turk dh tjrksa ds
  fy, cukbZ xbZ jiVljdkj kjk ljdkj ds fy, cukbZ
  xbZ jiV ugha

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Some Highlights

• The voice of marginalised remained weak despite
  the steps taken
• People displayed an eagerness to take charge of
  their lives
• In spite of criticism of public delivery systems,
  the villagers have voiced an understanding of the
  constraints of public functionaries and have
  underscored the need for these functionaries as
  well as the need to improve their effectiveness

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Success Criteria

• There could be several criteria for evaluating
  the success of the exercise
• The extent to which the Reports inform policy and
  planning in the time to come at the State,
  District and Village levels
• The extent to which the exercise served to
  mobilise local planning and local self-help
• The extent to which it helps identify the links
  between peoples perceptions and objective
  reality and thereby helps in fashioning
  development strategies and priorities
• The extent to which it helps in a stock-taking of
  the issues relating to the three new areas, viz.,
  society, institutions and natural resources.

15

Thank You