Enabling Communities, th Transforming Annual Lives 13Report CmF is registered under - Societies Act 1958 Foreign Contribution Regulation Act

Sec 80G (5) of Income Tax Act 1961 Under 12 A of Income Tax Act 1961 No. 766 dated 13.02.2007 No. 125560219 dated 28.06.2010 (valid till 31st October 2021) No. 2768 dated 29.02.2008 No. 2767 dated 29.02.2008

Our Auditors – 2019-20

M/s Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, Mumbai Statutory auditors

M/s PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP, Mumbai Internal auditors CONTENTS

Message from the Chair 05

About Us - Centre for microFinance 06

Our Approach 07

Where We Work 08

Theme 1 – Microfinance & Agriculture-based Livelihoods 09

Theme 2 – Education 13

Theme 3 – Skill Building 18

Theme 4 – Maternal & Child Health & Nutrition 22

Theme 5 – Water, Sanitation & Hygiene 27

Media Coverage 31

Our Partners 32

Governance 34

Audited Statement of Accounts 2019-20 35 message from the chair

Dear Friends,

The year 2019-20 was an enriching one for us at CmF on During the year, our efforts were focussed on many counts. This was the fifth year of the implementation streamlining these models - enhancing the quality of of the multi-thematic program – Transformation Initiative. implementation and seeking active collaboration of Through the launch of this program in 2015, CmF has community and government departments for attempted a unique effort to demonstrate proof of sustaining the positive changes. In the coming year, we concept of holistic development in a defined geography will consolidate the work under Transformation of around 295 tribal villages in South Rajasthan. Until Initiative and prepare a strategy for upscaling the 2015, CmF’s efforts were focused on creating an enabling program learnings through a combination of ecosystem for the growth of the Self-Help Group (SHG) implementation and technical support role in South model of microfinance and promoting rural livelihoods. Rajasthan and other under-served regions of the state. The expansion into new themes of education, nutrition and wash almost around the same time was a challenging The other important development during the year was task and it took us some time to understand the the signing of two technical support partnership complexities of each of these. At the same time, this agreements with the state government –one each with journey has been a rewarding one as new colleagues the rural development and the education departments. from different professional backgrounds and new Both partnerships provide CmF an opportunity to bring thematic partners added to the diversity and richness of in innovation and process orientation within the experience and expertise within the organization. ongoing government programs and benefit large sections of the population. These partnerships contribute to further the founding mission of CmF to With the efforts of CmF and work as a resource agency for sector development. implementation partners, glimpses of transformation are now visible in many pockets. These include model Anganwadi Centers with engaging pre-school activities for young children, vibrant school libraries providing creative spaces to them, As we present to you the annual report of CmF women led SHGs and agri-enterprises for 2019-20, the country and the world at large and community initiatives for safe are yet to come to terms with the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which brought drinking water to name a few. everything to a standstill towards the end of the financial year. The pandemic has starkly highlighted the perils of unequitable growth. It has also reiterated the relevance of the work of development organizations like CmF.

In 2020-21, we will re-align our programs to support as many vulnerable households women and children as we can. Linking with social entitlements, creation of local job opportunities and community level programs – learning camps and malnutrition prevention are possible ways in which we envisage our contribution to support communities overcome the shock of the pandemic and build back better. M.S. SRIRAM

CMF Annual Report 05 ABOUT US

The Centre for microFinance (CmF) was seeded in 2007 as a state level KEY INITIATIVES resource organization to catalyse the growth of the community led microfinance (women’s Self-Help Group model) sector in Rajasthan. Over the last 13 years, it has been CmF’s constant endeavour to adapt and expand its role and functions in keeping with the evolving needs and aspirations of the communities During 2007-2012, it works with and the CmF worked mainly on providing technical and macro-environment comprising of capacity building support to a number of stakeholders in the microfinance sector namely, banks, government policy and programs. development partners of the Tata Trusts’ Sakh-Se-Vikas (SSV) initiative, government departments and SHG federations. Enabling credit linkage from banks, development of quality training resources and strengthening institutional processes in SHGs and federations were the key focus of CmF during this period. As the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) rolled out in the state, CmF enabled the SSV partners and federations to partner with the program and leverage resources for enhanced credit to SHG members. From 2013 onwards, CmF began developing 1 Seeded by the Tata Trusts in 2003 as a regional programme, the Sakh-Se Vikas livelihood programmes for SHG Initiative has sought to demonstrate a financially viable model of community based members. The SSV partners microfinance. Core to the SSV model is the and CmF successfully promotion and nurturing of a three tiered structure of women's Self-Help Groups, leveraged funds from the Clusters and Federations which provides savings, credit and livelihood support Government of under the services to its members. Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) to augment Since 2015, productivity and incomes from CmF has expanded its domain to multi-thematic implementation in 3 blocks agriculture and dairy. Capacity of South Rajasthan. The ‘Transformation Initiative’ program is aimed at building and knowledge impacting the quality of life indicators of tribal households in tribal villages partnership of CmF & Tata through layering of education, nutrition, wash and skilling programs with the Trusts with the state microfinance and livelihood work of CmF and partners. CmF is also providing government in the Mitigating technical support to the district administration in for the ‘Transforming Poverty in West Rajasthan Aspirational Districts Program’ initiated by the NITI Ayog in 2018. This support Project helped scale up CmF’s entails training and capacity building of government functionaries in the areas concept of cluster based of education and maternal and child health and nutrition. livelihood development.

CMF Annual Report 06 OUR APPROACH

Ensuring sustainability of impact, knowledge and community led processes remains the core of all programmes of CmF.

We endeavour to build and share knowledge and promote innovations in all themes we work in.

Building partnerships with stakeholders- community institutions, non-profits, banks, government and others to mainstream the learnings and best practices of our work in larger programmes for desired impact is a cross-cutting role of CmF across all the themes.

WHICH CmF IS STRIVING TO CONTRIBUTE TO IN ITS PROJECT AREAS

CMF Annual Report 07 WHERE WE WORK

Outreach as on March 2020

8 districts 1.02 lakh HHs 30,410 reached through 16 blocks children Technical support to govt. microfinance & reached 1096 villages livelihood programs through Education education 33 districts programs CmF & livelihoods 9 districts

Microfinance WASH Pali Sirohi Tonk Pali Alwar Sirohi

Dausa

Karauli Livelihoods Education Tonk Alwar Pali Karauli Sirohi Pali Dausa Tonk Udaipur Sirohi Dungarpur Pali Udaipur Sirohi

Dungarpur Nutrition Skilling Tonk Sirohi Sirohi

CMF Annual Report 08 Theme 1 MICROFINANCE & AGRICULTURE BASED LIVELIHOODS ushering in rural prosperity through community led institutions

Building self-sustained Self-Help Group federations to The livelihoods work in South Rajasthan initiated under ensure access to affordable financial services has been the Transformation initiative in 2015 has now expanded the core of CmF’s work since its inception in 2007. to other blocks in the region. Apart from strengthening Around 2013, CmF and its partner organizations SHG federations and productivity enhancement in initiated focussed work in agriculture and livestock agriculture and livestock, now CmF is also focussing based livelihoods. Through the consortium project of on access to irrigation and market linkages through CmF and partners under the Mahila Kisan collectives and individual entrepreneurs. Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (2013-17) and its technical support partnerships with the state government in their IFAD and World Bank funded projects, CmF has demonstrated cluster based livelihood models enabling SHG members to graduate from subsistence No. of SHG mode to an enterprise approach over a span of 3-4 years. federations partnered with Operational area 16 blocks across 38 8 districts No. of HHs Sirohi, Pali, reached Udaipur, through SHGs Dungarpur, Alwar, Dausa, Karauli and Tonk 1,00,237

No. of HHs supported Training & extension Strengthening SHG federations for livelihood support to improve - strong governance & financial productivity enhancement self-reliance 49,751

Strategy State level technical support to government for World Bank program

Market linkages for Facilitating access 130federations agri-inputs and farm produce to irrigation

CMF Annual Report 09 MICROFINANCE & AGRICULTURE BASED LIVELIHOODS HARVESTING PROSPERITY

Mamta Devi is an SHG member in Boblfala village

Her SHG- by the same name as hers i.e., Mamta Mahila In October 2018, CmF partnered with the Amrita Swayam Sahayata Samuh is part of the Amrita Rajeevika Federation to initiate the Lakhpati Kisan Rajeevika Mahila Sarvangin Vikas Sahakari Samiti- an Program with the SHG members. Mamta saw a ray of SHG federation in the Bhoodar cluster of Rishabhdev hope for her family in this program. Along with (Udaipur). Mamta’s husband Shankarbhai worked as Shankarbhai, she started attending the farmer training an electrician. In 2015, he got an electric shock while sessions and livelihood planning exercise organized by repairing an electric pole and was partly paralyzed. He CmF. There has been no looking back since then. was unable to resume work thereafter. Mamta with the help of her mother-in-law took to growing maize, wheat and pulses on their one acre land to support their 7 member family.

We cultivated okra and through trellis Mamta Devi proudly recalls, method -bitter gourd, bottle gourd and “In Rabi 2018, I started with growing green peas ridge gourd on 800 sq. m in summer on a small patch – (200 sq. m). and earned a net (2019). Then we visited Dahod and income of Rs. 12,000/- in that season. With learnt about floriculture. In January support of CmF, both of us went for 2-day (2020), we planted 200 rose plants on training at Centre of Excellence, Himmatnagar our patch of land (100 sq. m). which is and learnt about new technologies – drip plus slightly hilly. In this year, we have mulching, trellis and soil-less nurseries. After earned more than Rs. 1 lakh from returning, I took a loan of 50,000 from my SHG selling vegetables. We are now for a borewell and drip irrigation. planning to use the profit and take more loan from SHG to set up a hi-tech nursery of one lakh seedlings.”

Mamta and Shankar bhai have been the early adopters in the Lakhpati Kisan Program. The Program aims at enabling households to utilize SHG credit for graduating from subsistence to enterprise mode. Inspired with the journey of Mamta Devi, more than 40 women in her village have come forward to join the program.

CMF Annual Report 10 MICROFINANCE & AGRICULTURE BASED LIVELIHOODS PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Adopting the ‘Lakhpati Kisan’² model in South Rajasthan Until 2018, CmF’s livelihood programs in a given cluster of villages were largely focussed on either agriculture or livestock themes. The focus from 2018 onwards is to deepen the engagement with each of the livelihood households by layering more livelihood interventions in the existing clusters and enabling each household to adopt an enterprise mode to livelihoods. While castor, vegetable and dairy were scaled up, poultry and floriculture were the new livelihood options introduced. Federations were supported to link with agri-input suppliers and set up 3 hi-tech vegetable seedling nurseries. 9 federations also contributed partly towards the honorarium of community resource persons engaged for extension services.

Scaling up new technologies While last year was focused on piloting of technologies such as drip- mulching, trellis and soil-less nurseries through progressive SHG farmers, this year saw a wider adoption of these across all the 8 districts. A number of village level events were organized through the Village Organizations i.e., SHG clusters to felicitate women farmers who adopted new technologies and got high level of farm production. Such events coupled with exposure visits and training programs helped in convincing large number of farmers to adopt these technologies by investing their own savings and SHG loans. In South Rajasthan, solar powered lift irrigation was piloted at 3 locations with a plan to scale it up in the coming year by leveraging government schemes.

Enabling self-reliance and good governance in SHG federations Since the roll out of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in Rajasthan in 2012, the state government has become the largest promoter of SHGs and SHG federations. Many of these federations are now 3-4 year-old and well-capitalized by government funds. More support is needed to strengthen their institutional systems and robust governance mechanisms. During the year, CmF initiated a joint program with the State Rural Livelihood Mission to provide technical support to 18 NRLM federations across 3 districts of Dausa, Karauli and Alwar. Federations were supported to draw up their income & expenditure projections for the next 3 years and come up with an action plan to improve their profitability. Many federations thereafter initiated the process of revival of defunct SHGs, increase in monthly saving at SHG level and improving internal lending of funds. By training the existing community cadre of the federation on the basics of agriculture, crop advisory services on key agriculture practices were provided to nearly 40% of the 50,000+ SHG members of these federations. Support in conducting board meetings, executive committee meetings and annual general meetings in a systematic manner has boosted the confidence of the federation leaders. Convergence with government schemes for livelihood enhancement and social entitlements would be the major focus in the coming year.

2Lakhpati Kisan Initiative is a flagship program of Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), - an Associate Organization of Tata Trusts which works in Central Indian Tribal Belt. CMF Annual Report 11 MICROFINANCE & AGRICULTURE BASED LIVELIHOODS PARTNERSHIPS

Technical support to the State Rural Livelihood Mission A core mandate of CmF is to work as a resource organization and enhance the quality and pace of development programs implemented by a multitude of stakeholders such as government departments, non-profit organizations and community institutions. CmF’s association as a technical and knowledge partner with the programs of the Department of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj date back to 2009. In June 2019, CmF signed an MoU with the State Rural Livelihoods Mission i.e., the Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad (RGAVP) to augment their efforts of developing model federations and agri-value chain development in 36 blocks of 9 districts. The RGAVP is implementing the National Rural Economic Transformation Project in these districts which is expected to benefit 4 lakh + SHG members of 130 SHG federations over a span of 5 years. This would enable CmF to mainstream the learnings and best practices of the work being done by it and its partner organizations through a larger platform of the government promoted federations. The partnership also provides an opportunity to the CmF team to be part of several national level deliberations and learn about the diverse experiences and challenges of other states. During the year, a core team of 4 members supported in WAY FORWARD preparing various policy guidelines for the operationalization of NRETP activities. A baseline of 36 SHG federations and a study The Covid-19 pandemic saw on marketable surplus of major agriculture commodities was hordes of migrant workers return undertaken by the CmF team. Various training programs and home. With limited land and water orientation were conducted for SHG federations on visioning and resources back home which are business planning. An SOP on governance was also developed the very reason for migration, outlining the role of the board and sub-committees, audit many households may face process and statutory compliance requirements applicable to issues of food security and the federations. perhaps survival too. Finding livelihood opportunities including new ones for such returnee migrants at village level would therefore be a key priority of CmF in the coming year. As households’ investment capacity is likely to remain constrained and the SHGs also may struggle with low repayments, more effort would be made to leverage grant assistance for small holder households from relevant government schemes for livelihood development and social protection.

CMF Annual Report 12 Theme 2 EDUCATION enabling enjoyable and meaningful learning in schools & anganwadis

Year after year, reports highlighting the poor learnings Through the Education Program, CmF is making levels of students in rural and government schools concerted efforts to create enabling physical areas continue to remain a big dilemma of policy environment and contextualized pedagogical makers and development practitioners. School drop processes in government schools and anganwadis so outs continue to remain the norm in tribal areas as that children enjoy the process of learning and children need to join their parents in earning their daily develop strong foundational skills. bread. As they grow up, the opportunities for these children remain limited to low paid, hard labour jobs, mostly in the unorganized sector. Primary & Upper Primary School Education Operational area 3 blocks 267 schools and of Sirohi Early & Bali of Pali Childhood Education model Anganwadi 100 Centres Capacity building of Create demonstration sites - teachers and model schools and anganwadis anganwadi cadre enriched with learning resources Technology enabled learning 20schools Strategy Children directly benefitted in 2019-20

Scaling up best Activating community 30,410 practices through technical for quality education support partnerships Mainstreaming learnings of education program MoU signed with state government for 33 districts

CMF Annual Report 13 EDUCATION A LIBRARY - OF THE CHILDREN, BY THE CHILDREN

Akshara is a class V student of Girls Sr. Secondary School in Beda village of Bali block.

Her parents own a small piece of agricultural land and few hours and works as a librarian – checking in and mostly work as daily wage labourers. She is a member out the library books and mending the torn ones in the of the Children’s Library Management Committee ‘Kitabon Ka Aspatal’ or Book Hospital. (CLMC). Everyday after school, she stays back for a

When I was in class 3, I did not like to attend school. Most of the days, I stayed at home. I found school boring and difficult as I could not read and understand the text books. Then our school library got renovated with beautiful paintings of animals on the walls who are all reading books. Our teacher Anita ma’am and Jitendra sir (Field Coordinator, Bodh Shiksha Samiti) started taking us to the library. We started doing many interesting activities there -story-telling, painting story scenes, paired reading, read aloud and creative writing, displaying our paintings etc. Our library has hundreds of story books with lots of pictures. I started reading lots of books in school and also borrowed from the library for reading at home. Now I can read easily and fast. I became a member of CLMC in my school library when I was in class 4. I encourage other children to issue books and we also do lots of other activities.

The story of Akshara mirrors the journey of our Library with active support of the CLMCs under the guidance for Literacy Program in the tribal dominated Bali block of teachers trained by CmF, Bodh Shiksha Samiti & of Pali. 50 of such vibrant schools are now being run Parag Initiative of the Tata Trusts.

CMF Annual Report 14 EDUCATION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Early Childhood Education (ECE)

An assessment of the impact of the ECE program implemented by CmF & Bodh Shiksha Samiti in the anganwadis of Abu Road was undertaken by ECE expert - Dr. Neelima Gokhale. The findings (see infographic- table to be done in infographic) validate that structured ECE input strengthens emergent literacy behaviour among children and ensures school readiness as they transition to formal school in Class I. Much however remains to be done in terms of improving teaching pedagogies to nurture young learners’ interest in the written language through meaningful ways and give them access to high quality literature for enriching their language and promoting diverse thinking. CmF is now working to improve the capacities of its own team along with Anganwadi workers to enable this. Through training the frontline workers of another 144 Anganwadis in Abu Road and occasional handholding visits, efforts are being made to mainstream as much of the learnings of the 100 model Anganwadis are being supported in Sirohi at present.

Parameter Intervention Control (% of children) (% of Children)

Social & emotional development 78 42 Interaction with peers & adults, waits own turn, speaks confidently, works independently, completes task Oral language development 71 39 Speaks clearly, speaks in complete sentences, uses appropriate vocabulary, follows 3-step instructions Reading: literacy behaviour 69 27 Shows interest in print, directionality, pays attention to print, recognizes own name Cognitive development 43 16 Identifies odd objects, sequences, repeats patterns Numeracy 54 25 Count in order (1-10), recognize numerals (1-9), one to one correspondence, understands comparative words

Remedial program in upper primary classes During the year, the remedial program – Buniyad being implemented by CmF in 22 schools for the last 3 years was expanded to all of the 56 upper primary schools in Abu Road. Each school has allocated a 40-minute period in their daily time table for the Buniyad classes and allocated one teacher each to take the remedial classes. To augment mathematics learning through the use of technology, offline practice modules developed as part of the Tata Trusts – Khan Academy partnership were introduced in 10 of the Buniyad schools. 500+ tablets have been provided in these schools for personalized learning by students.

CMF Annual Report 15 EDUCATION

Ecosystem engagement

Much of CmF’s capacity building inputs and handholding support have been focussed on the teachers and the frontline workers. In order to sustain the improved teaching processes in schools and anganwadis, active involvement of stakeholders in administrative roles is also required. Through orienting the Head Teachers, Panchayat Elementary Education Officers (PEEOs), Chief Block Education Officers (CBEOs) and the Lady Supervisors (LSs) and making joint visits with them to the project schools and anganwadis, efforts were made to building their appreciation of the improved pedagogies and their impact on the children.

Increasing community involvement in education

A major focus during the year was to increase the parents can do at home with their children. Mothers of involvement of the parents in the education of their children and adolescent girls from the village are children in the early years spent at the anganwadis. being involved in AW level activities to support the Bal melas were organized at select Anganwadis to Anganwadi workers in organizing children’s activities display the creative work of the children and and festival celebrations. demonstrate fun-filled learning activities which

CMF Annual Report 16 EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

Early Childhood Education The partnership with The India Nutrition Initiative (TINI) in their ‘Making It Happen Program’ provided CmF the opportunity to take its ECE program learnings to 204 anganwadis of 5 districts namely Alwar, Karauli, , Tonk and Dausa. Through 2 training programs of two day each, 364 Anganwadi workers and Helpers were trained on the concepts of child psychology and behaviour, developing a learner friendly AW, oral language development, school readiness, number concepts and a variety of games which can be played with children to strengthen emergent literacy. It was heartening to see the enthusiasm of the anganwadi workers in implementing the learnings at their work place - from developing child activity display corners to the use of local materials (Sthaniya Samagri) such as grains and leaves for children’s activities. Such programs need to be planned more comprehensively and include a design for regular handholding support .

Strengthening school libraries The interventions in primary classes under Transformation Initiative enabled CmF to demonstrate the effective use of libraries for strengthening language development in children. In Nov 2019, CmF signed a 3-year MoU with the Rajasthan Council for School Education (RCScE)/Samagra Shikha to strengthen school libraries through in-service teacher training and skill building on children’s libraries. Setting up of a model library one each in the 33 districts and the RSCERT is also planned. During the year, the training of the first batch of Children’s Library Course with participation of 28 SRGs was completed with support of the Parag Initiative of the Tata Trusts. WAY FORWARD

The education programs are by far the most affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic as most of the interventions are centred around the institutional set ups. While the field programs in Sirohi and Pali have been ongoing for a few years now, the partnership with the state government for libraries was a recent one and much of the activities of setting up model libraries and teacher training were scheduled in the initial months of 2020-21 and need to be postponed. More than that, the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened the divide in terms of access to education for the children from the rural and poor families as access to smart devices and the cost of internet is beyond their means. CmF will re-align its efforts in education towards learning camps with support of community volunteers and greater engagement of parents.

CMF Annual Report 17 Theme 3 Youth Skilling & Employment bridging the information and mentoring gap

The traditional rural livelihoods of agriculture and Through the Skilling Program in South Rajasthan, CmF livestock based livelihoods cannot sustain large is linking rural youth with a host of skill development families over generations as land and water resources courses offered by training institutes and supporting remain limited. A large number of youth in South apprenticeship with local business enterprises. Rajasthan work as unskilled wage labour in construction, mining, hospitality and other businesses.

Youth registered Operational area as learners 197 villages in Abu Road & 6,688 Pindwara blocks (Cumulative – 29,188) of Sirohi No. of youth counselled

Awareness & One to one 4,843 mobilization at counselling (Cumulative – 13,142) village level of youth No. of youth linked with training institutes who completed training Strategy 1,531 (Cumulative – 4,173)

No. of youth linked Continued mentorship Enrolling youth in with ‘Udyog Mitras’ of placed youth skill courses of training institutes I On-job training for apprenticeship with local businesses 875 (Cumulative– 1,277)

Avg. income of placed youth Rs. 6-8,000 per month

CMF Annual Report 18 YOUTH SKILLING & EMPLOYMENT ENABLING THE JOURNEY TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT

23 year-old Ashwin from Talwarnaka village of Ganka Gram Panchayat

23 year-old Ashwin from Talwarnaka village of Ganka block. Inder bhai has partnered with CmF as ‘Udyog Gram Panchayat in Abu Road is one among the many Mitra’ to provide on-the-job training opportunities for such youth in Sirohi district who had to drop out of rural youth. CmF paid him a monthly stipend of Rs. school early on to support their family make ends 1,500 for a period of 2 months after which he meet. Their family has a small piece of agricultural land continued working with Inderbhai for 3 more months. – a little less than 1 bigha and no other assets. Being In Jan 2020, he took a loan of Rs. 20,000 from friends the eldest son with four younger siblings, after and relatives and added his family savings to buy a studying till 6th, Ashwin started accompanying his sewing machine and some raw material and started father to work as daily wage labour on construction his own shop at Manpur village in Abu Road. He sites in Udaipur and . received immense support and motivation from Inder bhai in the process. Ashwin is now manufacturing seat He attended one of the youth awareness and covers of bikes, auto-rickshaws and other vehicles. He orientation meetings organized by CmF in his village in is now able to earn Rs. 7-8,000 per month and is August 2019. Ashwin got interested and attended the planning to support his siblings continue their one to one counselling session at CmF office in Abu education. Road. He got to know of the many skilling courses which he could take up. Despite most of the courses offered being free of cost, it wasn’t possible for Ashwin to spent 2-3 months at the training center, without earning. He was therefore placed as an apprentice with ‘Once I get established in Inder bhai, who runs a bag-making unit in Abu Road business, I want to partner with CmF as ‘Udyog Mitra’ too and help other under-privileged youth like me become skilled and earn better’.

CMF Annual Report 19 YOUTH SKILLING & EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Start up support A Start-up kit with basic tools and equipment was provided to each of the youth who completed either of mason, beauty parlour or the basic painting course. This enabled many of these youth to initiate their own enterprises on a small scale just after completing the training.

Girls breaking barriers The General Duty Assistant (GDA) has gained lot of traction among the youth, especially the girls, after the initial batches got successfully placed last year with a number of private hospitals in Pali and Jaipur.

Early foundation During the year, CmF initiated career counselling program for students of Class IX to XII in 100 Schools in Sirohi. These focus on life skills development and orientation on career opportunities in different academic streams.

Generating local employment opportunities The on-job-training model with local enterprises (Udyog Mitras) has picked up well for trades such as welding, two-wheeler and four-wheeler mechanic.

Mobilizing through art and fairs Street plays and youth melas were initiated as part of village level awareness drives and helped to attract a large number of youth vis-à-vis the door to door mobilization strategy followed in previous years.

CMF Annual Report 20 YOUTH SKILLING & EMPLOYMENT PARTNERSHIPS

CmF has partnered with over 31 private and government run training institutes in the last 3 years as a mobilization partner. Each of the institutes shares their annual training calendar for different trades. If sizeable number of youth mobilized by CmF are interested in a specific course, some of the training institutes also agree to run a special batch. Many of these institutes despite having good training facilities face issues in mobilizing students for their various courses. On the other hand, youth in the rural and tribal villages, still do not have any idea of types of skilling opportunities, where these are offered and how to enrol. The awareness and counselling offered by CmF under the program helps bridge this gap.

During the year, CmF partnered with Nehru Yuva Kendra and Step Academy, Udaipur for youth awareness drives in 12 Panchayats. NYK’s key mandate is to work on youth development and Step Academy offers a range of training courses in trades such as Mason, Plumbing, Hand Pump repairing, two wheeler mechanic and Centring.

A unique feature of CmF’s skill program is the ‘Udyog Mitra’ model wherein local enterprises are on-boarded for on-the-job training and apprenticeship of 1-2 youth at a time. A total of 524 WAY FORWARD Udyog Mitras have partnered with CmF and are providing critical mentorship to the youth willing to learn new trades. Some of the Many of the youth supported Udyog Mitras also participate in the youth mobilization drives under the program were working organized by CmF and help in sensitizing youth on running in big cities returned home during microenterprises. the Covid-19 lockdown and await the revival of business and employment opportunities. On the other hand, training institutes had to close down and a large number of youth mobilized by CmF couldn’t get started on the skilling journey. A number of Udyog Mitra partners have been hit badly due to the low volume of business. In the coming year, CmF would focus more on self-employment opportunities for youth. At the same time, orienting placed youth on financial literacy and especially enrolment with social security schemes such as new pension scheme will also be focussed upon. Overall, due to the economic slowdown, the program may take many more months to pick up the same pace again.

CMF Annual Report 21 Theme 4 Maternal and Child Health & Nutrition Enabling access and enhancing service quality to fight malnutrition

Child malnutrition remains an area of concern for the Through the Maternal and Child Health & Nutrition state of Rajasthan in general and its tribal dominated Program initiated in 2016, CmF is making efforts to pockets in particular. Anaemic young mothers, low change health seeking behaviour of communities and birth spacing, poor access and low usage of public activating the public health systems through capacity health delivery systems and poor diets of mothers and building and on-field support. Supporting the children are the major reasons for the prevalence of government machinery to increase the effectiveness malnutrition among vast majority in the poverty and outreach of the Poshan Abhiyaan activities pockets. (National Nutrition Mission) is also a key focus area.

Operational area Sirohi No. of Anganwadi 100 villages Centres (AWC) Tonk supported 62 villages 179

% of AWCs with regular Streamlining service growth monitoring delivery for regularity Building capacities of enrolled children and quality of frontline workers 87

No. of frontline Strategy workers trained 855

Home visits and Activating community counselling of beneficiaries platforms for nutrition- No. of malnourished VHWSNCs, SHGs PLA children linked with meetings the system 710

3Data pertains to MCHN Program in Sirohi. In Tonk, CmF has implemented the PLA program and the public health system strengthening has been done by The India Nutrition Initiative.

CMF Annual Report 22 MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH & NUTRITION ANGANWADI CENTRES AND THE ANGANWADI WORKERS : THE MODELS & ROLE MODELS

Aamthala village in Abu Road has around 650 households with 40% of these belonging to Scheduled Tribe (ST). It has two Anganwadi Centres. 56 year old Mrs. Dheeraj CmF first initiated the ECE program in Aamthala 2nd is the Anganwadi worker looking after Aamthala 2nd AW in 2015-16 and integrated the MCHN program a AW. This AWC caters to a population of nearly one year later. At the inception, around 27 children (3-6 thousand across 5 hamlets. Most of the children year age group) were enrolled in the AW but only 7-8 whoattend the anganwadis are from the Bheel (ST) children used to attend the AWC regularly. The AWC and Rebari (OBC) community. enrollment in 2019-20 stands at 35 of which nearly 30 children (i.e., around 85% of enrolled) attend regularly and stay for almost the entire time for which the AWC is open. In the words of Ms. Dheeraj, “Although, I have been working for last 26 years, but from the department (ICDS) we got training at the time of joining only. CmF organized many training programs during the last 3 years on nutrition, growth Alongside training programs, regular monitoring, hygienic practices and early support of CmF health fellows (community childhood education. My knowledge and mobilizers) helped in door-to-door understanding on all these aspects of child counselling of pregnant women and development has increased manifold. It took growth tracking of children in far off me some time to do growth monitoring habitations. Earlier, only 50% of pregnant correctly, but now I am able to take height and lactating mothers used to come to and weight of children and plot it on the AWC on MCHN day, now over 90% come chart. I also understand the graph fully and for check-ups and immunization, mostly how we can use this for tracking the proper on their own. I can now appreciate the growth of children. This helps in counselling important role which AWC plays in the the mothers also. village and for the communities”

CMF Annual Report 23 MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH & NUTRITION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Sirohi Impacting malnutrition

With consistent efforts over the last 3-4 years towards capacity building and handholding support of frontline workers, the health delivery system has been activated and the quality of service delivery has also improved. Behaviour change among community enabled through the one-to-one home visits and the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) meetings have also worked well as there is a steady rise in the number of mothers and children accessing the Anganwadi services. The data from the CmF project MIS meanwhile shows encouraging results (see infographic). Besides the concerted efforts by CmF as part of its MCHN program in the 100 project villages, the government’s National Nutrition Mission (NNM) launched in 2018 has also contributed towards the improvement. An external assessment scheduled in March 2020 had to be postponed due to the lockdown. This will be re-initiated in the coming year. Project vs. non-intervention comparison will be done to understand the impact attributable to the CmF interventions.

Key Performance Indicators NFHS-4 NFHS-4 As per CmF 2015-16 2015-16 Project MIS (Rural Rajasthan) (Rural Sirohi) (Feb 2020) Mothers who had antenatal 60 55 68 check-up (ANC) in the first trimester (%)

Mothers who had at least 4 ANC 34 29 58 visits (%)

Institutional births (%) 82 83 96

Children under 5 years who are 38 52 22 underweight (weight-for-age) (%)

Community in action One of the major activities undertaken by CmF in the first year of the program was to activate the 86 dormant or defunct Village Health Water Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHWNCs) in the project villages. Around 80% of these committees are now conducting regular meetings with structured agenda. During the year, many VHWSNCs utilized their budget to purchase needed items for the AWCs such as chair, table, water camper, Table, glasses, BP instruments, baby weighing machine and adult weighing machines etc. for AWCs. Few other VHWSNC used their funds for cleaning AWC premises, roof and surroundings.

CMF Annual Report 24 MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH & NUTRITION Tonk Participatory Learning & Action (PLA) program

In 2018, through partnership with The India Nutrition lactating mothers too. The endline conducted in Initiative (TINI), CmF got the opportunity to expand the December 2019 indicated improvement in PLA program in 44 villages of block in Tonk recommended infant and young child feeding wherein it is working on agriculture based livelihood practices (IYCF) – timely initiation of breast feeding, program with the government promoted SHG introduction of complementary feeding, improvement federations. 23 community level PLA meetings were in quality of diet of mothers and uptake of Anganwadi held over an 18-month period in each of these 62 services – immunization, Take Home Ration and villages through ‘Suposhan Sakhis’ – community cadre regular growth monitoring of children. trained by CmFThe Sakhis worked in close coordination with the Anganwadi workers and supported in the home visits of pregnant and

CMF Annual Report 25 MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH & NUTRITION PARTNERSHIPS

Aspirational District Program One of the key reasons of Sirohi being selected under the NITI Ayog’s Transforming Aspirational Districts Program in 2018 has been the low ranking of the district on education and nutrition indicators. The Sirohi district administration under the leadership of the District Collector sought support for training the frontline workers across all the 5 blocks of the district. During the year, CmF trained 855 Anganwadi and Asha workers on growth monitoring. Pre and Post-tests were conducted during the training which showed a significant improvement in their basic understanding around growth monitoring processes. Though many of the anganwadi workers are now making efforts to do growth monitoring, regular handholding support is also required especially since many of them are illiterate. Through its existing team, CmF would be making efforts to extend periodical support visits to these workers also.

A number of community level events and drives are being organized WAY FORWARD under the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) such as the Poshan Maah, In the coming year, CmF had Poshan Day etc. Very often, participation in the events remains limited planned to reduce its to a few households adjoining the Anganwadis. In both the blocks engagement in supporting the where it is working, CmF supported to increase the outreach of these frontline health workers in their events through facilitating participation from the remote habitations day to day work and focus more as well. This was made possible by the door-to-door contact and on community through PLA communication by the CmF community mobilizers. meetings. Anaemia prevention among adolescent girls was also planned with the objective of Advocating the PLA approach for Nutrition long term approach on reducing the incidence of malnutrition. A key role of CmF is to bring together stakeholders for sharing of best However, the Covid-19 pandemic practices. CmF along with The India Nutrition Initiative (TINI) and has severely disrupted the Institute of Health Management Research (IHMR), Jaipur organized a functioning of the public health one-day consultation to disseminate the findings of PLA work in Tonk. systems in rural areas. The AWCs Dr. Prasanta Tripathy, founding member of Ekjut which pioneered the have been closed and the concept of PLA for nutrition in India shared about their experiences of frontline workers have been implementing large scale PLA program in Jharkhand and Odisha. The engaged by the government in workshop was presided by Dr. Chandrakant Pandav, Member, Poshan Covid-19 screening and Abhiyan, NITI Ayog chaired the event. In addition, CmF and TINI held monitoring. In such times, the discussions with the NRLM officials at for advocating the scale vulnerable segment like anaemic up of PLA approach through the SHG platform. While all concerned women, those with high risk government departments expressed interest in adopting the PLA pregnancies and low birth weight model, allocating additional funds for dedicated community cadre to babies need more support do PLA meetings remains the key constraint. In the coming year, CmF through one-to-one visits for plans to work on shorter modules of PLA which can be integrated in early identification and referrals. the regular SHG meetings and be led by community volunteers. CmF will therefore focus on complementing the public health systems for MCHN service delivery in these difficult times. Spreading awareness on Covid-19 prevention and identification within the community would be taken up on high priority and re-emphasized upon on a regular basis.

CMF Annual Report 26 Theme 5 Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) changing behaviour & enabling access

A vast majority of rural women spend more than an Through the WASH Program in South Rajasthan, CmF hour to fetch drinking water for their families. Toilet is helping set up community managed drinking water usage too remain low in rural areas as it is largely supply schemes and make toilets functional and correlated with water availability for upkeep. Water usable. Behaviour change for hygiene and sanitation is borne diseases emerging from poor hygienic practices being reinforced among all segments of the are closely linked to malnutrition among children. population through local art forms and interactive Access to safe drinking water and sanitation are games. therefore key to enhancing quality of rural life.

Habitation level drinking water supply schemes Operational area completed 171 villages in 3 blocks 37 Abu Road & (ongoing as on Mar’20 – 16) Pindwara of Sirohi & Bali of Pali. Functional WASH in schools & Anganwadis - Institutional WASH Create ACCESS of Awareness & mobilization facilities created communitites and to trigger change in schools to safe WASH WASH BEHAVIOUR 93

Household toilets made functional Strategy 10,269

Adolescent girls and Enable CAPITAL flow - technical and financial women reached to create and sustain WASH facilities through MHM sessions 27,544 Folk shows organized on handwashing and sanitation behaviour 893

CMF Annual Report 27 WATER, SANITATION & HYGIENE (WASH) THE TRUE SWACHHA GRAHIS

Every morning, as Shilpi Kumari, a Class VIII student of the Girls Upper Primary School (GUPS) Wasa enters As the Prime Minister of the Child Cabinet of GUPS, her school, her first job is to walk Shilpi takes her leadership role very seriously. upto the handwashing station near “Its my duty to check that each student is the toilets and check the availability of soap bars. If inadequate, she following personal hygiene practices, keep the quickly runs to her classroom, draws toilets clean and see that all students wash the required number from the ‘Soap hand with soap. I do this with the help of my Bank’ and replenishes the soap team members (child cabinet) and I love this stock at the handwashing station. work. We have also established the soap bank in school by collecting Rupee 1 from every student in a month”.

Most schools in Sirohi do not have functional WASH facilities which is a key reason for low attendance in “We welcome these changes schools, especially among the girl students. A key in our school. Students are component of CmF work in South Rajasthan is to support construction/renovation of such facilities in very actively performing school to make life easier for students. However, regular their duties as child cabinet upkeep of toilets – be it cleaning or soap availability for members and they spent handwashing, remains a challenge due to multiple extra time after the class in reasons mainly the meagre budget available with voluntarily working to schools for this purpose. With a total enrolment of 112 girls students, the school WASH program in GUPS Wasa improve hygiene would have run into the same problems, however, this environment in the school’ time, the CmF team decided to onboard the 11 member says Principal Mr. Praveen Child Cabinet led by Shilpi in the whole process. Once Singh Chouhan. the regular handwashing awareness and demonstration sessions were done by CmF, the cabinet came up with the idea of the ‘soap bank’ by students. They also The child cabinet in schools are now formed their own rules for monitoring the cleanliness of emerging as the active partners of CmF the toilets. The Child Cabinet along with the students of in its mission of sustainable behaviour each class take turns to clean the toilets. change on WASH.

CMF Annual Report 28 WATER, SANITATION & HYGIENE (WASH) PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Solar power for drinking water Once the community based drinking water supply schemes are constructed, the respective Water User Groups take charge and start the meeting at the recurring costs and repair and maintenance expenses through monthly service fee collection from members. To save on the monthly electricity bills, wherever feasible, solar powered pumping was introduced in the new water schemes being implemented during the year.

Menstrual Hygiene Management Access to toilets Apart from the awareness sessions in 550+ toilets were made functional during the year through schools and with women SHGs, ‘Couple renovation by masons trained and supported by CmF. The Counselling’ i.e., counselling of wife and households bought the raw material through their own savings or husband together on Menstrual Hygiene took loans from the SHG federations. CmF supported the Management (MHM) was introduced honorarium to the masons for 1-2 days per household. The toilet during the year. This met with great construction was taken on priority in the habitations where the success and more and more women came community based water supply schemes have been completed. forward to enrol for such sessions which in 137 out of the 288 women who constructed/renovated toilets turn were translating into greater through federation loans were able to receive the incentive for understanding and support from their toilet construction under the government program – Swachh husbands. Village level ‘stitch your own Bharat Mission. Though time-taking, the self-financing and loan pad’ workshops saw good participations based approach of toilet construction has ensured sustainable from women of all ages. 4 SHG federations use of toilets by the households which is a key objective of the were supported to set up a supply chain of WASH program. reusable sanitary napkins.

CMF Annual Report 00 WATER, SANITATION & HYGIENE (WASH) PARTNERSHIPS

To take forward the learnings of the MHM program, CmF received a good response from the district administrations in Sirohi and Pali and also at the state level. CmF helped train 547 frontline workers namely Anganwadi workers, ASHAs and ANMs in these districts on MHM. The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) and CmF organized a joint consultation in Jaipur on 18th September 2019. The workshop was inaugurated by Mrs. Mamta Bhupesh, Hon’ble Minister, Women and Child Development. It brought together 120+ participants from NGOs, government and community to share the learning and experience of MHM Interventions in the state of Rajasthan and deliberate upon possible collaborations to work together.

CmF’s efforts to partner with the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) for connecting remote habitations with water supply did not materialize this year too primarily due to different priorities of the department. As a result, despite the demonstration of active community ownership and financial contribution in operating habitation level water supply schemes, the outreach of CmF has been limited to dependence on donor and CSR funds and convergence from the Gram Panchayats.

WAY FORWARD

The community has so far contributed Rs. 41 lakhs towards the drinking water supply schemes and SHG members’ toilet loans from the federations amount to Rs. 22 lakhs. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely constrained the cash flows of poor households and the community contribution and loan based scaling up of toilets are likely to slow down for a major part of the next year. At the same time, with the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission by the Govt. of India and its focus on piped water to every household by 2024, we are hopeful of working out a collaboration with the PHED to scale up community managed water supply schemes across all villages of CmF project areas in coming years.

CMF Annual Report 30 MEDIA COVERAGE

CMF Annual Report 31 OUR PARTNERS

For our work and achievements during the year 2019-20, we are grateful to the following: DONOR PARTNERS Microfinance, Rural Livelihoods & Skilling

Uchit Expressways Pvt. Ltd.

Education Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

4

Nutrition

4 NSEF has approved a 3 year support for expansion of education work in Karauli w.e.f. March 2020

PARTNERS IN IMPLEMENTATION

Microfinance & Livelihoods Education

GOVERNMENT and private PARTNERSHIPS

MicroFinance & Livelihoods, Education and WASH

CMF Annual Report 32 TECHNICAL EXPERTS who guide us in our programmes

Livelihoods & Natural Resource Management Mr. Chandrashekhar Pathak, Dr. Ajit Singh Dhatt, Mr. Brij Mohan Dixit, Dr. RC Khandelwal, Dr. Deepak Jain, Dr. Inderjeet Mathur & Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology (MPUAT)

Education Ms. Mini Shrinivasan, Dr. Manjiri Nimbkar & Pragat Shikshan Sanstha

WASH Mr. NC Pandey, Mr. Ravi Sharma, Dr. Laique Hussain & Mr. Vilas Janve

CMF Annual Report 33 GOVERNANCE5

Chairman Prof. M. S. Sriram Visiting Faculty, Centre for Public Policy, Vice-Chairman Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Mr. Arun Pandhi Representative of Tata Trusts (Ex-officio)

Members Mr. Ajay Singh Mehta, President of Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur Additional Chief Secretary/Secretary, Ms. Aparna Sahay, Department of Women and Child Development, Retired Civil Servant & Development Expert Govt. of Rajasthan (Ex-officio) Ms. Girija Srinivasan, Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary, Microfinance & Development Consultant Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Department, Govt. of Rajasthan (Ex-officio) Mr. Inderjit Khanna, Former Chief Secretary, Chief General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Mr. Narendra Singh Sisodia, Regional Office, Jaipur (Ex-officio) Former Secretary, Government of India Member Secretary Mrs. Malika Srivastava (Ex-officio)

5 None of our Governing Board members are related to each other or to the senior staff of the organization by blood or marriage. Three meetings of the Governing Board were held during the year. The 36th meeting was held on 30th August 2019, 37th meeting on 6th December 2019 and 38th meeting on 14th Feburary 2020 The 14th Annual General Body Meeting (AGBM) was held on 31st August 2018, Two Extraordinary General Body Meetings (EGBMs) were also held during the year on 6th December 2019 and 14th February 2020 respectively. All the meetings were held at the CmF office in Jaipur. The travel of board members for the above meetings was reimbursed. None of the Governing Board members have received any honorarium, consultancy fee or other remuneration from CmF.

CMF Annual Report 34 AUDITED STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS – 2019-20

CMF Annual Report 35 CMF Annual Report 36 CMF Annual Report 37 CMF Annual Report 38 CMF Annual Report 39 CENTRE FOR MICROFINANCE D-240, D-Block, Behind World Trade Park, Malviya Nagar, Jaipur - 302017, Rajasthan

T : +91-141-4025909 | E : [email protected]

Photo Credits Ravikant, CmF www.cmfraj.org Designed By The Graphic Mango