TORPA RURAL DEVELOPEMENT SOCIETY FOR WOMEN
REPORT 2015- 2016
INTRODUCTION
A Tribal is blessed abundantly with inner potential and outer resources but lack of
exposure and knowledge has kept him primitive in his living. His generosity and
ignorance make him a victim of exploitation. All he needs is to recognise the strength of
his potential and resources. This will lead him to a healthy life.
With this understanding, our organization continued giving life and empowering the tribal
community with special reference to
women and children through
livelihood and educational both
institutional and community.
The year 2015-16 came with many surprises good and bad it was a hectic year. It brought
many challenges on the professional front. The government asked us to renew the FCRA, the
income tax rules changed. In the field, in both the blocks where we work, the government
imposed NRLM program on SHGs. So to connect our women’s groups to NRLM we had to
adopt government accounting and reporting system. This needed vigorous staff and women
leaders training. It was a difficult task to convince women to adopt changes.
On another front organization made history in Jharkhand with lac bangles and bamboo crafts.
Ours are the first women in Jharkhand who launched livelihood programs with these two
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trades. Besides, 15 literacy centres were initiated in the month of May.
As the problem of human trafficking is increasing in Jharkhand at the request of Chetnalaya
(a Delhi Arch Diocese Social Work Wing) an independent awareness program was launched
to prevent trafficking and to rescue victims of trafficking.
CHILDREN
With the aim of giving quality education we
conducted 75 remedial centres in 62 Government
schools for the children between the age of 7 to 12.
For this 75 volunteers were capacitated with
regular meetings, over night trainings and out of
state exposure to successful projects. 15 Balwadi
centres continued in the villages where
Aganwadies (Government Kindergarden) were not
accessible to the children between the ages of 3 to
6. Nutrition was provided on a daily basis to these
children. In 20 schools where the child teacher ratio
was high we provided a teacher to the 1st and 2nd
standards.
Besides the regular accompaniment, children were
taken for exposures to post offices, railway
stations, banks, police stations etc. Study
acceleration camps were conducted for 8 days, and
2 block level Bal -Melas were organized.
Various levels of capacity building programs for
project staff too were organised. As part of capacity building, planning and reporting
meetings on a monthly and quarterly basis, out of state exposures, monitoring and evaluation
sessions were organised.
All together 5052 weaker children benefited from this program. Through our intervention
14% attendance has gone up and nearly 300 drop out children were enrolled in the school.
BALNIKETAN
The pre primary school continued with 345
children in 8 divisions on the CWD campus. With
Sophie centre shifting from Patna to Torpa now we
have more room for children. The school is known
for its quality education and we find it difficult to
cope with its growing demand for admission.
WOMEN
Our empowerment work continued with 150 SHGs. This year 30 new SHGs got connected to
the organisation. Around 3500 women are the members of the organization. As mentioned
above due to the Government policy of bringing all the SHGs under one umbrella of NRLM
we had to go through vigorous procedures of structural changes of the groups and had to
restructure our field work. In the process some good things happened. Like the credit debit
system of SHG got streamlined and the staff has learnt to compete with the professional
world etc.
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LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM
Agriculture and Lac Farming continued. Due to
less rain, farmers were not able to get the expected
profit but everything was not lost. We made sure
that the farmers who lost their crop got insurance
from the government. The lac yield was very good
but the market price went down. As a result farmers
did not get expected benefit. All the same both the
agriculture and lac people were not at loss but were
in much better position financially than the other
families in the villages.
The Lac and Bamboo Handicraft work took a
leap. It brought in much more success than we had
thought. The Government too supported us in this
venture. Our women’s groups sold nearly Rs
2,00,000/- (Two Lacs) worth of bangles and around
Rs.50,000 (Fifty Thousand ) worth of bamboo craft
articles over six months. Seeing the success of these
5 SHGs, many SHG groups now wants to join the
handicrafts related livelihood.
In Collaboration with District government, 3 Lac
Processing Units were established in Arkie Rania
and Torpa block. The purpose of these units was
demonstration. But in the interest of the farmers
with great difficulty the units were linked to the
market. For this we had to spent a lot of energy in
motivating farmers to process lac instead of selling
it raw for low price in open market. This was a very
big achievement for the district.
4 very interior villages (Doyanger, Khatna
Chakurdar, Baritoli ,Koinara) where people had to
walk 4 to 8 k.m. with grain sacks on their head,
were helped to get mini rice mill with 50%
subsidies. This has taken a great burden off people
who had to walk up and down the hill and some
times return with ought having their work done due
to the mill being closed. The out come of this is,
after grinding the husk remains in the village itself
so women have started piggery as a side business.
Seeing this many other villages too want to install
such machines
Besides this another 5 groups have taken PDS
(Public Distribution System) 8 groups are running
way side hotels. 900 family repeated SRI technique
on their farm with ought any help from the staff and
Government granted Rs 1000/- as an incentive to
each family.
4 of our villages (Bishunpur, Marcha, Jaypur, and Koinara) did group farming of grams
and Tomatoes. This helped them to invite whole sellers to the villages and the farmers were
very happy that they did not have to go from market to market for the sale.
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58 SHG members are doing individual business of vegetable and dry fish vendering from
wholesale market t to the local markets.
WOMENS DAY CELEBRATION
International womens day was celebrated on the 9th March in Torpa. Around 3500 women
from 75 villages participated in the program. The District Collector, Superintendant of police
and many other Government officers as well NGO’s participated in the program.
Women performed awareness songs, street plays, tribal dances. In all the program women
Literacy and trafficking issues were highlighted. At the same we had organized exhibition
with different products. 22 SHG participated in this exhibition . Women sold Rs40500/worth Lac handicraft , Bamboo handicraft, Peanut products, High variety of rice and millate
and readymade garments.
LITERACY
This was a special year where with the support
of TATA CSR we launched women literacy
program. In the month of May 2015, 15 centres
were initiated in 12 different villages. 459
women are presently attending our two and half
hour night classes. Each of them will be part of
this program for 2 years till they acquires
reading writing skills and are able to read bank
books, write SHG records etc.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
On the CWD campus KG Training and
Tailoring courses continue.
We had 27 girls enrolled for KG Training 2 of
them dropped out due to family reasons. Others
completed their course successfully. They were
also helped to complete their course through
IGNOU.
76 girls completed their tailoring course of 6
months in 4 batches. After every batch the girls
put up an exhibition and a minimum of Rs 6000/worth of garments were sold. Personality
development and sessions on confidence building were part of their regular curriculum.
HOSTEL for Working Women and Girls
Over the year we had 155 working women and
college going girls in the hostel. Besides their
study, many extra curriculure activities like
debates, elocutions, sports, Fresher’s follies,
farewell programs etc. The girls run the mess on
their own. 2 seminars of 3 days each on sex
education and leadership were organised in the
month of October and February with outside
resource person.
CHALLENGES
Lack of rain and increasing water problem remains a concern for the people.
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Due to lack of water, the seasonal migration of families has rapidly increased.
Trafficking problem too is aggravated.
The Maoist activities in Khunti District have recorded highest murders in the year 2015.
And with this one feels insecurity in the air,
CONCLUSION
Though the year was hectic with structural changes on the program and administrative level it
forced us to adopt a more professional approach to the work and staff capacities were
enhanced. The program had good impact in the area. We continue searching our path to
happiness together with our people through the struggles of day today life and we experience
lots of graces around.
We give thanks to all our benefactors and well wishers whose strong support makes our
people’s life worth living.
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