National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Monthly Newsletter www.nird.org.in No. 230 July 2014 NIRD & PR Newsletter JULY 2014 Cover Story NIRD & PR through its Rural Technology Park is playing a pivotal role in transferring low cost technologies on rural housing, agriculture and other fronts. It is also endeavouring to provide solutions to rural energy needs in the form of solar powered domestic lighting, street lighting and other tools and appliances particularly in villages and tribal hamlets. As part of village adoption initiative, the Institute is providing technologies for the all round development of the villages. NIRD & PR in partnership with ‘Thrive Solar Energy Private Limited’ has set up a Solar Raw Material and Equipment Production and Assembling unit in the campus. own production and assembling units assembling of solar accessories Laser cutting and plastic molding in their own regions so that the is now a woman with confidence. machines will be added to produce message of solar power as an Over the years she graduated into plastic accessories and other raw alternate sources of energy goes to a trainer and resource person and material required for the unit. The the people at grassroot level. The is the senior most in the unit entire unit is being run by Solar entrepreneurs can also generate helping youngsters in the job. employment to locals by setting up Powered 5 Kilo Watt Station which Under the leadership and the units. is catering to all energy needs of encouragement of Dr. M.V.Rao, the assembling unit. Besides The unit also caters to the orders from Director General, NIRD & PR, the producing and assembling for villages for domestic and street Solar Plant is contributing to making Solar Lights, Study Lights, lighting. The pocket and mini- finding solutions to the energy Mini Home Lighting, Street Lighting accendo solar lights are in great needs of the rural people. People and Pocket Accendos, the unit demand in villages where power cut going to sleep as early as six in trains rural youth coming from is rampant. the evening in powerless villages different parts of the country in is a thing of the past. The mini- these technologies. It also trains Chinamma, an illiterate woman solar lamp is transforming life entrepreneurs in setting up their trained at RTP in the art of styles of the people in rural areas. 2 National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, India NIRD & PR Newsletter JULY 2014 National Colloquium of SIRDs Solar Energy for Villages - NIRD & PR Initiatives National Colloquium of SIRDs Strategies Towards Combating Dalit Marginalisation PGDRDM Batch 6 Students Awarded Diplomas The National colloquium of State Institutes of Rural Management of Rural Drinking Water and Development for the year 2014-15 was held at NIRD & PR, Sanitation Programmes Hyderabad on 11 July, 2014. Heads and Faculty members of 22 SIRDs and State Link Officers of NIRD & PR have Promoting Good Governance through attended the Colloquium. Shri S M Vijayanand, Additional Panchayati Raj Institutions Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India inaugurated the programme. Training Modules on Social Audit Shri Vijayanand referred to the priorities in training in the Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation context of ongoing flagship programmes for rural Management development and panchayati raj. He highlighted the role which state level institutions have to play not only in catering to the training requirements of the target groups envisaged Effective Rural Credit Management for for SIRDs but more importantly for the promotion and Rural Bankers facilitation of capacity building of block and below level stakeholders. Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Micro-enterprises Referring to training programmes of SIRDs, Additional Secretary highlighted the need for training of technical Exposure Visit of Nepal Delegation to functionaries under MGNREGS. He observed that so far NIRD & PR training programmes under the Scheme were mainly for officials and elected representatives while capacity building Visit of Indian Ambassador to Yemen to of engineering and other technical staff did not get the needed NIRD & PR attention. He also touched upon the importance of local plan preparation under MGNREGS and the Government of India’s Village Adoption Scheme (NIRD & PR - proposal to have labour budget based plan in 2500 most Banker Model) backward blocks in the country during the current year. He called upon SIRDs to take up training on this theme as a Faculty Participation major activity in the next three months. He indicated that MoRD has approved a scheme on Social Audit under which Rural Development Statistics: 2012-13 resource persons will be provided at NIRD & PR, SIRDs and districts to facilitate social audit process. Progress Statistics of Some Rural He underlined the importance of preparation of HR profile of Development Programmes RD & PR personnel at different levels in the States as the information is useful for planning of training programmes. As to BNV guidelines, he expected the delegates to offer National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, India 3 NIRD & PR Newsletter JULY 2014 their suggestions which will help in SIRDs,Training under MGNREGA, followed by discussion on items of finalisation of the revised guidelines. Setting up of SRTs and DRTs, agenda and action points of the Capacity-building of Panchayati Raj Colloquium under the Chairmanship Shri Vijayanand hoped that the functionaries and elected of Shri Vijayanand, Additional presentations and discussions in the Secretary, MoRD. colloquium will help in strengthening representatives under RGPSA, capacity-building initiatives for rural Suggestions and Comments on BNV The programme was coordinated by development. The agenda of the Guidelines and report of the Dr. R.P. Achari, Associate Professor colloquium included: Training and Professor Alagh Committee. The and Dr. V.K. Reddy, Faculty of Research performance of SIRDs, delegates made presentations and RTD under the overall guidance of Central Scheme for Strengthening of shared experiences. These were Dr. M.V. Rao, Director General, NIRD & PR. Strategies Towards Combating Dalit Marginalisation NIRD & PR organised a National Symposium on “Strategies Towards Combating Dalit Marginalisation” during 11-12 July, 2014. It was inaugurated by Shri S.M. Vijayanand, Additional Secretary, MoRD, Government of India. The Symposium was organised with following objectives: i. To focus on the persistence of forces and processes that continue to marginalise Dalits and to bring together and consolidate understanding of the strategies and development approaches for Dalits; D. Narasimha Reddy, National Theme - II : Caste-based ii. To deliberate the challenges, Fellow, ICSSR (CSD); Prof. Kancha Segregation and hurdles and dilemmas faced by Ilaiah, Professor, MANUU made their Atrocities Against the Dalits; contributions as Key Resource Dalits Persons. Eminent and noted activist iii. To bring together the knowledge Dr.Ruth Manorama, President, Theme - III : Political Rights, and experiences of scholars, National Alliance of Women, Political development administrators and Bangalore acted as Key Resource Representation and activists with a view to suggesting Person for an important theme titled Right to Quality appropriate strategies to “Gender Inequality and Education overcome the resistance towards Discrimination” and made a faster development of Dalits. presentation. Theme - IV : Gender Inequality & Discrimination Several noted and reputed Considering the importance and personalities such as Professor magnitude of the problems faced by Theme - V : Right to G. Haragopal, National Fellow, ICSSR the marginal sections, the following Employment & (TISS); Prof. K.P.Kannan, Chairman, themes/panels were identified for Entrepreneurship Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat presentations. Studies, Trivandrum; Professor The Symposium was coordinated by T.S. Papola, Honorary Professor, Theme - I : Enforcement of the faculty members and staff of Institute for Studies in Industrial Constitutional Rights Centre for Agrarian Studies and Development; Professor and Safeguards Disaster Mitigation (CAS & DM). 4 National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, India NIRD & PR Newsletter JULY 2014 PGDRDM Batch 6 Students Awarded Diplomas Diploma Awarding Ceremony of PGDRDM Batch-6, 2013-14 was held on July 17, 2014. Dr P K Mohanty, former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh was the Chief Guest of the occasion. He distributed the Diplomas to 49 students including 5 international in-service students sponsored by AARDO and CIRDAP. The ceremony was presided over by Dr M.V. Rao, Director General and NIRD & PR and Chairman PGDRDM Institute for its contribution to the rural resource demands for rural Academic Committee who development sector particularly in development, students should have administered oath to students. building human capital in the form of a service desire for implementation rural development professionals. He of rural development programmes Three best performing students were said that this effort would definitely with community participation, he awarded with Gold, Silver and bridge the gap in urban-rural said. Dr. Rao mentioned that the Bronze Medals. Ms Hima Bindu was development demand for human Institute had equipped the students conferred with Gold Medal while Ms. resources. He also observed that with a spirit of openness,